Adam Foster Wins Empire State Championship For $155k

Adam Foster has won the Empire State Hold’em Championship Main Event, after besting a field of 426 players on his way to capturing the title, and collecting the $154,958 first place prize.
The $1,650 buy-in annual Empire State Poker Classic was held at the Turning Stone Casino in New York, and this year marked the launch of a new show called ‘Poker Night in America’ (PNIA), which will be air the tournament early next year.
The TV program was created by the original producers of the Heartland Poker Tour shows, Todd Anderson and Andy Rich, along with the Media Director of the WSOP, Nolan Dalla. The filming subsequently followed some of the players as they made their way to New York to take part in the tournament series, as well as a $25/50 private cash game which had a minimum buy-in of $5,000.
“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,” explained Nolan Dalla ahead of the filming.
Not surprisingly, the Empire State Hold’em Championship Main Event attracted a good sized field consisting of some of the best known players in the game to create a prize pool worth $619,830. Amongst the notable pros entering the competition was Mike Matusow, Eli Elezra, Phil Laak, David Williams, Greg Mueller, Gavin Smith, Tom Schneider, David “ODB” Baker, Shaun Deeb, Will Failla, Matt Glantz, Amanda Musumeci, Dwyte Pilgrim, and the 2009 WSOP Main Event runner-up Darvin Moon.
At least three players who were billed for the show then made it through to the final table of nine, with Darvin Moon finishing in 8th ($13,946), Matt Glantz in 6th ($26,000), and Will Failla in 5th ($32,851).
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