The final table is set in the WSOP Circuit Thunder Valley $1,700 Main Event, and whoever takes down the tournament is looking at a tough road to the championship.
Day 2 saw the field trim down to the final nine players, and Jaime Haletky (4,030,000) comes into Day 3 as the chip leader. Scott Stewart (3,105,000) is the closest player to Haletky on the chip leaderboard.
The original field of 487 entries was down to 100 at the beginning of Day 2, and it took just over eight hours of play Sunday to get down to the final nine.
Those final nine includes players like Dapo Ajayi (1,840,000), who's at his second straight final table in this series. Ajayi final tabled the $3,250 High Roller just three days ago, and is looking for his first WSOP Circuit ring of his career.
In addition to the ring, the first-place prize of $147,406 is on the line. The remaining players will play through 60 minute levels Monday, with the restart scheduled for noon at the Thunder Valley Resort in Lincoln, California. The tournament will play down to a winner, with play resuming at Level 25 and the blinds and antes at 15000/30000/30000.
Stewart will be vying for his sixth career WSOP Circuit ring, and to add the six-figure first prize to his career tournament earnings total of more than $1.9 million.
Peter Pap (1,825,000), Marko Pantelic (1,675,000), Marcus Laffen (985,000), Dann Turner (550,000), Bryan Piccioli (315,000), and Bin Duan (290,000) round out the final table lineup.
Follow along with the PokerNews live blog as the Main Event plays to its finish.
The short-stacked Bryan Piccioli moved all in for 240,000 from early position and Peter Pap called from the hijack. Marko Pantelic came along from the button, both blinds folded, and then the two active players checked it down as the board ran out .
At that point, all three hands were tabled.
Bryan Piccioli:
Peter Pap:
Marko Pantelic:
Pantelic was best with a pair of eights and Piccioli hit the rail about 30 minutes into the final day.
A couple of hands after Bryan Piccioli hit the rail, Bin Duan followed him out the door in eighth place.
It happened when Duan raised all in for 210,000 from the lojack and action folded to Scott Stewart, who called from the big blind.
Bin Duan:
Scott Stewart:
"Live cards," Stewart said excitedly. He managed to pair one of them on the flop to take the lead. Neither the turn nor river helped Duan and he headed for the payout desk.
Scott Stewart raised the cutoff to 60,000 and Peter Pap defended his big blind to see a flop.
Pap checked, Stewart continued for 100,000, and Pap check-raised all in for approximately 700,000. Stewart snap-called.
Peter Pap:
Scott Stewart:
Pap had flopped top pair with top kicker but he was still behind Stewart's overpair. The turn put out some chop options but the on the river was no help to Pap, who bowed out in seventh place for $21,795.
Marcus Laffen moved all in under the gun for 1.4 million and Marko Pantelic got an exact count before calling from the big blind.
Marcus Laffen:
Marko Pantelic:
It was a flip and Laffen was looking to hold to stay alive. That proved easier said than done as the flop paired Pantelic's ace. The turn left Laffen looking for a nine on the river but it wasn't in the cards as the useless completed the board instead.
Jaime Haletky opened to 110,000 from the cutoff, Scott Stewart three-bet to 450,000 from the big blind, Haletky four-bet shoved, and Stewart called for his 2,400,000 total stack.
Haletky had Stewart covered going to the showdown.
Scott Stewart:
Jaime Haletky:
Board:
The board was not kind to Stewart, as the broadway straight came in on the turn for Haletky. Needing a queen on the river for a chop, Stewart saw the fall instead, and his tournament run is over.
Jaime Haletky opened for 180,000 on the button only to have Dapo Ajayi three-bet to 580,000 from the small blind. Marko Pantelic was in the big and four-bet jammed for roughly 700,000, Haletky folded, and Ajayi made a quick call.
Dapo Ajayi:
Marko Pantelic:
Pantelic's best shot at staying alive was to catch a queen but he was left wanting as the board ran out a dry .
Dapo Ajayi opened to 180,000, Jaime Haletky three-bet to 600,000, Ajayi four-bet all in for 3,950,000, and Haletky tanked for about a minute, then called.
Dapo Ajayi:
Jaime Haletky:
Board:
Haleky's pocket threes held, and he's the Main Event champion. Ajayi takes home $91,099 for the runner up finish.
The World Series of Poker Circuit Thunder Valley wrapped up its stop Monday night with the conclusion of the $1,700 Main Event, a tournament that attracted 487 runners and offered up a prize pool of $737,805.
After just five hours of play, the final table was whittled down from nine to a winner when 42-year-old Jaime Haletky emerged victorious to capture the gold ring, a $147,706 top prize, and a seat into the 2020 Global Casino Championship.
“I feel amazing, really good,” Haletky said right after the win. “I’ll just save towards a house, really that’s about it. Maybe I can do a little bit bigger buy-ins now, we’ll see.
Haletky, who lives near San Jose, works as a mathematician doing cryptography programming but enjoys playing poker, a game he picked up in grad school at UC Berkley, in his free time. That often includes trips to Thunder Valley where he’s actually put together an impressive résumé that now includes two wins and a runner-up finisher in three final table appearances.
In October 2017, he won the Ante Up Norcal Classic $1,100 Main Event for $49,865, and a year before that finisher runner-up in the Ante Up World Championship for a previous career-bet $87,636.
“The other tournaments I felt were a lot of luck, in this one I’ve really studied a lot the last two years, really tried to improve my game,” said Haletky, who originally hails from Massachusetts. “I still had great luck, obviously you can’t win without great luck, but I’m really happy with how I played.”
Final Table Results
Place
Player
Hometown
Prize
1
Jaime Haletky
Walnut Creek, California
$147,706
2
Dapo Ajayi
Littleton, Colorado
$91,099
3
Marko Pantelic
Bellevue, Washington
$66,663
4
Scott Stewart
Lakewood, California
$49,418
5
Marcus Laffen
Cupertino, California
$37,117
6
Dann Turner
Cleveland, Ohio
$28,251
7
Peter Pap
San Francisco, California
$21,795
8
Bin Duan
Cupertino, California
$17,045
9
Bryan Picciolo
Allegany, New York
$13,516
Others to cash the Main Event were Jonathan Ingalls (11th - $10,870), Paul Richardson (20th - $6,162), WSOP bracelet winner Scott Bohlman (24th - $5,252), Andreas Kniep (36th - $3,232), Jarod Minghini (50th - $2,789), Bicycle Casino poker manager Mo Fathipour (56th - $2,656), and Matt Livingston (70th - $2,572).
Final Table Action
The final table got off to a quick start with a trio of eliminations in the first hour of play. The two short stacks at the start of the day were the first to go with Bryan Picciolo’s deuces failing to hold against two players, while Bin Duan followed him out the door in eighth place when his Big Slick went down in flames to the queen-nine of Scott Stewart.
Peter Pap then busted in seventh place after check-raising all in on a six-high flop with top pair only to see Stewart snap-call with pocket nines. The overpair held and Pap headed to the payout desk.
Dann Turner would take his leave in sixth place after getting his short stack all in preflop against two players. Turner wound up making aces and eights but the Dead Man’s Hand was no good as Haletky, who began the final table as the chip leader, took it down with trip fives.
Marcus Laffen then lost a race holding pocket nines to Marko Pantelic’s ace-ten suited to exit in fifth place, and Stewart was next to go as a result of a bad beat. Stewart got his healthy stack all in with pocket aces and was in prime shape to double through Haletky, who held ace-queen. However, the board ran out in such a way that Haletky made Broadway on the turn to score the knockout.
Dapo Ajayi, who had nursed a short stack for a long time before hitting his stride to rebuild, then dispatched Pantelic in third place holding jacks to the latter’s queen-jack. That resulted in a heads-up match with the two players nearly even in chips, but it still didn’t take long for things to come to a head.
Haletky pulled out to a 2.5:1 lead before the two flipped for it. Ajayi was at risk with ace-jack while Heltky was looking to hold with pocket threes. The pocket pair held strong and Ajayi had to settle for second place and $91,099 in prize money.
Valdez Wins Casino Championship
David Valdez finished as the Thunder Valley Casino Champion after cashing in five events including wins in Event #3: $400 Pot-Limit Omaha and Event #13: $400 Last Call for a total of 117.5 points. As a result, he too receives a seat into the 2020 Global Casino Championship.
The second to last event of the Circuit stop turned in to a Casino Championship tiebreaker, with four players at the Final Table competing for the Casino Championship title.
"It was really tough, but I just kept playing my game and didn't change anything. Of course, I wanted to outlast [Jimmy Wester], but I was also going for the win so I had to keep playing aggressively," said Valdez.
WSOPC Thunder Valley Ring Winners
Tournament
Entries
Prize Pool
Winner
Prize
Event #1: $400 Opener
1,319
$435,270
Michael Lin
$70,181
Event #2: $400 Knockout
195
$44,850
Jesse Lonis
$11,062
Event #3: $400 Pot-Limit Omaha
67
$22,110
David Valdez
$7,021
Event #4: $400 NLH Double Stack
125
$41,250
Jimmy Wester
$11,241
Event #5: $400 HORSE
68
$22,440
David Diiorio
$7,125
Event #6: $400 NLH 6-Handed
129
$42,570
Josh Prager
$11,440
Event #7: $400 Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better
97
$32,010
Chris Brandin
$8,310
Event #8: $400 Monster Stack
620
$204,600
Jorge Postigo
$39,649
Event #9: $400 NLH
214
$70,620
Jasthi Kumar
$16,976
Event #10: $3,250 High Roller
47
$141,000
JC Tran
$49,035
Event #11: $250 Seniors
179
$36,200
John Valadao
$9,095
Event #12: $1,700 Main Event
487
$737,805
Jaime Haletky
$147,706
Event #13: $400 Last Call
388
$128,040
David Valdez
$26,787
Event #14: $250 Series Finale
188
$37,600
James Colson
$9,359
The next WSOP Circuit stop is already underway at Mississippi’s Horseshoe Tunica. The PokerNews Live Reporting Team will be there this weekend to bring you updates from that stop’s $1,700 Main Event.