Akbar Zamani Wins World Series Of Poker Circuit Stop At Thunder Valley

Akbar Zamani took top honors at the World Series of Poker Circuit stop hosted at Thunder Valley Casino Resort near Sacramento, California on January 27. It was the largest tournament score yet for the San Jose resident, but not his largest gaming windfall. He reportedly earned $500,000 via the lottery a few years back.

Now, Zamani is a WSOP Circuit champion in addition to a jackpot winner. The $187,882 he secured for this latest triumph also came with his first WSOP Circuit gold ring.

“Most of the hands that I played, I was actually bluffing, but I bluffed with confidence,” Zamani told WSOP reporters when he was asked about his play in the tournament. He continued when asked about the final match, “When we sat down, the two of us, I just felt that I’m going to win it. Yeah, I love heads-up. I think I had control over him. When we started heads-up, I dominated him… I knew when was the right time to bluff.”

The $1,700 buy-in no-limit hold’em tournament featured two starting flights, with 676 entries resulting in a prize pool of $1,024,140. That more than doubled the $500,000 guarantee. The top 102 players all took home at least $3,415 in prize money when the bubble burst.

It wasn’t until almost midnight that the final nine players to emerge on the penultimate day of play, and Zamani was the chip leader when cards got into the air at the final table. Jose Mas fell in ninth place before Zamani got in on the action by busting Jiangfen Yin in eighth place.

I-Le Wu followed on his way to the rail in seventh place, and an extended period of play took place before Julian Bonorris took his leave in sixth place. Knockout number two was scored by Zamani when he eliminated multiple gold-ring winner Erle Mankin in fifth, and Zamani kept that momentum rolling by busting Michael Lin next in fourth place.

Zamani made it three final punches in a row when he sent Noah Curhan home in third place, and that gave him a slight chip advantage over Antonio Ma at the start of heads-up play. Zamani was able to quickly pull ahead by winning all of the early hands of note, and the first all-in of the final showdown determined the winner of the tournament.

Ma got the last of his stack in preflop holding KQ, and Zamani had him covered with QJ. The board ran out 932J9, and Zamani won the day with jacks and nines. Ma was out in second place for a payday worth $125,260, and that put his career earnings at nearly $260,000.

Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded at the final table:

This next WSOP Circuit stop is already underway at Horseshoe Casino Tunica in Mississippi. The tournament series runs from Jan. 23 – Feb. 3 with the $1,700 main event taking place Jan. 31 -Feb. 3.

Photo Credit: World Series of Poker.