WPT Foxwoods World Poker Finals, Day 5 Recap

By BJ Nemeth

Day 5 of the WPT Foxwoods World Poker Finals would be very short, starting with just eight players and playing down to six. As it turned out, it took less than a single level to do it.

Here are a couple of highlights from Day 5:

Tournament Director Jimmy Christina was in the Halloween spirit as he welcomed the final eight players back for Day 5 on October 31st.

Christian Harder began the day as chipleader with 1,437,000 in chips. Harder looked like a lock to make his second televised WPT Final Table.

The table didn’t see a flop until the eighth hand of the day, when Daniel Santoro (left) three-bet it preflop and Steven Brackesy (right) called. After a flop of [Ad6c3c], Santoro took the pot with a bet. There wasn’t much action early, but that would quickly change.

In the 24th hand of the day, Daniel Santoro raised, and Bob Carbone (pictured above) moved all in from the cutoff. Santoro called with [JcJs], but Carbone dominated him with [QcQd]. The best hand held up, and Carbone doubled up.

Jonathan Little (standing, far left) moved all in from the button with a short stack (14 big blinds), and Steven Brackesy (right) thought for a while before calling from the big blind with [As5c]. Little was dominated, turning over [9h5h]. Little never caught up, and the former WPT Player of the Year and former WPT Foxwoods champion was eliminated in eighth place.

Chris Klodnicki was all in preflop with [Ac10h], racing against the [8d8h] of Daniel Santoro. It was a big sweat, but the board came [9s7s5s10s2s] — Klodnicki took the lead on the turn, but a flush on the board forced a chop. At least both players could smile about it.

In the 48th hand of the day, with about five minutes left in the level, Steven Brackesy (behind the dealer) and Chris Klodnicki (standing, center left) saw a flop of [5d4d3s]. Klodnicki bet from the small blind, Brackesy moved all in, and Klodnicki called with [Ah5h] for top pair with a gutshot straight draw. Brackesy turned over [Ad6d] for a flush draw with an open-ended straight draw that nullified Klodnicki’s straight draw.

The turn was the [Kd], the river was the [Ac], and Brackesy won the pot with a diamond flush on the turn to eliminate Chris Klodnicki in seventh place, making him the unfortunate TV Bubble Boy.

As soon as the final six players are set, they are given WPT bio sheets to fill out. From left to right: Christian Harder, Bob Carbone, Andy Frankenberger, and Eli Berg.

Day 5 lasted less than a level, but it was a good level for Steven Brackesy (left), who moved into the lead with more than 1.8 million in chips. Here, he goes over some things with WPT Producer Patrick O’Grady (right).

Here are the official chip counts and seating positions for Tuesday’s televised WPT Final Table:

Seat 1.  Steven Brackesy  –   1,807,000  (112 BBs)
Seat 2.  Daniel Santoro  –   1,163,000  (72 BBs)
Seat 3.  Christian Harder  –   1,293,000  (80 BBs)
Seat 4.  Bob Carbone  –  588,000  (36 BBs)
Seat 5.  Andy Frankenberger  –  374,000  (23 BBs)
Seat 6.  Eli Berg  –  496,000  (31 BBs)

There are five minutes left in the current level before the blinds increase to 8,000-16,000 with a 2,000 ante. (Those are the blinds used to calculate the big blinds listed above.)

The televised WPT Final Table begins Tuesday at 4:00 pm ET, and we will be providing complete hand-for-hand live coverage here along with streaming video — with hole cards — on a 30-minute delay. Tony Dunst and Jonathan Little (who finished eighth) will be providing commentary along the way, so don’t miss it!