Things have been quiet at the final table. Action wise anyway. The table chatter has been quite entertaining with talks of everyone's diets and thoughts on fantasy drafts.
Nobody has put much of their stack at risk but in a recent hand, Bernard Lee opened to 18,000 and Jared Bleznick three-bet to 67,000. After some thought, Lee released his hand to the muck.
Alex Foxen has been eliminated in ninth place. Foxen was the Day 1 chipleader and held a large stack for most of the tournament. When the players returned from dinner break, Foxen doubled up Matt Waxman two times and lost a third pot to him, bringing his stack down to average.
Eventually, Jared Bleznick opened to 15,000 and Foxen shoved all in for 105,000. Bleznick called.
Foxen was drawing to a nine and hit it, making a . Bleznick had and was drawing very thin, but hit an eight to make an and eliminate Foxen.
"Really well played," Bleznick said, "I'm serious, you got a phenomenal future."
Bleznick has been talking a lot, so it is sometimes difficult to gauge his level of sincerity, but he congratulated Foxen on a well-played tournament and got up to shake his hand and give him a one-armed hug.
Foxen earned his tenth World Series of Poker cash with his ninth place finish. He took home $5,530 for his effort. Bleznick will now carry the chip lead into the unofficial final table.
Former WSOP Player of the Year Jeff Lisandro has just been eliminated by Matt Waxman. Waxman raised pre-draw and Lisandro called with less than a big blind behind. Waxman drew one, Lisandro drew two and Waxman bet, forcing Lisandro all-in. Lisandro called off and was behind as Waxman held a ten-low to take the pot.
Matt Waxman has had a pretty good level, doubling through Alex Foxen two times and he just won another pot from Foxen after both players stood pat.
Waxman kicked things off with a raise to 14,500 from the small blind and Foxen reraised to 40,500. Waxman called.
Both players stood pat and then Waxman checked. Foxen bet 39,500 and Waxman debated for about a minute before calling. Foxen showed trip eights and Waxman took down the pot with .
Matt Waxman and Alex Foxen played another big hand and Waxman doubled through Foxen once again.
The hand started when Waxman opened to 12,000 from the small blind and Foxen reraised to 33,500 from the big blind. Waxman went all in for roughly 92,000 and Foxen wanted a count. He got the count and called.
Both players drew one. Waxman showed . A five would give him a straight, but he drew an eight to make .
Foxen showed a draw to a seven but drew a queen to end up with .
"Sometimes I would actually fold that, but that was like the sixth time he three-bet me since we came back from dinner," Waxman said as he collected the pot.