WPT Rolling Thunder Main Event Title Won by Shawn Daniels for $229,000

Legends of the felt took to the WPT final table in Rolling Thunder, Lincoln, last night as Shawn Daniels triumphed against Harvey Castro is a stunning heads-up battle. With Eric Afriat unable to add a record-tying fourth WPT Main Event title to his resume, it was the talented Daniels who got his name on the WPT Mike Sexton Champions Cup instead.

*after heads-up deal.

**includes $10,000 entry into the season-ending WPT World Championship in December.

Salty Exit for Salsberg

“Only a rookie fish would have celebrated the flop.”

While the action under the WPT lights brought about a new champion, the previous day of the tournament had ended with a dramatic bust-out for a fan favorite. Matt Salsberg isn’t just the co-writer of TV series such as Weeds and Kidding, he’s the WPT Season 11 Player of the Year and battled his way to the final seven with his usual array of skills at the felt combined with quick wit off it.

Salsberg’s exit would have tested even the best-humored of players, as he got his chips into the middle with pocket tens. Called by Harvey Castro with pocket jacks, Salsberg had, he figured, one last quip to nail as he was about to bubble the final table.

“The ten of spades is coming,” he said.

Salsberg was wrong, but he did hit a ten, as the ten of clubs arrived on a fairly miraculous flop of T-6-3. Now well ahead, Salsberg just needed to avoid a jack, but in a cruel twist of fate, the jack of spades arrived immediately on the turn. A nine of diamonds on the river meant Salsberg had found all the tens except the one in spades that he had asked for… and still lost the hand.

Afterwards, responding to Starcraft world champion and Bally’s Live at the Bike producer Wayne Chiang – on X who asked if Salsberg knew that the ‘Poker Gods’ would tease him, Salsberg, known as ‘Salty’, quipped: “Only a rookie fish would have celebrated the flop. I know how this sh** works.”

Early Final Table Exit for Primus

You’d think that with a name like Benjamin Primus, the WPT Prime Main Event might have appealed even more than this Rolling Thunder Main Event, but Primus made it all the way to the final table. Sadly for him and his many fans, the American got just four hands into the last day when his chips ran out. All-in with king-eight offsuit, Primis was in horrible shape against the ace-king of Castro. The board ran out K-Q-6-5-4 to condemn Primus to that early exit as Castro continued to stack chips, climbing to 77 big blinds in his pursuit of the title.

Just a dozen hands later, David Ha joined Primus on the rail, earning $69,000 in fifth place. All-in with jack-ten, he began and ended the hand behind Paul Richardson’s ace-seven, with a clean board of 9-9-2-8-4 sending Richardson up to 3.6 million chips and allowing Richardson to get an early lunch too.

It was some time before four players became three, so long in fact that the stacks shallowed considerably, with Castro (76BB) the clear leader, with Eric Afriat stuck on 24 big blinds, marginally ahead of the eventual winner Daniels on 21 bigs, with Richardson slipping to just 13 big blinds as short stack.

Richardson held his own and battled on bravely, but he never got any momentum going and moved in from the small blind for less than ten blinds with pocket nines. He was in good shape for a double-up when Daniels turned over ace-three of spades with the bigger stack but a safe flop of T-6-5 was followed by an ace on the turn. No nine came on the river of a three and Daniels had eliminated the impressive Richardson, who could consider himself unlucky to be on the rail with $91,000 in fourth place.

Heads-Up Comeback Stuns Castro

The final was a dramatic one but 79 hands in, only two players remained, with all lot of the excitement still to come. Eric Afriat, the veteran of three WPT Main Event victories has a World Poker Tour record only bettered by Darren Elias with four titles. Afriat, a Canadian tournament specialist, hoped to level Elias in Lincoln but just missed out by two places from 404 entries in the latest event in Season 23 of the WPT.

All-in for his tournament life with pocket tens, Afriat was unable to hold against the king-three of Daniels, who flopped a king when it landed K-J-J and hit another king on the turn to leave Afriat drawing dead to a six on the river. Afriat’s finish was worth $122,000 as he bowed out with a hug for his conqueror, as Daniels stacked up 6.15 million chips, the equivalent of 41 big blinds. Despite the size of his stack, he was still well behind Harvey Castro whose 93 big blinds (13.9m) gave him a better than 2:1 chip lead.

Across a wild heads-up, the lead changed hands several times, as a low straight gave Daniels the lead before Castro’s jack-seven outran Daniel’s ace-king to prolong the event. Play went on and on, hour after hour, until only 50 big blinds in total sat on the table, with Castro once again in the lead. The chips were more even when a deal was agreed to smooth out the difference between the top two spots and soon, Daniels doubled. Holding ace-five of clubs against Castro’s queen-ten of spades, the eventual winner finally had a decisive lead with 16.8m playing 3.2 million.

Soon, it was all over. Castro shoved pre-flop with queen-deuce of hearts and Daniels called with eight-six offsuit. If he’d had a premonition, it was spot on. A board of K-7-6-6-J gave him victory at Castro’s expense, as a final table that made heads-up inside 80 hands but took 159 to find a winner was complete.

Shawn Daniels had his moment in the sun and celebrated with friends and family on the rail as he became the latest winner of a WPT Main Event. While he banked $229,000, Castro’s cash of $193,600 more than made up for a lack of luck at the tail-end of the tournament.