Defeating WPT champions and WSOP bracelet winners at the final table, Omar Saeed won the $2,500 Buy-in Foxwoods Poker Classic Championship Main Event on Monday scooping $119,270. This is the second title for Saeed at the Foxwoods Casino after earning $74,983 and the first place at the Foxwoods Mega Stack Challenge in 2014.
New York-based Omar Saeed was one of 220 entries in the $2,500 Foxwoods Poker Classic No Limit Holdāem Championship which started March 23 at the Mashantucketās Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut. The guaranteed $400,000 attracted a large number of poker pros but with the $2,500 buy-in, the prize pool easily reached almost $500,000. Only 24 players made it to the money bubble, taking home at least $6,135, while the attractive prizes of over $10,000 were saved for the top nine entrants.
Among those that cashed was World Poker Tour champ Michael Vela who left 20th with a consolation prize $6,62 and Nick Pupillo (13th, $7,607) who took the first place at one of the other events at Foxwoods, the $440 + 60 No Limit Hold’em – Six Max. Another notable player, WSOP winner Andy Frankenberger, was also eliminated right before he could reach the final table. He finished 10th, earning $8,589. Other big names in the field were Vanessa Selbst, Olivier Busquet, Galen Hall, Brian Altman and David Paredes.
Saeed bought in on Day 2 and gradually climbed to the chip leaders bracket, while by Day 3 he was only 10,000 chips behind leader Curt Kohlberg. The first one to leave the nine-seat final table was Brock Wilson, who was eliminated by Chris Tryba. He was followed in a few hours by Dominick Pelli (8th, $15,706) and Alex Rocha (7th, $19,142), while David Paredes was the next to go with a cash prize of $23,559. Tryba finished 5th ($29,450), followed by Todd Rebello ($39,265) and ultimately Brian Altman who was eliminated by Saeed and took the third place and a prize of $48,591.
In the final heads-up against Curt Kohlberg, Saeed came with a 2 to 1 chip advantage. After a few bluffs, lucky flops and a tough battle altogether, Kohlbergās Queen-Ten was not enough to beat Saeedās Ten-Eight in the final hand (10-8-6). Emerging victorious, Saeed took home $119,270 that contributed to his total live tournament earnings of over $600,000.
2018 Foxwoods Poker Classic Tournament
The 2018 Foxwoods Poker Classic tournament started March 9 at the Foxwoods Resort Casino with a $600 No-Limit Holdāem event that attracted more than 1,200 entries and collected a prize pool of $623,089. Other events that took place at the venue from March 9 to March 26 were the $5,000 NLH High Rollers and the $250 NLH Super Stack Turbo Bounty.
The Main Event began March 23 and ran for four days while the buy-in fee of $2,500 could guarantee that only pros would take part. Indeed, the event was packed with notable poker players and gathered a prize pool of nearly half a million dollars. Along with the $2,500 NLH Championship Main Event, the other poker event that gained a lot of popularity was the $400 NHL Tournament which had 960 entries and was won by the less experienced Daniel Podheiser.
