| Earnings | $405,836 |
| Cashes | 7 |
| Final Tables | 2 |
| Titles | 0 |
| Tournaments Played | 68 |
Est. Current Chipcount
Est. Average Chipcount
10,590,000
Current Chipleader
-
Day 1
103,175
Day 2
370,000
Day 3
247,000
Day 4
1,127,000
Day 5
1,086,000
Day 6
5th
Level 29: 100,000-200,000, 20,000 ante
Foxwoods Final Table Recap
Even with over $900,000 and WPT bragging rights on the line, all the players at the final table could think about were almonds. The delicious snack has been a hot topic of conversation around Foxwoods all week not because of its nutritional value, but because players were vying to be the next Blue Diamond Almonds Bold Player of the Day. Debates raged between players about who was more deserving and the almond-themed razzing continued on through to the televised final table.
Midway through play, Season VII LAPC Champion Cornel Andrew Cimpan turned to Soheil Shamseddin and asked him, "How did you con Amanda Leatherman into giving you the almonds again?" Cimpan was referring to the previous day, where Cimpan ended the day chip leader, but it was Shamseddin, who knocked out every player on Day 5, who received the Bold Player Award. Cimpan may have missed out on the snack food Monday, but by the end of the night, he would have his just desserts.
Cimpan and Shamseddin were not the only talkers at this Foxwoods final table either. All six of the players spent their evening cracking jokes and talking smack as if they were goofing off in a home game and not competing to be the latest WPT winner. Granted, these players are used to high pressure poker situations. The remarkably accomplished group of six featured past WPT winners Cimpan and Lee Markholt, past WPT final tablists Shamseddin and Curt Kohlberg and two pros from the online set in the form of Eric Froehlich and Matt "AllInAt420" Stout. The combined list of accomplishments of these men is impressive to say the least and their poker skills were on display as they duked it out for the $910,058 first place prize.
The evening began with a bang as a short-stacked Markholt was eliminated on the second hand of play when his A
K
failed to hold up against Stout's A6, which rivered a flush to eliminate the Season VI Reno Champion in 6th place. Not too long after Markholt's exit, Kohlberg found himself headed for the rail after a climactic coin flip against Shamseddin. It appeared as though Kohlberg was on the verge of doubling up. He moved all-in preflop with AQ and Shamseddin looked him up with 22
. The A
Q5 heavily favored Kohlberg, but Shamseddin rivered a deuce to eliminate Kohlberg in 5th place.
With the two short stacks gone, the final four opened up their game even more, tangling in big pots and making big bluffs. Thanks to a big pot against Shamseddin that failed to make it to showdown, Stout held a commanding chip lead over the other three players. Shamseddin would recover from the hit and make up some ground in the chip counts at the expense of Froehlich. Once again, Shamseddin made a big call with a small pocket pair after Froehlich reraised all-in. Shamseddin's pocket fours were racing against Froehlich's A-K and a board full of baby cards added up to Froehlich's elimination in 4th place.
Once play got down to the final three, Cimpan got in a rhythm and began to pick up small pot after small pot to slowly build his stack. As Cimpan trended upward, Shamseddin simply tread water until a nearly 3 million chip pot against Cimpan pushed him past the 4 million chip mark. Stout would claim half of those chips just two hands later, but it would not be long before Shamseddin got his revenge on the young online pro.
The two players would later get it all-in on a KK43 board with Stout holding 56 for a flush against Shamseddin's K9 for trip kings. Stout only had one card to fade in order to eliminate his aggressive but affable opponent, but it was not to be as the 9 on the river made a full house for Shamseddin and left Stout with just a handful of chips. Stout would rally, doubling up and building his chips up to nearly 2 million, but his revival would be cut short when he ran his KJ into Cimpan's pocket queens to finish in 3rd place.
And so it came down to Shamseddin and Cimpan and even they conceded that the heads-up battle was a bit like looking in the mirror. Both players hail from Houston and have reputations for being table talkers with a loose, aggressive style that many would describe as "maniacal." Shamseddin held a nearly 4-1 chip advantage over Cimpan at the outset of heads-up play, but Cimpan was not ready to throw in the towel just yet. Cimpan doubled through Shamseddin in a classic race situation of queens vs. A-K and overtook the chip lead just four hands later. The chip lead would change hands two more times before the two men got it all-in one last time with Shamseddin's KJ in trouble against Cimpan's AJ. Cimpan's ace high would prevail to eliminate Shamseddin in second place and earn Cimpan his second WPT victory of 2009.
Shamseddin may have won the battle of the almonds, but it was Cimpan who won the Foxwoods World Poker Finals war, netting himself $910,058 and moving up to 19th on the all-time money winners list with $2,609,913 in career WPT earnings. With this win he also becomes the 12th player with more than one WPT win to his credit.
Here are the results from the final table of the Foxwoods World Poker Finals:
1st: Cornel Andrew Cimpan - $910,058
2nd: Soheil Shamseddin - $463,332
3rd: Matt Stout - $265,710
4th: Eric Froehlich - $232,496
5th: Curt Kohlberg - $199,283
6th: Lee Markholt - $166,069
Level 24: 25,000-50,000, 5,000 ante
Cornel Cimpan raises under the gun to 125,000, and Soheil Shamseddin calls from the cutoff, and Curt Kohlberg moves all in from the small blind for 690,000. Cimpan folds, and Soheil goes into the tank for a while, asking, "Do you want action, sir?" Kohlberg remains stoic.
Soheil eventually calls with 22, and Kohlberg shows AQ -- it's a race situation. Kohlberg needs to improve to stay alive.
The flop comes AQ5, and Kohlberg takes the lead with two pair, aces and queens. Soheil is very animated, and says that he will take a three or a four on the turn to give himself a straight draw.
The turn card is the J, and Soheil gets up and points to the spot where the river card will appear, and he requests a deuce.
The river card is -- the 2!
Soheil Shamseddin rivers a set of deuces to win the pot, and Curt Kohlberg is eliminated in fifth place, earning $199,283.
Seat 2. Curt Kohlberg - Out in 5th Place ($199,283)
Seat 3. Eric "Efro" Froehlich - 1,405,000
Seat 4. Cornel Andrew Cimpan - 2,480,000
Seat 5. Soheil Shamseddin - 2,100,000
Seat 6. Matt "Allinat420" Stout - 4,605,000
Level 23: 20,000-40,000, 4,000 ante
Soheil Shamseddin raises from the cutoff to 100,000, and Curt Kohlberg moves all in for 678,000. Soheil says, "That is too much for me, which is extremely, extremely rare, sir." Soheil folds KQ face up and says, "I'd call you if I had a nine-eight." Kohlberg takes the pot.
Seat 2. Curt Kohlberg - 838,000
Seat 3. Eric "Efro" Froehlich - 1,401,000
Seat 4. Cornel Andrew Cimpan - 2,747,000
Seat 5. Soheil Shamseddin - 3,151,000
Seat 6. Matt "Allinat420" Stout - 2,451,000
Level 23: 20,000-40,000, 4,000 ante
Curt Kohlberg raises from the cutoff to 100,000, and Soheil Shamseddin calls from the big blind before checking in the dark. The flop comes 887, and Kohlberg thinks for a minute and a half before he bets 180,000, and Soheil tells a few jokes we couldn't quite hear before he folds. Curt Kohlberg takes the pot.
Seat 2. Curt Kohlberg - 890,000
Seat 3. Eric "Efro" Froehlich - 1,453,000
Seat 4. Cornel Andrew Cimpan - 2,759,000
Seat 5. Soheil Shamseddin - 3,203,000
Seat 6. Matt "Allinat420" Stout - 2,283,000
Level 23: 20,000-40,000, 4,000 ante
Seat 2
Curt Kohlberg
1,086,000 (4th in chips)
Curt Kohlberg may not be an instantly recognizable name, but he has been a presence on the tour since the early days of the WPT. The MIT grad has done everything from working on Wall Street to selling concert t-shirts to playing competitive racquetball. He fell into professional poker in the late 1990s and racked up wins at the World Poker Finals, a WSOP final table and a 5th place finish at the WPT's Grand Prix de Poker in Paris during Season 4.
Kohlberg has kept relatively quiet over the past few days here at Foxwoods, but his aggressive style of play has kept players very aware of his presence at the table.
Biggest Live Tournament Cash: $165,200
Career Earnings in Live Tournaments: $678,749
Level 23: 20,000-40,000, 4,000 ante
WPT Foxwoods World Poker Finals, Day 5 Recap
By BJ Nemeth
It took less than five hours to play down from ten players to six at WPT Foxwoods, which is about what we expected. The three players who started the day with the most chips made it through, which isn't that surprising. That group includes Matt Stout, former WPT winner Cornel Andrew Cimpan, and Soheil Shamseddin. The surprise is that short stack (and former WPT winner) Lee Markholt also survived the day, though he is still extremely short heading to the televised final table.
The unfortunate bubble boy was Kenna James, who started the day fourth in chips but took two hits to his stack in Hands #38 and #44. Kenna was never able to bounce back, and his stack steadily dwindled until Hand #87 he moved all in with 66 and Soheil Shamseddin called with J10. The board comes AKJQJ, and Soheil took the pot with trip jacks. Kenna James earned $132,855, but missed out on the TV final table.
Recent WPT winner Steve Brecher busted in eighth place, when he moved all in with A3 on a short stack and ran into Soheil's KK. Adam "Roothlus" Levy was also short when he moved all in with A9 and ran into Soheil's QQ. As further proof that Kenna, Brecher, and Roothlus were short stacks, Soheil busted all three of them and still isn't the chipleader.
The chipleader likely would have been Matt Stout, if his pocket aces had held up in Hand #21. Soheil raised, Stout called, Curt Kohlberg called, and Tom Dobrilovic moved all in from the big blind. Soheil moved all in over the top, and then Stout (chipleader at the time) moved all in over the top of them both. Kohlberg folded to make it a three-way all-in situation.
Stout said, "I got what I'm s'posed to got," as he showed AA. Dobrilovic had KK, and Soheil had 99. If Stout's aces held up, he would have busted two players and had 4 million in chips -- far more than twice as much as anyone else. As it happened, Soheil flopped an open-ended straight draw, and hit it on the turn to knock Stout out of the chip lead and knock Dobrilovic out of the tournament.
Here are the seating and chip counts for the six players who advance to tomorrow's WPT Final Table:
1. Lee Markholt - 264,000
2. Curt Kohlberg - 1,086,000
3. Eric "Efro" Froehlich - 1,014,000
4. Cornel Andrew Cimpan - 3,691,000
5. Soheil Shamseddin - 2,954,000
6. Matt "Allinat420" Stout - 1,579,000
This is one of the best final table lineups the WPT has seen in a long time. Markholt (2008 WPT Reno) and Cimpan (2009 WPT Commerce) are both former WPT winners, and both Kohlberg and Shamseddin have made WPT final tables before. Froehlich became the youngest player in history to win a WSOP bracelet in 2005 (that record has since been broken -- twice), and became the youngest player to win two WSOP bracelets in 2006. Stout is a popular online pro with nine cashes at the WSOP and three here on the World Poker Tour.
More complete bios on all six final tablists will be posted later this evening.
The WPT Final Table begins tomorrow (Tuesday) at 4:00 pm ET. Return to WorldPokerTour.com for complete live coverage of every check, bet, call, raise, and fold, along with chip counts after every hand.
Level 23: 20,000-40,000, 4,000 ante
Hand #82 - Eric Froehlich raises under the gun to 100,000, winning the blinds and antes.
Hand #83 - Cornel Cimpan raises under the gun to 100,000, winning the blinds and antes.
Hand #84 - Soheil Shamseddin raises under the gun to 100,000, Curt Kohlberg moves all in from the cutoff for 555,000, and Soheil calls with AQ. Kohlberg shows AK, and he's a favorite to double up here.
The board comes K10543, and Kohlberg pairs his king on the flop to win the pot and double up.
Curt Kohlberg - 1,250,000
Soheil Shamseddin - 3,450,000
Level 21: 12,000-24,000, 3,000 ante
Hand #35 - Lee Markholt moves all in from early position for 210,000, and Curt Kohlberg calls with AK. Markholt shows QJ, and he'll need to improve to stay alive.
The board comes 8428Q, and Lee Markholt pairs his queen on the river to win the pot and double up.
Lee Markholt - 473,000
Curt Kohlberg - 978,000
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.
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
