Jimmy Zeledon Breaks Through in Event #9: $400 NLH (One-Day)
The PokerNews Live Reporting Team is at Thunder Valley to live report action from both the $1,700 Main Event and $3,250 High Roller, but those are just a couple of the dozen gold ring events at the stop. As such, we thought we’d profile some of the preliminary tournaments and those who struck it big.
In Event #9: $400 No-Limit Hold’em (One-Day), 116 entries created a $38,280 prize pool that was paid out to the top 18 players. Among those to cash but fall short of the final table were David Nguyen (10th - $735), Jarod Minghini (12th - $735), and Shahin Shojaeyan (18th - $551), just to name a few.
When the dust settled, 49-year-old Jimmy Zeledon of San Jose, California prevailed to win the title for $10,582 and his first gold ring.
“It feels great, I’m so happy,” he said. “This is like a personal dream for me. It’s a great accomplishment. My goal was to win a ring. I finally did it.”
He continued: “I became one of the short stacks and then I got extremely lucky with ace-queen versus king-eight and aces. I flopped a gutshot and got there on the river. That was the key hand right there. That’s what made me get to the win.”
Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Hometown | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jimmy Zeledon | San Jose, California | $10,582 |
| 2 | Russell Garrett | Redding, California | $6,540 |
| 3 | Jason Scott | Portsmouth, New Hampshire | $4,577 |
| 4 | Michael Mcgonigle | Fair Oaks, California | $3,236 |
| 5 | Careen Foster | Emeryville, California | $2,401 |
| 6 | Jose Esparza | Tracy, California | $1,802 |
| 7 | Lauro Padilla | N/A | $1,386 |
| 8 | Steven Grybas | Las, Vegas | $1,093 |
| 9 | Jared Shipley | N/A | $884 |