Julian Sacks Wins WSOPC Foxwoods Main Event ($148,350)
Julian Sacks won his first World Series of Poker Circuit ring and $148,350 in prize money for taking down the $1,675 Main Event at Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut.
In the process, he more than doubled his career tournament cashes and secured a $10,000 seat at next year's WSOP Global Casino Championship.
Official Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Hometown | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Julian Sacks | Ridgewood, NJ | $148,350 |
| 2 | Travis Stams | Stow, MA | $91,770 |
| 3 | Jeremy Meacham | Oak Bluffs, MA | $66,930 |
| 4 | Johanssy Joseph | Spring Valley, NY | $49,680 |
| 5 | Muhammad Abdel-Rahim | Portsmouth, NH | $37,260 |
| 6 | Sean Carlson | East Hartford, CT | $28,428 |
| 7 | Long Tran | Newton, MA | $22,080 |
| 8 | Vinh Dang | N/A | $17,250 |
| 9 | Ronald Baker | Albion, NY | $13,800 |
The tournament drew 460 players for a $690,000 prize pool and 54 would advance to the payouts. Je Wook Oh (51st), Tim Reilly (23rd), Jose Montes (22nd), and defending champ Sam Taylor (19th) were some of the notables cashing in the event.
The final day of the tournament dawned on Monday with the official final table having already been reached as eight players remained. With blinds at Level 25 (12,000/24,000/4,000), Muhammad Abdel-Rahim held a big lead with 2.9 million while Sacks languished among a cluster of players with around 800,000, according to the live updates.
Sacks found himself at risk very early on and in bad shape as he jammed his last 740,000 over a raise and a call in front of him with 8♣8♠. Rahim had flatted the original raise and he put Sacks at risk with J♣J♥. A flop of 9♦9♣6♣ didn't show Sacks the eight he needed, but an 8♥ on the turn saved him.
Another double through Rahim made Sacks the chip leader, as he defended his big blind and found himself holding a flush with 8♠6♠ on a board of 9♠5♦3♠4♠. His all-in shove was called by Rahim, who bricked the river with A♥K♠.
More battles between Rahim and Sacks dominated the action, with Rahim doubling through Sacks with a backdoor straight holding K♥J♥ against Sacks' set of queens. Sacks doubled right back with his K♦Q♦ held against Q♥J♥.
In the meantime, players began busting with Vinh Dang and Long Tran hitting the rail.
Then, a massive hand went down. Rahim opened to 105,000 at 25,000/50,000/5,000 and saw Sacks shove for 825,000 and Sean Carlson do likewise for 635,000. Raheem was happy to call with K♣K♦ but saw he was trailing the A♥A♠ of Sacks while Carlson needed tons of help with A♣Q♦. An ace-high flop all but ended the hand and Sacks turned a boat to boot.
Sacks finished his rival shortly thereafter with A♠10♦ against A♦4♣.
Johanssy Joseph was looking to do one better than his runner-up finish in this event in 2015 but he fell in fourth when he jammed nines over Jeremy Meacham's kings. Nonetheless, it's the continuation of a hot year that's seen Joseph cash for over $350,000.
Sacks handed out a couple of doubles to Meacham but was able to finish him off when the latter jammed about 18 big blinds with A♥8♠ and failed to improve against Sacks' 6♠6♦.
That left Sacks with a little over a 2-1 lead against Travis Stams and things were done in short order. On a flop of K♦9♥8♦, they got it in with Sacks holding K♣6♠, having called the shove of Stams, who had J♠9♦. Another king on the turn ended things without a sweat for Sacks.
Be sure to complete your PokerNews experience by checking out an overview of our mobile and tablet apps here. Stay on top of the poker world from your phone with our mobile iOS and Android app, or fire up our iPad app on your tablet. You can also update your own chip counts from poker tournaments around the world with MyStack on both Android and iOS.
