WPT Foxwoods World Poker Finals, Day 4 Recap

By BJ Nemeth

Day 4 of the WPT Foxwoods World Poker Finals began with 66 players, and they had five levels to see if they could reach the final three tables and burst the money bubble.

The money was reached just as Day 3 came to an end with 27 players, and the surviving players are all guaranteed at least $19,916.

Here are some of the highlights from Day 4:

Happy Halloween! During the first break of the day, Jeanine Deeb (a.k.a. the Run-Good Fairy) magically bestows good luck upon the chip stack of Christian Harder. Doubters be warned — Harder finished the day with the chip lead and was named the ClubWPT.com Player of the Day.

With 23 players remaining, Hoyt Corkins (left) and Cornel Cimpan (right) both have multiple WPT titles, and both are former WPT Foxwoods champions. Surprisingly, there was another player in the field with the same achievements — Jonathan Little. All three are looking for their third WPT title, and trying to become the first to win the same WPT event twice. Unfortunately, Cimpan was eliminated in 23rd place — at the hands of Corkins.

Former WPT winner Lee Markholt (standing up, right) was eliminated in 17th place when he shoved his [AsKh] into the [KcKd] of Chris Klodnicki (seat 1).

Matt Stout (right) doubled up with [KcKh] against the [9c9h] of Bernard Lee (left), all in preflop. This hand crippled Lee down to less than four big blinds.

When Bernard Lee (right) was knocked down to less than 20,000 in chips, his stack looked even smaller in comparison to chipleader Andy Frankenberger (left), sitting next to him with more than 800,000.

Bernard Lee (left) wasn’t able to recover, and was soon eliminated in 16th place. Matt Stout (center) joined him during his exit interview to discuss the big hand that crippled him.

With 15 players remaining, Jonathan Little (left) and Hoyt Corkins clashed in a battle of the blinds. All in preflop, Little’s [KcJd] overtook the [Ad5s] of Corkins when a king hit the flop.

While the WPT event continued on one side of the room, the Royal Flush Girls hosted a sit-n-go for several Foxwoods promotional winners. Sherwin Agard (left) reached heads-up play against Royal Flush Girl Sunisa Kim (right), and had her on the ropes when she moved all in after a flop of Q-J-10. Agard called with 9-8, expecting the victory — but Sunisa turned over K-9 to win the pot and double up. Sunisa would go on to win.

As the reigning WPT Foxwoods champion, Jeff Forrest (right) survived to Day 3 before his elimination. But he won’t be going home empty-handed, as he played in the $3,000 buy-in event and chopped it heads up with Alex Queen (left).

With 13 players remaining, Matt Glantz (left) and Andy Frankenberger (foreground right) faced off preflop. Glantz raised, Frankenberger reraised, and Glantz four-bet it. Frankenberger, who had been cruising near the top of the leaderboard all tournament, decided to fold, and Glantz took the pot. Frankenberger hit a rough period in the middle of the day that severely damaged his once-chipleading stack.

With the board showing [10s9c2s2c8s], Chris Klodnicki (left) bet into Daniel Santoro (right). Santoro tanked for more than three minutes before he folded, and Klodnicki took the pot.

Bob Carbone was a student at the WPT Boot Camp about five years ago, and found himself deep in a World Poker Tour event facing off against one of the instructors he learned from — Hoyt Corkins. In this hand, Carbone moved all in with the board showing [Qc7h4c5d] on the turn, and while Corkins tanked, Carbone reminded him of the story. Corkins would fold, and Carbone took the pot.

Last season, when Andy Frankenberger (foreground right) won the WPT Legends of Poker, there was a big hand between him and Jonathan Little (center) with 12 players remaining. Frankenberger won that pot to eliminate Little. (Read about that hand by clicking here.)

On Day 4, with 12 players remaining, they got it all in again, with Little’s [AcKc] racing against Frankenberger’s [8d8h]. This time, fate favored Little, as he flopped a straight on a board of [QhJc10s6hJh] to double up in chips.

The final 10 players combined to a single table, and in Hand #8, Eli Berg (left, in white) got it all in preflop with [Ac9d] against the [9h9s] of Hoyt Corkins (center). Corkins had the advantage, but the board came [Ah10s5s4s8d], and Berg paired his ace to win the pot and cripple Corkins down to less than a single big blind. Former WPT Foxwoods champion Hoyt Corkins was eliminated a few hands later.

One hand after the elimination of Hoyt Corkins, Andy Rossi (left) got it all in preflop with [AcKh] against the [AhAs] of Chris Klodnicki (right). The board came [AdJc4c8hQc], and Klodnicki won the pot with a set of aces. Andy Rossi was eliminated in ninth place.

The final eight players, clockwise from the dealer (in red): Steven Brackesy (seat 1), Chris Klodnicki (2), Daniel Santoro (3), Christian Harder (4), Bob Carbone (5), Andy Frankenberger (6), Jonathan Little (7), and Eli Berg (8).

The big story with eight players remaining is the fact that two WPT Players of the Year are still alive. No televised WPT final table has ever featured two POYs, and if they can both outlast two more bustouts, this will be the first.

Here are the official chip counts and seating positions for the final eight players:

Seat 1.  Steven Brackesy  –   984,000  (82 BBs)
Seat 2.  Chris Klodnicki  –   534,000  (44 BBs)
Seat 3.  Daniel Santoro  –   1,249,000  (104 BBs)
Seat 4.  Christian Harder  –   1,437,000  (119 BBs)
Seat 5.  Bob Carbone  –  263,000  (21 BBs)
Seat 6.  Andy Frankenberger  –  486,000  (40 BBs)
Seat 7.  Jonathan Little  –  504,000  (42 BBs)
Seat 8.  Eli Berg  –  227,000  (18 BBs)

Day 5 begins Monday at 12:00 noon ET, but it should be a relatively short day as they only need to play down from eight players to six. Stay tuned to WPT.com for complete hand-for-hand coverage of the action as they play for seats at the Tuesday’s televised WPT Final Table.