World Poker Tours Brett Faustman - The Ultimate Takedown

How former college wrestler Brett Faustman outmaneuvered Deeb, Nguyen, and Corkins to claim WPT glory.

TUNICA, MISSISSIPPI, IS NO LAS VEGAS. For 51 weeks out of the year, it more closely resembles a Southern-fried Atlantic City circa 1985, but for one week in January each year, this sleepy little casino town suddenly turns into the place to be if you’re a poker player. Why? Exactly two reasons: the $7,500 World Series of Poker Circuit event at the Grand Casino and the $10,000 World Poker Open at the Gold Strike Casino. In the words of Brett Faustman, a 28-year-old commercial insurance salesman from Lansing, Michigan, “Tunica’s the place to be in January.”

While on vacation with his father, Faustman hoped to win a seat in one of the two tournaments. He entered a satellite for the WSOP event, but busted out within an hour. Undaunted, he started playing cash games, quickly recouping his losses and then some. Up $12,000, he headed for the Gold Strike and entered a $1,000 mega-satellite. Eight hours later, he’d won a seat.

As is becoming the norm in big buy-in tournaments, the WPO’s organizers split the first day of the event into two separate days. While this is usually done to accommodate large fields, at the Gold Strike it was done to help out late arrivals, particularly those straggling in from the Aussie Millions. It proved to be a good idea, as Day 1B attracted 142 players, 25 more than had started on Day 1A. One of the late entrants was John Phan. Another was Brett Faustman.

With only three tables left on Day Three, these two voluble individuals would clash in a confrontation that would leave one of them oddly quiet. While Phan’s loquaciousness seemed inspired by gamesmanship and copious amounts of alcohol, Faustman’s appeared to come from an inclination to spread good cheer.

“I just like to have fun at the table and get people laughing,” he said. “I had almost every one of the dealers cracking up at some point. A lot of them were telling me they were rooting for me because I used to deal myself.”

Beyond ingratiating him with the dealers at the Gold Strike, Faustman’s experience dealing poker at the Soaring Eagle Casino in Mount Pleasant, Michigan, gave him a crash course in a game that, for some, can take “a lifetime to master.”

When he arrived at Phan’s table, he was on a short stack, but he didn’t sit back and wait to get blinded off. He played three out of five hands at one point, and on the sixth he made it $20,000 from early position. Phan re-raised to $80,000 with A-K, but Faustman had kings and moved all in. “The Razor” called, failed to catch an ace, and suddenly he was down to his last $4,000. He would be eliminated soon after in 22nd place.

Faustman had little time to celebrate. Just a few hands later, T.J. Cloutier raised from the button with K-Q. Dealt A-4 in the big blind, Faustman came over the top of him. “A-4 doesn’t look so bad against T.J. Cloutier on the button trying to steal the blinds,” he said. “I guess a lot of people might lay that down, but I felt like I was making the right move to get the money.”

It worked. Cloutier called and Faustman took the pot with ace-high, eliminating the legendary Texan in 21st place.

Winning those two big pots back to back vaulted Faustman to the top of the leader board. When the last 10 players in the tournament were moved to a single table, he was in second place with $885,000. He added to his chip stack by knocking out Jose Rosenkrantz in 10th place before getting involved in an interesting confrontation with Dutch Boyd. After Boyd opened for a raise from under the gun, Faustman called with pocket eights, the same cards he’d folded on the previous hand when Boyd had moved all in. This time he got to see a flop: J-3-2 with two spades.

Boyd bet $48,000, and Faustman called.

The turn was the 9s. Boyd bet $90,000.

“I didn’t believe he’d hit spades,” said Faustman. “I didn’t believe he had any of that flop other than a big ace of spades, so I made a minimum raise to try to make him believe that I was the one with the spades or a set. I buried my head in my hands, hoping he wouldn’t call. After about two minutes, he called, and I was thinking, Oh, shit, what am I going to do now?”

The river was the 3h.

Boyd checked, Faustman moved all in, and Boyd folded, leaving him with only 59,000.
“I talked to him later,” said Faustman. “He had A-Q with the ace of spades. He called my minimum raise on the turn because it was just small enough for him to try to catch his flush on the river or an ace or a queen. Everything was working in my favor all tournament. That hand was kind of an example of that.”
***
Because the WPO is a World Poker Tour event, once it got down to the final seven players the tension at the table got ratcheted up a notch—the next player eliminated wouldn’t be making it onto the television program. Most amateurs in Brett Faustman’s position would have gone out of their way to avoid getting into any major confrontations, but that’s not his style. A former collegiate wrestler at Central Michigan University, he still lives by his old grappling credo: “Don’t even step on the mat if you’re intimidated.”
So when Men Nguyen raised under the gun to $46,000, Faustman didn’t hesitate before calling from the big blind. (It helped that he had A-K.) Faustman even added a personal flourish, checking in the dark, a move that seemed to momentarily befuddle “The Master.” When the flop came J-10-3, Nguyen opted to check as well.
The turn was the deuce of spades and both players checked once again, but when the queen of diamonds fell on the river, they suddenly sprang to life. Faustman bet $200,000, Nguyen raised to $500,000, and Faustman moved all in.

“What do you have, K-9?” Nguyen asked before calling.

When Faustman flipped over A-K for the nuts, his cheering section went crazy. Nguyen spent a long, agonizing (and completely unnecessary) minute playing to the crowd before he flipped over his own A-K. With all that was at stake, it was one of the more exciting chopped pots you’ll ever see.

Twenty minutes later, Freddy Deeb made a spade flush to eliminate Michael Baas, and the final televised table was set. To the surprise of everyone (except possibly himself), Brett Faustman was in second place with $1,282,000. His reward? He got to sit between Deeb and Nguyen at one of the toughest final tables in WPT history.

As soon as Nguyen took his seat, he asked a cocktail waitress to bring him a Corona.
“Hurry up, before he goes broke,” joked Deeb.

Picking up the thread of the verbal battle they’d been having for days, Nguyen looked over at Deeb and smirked. “Hello, Shorty!”

If Nguyen is taller than Deeb, it’s not by much. Both men would need a Manhattan phone book to stand on to come close to 5’8”. So it was clearly a joke, albeit one with some bite to it. Nguyen had been displaying such testiness all week long. The only way he was going to be leaving Tunica happy was if he won this tournament.

“In the WPT, I’ve finished fifth, sixth, and fourth,” he said in an interview on worldpokertour.com before the start of the final table. “That’s the best one, fourth. I’m going to do my best to win today because I’m hungry for a WPT title.”

To achieve that end, Nguyen was not above trying to gain an advantage by any means necessary. One of his tactics was buying beers for the amateur from Michigan. Faustman saw through the ploy and even felt bold enough to play a few mind games with Nguyen himself. During a hand against Hoyt Corkins, Nguyen announced he was playing it blind. As soon as it was over, Faustman turned to Nguyen and said jokingly, “Men, I saw you look at your cards.”

“You did?” he asked, before snapping, “No, you didn’t.”

“Are you on tilt?” Faustman asked playfully.

“I’m Men The Master. I’m a professional. You’re just a little boy.”

Soon after Corkins eliminated John Spadavecchia in sixth place, Nguyen would finally get to pick on someone his own size, calling a $60,000 raise Deeb made from under the gun. The flop came 10-9-5 with two hearts. Deeb bet $150,000, inspiring Nguyen to shout, “All you can eat, baby!” and shove his last $641,000 into the pot. Deeb thought for about a minute before making the call, showing A-7 of hearts. Nguyen turned over pocket queens, which held up, making him the new chip leader.

Meanwhile, Corkins was quietly building a chip stack. He won a race by flopping an ace to eliminate Gabe Costner, a 30-year-old cash-game specialist who plays at the Beau Rivage Casino in Biloxi, Mississippi, five nights a week, in fifth place. Corkins was starting to feel right at home at the Gold Strike and for good reason—the Horseshoe Casino just across the street had been his “home casino” from 1995 to 2003.

Corkins had just taken over the chip lead with four players remaining when he got involved in a hand with Faustman. Corkins raised to $100,000 before the flop, and Faustman, needing chips and thinking Corkins was on a steal, moved all in with A-4.

“I’ve seen him make those raises with K-Q and J-10 suited,” Faustman explained, “and I thought my ace-high might be good. I was thinking I might get him to lay it down. He called immediately with A-K and I said, ‘Aw, man, I’m dominated.’ Before we even played the hand, I said, ‘Hoyt, my hat’s off to you. People just don’t know where they’re at against you.’”

It was Faustman’s first major misstep of the entire tournament, but it ended up working in his favor. The flop came 3-2-2, and a five on the turn gave him an improbable straight as well as the chip lead.

With the blinds rapidly increasing, play quickly devolved into a shove-fest. Deeb lost several such hands to Nguyen, and Faustman finished him off, calling with A-K of hearts after Deeb tried to make a move with 8-7 of diamonds.

With three players left and skyrocketing blinds, Nguyen attempted a move of his own with K-10 of diamonds. Corkins called quickly with pocket jacks. When the jacks held up, Corkins only had to get past one more player to capture his second WPT title. Unfortunately for him, that player was starting to look like the Moneymaker of Michigan.
***
If Faustman had any advantage over Corkins, it was that he was amazingly relaxed. “It’s a freeroll,” he said in an interview on worldpokertour.com. “I’ve already made more money than I know what to do with.”

He had also devised a game plan to combat his opponent’s strengths. “Hoyt likes to press. He’s a super-aggressive player. My plan was to not get into pre-flop raising battles with him because he’s only calling me with a hand that has me beat. With that kind of player, if I checked it to him, he was going to press hard. I ended up picking up some big hands and slow-playing them before the flop and got him to put in a lot of money trying to steal those hands.”

One such hand occurred roughly halfway through their heads-up battle. Corkins limped in from the button, and Faustman checked his option. The flop came A-9-2. Faustman checked, Corkins bet $80,000, and Faustman called. When the 3s fell on the turn, Faustman led out for $140,000. Corkins raised to $600,000, and Faustman moved all in, forcing Corkins to fold.

“I flopped a set of deuces,” Faustman later confessed. “My strategy of checking a big hand to him worked.”

That hand gave Faustman the chip lead, at which point he abruptly shifted gears. Now whenever he picked up a big hand he started betting into Corkins, trying to make it look like a steal.

He employed this very strategy on the 43rd hand of their heads-up duel. After Corkins limped in on the button for $80,000, Faustman raised to $250,000. Corkins thought it over for a couple of minutes before he finally called. The flop came 9-9-3 with two clubs. Faustman bet $280,000, Corkins moved all in, and Faustman called. Corkins had a pocket pair, deuces, but so did Faustman and his was bigger. Faustman’s queens gave him the title as well as $892,413.

“I just think I had been leaning on Hoyt for so long he had no idea where I was at,” said Faustman. “With an ugly board like 9-9-3, I can’t say I wouldn’t have made that same move if I were him.”

Corkins, who has now finished second twice at a WPT final table, compared the loss to “a kick in the gut.”

For Faustman, it was a beautiful end to a dream vacation, which might explain how he was able to defeat a tableful of seasoned pros. He was on vacation. Poker is what he likes to do for fun.

In the wake of his victory, everyone kept asking him if he was going to start playing poker professionally, but the affable ex-dealer from Michigan wasn’t having any of it. Beyond playing in the WPT Championship in April and perhaps the WSOP after that, he has little desire to turn poker into a job. Then again …

“Who knows what’s going to happen in the WPT Championship?” he said. “If I win that thing, yes, I would be on the circuit for sure after that.”

Storms Reback is a freelance writer from Austin, Texas, who co-wrote All In: The (Almost) Entirely True History Of The World Series Of Poker and collaborated with Sam Farha on Farha On Omaha.

One Tough Table
Four of the five players Faustman had to beat at the final table were highly accomplished veterans:
Freddy Deeb: Two WSOP bracelets, one of which was the 2007 $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event, and one WPT title at the 2005 Ultimate Poker Classic.
Men Nguyen: Six WSOP bracelets and four Player of the Year awards.
John Spadavecchia: Ten WSOP final tables, including victories in the $5,000 Deuce-To-Seven Draw event in 1991 and the WSOP Circuit event in Las Vegas in 2006; also finished third in the WSOP Main Event in 1994.
Hoyt Corkins: Two WSOP bracelets, five WPT final tables, including a WPT title at Foxwoods in 2003.

The World Poker Open Final Results
1. Brett Faustman $892,413
2. Hoyt Corkins $458,267
3. Men Nguyen $241,193
4. Freddy Deeb $168,835
5. Gabe Costner $123,008
6. John Spadavecchia $96,477