Seidel Conquers Longest Final Table in WPT History

It took more than 11-hours at the WPT Foxwoods Poker Classic final table to get to heads-up play, the longest WPT final table in history. From there, it took just one hand for a poker legend to grab his first WPT title.

With two well-known pros coming to the final table #1 and #2 in chips, everyone expected the 2008 Foxwoods Poker Classic to come down to a heads-up battle between Erik Seidel and Ted Forrest. That would not come to pass as Ted Forrest had the misfortune of running pocket 9's into pocket kings, then running pocket jacks into pocket aces. Ted's quest for a second WPT title was over with him earning 6th place and $103,360.

Internet pro Adam Katz got his chips in good with top pair against a flush draw with one overcard. He had to dodge twelve outs twice and unfortunately, the overcard paired on the river. Adam finished in 5th place, earning $151,811.

Frank Cieri started the final table as the short stack, but clawed his way back into contention by moving in and pushing his opponents off their hands. This worked well for him the first seven times, but on his 8th all-in, he got looked up by amateur Robert Richardson, who held top pair. Frank's middle pair and flush draw needed to improve, but he couldn't find any of his outs and Robert doubled through, leaving Frank's stack crippled. Frank had to move in one more time, this time with Queen-high, only to run into Robert's King-high. That was it for Frank and he left with 4th place and $200,261.

The final three players found themselves locked in a three-way battle for more than five hours. Then Andrew Barta moved in with AQ and Erik Seidel made the call with pocket Jacks. A Jack on the flop gave Erik a monster lead that Andrew could not overcome. Andrew was left with only 30k in chips, which were committed to the ante and small blind on the next hand. Erik and Robert checked down the hand and Erik won it with Ace-high, sending Andrew home with 3rd place and $281,011.

Heads-up play got underway shortly after 4am, a mere 11 hours after play began. It lasted only one hand. Robert moved in on the turn with third pair. Erik called him down with top pair and it held up to give Erik his first WPT title, $967,390, and a $25,500 seat in the WPT Championship. Robert Richardson earned 2nd place and $558,792 in his first ever WPT event.

Here are the final table payouts:

1st -- $967,390 -- Erik Seidel

2nd -- $558,792 -- Robert Richardson

3rd -- $281,011 -- Andrew Barta

4th -- $200,261 -- Frank Cieri

5th -- $151,811 -- Adam Katz

6th -- $103,360 -- Ted Forrest

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