Jeff Forrest Finds a Little Beginner's Luck in Foxwoods

For most players, simply taking part in a World Poker Tour tournament is wishful thinking. Jeff Forrest was thrilled to be playing in his first-ever WPT event at Foxwoods. Once he started making a deep run it was just icing on the cake. Making the money was a pleasant surprise, and making the final table was more than he could ever ask for. Once it got down to heads-up play with Forrest and satellite qualifier Dave Inselberg, all Forrest could say was, “I keep thinking I am going to wake up.”

When the final table began, all six players had hopes of claiming their first WPT title and, thanks to a series of memorable suck outs, crazy chops, and swinging stacks, they all had moments where it seemed as though the tournament was theirs. Mohsin Charania rallied on Day 5 to enter the final table with a seven-figure stack, but when his [AsQc] fell to Nikolai Yakovenko’s [Ac2d], he went from middle of the pack to shorter stack. Shortly after that, he ran pocket sevens into Keven Stammen’s pocket eights, and he was eliminated in 6th place on the very next hand.

Stammen would be the next player to fall, running [Ah10h] into Inselberg’s [AdQd] to finish in 5th place. That hand, plus a couple of other crucial pots helped to propel Inselberg past the million-chip mark, after spending virtually the entire tournament on the short stack.

Inselberg would continue his rise up the counts with another elimination, that of Yakovenko in 4th place. Yakovenko got lucky against both Charania and Tom Marchese to stay alive in the event, but it would be a suck out by Inselberg that would send him to the rail. Yakovenko had the best of it preflop with [AdAh], but got it in with the worst of it against Inselberg’s [Ks8c] on a [Kc8s7s] flop. Yakovenko failed to improve and busted, while Inselberg inched closer to Marchese’s massive stack.

If things weren’t crazy before, three-handed play was when things really became unhinged. The players took turns doubling through each other, starting with Forrest, whose pocket fours outflopped Marchese’s [AcKs]. Then, Inselberg’s [As9s] flopped two pair on Marchese’s [AhKs] after getting it all-in preflop. Marchese seemed to be the player most down on his luck, but even he had some good fortune when his pocket threes ran out a flush against Forrest’s pocket fours to stave off elimination.

Forrest would get those chips back plus some when his [As9d] held against Marchese’s [Ah6h]. While Forrest’s dream was starting to become a very likely reality, Marchese’s nightmare final table appearance continued to spiral out of control. Desperate for chips, Marchese shoved all-in over the top of a raise from Forrest, who called for not much more with [Kc6h]. Marchese had him in bad shape with [AcKs], but a six on the flop meant the end for Marchese, who was gone in third place.

That left the WPT novice squaring off against Inselberg, an amateur an inexperienced WPT player himself, who won his way into this event via a $250 tournament. Both seemed truly happy just to make it to heads-up play and, for both, the win would be a crowning achievement of their poker career.

Forrest had the substantial chip advantage when heads-up play began and it only took ten hands for him to wrap up his first WPT victory. On the final hand of play, Forrest min-raised the button and Inselberg defended out of the big blind. Inselberg checked the [9d8s5c] flop, then put in a quick check-raise after Forrest bet. Forrest moved all-in with an overpair of queens and Inselberg called with [6s9h] for top pair and a guthsot. The queens held with the [Qs] on the turn and the [Ac] on the river, giving the 22 year-old from Orlando, Florida his first WPT victory and the top prize of $548,752.

Here are the final table results:

1st: Jeff Forest – $548,752
2nd: Dave Inselberg – $325,608
3rd: Thomas Marchese – $211,759
4th: Nikolai Yakovenko – $170,773
5th: Keven Stammen – $128,650
6th: Mohsin Charania – $104,741