Poker’s youth brigade was on the march at the World Poker Tour Foxwoods World Poker Finals as five of the six final-table players were 26 or younger. In the end, Jeff Forrest, 22, or Orlando, FL, captured the title when his pocket queens held up against veteran David Inselberg’s 9-6. Forrest took home $548,752 for the victory.
Though the oldest of the group, Inselberg, proved the comeback kid of the night. He was perpetually short-stacked from Day 1, never cracking the top half of the end of day chip counts and entering the final table with only 344,000. Inselberg ground out pot after pot against Thomas Marchese who lost a dominating lead.
Marchese entered the final table with more than a million-chip lead, having amassed more chips than third-sixth combined. Amazingly, Inselberg came from behind to take control of the table and maintain chip leader status through much of final table action only to lose ground in the end to an aggressive Forrest.
“My plan coming in was to play a really aggressive style, try to play a lot of small pots and take down as many as I could,” said Forrest. On his win he remarked, “It doesn’t even feel real yet. I don’t know when it will hit me that I’m a WPT champion. Definitely a dream come true.”
Forrest’s victory is even more impressive considering it was among the toughest fields on the tour this year. Forrest weaved his way through a challenging Day 5, with a final 12 that included prior WPT Foxwoods Finals champion Hoyt Corkins of Alabama, as well as Florida’s Jason Mercier and Sorel Mizzi.
For a look at all of the top 10 finishers from all of the events in this series be sure to pick up your free copy of Ante Up’s December issue at your local poker room.
Main Event • $10K NLHE
Entries: 242 • Prize Pool: $2,276,978
1. Jeff Forrest, Orlando, FL, $548,752
2. David Inselberg, Long Beach, NY, $325,608
3. Thomas Marchese, Boonton, NJ, $211,759
4. Nikolai Yakovenko, College Park, MD, $170,773
5. Keven Stammen, Coldwater, OH, $128,650
6. Mohsin Charania, Des Plaines, IL, $104,741
7. Sorel Mizzi, Las Vegas, $88,802
8. Besnik Ziba, New York, $72,863
9. Christopher Bonita, Winthrop, MA, $61,480
10. Benjamin Klier, Versailles, KY, $46,678
11. Jason Mercier, Davie, FL, $46,678
12. Hoyt Corkins, Las Vegas, $46,678
13. Mike Meskin, Belmont, MA, $39,847
14. Andrew Batkin, New York, $39,847
15. Bryon Springer, Kingston, Ontario, $39,847
16. Chris Hunichen, Clayton, NC, $33,016
17. Ronnie Bardah, Brockton, MA, $33,016
18. Ardavan Yazdi, Los Angeles, $33,016
19. Bryan Piccioli, Allegany, NY, $33,016
20. Robert Courtney, Millbury, MA, $33,016
21. Joshua Arieh, Alpharetta, GA, $27,779
22. Mike Beasley, Hollywood, FL, $27,779
23. Gerard Kane, Sea Cliff, NY, $27,779
24. Kyle Bowker, Walton, NY, $27,779
25. Gavin Smith, Las Vegas, $27,779
