We had a total of 276 players in today's $400 No-Limit Hold 'em at the Foxwoods World Poker Finals. The final 30 spots will finish in the money. The blinds are currently at 100-200. Final payouts are as.

A total of 353 players entered the World Poker Tour’s (WPT) Foxwoods World Poker Finals, a drop of 14% from the 412 who took to the felts last year. At the end of Day 1, Todd Terry leads the way.

Terry made the final table of August’s WPT Legends of Poker, banking $231,000 for his third place performance. Terry holds 165,000 chips in the New England casino entering Day 2 play on Friday, when 206 survivors will resume at Noon ET. Late action on Thursday featured Mohsin “chicagocards1” Charania doubling up at the expense of Gavin Griffin. Charania was all-in pre-flop holding A-Q, dominating the 6-8 of Griffin. The Team PokerStars Pro front man flopped top pair on a board of 8-3-2, but Charania hit a queen on the turn to move in front for good. Charania finished in the money three times during the WPT’s seventh season.

• The Foxwoods World Poker Finals has been a perennial stop on the World Poker Tour since the first season six years ago. Here’s a look back at the past champions in this event. Season I (2002) Winner: Howard Lederer ($345,400).
• Daniel Santoro Wins the 2011 WPT Foxwoods World Poker Finals. World Poker Tour (WPT) 1:57. Darren Elias on Day 2 of the Foxwoods World Poker Finals.

Among those who stood atop the leaderboard when play concluded at Foxwoods was Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi, who gained a chunk of his chips when an opponent ran pocket kings into Mizrachi’s aces. Mizrachi owns a stack of 125,900 entering Day 2, good for sixth overall. He is in search of his third WPT title after taking down the L.A. Poker Classic during Season 3 and the Borgata Poker Classic during Season 4. Despite his early success, he has not cashed in a WPT tournament since March of 2008.

Holding the 11th largest chip stack after one day of play is Jonathan Jaffe, the runner-up in the World Poker Finals last year. Jaffe owns a mountain of 116,000 chips and is one of 18 players to cross the six-figure mark. Jaffe earned $670,000 for his second place showing in 2008, as he fell to Jonathan “FieryJustice” Little heads-up at the feature table. Also making last year’s six-handed finale were David “The Dragon” Pham, Charles Marchese, Jack Schanbacher, and Mike “The Mouth” Matusow.

Here are the chip counts after one day of play in the $10,000 buy-in WPT tournament:

1. Todd Terry – 165,700
2. Danny Shiff – 159,525
3. Adam Lippert – 159,000
4. Jack Schanbacher – 148,775
5. Soheil Shamseddin – 126,000
6. Michael Mizrachi – 125,900
7. Chris Moore – 123,700
8. Danny Illingworth – 121,600
8. Alan Sasser – 121,600
10. John Barucci – 119,950

Other players still in the hunt for the $910,000 first place prize include:

Matt “mattg1983” Graham – 99,175
Billy “Patrolman35” Kopp – 94,575
Christian “charder” Harder – 91,575
Poorya Nazari – 89,400
Jason Mercier – 84,750
Steve Sung – 76,275
Nick Schulman – 76,000
Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin – 75,100
Nenad Medic – 69,150
Prahlad Friedman – 67,450
Cornel Cimpan – 65,450
John “World” Hennigan – 61,250
Matt Hawrilenko – 51,250
“Cowboy” Kenna James – 49,425
Chad “lilholdem954” Batista – 47,000
Kathy Liebert – 46,025
Gavin Smith – 42,375
Liv Boeree – 40,550
Steve Brecher – 35,675
Isaac “westmenloAA” Baron – 34,475
Victor Ramdin – 32,750
Amnon Filippi – 31,675
Adam “Roothlus” Levy – 31,200
Tommy Vedes – 30,450
Gavin Griffin – 21,125

When play ended on Thursday, the action was in Level 8 and blinds were 400-800 with a 100 chip ante.

One of the toughest draws on Friday is at Table 22, where World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner and Team PokerStars Pro member Jason Mercier will join fellow online poker pros Adam “Roothlus” Levy and Isaac “westmenloAA” Baron. Also at Table 22 will be Tommy Vedes, who is fresh off winning the WPT’s Festa al Lago event in October, and John “World” Hennigan, a two-time WSOP bracelet winner.

The WPT Foxwoods World Poker Finals crowns a champion next Tuesday, November 10th. Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest WPT coverage.

Taking place concurrently with the conclusion of the 2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event in Las Vegas was the World Poker Tour’s (WPT) Foxwoods World Poker Finals. There, Cornel Andrew Cimpan took down his second WPT title.

Play began last week with 353 runners and as the cards flew at the final table, Cimpan held the chip lead. It took all of two hands for an elimination to occur, as Lee Markholt hit the skids after getting his money in ahead with A-K pre-flop against Matt “All In At 420” Stout’s A-6 of spades. Stout hit a flush on the river to secure Markholt’s exit and the pro banked $166,000 for his final table appearance in the $10,000 buy-in tournament.

Curt Kohlberg followed 20 hands later with A-Q. Soheil Shamseddin called the all-in pre-flop with pocket twos, setting up a race situation. Kohlberg flopped top two pair on an A-Q-5 board and a jack on the turn kept him ahead. However, Shamseddin hit lightning in a bottle on the river, when one of the two remaining deuces in the deck peeled off, eliminating Kohlberg in fifth place for $199,000. Then, it was Eric “EFro” Froehlich’s turn to depart after coming out on the short end of a race with A-K against Shamseddin’s pocket fours. The board came 10-5-2-9-8 and Froehlich, a dual WSOP bracelet winner, earned $232,000 at Foxwoods.

Three-handed, Stout doubled up both Shamseddin and Cimpan to give each new life with the $910,000 first place prize in the offing. On the 145th hand of final table play, Stout was bounced from the WPT Foxwoods World Poker Finals in third place, earning $265,000. He was all-in pre-flop with 3-2 and all three players saw the first three cards come 9-6-6. Shamseddin bet, Cimpan folded, and Stout saw that he was up against A-6. Stout jokingly commented, “I have the nut low,” when flipping up his hand and he banked $265,000 for his third place effort.

World Poker Finals Foxwoods

Entering heads-up play, Shamseddin held a 3:1 (8.0 million to 2.5 million) chip lead over Cimpan, who promptly doubled up when his pocket queens withstood Shamseddin’s A-K in a race. Shamseddin would battle back to regain the chip lead, but Cimpan doubled through once more, this time with pocket aces against A-J. In the final hand, Shamseddin was all-in with K-J, but ran into Cimpan’s A-J. Cimpan earned $910,000 for the win and his second WPT title; his first came in the Season VII L.A. Poker Classic. In that event, Cimpan bested Binh Nguyen in a talented final table that also included Mike “UNCCSowers” Sowers, Chris Karagulleyan, and Chris Ferguson.

Here were the results:

1. Cornel Andrew Cimpan – $910,058
2. Soheil Shamseddin – $463,332
3. Matt Stout – $265,710
4. Eric Froehlich – $232,496
5. Curt Kohlberg – $199,283
6. Lee Markholt – $166,069

Other notable names who cashed in the WPT Foxwoods Poker Finals included:

Foxwoods Poker Results

7. Kenna James – $132,855
8. Steve Brecher – $99,641
9. Adam “Roothlus” Levy – $66,427
11. Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi – $46,499
12. Todd Terry – $46,499
18. Terrence “Unassigned” Chan – $31,533
21. Jason Mercier – $26,571
33. Nenad Medic – $21,588
34. Eric “sheets” Haber – $21,588

World Poker Finals Foxwoods

On Day 5 of the World Poker Finals, the field shrunk from 10 players to six and, amazingly enough, Shamseddin knocked out each of the four players to set up the televised final table. Markholt and Cimpan had each taken down WPT titles before. Next up for the roving tournament series is the Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic at the Bellagio. The action gets underway on December 14th.