A Talented Top Ten

Level 20: 10,000-20,000, 3,000 ante

Foxwoods World Poker Finals Day 4 Recap

While the poker community has been focused on the glitz and glamour of the WSOP Main Event final table this weekend, the World Poker Finals here at Foxwoods has been delivering its fair share of excitement as the field trimmed down from 27 players to the final ten.
 
Half of the top ten players on the leaderboard were eliminated by day's end on this slightly shortened Day 4.  Terrence Chan began the day second in the chip counts, but lost his stack 100,000 chips at a time as he doubled up shorter stacks like Curt Kohlberg and Kenna James and clashing in big pots with Todd Terry.  Halfway through the day, Chan made his exit in 18th place after his A-Q got unlucky against James A-8. Other big stacks from Day 3 who failed to make it on to Day 5 included Christian Harder (17th), Frank Calo (13th) and two-time WPT winner Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi, whose elimination in 11th place brought the day to a close around 30 minutes ahead of schedule.
 
Lee Markholt came into the day third in chips and is still alive heading into Day 5, though he is the shortest stack of the ten. Markholt has experience on his side though. His finish here is his 20th WPT cash, which is a new WPT record for most in the money finishes by a single individual. Unfortunately for Markholt, only one of those cashes resulted in a final table, but with only ten players remaining and a workable 24 big blind stack he has a chance to make final table #2 here at Foxwoods.
 
Another player with a good chance of racking up their second career final table is Soheil Shamseddin who started and finished the day with one of the biggest stacks in the room.  Shamseddin steamrolled a tough table that featured the likes of Christian Harder, Jason Mercier, reigning LAPC Champion Cornel Andrew Cimpan and Adam "Roothlus" Levy just to name a few. Shamseddin's loose aggressive style paid off in spades and he ended the day third in chips with just over 1.2 million.
 
The players ahead of Shamseddin on the chip counts are Matt Stout and Cimpan. Stout is the only player amongst the final ten with more than 2 million chips thanks to some big pots won without showdown, including a huge hand against Kenna James in which he got James to fold pocket tens on a 993 flop.  Tomorrow's unofficial final table is going to be a reunion of sorts for Stout.  He shared a Day 1 starting table with both Levy and Kohlberg and the trio will be reunited once again when the top finishers reassemble at 12pm tomorrow.

Joining those three at the table will be three former WPT winners--Season VII LAPC Cornel Andrew Cimpan, Season VII Bay 101 Steve Brecher, and Season VI World Poker Challenge Lee Markholt.  Shamseddin, Levy and James also have WPT final table appearances under their belt, so it will be a highly experienced group of players vying for one of the six seats at Tuesday's final table.

In the meantime head over to ClubWPT.com where you can win your seat in this year's exclusive WPT Celebrity Invitational. 

Blue Diamond Almonds Bold Player of the Day - Matt Stout

Level 20: 10,000-20,000, 3,000 ante

Day 4 Ends Early w/ Final 10 Players

Level 20: 10,000-20,000, 3,000 ante

With 41 minutes left in the last level of the day, the field is finally down to 10 players, at the expense of multiple WPT winner Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi. The remaining 10 players redrew for seats at one table, and play will resume tomorrow at 12:00 pm ET. 

Here are the official seating and chip counts: 

1.  Adam "Roothlus" Levy  -  892,000
2.  Lee Markholt  -  480,000
3.  Curt Kohlberg  -  1,127,000
4.  Kenna James  -  1,217,000
5.  Tom Dobrilovic  -  565,000
6.  Eric Froehlich  -  714,000
7.  Steve Brecher  -  660,000
8.  Cornel Andrew Cimpan  -  1,554,000
9.  Soheil Shamseddin  -  1,233,000
10.  Matt Stout  -  2,101,000

Those are your final ten, and action resumes tomorrow at 12:00 pm ET. Return to WorldPokerTour.com for complete hand-by-hand coverage of all the action, with chip counts and video interviews with Amanda Leatherman. 

Michael Mizrachi Eliminated in 11th Place ($46,499)

Level 20: 10,000-20,000, 3,000 ante

Michael Mizrachi raises to 50,000 from the cutoff and Adam "Roothlus" Levy reraises to 120,000 total from the button.  Mizrachi counts down his chips and calls.

The flop comes 987 and Mizrachi instantaneously moves all-in.  Levy shrugs and calls, tabling AA.  Mizrachi shows QJ for a gutshot straight draw and needs to catch to avoid elimination.

The 6 on the turn brings additional chop outs for Mizrachi, but the river 7 fails to help him and he is eliminated in 11th place.  After the hand, Levy is up to 892,000.

His elimination marks the end of Day 4 play and the remaining ten players are now bagging and tagging their chips.  They will return tomorrow at 12pm to play down from ten to the final six who will appear on the televised final table.

Todd Terry's Kings Cracked - Eliminated in 12th Place ($46,499)

Level 20: 10,000-20,000, 3,000 ante

Todd Terry raises to 50,000 from the cutoff and Kenna James calls out of the big blind.  The flop comes Q98 and James takes several minutes to act on his hand.  Finally, after about two minutes of though he bets 75,000.  Terry immediately goes all in and James snap calls.

Kenna James:  J10 for the flopped nut stragiht
Todd Terry:  KK

Drawing very slim, Terry's fate is sealed as the board fills out Q987A.

Kenna James - 1,290,000
Todd Terry - eliminated in 12th place

Roothlus and Efro and Pizza

Level 20: 10,000-20,000, 3,000 ante

Chip Count Update

Level 20: 10,000-20,000, 3,000 ante

All of the chip counts have just been updated in the Chip Count Tab.

With 12 players remaining, here is a look at the top five...

Matt Stout - 1,950,000
Curt Kohlberg - 1,450,000
Soheil Shamseddin - 1,370,000
Cornel Andrew Cimpan - 1,080,000
Kenna James - 1,060,000

Curt Kohlberg Doubles Through Michael Mizrachi

Level 20: 10,000-20,000, 3,000 ante

Cornel Andrew Cimpan raises to 50,000 from the cutoff and Curt Kohlberg thinks for a minute or two before announcing he is all-in for almost 700,000.  Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi is in the big blind and he calls instantly.  Cimpan quickly folds and the hands are turned up.

Mizrachi shows A-K, which has Kohlberg's AJ in bad shape.  However, the flop falls JT5 to pair Kohlberg's jack and give him the advantage in the hand.  The turn and river come 3 then 6 and Kohlberg doubles up.

Curt Kohlberg - 1,450,000
Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi - 390,000

Lee Markholt Doubles Through Soheil Shamseddin

Level 20: 10,000-20,000, 3,000 ante

Soheil Shamseddin moves all in from the small blind, and Lee Markholt calls all in for 234,000 from the big blind with 33. Soheil shows K9, and it's a race situation. 

The board comes AJ9K3 -- Soheil flops a pair, turns two pair, but loses when Markholt spikes a set of threes on the river to double up in chips. 

Lee Markholt  -  486,000
Soheil Shamseddin  -  1,370,000

Level 20 Begins

Level 20: 10,000-20,000, 3,000 ante

The players return from break to begin Level 20, with increased blinds of 10,000-20,000 and a 3,000 ante. With 12 players remaining, the average count is about 882,500.