Two Eliminated on Short Day 5 at WPT Foxwoods

Day Five of the World Poker Tour’s World Poker Finals at Foxwoods was one of the shorter and more interesting days in the history of the tour. In fact, only two players were eliminated during the day’s play, which lasted just over an hour and a half.

The bizarre situation was due to a combination of lower than expected turnout, and a faster than anticipated drawdown on the previous day. When Day Four began with 27 players (all of whom had reached the money), the plan was to take two more days to reach the televised final table of six players.

However, Day Four showed that the field had other plans. Over the course of the day, 19 players were eliminated, leaving just eight players remaining heading into Day Five.

At many tournaments, this may not have been an issue. However, the World Poker Tour has a relatively rigid schedule for their production shoots, meaning that the final table had to be saved for Tuesday – but the tournament organizers also couldn’t risk having to wait too long for the final table to begin by skipping Monday entirely.

So, instead, the eight remaining players used a short session on Monday to play down to six.

The first to go was two-time WPT tournament winner Jonathan Little, who moved all-in from the button with 95 of hearts, but lost to Steven Brackesy’s A5 in the big blind.

Finally, on the 81^st hand of play for the day, Chris Klodnicki was eliminated to bring play to a close. Klodnicki got all-in on the flop with top pair against a combination flush and straight draw for Steven Brackesy; when the turn made Brackesy’s flush, the Klodnicki’s tournament was over. Klodnicki took home $68,465 for just missing out on final table play.

The last six players will come back tomorrow to fight it out for the $449,910 first prize. Steven Brackesy is the chip leaer with just over 1.8 million in chips; other notables at the final table include Christian Harder and Andy Frankenberger.