Brett Faustman Wins the World Poker Open
Friday, 25 January 2008
Brett Faustman achieved what looked like Mission Impossible by
overcoming four pros and another unknown quantity to win the WPT
World Poker Open in Tunica. Deeb, Corkins, Men ‘The Master’ and
Spadavecchia couldn’t get in the way of the man from Michi
Brett Faustman achieved what looked like Mission Impossible by
overcoming four pros and another unknown quantity to win the WPT
World Poker Open in Tunica. Deeb, Corkins, Men ‘The Master’ and
Spadavecchia couldn’t get in the way of the man from Michigan, who
won $892,413 for his efforts.
The start of the final table saw the chip counts look like
this:
Seat 1: Freddy Deeb - 1,345,000
Seat 2: Brett Faustman - 1,282,000
Seat 3. Men 'The Master' Nguyen - 729,000
Seat 4. Gabe Costner - 1,181,000
Seat 5. Hoyt Corkins - 395,000
Seat 6. John Spadavecchia - 256,000
Short-stacked John Spadavecchia was the first man to go, five
hands into the session. With an opening raise from Corkins,
Spadavecchia moved all in with pocket sixes to be called by Hoyt’s
QJ. No help for Corkins on the flop, but a queen on the turn sent
Spadavecchia spinning out, and boosted Corkins own stack.
The next big clash came between two players who had been
verbally jabbing each other from the start. Freddy Deeb raised from
under the gun, with Nguyen calling from the button. The flop of T 9
5 saw Deeb lead out for 150,000 with Nguyen announcing “All you can
eat, baby!” for the second time in a row as he shipped his 641,000
chips into the middle. Deeb thought for a while before calling with
A-7, well behind The Master’s QQ. The ace didn’t show for Deeb, and
Nguyen took in a massive pot.
With the elimination of Costner in fifth to the hands of
Corkins, four handed play saw all of them hold the chip lead at one
point or another. It was Deeb who cracked first though, taking
several more hits from Nguyen before his final hand saw his all-in
move called by Faustman’s A-K. Deeb didn’t connect, and the
likeable pro had to settle with fourth place and $168,835.
Another massive hand occurred which saw Nguyen come unstuck, his
money finding its way into the middle with KT against Hoyt Corkin’s
pocket jacks. With the last card to come, Corkins had to avoid 11
cards in the deck to knock The Master out, which he did, setting up
a Corkins v Faustman heads-up battle.
After 43 hands of sparring that saw Corkins take the small pots
but Faustman the big ones, the final hand came.
Corkins limped on the button for 80,000, with Faustman raising
to 250,000. A two minute dwell was met by a call from Corkins. The
flop of 9 9 3 saw Faustman’s 280,000 bet met with a re-raise all in
from Corkins, but Faustman’s call with pocket queens had Corkin’s
pocket deuces drawing to two outs. Corkins couldn’t catch lightning
in a bottle, and the amateur had done what many thought was
impossible.