Firas Haddad Wins $126,760 and First Ring of Season at Foxwoods
The World Series of Poker Circuit's 2015-16 season kicked off on Aug. 11 at Foxwoods Resort Casino in Mashantucket, Conn., the first of 21 stops for the tour. It began with a bang: Event #1: $580 No-Limit Hold'em Reentry featured a $500,000 guaranteed prize pool and four starting days.
When the dust settled, Firas Haddad of Poughkeepsie, N.Y., emerged from the 1,457-player field to claim a $126,760 first-place prize, his first-ever WSOP cash. The turnout created a prize pool of $734,910, easily clearing the guarantee.
Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Hometown | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Firas Haddad | Poughkeepsie, NY | $126,760 |
| 2 | Joseph Umdenstock | South Hempstead, NY | $78,635 |
| 3 | Rami Jradeh | North Reading, MA | $57,624 |
| 4 | Donald Lohr | Ledyard, CT | $43,808 |
| 5 | Daniel McCoy | Attleboro, MA | $33,350 |
| 6 | David Cossio | El Paso, TX | $25,685 |
| 7 | Eric Kitain | Armonk, NY | $20,012 |
| 8 | Irfan Karajic | Chelsea, MA | $15,771 |
| 9 | Jovy Ounthongdy | East Hartford, CT | $12,574 |
Brad St. Vincent (15th place), Aditya Prasetyo (57th), James Wilson (100th), and Eric Rivkin (103rd) also finished among the 153 runners who made the money.
According to the live updates on FoxwoodsPoker.com, after the simultaneous eliminations of Robert Georato in 10th and Robert Hankins in 11th, the final table began with Daniel McCoy and Joseph Umdenstock neck-and-neck for the chip lead at about 4.5 million apiece at 25,000/50,000 blinds. Eric Kitain sat in a distant third at 2.265 million.
Jovy Ounthongdy went out in ninth and then Irfan Karajic fell in eighth. That's when Haddad made his first big move, getting all in with the A♣K♥ against Kitain's Q♣Q♦. By this time, Haddad had Kitain covered and a 7♥5♦K♦ flop mean Kitain was drawing thin. He didn't find a third queen.
David Cossio busted in sixth, and then former leaders McCoy and Umdenstock went to war on a Jx3x4x5x board. Umdenstock had called a bet on the flop with 5x5x and binked a set against McCoy's Jx3x, eliminating his fellow big stack.
Another huge hand saw Umdenstock take a massive lead into three-handed play as he ran a boat with the A♦J♠ on a 5♥J♦2♠A♠A♣ board against Donald Lohr's 5x5x. That made Umdenstock the clear favorite with two-thirds of the chips in play three-handed.
Haddad wasted no time taking the chip lead, first crippling Rami Jradeh with the A♦3♣ all in preflop against the K♠J♠. The next hand, he finished Jradeh off by hitting trip aces with the A♥Q♣ on A♦3♠A♣K♦6♠, doubling through Umdenstock, who had aces and kings, in the process.
Just 10 minutes later, it was over when Umdenstock got the last of it in with the A♦5♥ against Haddad's kings and failed to overtake the cowboys. That sent the first ring of the WSOP Circuit season to Haddad.
The action will continue for about another week at Foxwoods with a total of 12 events on the schedule, including the $1,675 Main Event, which begins Friday and also has a $500,000 guarantee.
*Photo and information courtesy of FoxwoodsPoker.com.
