The latest WPT final table of 2007 always looked set to start slowly. Play had virtually ground to a halt on the penultimate day as the final table bubble grew near, with some extraordinarily conservative play boring the watching crowd almost to tears.

Unfortunately the final table did not break with that tradition, at least not at first, and it took over two hours before we lost the first player. That was Alan Kessler, one of the most experienced players on the table, but also the shortest stack at the start of play. He eventually fell to a nasty beat, getting it all-in with A-T against Fred Goldberg’s A-8 but losing when the board came 6-3-7-5-4 to give Goldberg a lucky straight.

Meanwhile the conservative poker continued, with chip leader Raj Patel making an extraordinarily passive flat call when he should have been raising with A-J on a K-J-T-T-J board (a full house) after Seth Berger had bet out for $300,000.

It was a lifeline for Berger, but one he could not take advantage of. He was the next player to the rail, busting out when he re-raised all-in after Fred Goldberg’s preflop raise only to find Raj Patel moving all-in behind him. Goldberg folded and Berger was in deep trouble with A-5 against Raj’s pocket aces. The 6-4-3 flop gave Seth a number of outs but none hit and he was out in fifth.

He was followed by Fred Goldberg, who was unlucky to lose when all-in with pocket jacks against Paul Matteo’s As-5s. Matteo caught a flush draw and gutshot draw on the flop and made his flush on the turn.

Goldberg’s elimination left a fairly evenly stacked three-handed table. Raj still held the chip lead, but with just $3.45 million to Paul Matteo’s $2.83 million and Antonio “Bagels” Cavezza’s $2.04 million he did not have nearly as much breathing space as he was used to.

That all changed a few moments later in the most dramatic hand of the night, and one of the cruellest bad beats you’ll ever see in the WPT. The hand began with Raj raising to $200,000 from the button. Paul Matteo folded his small blind but Tony re-popped Raj for a further $400,000, making it $600,000 in total. Raj then came over the top once more, making it $1.5 million to go and Tony instantly moved all-in.

Alarm bells should have been going off inside Raj’s head at this point, but instead he nearly beat Tony into the pot, proudly showing Ah-8h. When Tony turned over pocket aces it looked as if Raj’s time had finally come, but when you’re hot you’re hot and Raj was most definitely hot.

Even if you weren’t looking you could have guessed by the howl from the watching crowd that the flop had come down with two eights. It was a devastating blow, and the case ace never showed up to save Cavezza’s day. He was out in third, with $370,000 and one of the worst bad beat stories in WPT history to take home.

It was clearly Raj’s day, and no statistical probabilities were going to get in this man’s way. Lady Luck had him in her sights. Paul Matteo by no means made it easy, but when he turned trip kings he could be forgiven for thinking this was a hand to play for value. Unfortunately for him Raj had an open ended straight draw, which needless to say hit on the turn. Paul had to call when Raj moved all-in, and that was that. Raj Patel was the new WPT Foxwood’s World Poker Challenge champion.

Here are the final payouts:

Raj Patel - $1,272,905

Paul Matteo - $643,275

Antonio Cavezza - $370,370

Fred Goldberg - $233,918

Seth Berger - $175,439

Alan Kessler - $136,452