The World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOPC) festival came to a close Monday at Thunder Valley Casino with a big winner in December continuing his prowess in tournament poker.
The WSOPC Thunder Valley festival awarded 16 gold rings to some lucky and skilled players as well as awarding millions of dollars in prizes.
The Main Event went to Akbar Zamani for $187,882, while elsewhere at the series Scott Stewart won his seventh WSOPC ring just one month and one day after winning $2.5 million for first place in the WPT World Championship event. Four days later, he grabbed his eighth WSOPC ring in the final event of the festival.
Scott Stewart Wins His Seventh WSOPC Ring…
It had barely been a month since winning the WPT World Championship when Stewart bought into WSOPC Event #11: $600 No-Limit Hold’em 6-Max. Later that same day, he was slipping his seventh WSOP Circuit ring onto his finger having taken the whole thing down.
After the WPT World Championship event, Stewart took a few weeks off from tournament poker for the Winter holidays. So the Thunder Valley series was his first outing since hitting the big time.
A $600 WSOP Circuit event may have been a step down in stakes from a multi-million dollar final table. But that just reflects how grounded Stewart remained after his big win. When asked what he planned to do with his recent windfall, he told the WSOP that he wanted “a golf cart that’s wrapped in Jurassic Park so I can act like I’m driving around Jurassic Park without it being Jurassic Park. That’s the only thing I want to buy.”
Stewart took home $16,980 for his victory at the WSOPC.
WSOP Thunder Valley Event #11: $600 No-Limit Hold’em 6-Max Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Hometown | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Scott Stewart | Lakewood, CA | $16,980 |
| 2 | Ed Smith | Twenty-nine Palms, CA | $11,100 |
| 3 | Robert Mather | Las Vegas, NV | $7,500 |
| 4 | Paul Richardson | San Ramon, CA | $5,238 |
| 5 | Ricardo Eyzaguirre | Miami, FL | $3,788 |
| 6 | Tsz Liu | Corvallis, OR | $2,839 |
| 7 | Toan Nguyen | Elk Grove, CA | $2,209 |
…And His Eighth
Four days after winning the check and jewelry for Event #11, Stewart was back at the cashier to collect $7,290 for winning Event #16: $400 – The Finale.
Stewart was up against a field of 77 other players for a chunk of the $25,410 prize pool.
This victory brings Stewart’s total live tournament winnings to $5,573,690 around half of which was earned in the last six weeks. He’ll certainly be able to afford that Jurassic Park buggy now.
WSOP Thunder Valley Event #11: $600 No-Limit Hold’em 6-Max Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Hometown | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Scott Stewart | Lakewood, CA | $7,290 |
| 2 | Ronnie Malonzo | Roseville, CA | $4,662 |
| 3 | Evan Price | Concord, CA | $3,120 |
| 4 | Dan Stavila | Oakland, CA | $2,191 |
| 5 | Shawn Murray | Mililani, HI | $1,617 |
| 6 | Kais Mohammad | Yorba Linda, CA | $1,258 |
| 7 | Yang Lu | Seattle, WA | $1,035 |
| 8 | Juan Lugo | Manteca, CA | $903 |
| 9 | Aditya Prasetyo | Cambridge, MA | $838 |
Main Event Action
The other major story of the Thunder Valley series was Akbar Zamani’s victory in the $1,700 Main Event.
The Thunder Valley festival was a little smaller than some stops, with 16 ring events instead of the usual 18. However, this didn’t stop the Main Event from cracking $1 million in prizes.
Once the 676 entries were tallied and raked, the prize pool for the event was $1,024,140 and the top prize was set at $187,882.
Everyone at the final table was guaranteed at least $11,300. However, Zamani was aiming higher. Even the top prize was small change compared to his biggest win, a $500,000 lottery win. Luckily Zamani started the final table in a strong position, second in chips.
Zamani was able to leverage that initial lead into a decent heads-up stack, and from there bluffed his way to a comprehensive victory over Antonio Ma.
“I love heads-up,” Zamani told the WSOP. “I think I had control over him. When we started heads-up, I dominated him. I knew when was the right time to bluff.”
Ma took home $125,260 for second place.
WSOP Thunder Valley Main Event Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Akbar Zamani | $187,882 |
| 2 | Antonio Ma | $125,260 |
| 3 | Noah Curhan | $87,120 |
| 4 | Michael Lin | $61,645 |
| 5 | Erle Mankin | $44,390 |
| 6 | Julian Bonorris | $32,540 |
| 7 | I Le Wu | $24,290 |
| 8 | Jiangfeng Yin | $18,470 |
| 8 | Jose Mas | $14,310 |
Up Next On The Circuit
With a wrap called on the WSOP Circuit Thunder Valley, the next red letter day on the Circuit calendar will be the Main Event of the Horseshoe Tunica festival.
The WSOP Circuit Horseshoe Tunica festival is already underway. However, the festival’s Main Event doesn’t start until the Day 1 flights held on January 31 and February 1.
The next festival to kick off will then be the event at Harrah’s Pompano Beach.
You can see the full results for the WSOP Circuit Thunder Valley below.
WSOP Circuit Thunder Valley Full Series Results
| EVENT | ENTRANTS | WINNER | PRIZE | PRIZEPOOL |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| WSOPC Event #1: $400 Seniors Event | 185 | Frederic Soria | $14,475 | $61,050 |
| WSOPC Event #2: $400 No-Limit Hold’em Freezeout | 84 | Lian Liu | $7,840 | $27,720 |
| WSOPC Event #3: $400 No-Limit Hold’em – The Opener | 1,323 | Arlen Sarte | $62,066 | $436,590 |
| WSOPC Event #4: $600 Pot-Limit Omaha 8 | 93 | Cory Salzillo | $13,284 | $47,895 |
| WSOPC Event #5: $600 No-Limit Hold’em | 192 | Angelo Kratsas | $23,258 | $98,880 |
| WSOPC Event #6: $400 No-Limit Hold’em | 242 | Ryan Awwad | $18,092 | $79,860 |
| WSOPC Event #7: $600 Omaha 8 | 73 | Scott Rist | $11,069 | $24,090 |
| WSOPC Event #8: $400 No-Limit Hold’em Knockout | 153 | Ivan Zarate | $8,960 | $50,490 |
| WSOPC Event #9: $600 T.O.R.S.E. | 49 | Ariel Shefer | $8,276 | $25,235 |
| WSOPC Event #10: $400 Monster Stack | 649 | Wilson Tolon | $37,016 | $214,170 |
| WSOPC Event #11: $600 No-Limit Hold’em 6-Max | 134 | Scott Stewart | $16,980 | $69,010 |
| WSOPC Event #12: $3,250 High Roller | 100 | Andrew Ostapchenko | $81,450 | $300,000 |
| WSOPC Event #13: $1,700 Main Event | 676 | Akbar Zamani | $187,882 | $1,024,140 |
| WSOPC Event #14: $400 No-Limit Hold’em – ”Thirty” | 167 | Emily Terry | $13,359 | $55,110 |
| WSOPC Event #15: $1,125 No-Limit Hold’em – Last Call | 144 | Hieu Tran | $36,573 | $144,000 |
| WSOPC Event #16: $400 No-Limit Hold’em – Series Finale | 77 | Scott Stewart | $7,290 $25,410 |