Six players will return at 11am PT today for the conclusion to the WPT Rolling Thunder Championship in Lincoln, California.
From a prize pool of $1,292,800 there is $257,600 set aside for the winner — a total which includes a $10,400 seat in the WPT World Championship at the end of the year — but for one player there’s even more at stake.
That’s because a win for Eric Afriat would see the Canadian achieve a record-equalling four WPT titles, tying Darren Elias at the top of the World Poker Tour charts.
Three-time winner has eyes on the prize
Afriat’s history of success on the World Poker Tour includes close to 30 cashes across the various brands — such as WPT, WPT Prime, WPT Deepstacks and more — but his victories have all come on the biggest stages.
The WPT Seminole Hard Rock Showdown in 2014 provided Afriat with his first WPT title and first seven-figure score, outlasting the likes of Chance Kornuth, Jeff Gross and Matt Glantz on his way to a $1,081,184 payday.
Four years later Afriat notched his second WPT title at the 2018 Borgata Winter Poker Open, collecting another trophy and another $651,928. Then, just before the onset of the COVID pandemic in February 2020, Afriat reached the final table of the WPT Fallsview Poker Classic, staging an epic comeback from a tiny stack for title number three and another $394,120.
The final six
A win today in Thunder Valley would put Afriat equal with Darren Elias on four titles, but first he’ll need to vanquish five opponents whose WPT experience pales in comparison, but who have each proved their mettle to reach the sharp end of this four-day event.
Afriat comes to the final table in third place, with around 3M chips. Each finalist is guaranteed at least $53,000, which for most would constitute their best ever WPT result.
Harvey Castro of Texas enters the final day’s play as chip leader with 6.6M chips (66 big blinds). Wherever he finishes in this event, the payout will see Castro’s career tournament earnings pass the $1M mark.
David Ha in second, with just over 4M chips, has two previous WPT cashes, but with 17 years between them; a $40K score for a deep run in the Bay 101 Shooting Star event came in March 2007, with his next WPT cash coming in last year’s WPT Seminole Hard Rock Showdown.
Paul Richardson, in 4th with 2.5M chips, has WPT results going back a decade. His best result on the circuit ($34,940) came at Bay 101 Shooting Star in 2016, and his past four WPT cashes have all come at Thunder Valley.
Shawn Daniels in 5th (2.4M chips) will be looking to outstrip his previous best WPT score of $91K, won at WPTDeepstacks Venetian in 2021, while Benjamin Primus — the final table short stack with 1.3M chips (13 big blinds) and a multiple WSOP Circuit ring winner — is on his way to just his second WPT tournament cash.
Cards will be in the air today at 11am local time.
Additional images courtesy of PokerGO/Haley Hochstetler.
