Foxwoods World Poker Finals: 21-Year-Old Online Phenom Schools the Pros

Nick Schulman displays the hand that brought him the World Poker Finals title, a World Poker Tour victory, and more than $2 million in prize money.

As the largest casino in the world, Foxwoods attracts huge crowds. The 783 players who ponied up $10,000 each to play in the 2005 World Poker Finals fueled the largest regular-season prize pool in World Poker Tour history – $7,855,000.(Foxwoods added $25,000 to the prize pool to cover the buy-in for the 2006 WPT World Championship that would go to the winner.) The top two finishers would walk away millionaires, with $1 million for second and $2.1 million for first.



Day One:

The Chairman Paces the Field

More and more championship events have been dividing their "day ones" into separate days to accommodate the huge fields – and it's happening so often that we soon might have to redefine "huge" as "average." Foxwoods was no different.



Defending champion Tuan Le (who also won the WPT World Championship last season) flopped trip eights about two hours into the action on day 1a. Unfortunately, his opponent flopped trips, as well, and Le's 9 kicker was defeated by the other player's ace. With Le's quick elimination, this year's Foxwoods title was waiting for a new champion.



WPT Chairman of the Board Lyle Berman set the tone in the first hour of day 1a, flopping a set of tens against the always-aggressive John "World" Hennigan. Berman quickly doubled up and never looked back, leading the first half of the field into day two with an amazing $153,300. Mark Seif finished day 1a in second place with $107,600 – 30 percent fewer chips than Berman, and the only other player with more than $100,000.



The second half of the field (day 1b) couldn't catch up to Berman, either. Loi Phan came the closest with $122,500, and Thomas Fuller finished behind him with $103,200 to become the fourth and final member of the "100 Grand" club heading to day two.



While Berman carried the momentum on day one, could he keep the pace for another few days to reach the final table? Heredity and history may have been on his side; his son Bradley finished fourth in this event the year before.

The World Poker Tour television audience provides a standing ovation for the winner.

Day Two:

The Not-So-Much-Money Day
The day-one survivors combined into a single 239-player field on day two, but only half of them would reach the money – creating 120 "winners" and 119 "losers." Chip Jett was the unfortunate bubble finisher in 121st place, receiving nothing but a round of applause from the remaining players.



But when 15 percent of the field gets paid, it creates a shallow payout structure. Finishing "in the money" in 120th place meant taking home $11,000 – a pretax profit of just $1,000. Even if you finished as high as 31st place, you'd only double your buy-in to $20,700.



Berman continued his pace from day one, losing the chip lead but never falling out of the top 10. Allen Cunningham also had a strong day, steadily accumulating chips throughout the day to finish in second place.



Bill Gazes started day two with a below-average $16,800 in chips, but quickly climbed into the chip lead – and a dominating one, at that. Gazes was the first player to cross the $500,000 mark, at a time when his nearest competitor had only half as much. Gazes reached about $650,000 in chips before cooling off and finishing the day with about $500,000.



Day two was finally stopped after 14 hours with 31 players still in the hunt. The top five players all had between 500,000 and $600,000 in chips: Lenny Cortellino, Allen Cunningham, Lyle Berman, Samir Shakhtoor, and Bill Gazes.

Remember those names, because they'll come up again later.

Nick Schulman and World Poker Tour President Steve Lipscomb

Day Three:

The Big-Money Day

The first player eliminated on day three (31st place) would receive $20,700 – roughly twice the buy-in. The player who busted out on the TV bubble (seventh place) would receive $207,000 – about 20 times the buy-in. And the six players who survived to reach the final table would have a shot at the first prize of more than $2.1 million – about 200 times the buy-in. Clearly, day three would be a great day to have a great day.



The lowest expectations of the day probably belonged to Avdo Djokovic, who entered the day in last place with just $50,000 in chips – less than one-fifth the average, and not even enough to survive three passes of the button. But Djokovic doubled up twice in the first 20 minutes to nearly reach the $200,000 mark. It was only a temporary cushion, as he was back at the bottom of the chip counts a few hours later. Djokovic would remain at or near the bottom of the pack for the next six hours: 18th out of 20, 14th out of 15, 11th out of 11. But he was a survivor, and reached the 10-handed final table (as the short stack, of course). Djokovic was eventually eliminated in ninth place when he lost a race with Q-J against Nick Schulman's pocket threes. He took home $138,000 for his effort, a big improvement over the $20,700 he would have made if he finished 31st. Djokovic showed exemplary sportsmanship all day long, and accepted his defeat with a smile as he congratulated the other eight players.



Although top professionals Allen Cunningham, Bill Gazes, Minh Nguyen, and Lyle Berman all made the 10-handed final table, it was 21-year-old Nick Schulman who dominated the action. His aggressive style and instinctual play served him well, as he seemed to push and back off at all the right times. On top of that, he was catching some great cards at the right times. With an all in and a call in front of him, he woke up with pocket aces. When top professional Minh Nguyen moved all in with pocket tens, Schulman called with pocket eights. But, an 8 on the turn gave Schulman a set and ended a strong performance by Nguyen in eighth place.



The prevailing poker wisdom is that having an early chip lead rarely translates to much success at the end. And most tournaments bear that out – particularly large-field events like this one. But day-one chip leader Berman was still alive, along with the other four players who started the day at the top of the standings: Cortellino, Cunningham, Shakhtoor, and Gazes. The final seven was rounded out by Schulman and Tony Licastro as they battled for the six seats at the WPT final table.



Schulman had $2.6 million in chips, followed by Shakhtoor's $1.6 million; nobody else had even half as much. But being among the chip leaders was no longer a blessing, and Shakhtoor quickly fell from glory to bust the TV bubble, losing two races in the span of 10 minutes; his pocket eights couldn't hold up against Licastro's K-Q, and his A-Q failed to catch up to Schulman's pocket tens.



With Schulman's elimination of Shakhtoor, he took a commanding lead into the final table, holding nearly 45 percent of all the chips in play. Clearly, Schulman picked a great day to have a great day.

The Final Table:

Schulman Takes Command

Here were the final-table chip counts with the blinds starting at $15,000-$30,000 ($3,000 ante):

1. Nick Schulman – $3,502,000 (seat 2)

2. Tony Licastro – $1,412,000 (seat 3)

3. Allen Cunningham – $795,000 (seat 5)

4. Lenny Cortellino – $773,000 (seat 4)

5. Bill Gazes – $693,000 (seat 6)

6. Lyle Berman – $659,000 (seat 1)



While Berman overcame the "Curse of the Day-One Chip Leader" to reach the final table, he now faced another hurdle: No player has ever started a WPT final table in last place and come back to win. But if anyone can institute a change at the WPT, it should be the chairman of the board, right?



The most notable thing about this final table was how quickly it was played – in terms of time, number of hands, and speed with which all of the chips went into the pot. It took a little over three and a half hours to play all 89 hands. Interestingly, there were only 18 flops the entire night – and nearly half of them (8) had both players all in preflop.

The first big showdown came in hand No. 14, when Cortellino raised from under the gun, and Licastro moved all in from the big blind. Cortellino immediately called with pocket eights (8 8), but he was dominated by Licastro's pocket tens (10 10). The all-in situation may have been unavoidable, as both players flopped a set when it came J-10-8. Cortellino was drawing very slim, and when the last two cards came Q-Q, he was out in sixth place.



Tony "All In" Licastro easily earned his new nickname on this night, as he moved in preflop a total of 16 times (nearly 18 percent of the time). The previous day, Berman told Licastro that he wanted him to reach the final table so that he could finally see what hands he moved all in with. But he was called only five times, going 3-2 in those matchups. His all-in hands that were shown down? 10-10, Q-Q, A-J suited, K-10, and A-9. We'll have to wait for the hole cams on TV to see if he got away with any big bluffs on his uncalled all ins, because the range of hands he showed wasn't bad.



Unfortunately for Berman, he didn't get to see much of Licastro's action firsthand. Berman moved all in for $575,000 in hand No. 25, and Schulman quickly called from the button. (Licastro actually considered calling for several minutes from the big blind, but he ultimately folded, apparently preferring to push rather than call.) Schulman's A K dominated Berman's A J, and the cards on the board weren't enough to save the chairman of the board. Lyle Berman was eliminated in fifth place.

Final-table competitors (left to right): Bill Gazes, Allen Cunningham, Lyle Berman, and Tony Licastro.

After the blinds had increased to $25,000-$50,000 ($5,000 ante), Cunningham moved in over the top of Schulman in hand No. 38 with the J 10, trying to slow down the aggressive youngster. But Schulman's raise in this case was justified; he had pocket kings (K K). The board came A A 6 5 10, and Cunningham continued his strong performance in 2005 with a fourth-place finish here.



Schulman's two eliminations increased his chip lead, and he now held about $6 million in chips, with Licastro and Gazes sitting on roughly a million each. This was the longest stretch of the tournament, with Licastro and Gazes battling back and forth as Schulman sat back on his pile of chips and watched.



But when the blinds increased to $40,000-$80,000 ($10,000 ante), some bigger confrontations were inevitable. Schulman raised to $320,000 in hand No. 67, and Tony "All In" Licastro made his usual move. Schulman called with the A 5, but Licastro had him dominated with the A 9. The board brought nothing but blanks, and Licastro doubled up to about $2.7 million. Schulman was down to about $4 million, and appeared mortal for the first time.



Gazes had about $1.1 million at that point, but he was losing chips faster than he was gaining them. In hand No. 85, he moved in for his last $615,000, and Schulman reraised all in (to force out Licastro) with the A Q. Gazes showed the K 8, which gave him a fighting chance. But the flop of A J 4 killed the drama by giving Schulman a pair of aces, and Gazes was out in third place.



Schulman had $5.15 million to Licastro's $2.69 million at that point, so it was still anybody's game. But on the fourth hand of heads-up play, both players limped in to see a flop of A K 8. Licastro check-raised to $300,000, and Schulman called. When the 2 fell on the turn, Licastro quickly said his trademark phrase, "All in", and Schulman immediately called with the 9 6 – a flush. Licastro showed the 8 2 for two pair, and was drawing to just four outs to stay alive. Schulman's flush held up with the 5 on the river, and Licastro was sent home as a second-place millionaire.



Nick Schulman, just 21 years old, had won the Foxwoods World Poker Finals, earning $100,000 for each year of his life. This was obviously the biggest tournament victory yet for the online player who operates under the name "TheTakeover," but with the poise and skill he showed, it clearly won't be his last.



Final results were as follows:

1. Nick Schulman – $2,167,500

2. Tony Licastro – $1,035,000

3. Bill Gazes – $759,000

4. Allen Cunningham – $483,000

5. Lyle Berman – $345,000

6. Leonard Cortellino – $276,000