2019 World Series of Poker Circuit Thunder Valley

$1,700 Main Event
Day: 1b
Event Info

2019 World Series of Poker Circuit Thunder Valley

Final Results
Winner
Winning Hand
109
Prize
$130,667
Event Info
Buy-in
$1,700
Prize Pool
$627,210
Entries
414
Level Info
Level
31
Blinds
60,000 / 120,000
Ante
120,000
Players Info - Day 1b
Entries
273
Players Left
65

Lyons Is Back

Level 12 : 800/1,600, 1,600 ante

After busting earlier and saying he would be back, Pat Lyons was nowhere to be seen for some time. However, he is back in the room and comfortably seated with a stack of 67,000 now in front of him.

He is clad with a smile on his face and a circuit ring around his finger, making true to his word that he would be back and hoping to make true to his claim from earlier that he would be putting chips into a bag at the end of the evening.

Player Chips Progress
Pat Lyons us
Pat Lyons
WSOP 1X Winner
WPT 1X Winner
67,000 67,000

Tags: Pat Lyons

Zeledon Gets a Dub

Level 12 : 800/1,600, 1,600 ante
Jimmy Zeledon
Jimmy Zeledon

Glenn Miller had 12,000 out in front of him from early position and was facing action again as Jimmy Zeledon had gone all in from the small blind. He requested a count of Zeledon's stack, which totaled 53,100. He then called.

Jimmy Zeledon: {a-Hearts}{a-Spades}
Glenn Miller: {q-Hearts}{q-Clubs}

The flop {a-Diamonds}{3-Diamonds}{5-Hearts} was all Zeledon, leaving Miller needing to hit running wheel outs to a chop in addition to the unlikely perfect-perfect combination of the last two queens in the deck. The turn {5-Clubs} dashed what little chances he had at cracking Zeledon's aces and the river {k-Spades} made the hand official, bringing Zeledon north of six figures along the way.

Player Chips Progress
Jimmy Zeledon us
Jimmy Zeledon
107,400 23,400
Glenn Miller ie
Glenn Miller
101,200 -65,800

Tags: Glenn MillerJimmy Zeledon

Thomas Morris Wins Event #8: $400 Monster Stack for First Gold Ring

Level 12 : 800/1,600, 1,600 ante
Thomas Morris
Thomas Morris

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 #8: $400 Monster Stack, 500 runners created a $165,000 prize pool that was paid out to the top 75 players including Event #6 champ Jeff Hoffman (71st - $568), “Miami” John Cernuto (55th - $588), Event #7 winner David Brookshire (32st - $794), Srinivasa Godavarthy (15th - $1,982), and Arthur Tanimoto (10th - $2,430).

In the end it was 29-year-old Thomas Morris of Whiteland, Indiana coming out on top to win the title for $32,846 and his first gold ring.

“I’m usually a cash game person. I started playing tournaments at the beginning of the year and I’ve been firing pretty hard. Finally got the win,” Morris said.

He continued: “My strategy is spray and pray. I’ve always gone by that and it worked out today,” Morris added.”

Final Table Results

PlacePlayerHometownPrize
1Thomas MorrisWhiteland, Indiana$32,846
2Michael McdonoughChico, California$20,298
3Michael CervantesSan Francisco, California$14,866
4Jeffrey SpruitenburgPacifica, California$11,028
5John WilliamsN/A$8,288
6Phillip PhongsaiphonhRocklin, California$6,312
7Cheng XiongChico, California$4,871
8Abraham MeyersN/A$3,811
9Christopher BonitaWinthrop, Massachusetts$3,022

Tags: Thomas Morris

Elpayaa Pulls Off a Squeeze

Level 12 : 800/1,600, 1,600 ante
Joe Elpayaa
Joe Elpayaa

Dustin Crump opened to 3,200 from under the gun and action folded around to the hijack, who called. Joe Elpayaa was in the cutoff and announced he was all in, cutting out his stack of 36,500.

Crump thought for close to a minute and sent his cards to the muck. The hijack was long ready to do the same by the time Crump folded, lifting his cards up in preparation for their helicoptered-flight across half of the table as Crump sent his cards to the muck. The hijack's cards completed their voyage to the muck as well and Elpayaa was sent the pot.

Player Chips Progress
Dustin Crump us
Dustin Crump
103,200 -8,600
Joe Elpayaa us
Joe Elpayaa
46,900 12,700

Tags: Dustin CrumpJoe Elpayaa

Level: 12

Blinds: 800/1,600

Ante: 1,600

Shojaeyan Gets Two Streets of Value

Level 11 : 600/1,200, 1,200 ante
Shahin Shojaeyan
Shahin Shojaeyan

Kelly Minkin opened the action with a raise to 3,000 out of middle position and received calls from Shahin Shojaeyan in the hijack, Loren Cloninger in the cutoff, and the player in the big blind.

The four players saw a flop of {q-Clubs}{2-Clubs}{2-Spades} and both the big blind and Minkin checked. Shojaeyan bet 7,500, receiving two folds before action was back on Minkin. She made the call, bringing the turn {7-Diamonds}. Both players checked.

The river came {7-Hearts} and Minkin checked once more. Shojaeyan threw out a bet of 10,000, which Minkin quickly called to take the hand to showdown.

Shojaeyan tabled {a-Clubs}{q-Diamonds}, good for queens and sevens with an ace kicker. Minkin mucked and Shojaeyan took down the pot.

Player Chips Progress
Shahin Shojaeyan us
Shahin Shojaeyan
152,000 86,000
Kelly Minkin us
Kelly Minkin
86,300 -22,700
Loren Cloninger us
Loren Cloninger
16,100 -21,900

Tags: Kelly MinkinLoren CloningerShahin Shojaeyan

Le Keeps Rolling

Level 11 : 600/1,200, 1,200 ante

After a check from an opponent in middle position, Billy Le bet 5,000 from the hijack, with the board showing {2-Spades}{a-Spades}{5-Spades}{9-Clubs}{8-Diamonds}.

The hijack thought it over briefly before making the call, and Le showed {a-Hearts}{10-Hearts} to take down the pot.

Le is still seated at the same table where he started the day. and he's now joined at that table by JC Tran and David Brookshire in what's proving to be a tough draw.

Player Chips Progress
Billy Le us
Billy Le
82,000 2,000

Hugenberg Gets a Knockout, Climbs the Leaderboard

Level 11 : 600/1,200, 1,200 ante
Anthony Hugenberg
Anthony Hugenberg

An early position player opened to 2,700, a middle position player called, and Anthony Hugenberg three-bet to 11,000. The original raiser folded, and the middle position player called.

Facing a check on the {4-Spades}{4-Hearts}{6-Diamonds} flop, Hugenberg bet 11,000, and his opponent rerasied all in. Hugenberg snap called.

Opponent: {9-Hearts}{9-Diamonds}
Anthony Hugenberg: {a-Spades}{a-Hearts}

It was bad news for the pocket nines of the middle position player, and the runout brought no help, with the turn coming {q-Diamonds} and river falling {3-Spades}.

After the knockout, Hugenberg now sits on one of the bigger stacks in the room.

Player Chips Progress
Anthony Hugenberg us
Anthony Hugenberg
168,000 168,000

Tags: Anthony Hugenberg

Crump Check-Raises the Third Barrel

Level 11 : 600/1,200, 1,200 ante

William Haley opened the action with a raise to 3,500 from the hijack and action folded around to Dustin Crump, who defended his big blind.

The dealer fanned a flop of {4-Spades}{10-Spades}{6-Diamonds} and Crump checked to Haley, who made a continuation-bet of 3,500. Crump called. The turn came {j-Spades} and Crump checked again. Haley fired a second barrel for 7,000, getting another call from Crump.

The river fell {7-Spades} and Crump checked a third time. Haley played around with some chips and ultimately emptied the clip, firing out another 12,000. Crump thought for a bit and then check-raised to 32,000.

Haley went through a bit of his thought process verbally, wondering if Crump had the nut flush. Eventually, he looked back at his cards and slid them from the nine-seat directly to into the muck pile that was just in front of him and to his left and the dealer sent the pot Crump's way.

Player Chips Progress
Dustin Crump us
Dustin Crump
111,800 60,800
William Haley us
William Haley
80,700 32,300

Tags: Dustin Crump

Four To River; None To Showdown

Level 11 : 600/1,200, 1,200 ante

Mike Lancaster opened the action with a raise to 3,000 out of the cutoff and saw calls behind him from the players on the button and in the small blind. Chet Perrigo then defended his big blind to take action four ways to the streets.

The flop fell {7-Diamonds}{a-Spades}{2-Spades} and action checked to Lancaster, who made a continuation-bet of 4,500. All three players stuck around and the turn came {k-Clubs}, where action checked through.

The river was {3-Clubs} and the small blind checked. Perrigo put out a bet of 11,500 and Lancaster and the player on the button quickly folded. The small blind then went into the tank for about 35 seconds before picking the chip up off his card and sliding his cards forward to muck them, resulting in Perrigo taking down the four-way pot without showdown.

Player Chips Progress
Chet Perrigo us
Chet Perrigo
130,100
Mike Lancaster us
Mike Lancaster
40,500

Tags: Chet PerrigoMike Lancaster