Cornel Andrew Cimpan Claims Title #2 at World Poker Finals
Nov 11, 2009
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 [AhKs] failed to hold up against Stout’s [As][6s], 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 [Ah][Qs] and Shamseddin looked him up with [2s][2c]. The [Ad][Qs][5s] 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 [KdKh4h3h] board with Stout holding [5h6h] for a flush against Shamseddin’s [Ks9c] 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 [9h] 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 [KcJc] 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 [KsJd] in trouble against Cimpan’s [AsJh]. 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
@WPT