Former Dealer Strikes Gold At World Poker Open

The latest WPT event wrapped up at the Gold Strike Casino in Robinsonville Mississippi.  The event had a reduced number of entrants, compared to past WPT events.  Fewer entrants did not take away from the star power and the final table proved it.  259 players paid the $10,000 buy-in for a shot at the WPT title.

The final table featured a former dealer, two other amateurs and three professional players.  Freddy Deeb, Men “The Master” Nguyen, and Hoyt Corkins were the professionals looking to teach the amateurs that this would be their event.  Corkins took out two of the three amateurs in short order and it looked like he was going to walk away with the title.  The other pro’s had something to say about that and were not going doing without a fight.  Corkins tried to take out the final amateur Brett Faustman but Faustman was able to get lucky and turn a straight leaving Corkins short-stacked.

Freddy Deeb was the next one to hit the rail when his diminishing stack went up against Faustmans newly created big stack.  Fautman was able to get Deeb all in pre-flop and the amateurs Ace-King held up when Deeb’s hand did not improve.  Corkins stayed involved, built up the short stack and was able to defeat Nguyen.  Corkins would now have his chance for revenge against Faustman.

The heads-up match began with the two competitors nearly even in chips.  Corkins was able to win many of the smaller pots but was losing the larger pots to Faustman.  On the 43^rd hand of heads-up play Corkins limped in the small blind for 80,000 chips.  Faustman raised the pot to 250,000 and after plenty of consideration Corkins called.  With a flop of 9♥9♣3♣ Corkins went all in and was quickly called by Faustman.  Corkins showed deuces and was crushed when Faustman revealed pocket Queens.  Neither the turn nor the river brought a deuce and Faustman takes down the title.

For the win Brett Faustman takes home $892,413, a WPT gold and diamond bracelet, and an entry to the WPT Main Event in April.