November Niners Beaten by Amateur Player at Foxwoods

Foxwoods Resort Casino organized a pretty interesting tournament recently with the active participation of 2010 WSOP November Niners, who agreed to play some good old poker against some random amateurs. You figure the Niners nailed them, right? Not really.

Ben Hopkins

The invitational tournament at the Foxwoods Resort Casino wasn't interesting because of the weak $15,000 prize pool, but instead of the fact that last year's November Niners did play the event. Against 18 randomly selected amateur players and some VIPs (including Bernard Lee, for Foxwoods casino, ESPN commentator Lon McEachern and poker book publisher Kasey Thompson) the 9 guys had to play no limit hold'em.

The pros wanted to raise the limits a bit for their own joy, so they added $5,000 each as a side bet, which the best November Niner would win. No luck for the poor amateurs.

The Niner to win the side bet, contrary to predictions wasn't Jonathan Duhamel, winner of the 2010 WSOP, since he was out of the tourney 5th, when he went shoved with A J against Ben Hopkins' 5 5 . Duhamel was good on the A J 4 flop, the 3 turn did not improve Hopkins, but with the 5 river, he bested Duhamel's pair with a set. This is what we call a suckout. The best pro came to be Matt Jarvis, who made it to the final heads-up, but he couldn't stand a chance against the fearful amateur, who caught his bluff with 3rd pair, and quickly after that, Jarvis overplayed his K J against Hopkins' A Q on a dry board, which ended the game.

In this interview with Matt Jarvis, he talks about the ongoing tournament, as well as the funny(?) other side bets they had with the other players. Enjoy!

Final results:

1. Ben Hopkins $5,000
2. Matt Jarvis $3,000
3. Bill Raynor $2,000
4. Anthony Palladino $1,000
5. Jonathan Duhamel $1,000
6. Bernard Lee $1,000
7. Michael Mizrachi $500
8. Joseph Washington $500
9. Rich Grygeil $500
10. Mark Walsh $500