Adam Foster Overcomes Top Pros To Lift Empire State Championships Title

Adam Foster has won the 2013 Empire State Championships, after besting a field of 426 players on is way to capturing the title, and collecting the $154,958 first place prize.
The $1,500 Main Event was held at the Turning Stone Casino in upstate New York and attracted a whole slew of the best pros in the game to create a prize pool worth $619,830. The tournament was also recorded specially for the launch of television’s latest poker show called “Poker Night in America,” with its co-creator Nolan Dalla, explaining:
“Our mission is to revolutionize televised poker. We want to make poker fun again, and that starts with bringing in some of the game’s most entertaining personalities and turning on the cameras all over the place, and capturing the magic that we all know happens, but we rarely see on television. We want this to be a real game-changer.”
Amongst those top pros entering the tournament were the likes of Eli Elezra, Greg Mueller, Gavin Smith, Shawn Buchanan, Shaun Deeb, Amanda Musumeci, Dennis Phillips and Dwyte Pilgrim. Notable players who then cashed in at the event but fell short of a final table appearance included David Baker (57th), Justin Smith (42nd), Phil Laak (23rd), and Mike Matusow (14th).
Adam Foster subsequently managed to make it all the way through to the tough final table of nine, along with three of the original pros selected by the show’s producers. Ultimately, though, Darvin Moon would finish in 8th ($13,946), Matt Glantz in 6th ($26,000), and Will Failla in 5th ($32,851), before Adam Foster ultimately bested Matt Parry heads-up to claim the crown.
The final table payouts were as follows:
1 Adam Foster – $154,958
2 Matt Parry – $86,776
3 Bud Salhob – $51,198
4 David Johnston – $39,360
5 Will Failla – $32,851
6 Matt Glantz – $26,000
7 James Rubin – $20,144
8 Darvin Moon – $13,946
9 Jason Knablo – $10,537