The 2019 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Circuit Thunder Valley wrapped up on Monday with the stop’s $1,700 No-Limit Hold'em Main Event, a tournament that attracted 608 entrants and generated a $921,920 prize pool.
Play Free Video Poker Games Online. Thunder Valley Casino is located in Lincoln, California. The casino is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The casino floor is 75,000 square feet and filled with slot machines, table games and poker rooms. All guests must be 21 years or older to enter the casino floor. The poker rooms at Thunder Valley Casino are very impressive.
After three days of play, Thomas Kornechuk, a 57-year-old software engineer, made a name for himself by capturing the title for $193,439, his first gold ring, and a seat into the 2019 Global Casino Championship. In the process, he stopped defending champ Brett Murray from going back-to-back, sending him out the door in second place.
It was hard work paying off for Kornechuk, who just started taking poker seriously.
'I've followed a few different coaches. I've studied a lot of scenarios with them. I've read books about mental preparedness, specifically poker. And I've tried to apply that,” he told WSOP officials after the win. 'My game plan was to be conservative as much as possible, and apply pressure when I saw openings to do so. I was looking for a couple of tells that I saw. I attacked those. I think that's what changed for me.”
Poker Tournaments Thunder Valley Casino Wild Card
WSOPC Thunder Valley Main Event Final Table Results
| Position | Player | Hometown | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Thomas Kornechuk | Auburn, Washington | $193,439 |
| 2 | Brett Murray | Santa Rosa, California | $119,644 |
| 3 | Jeremy Joseph | Buffalo, New York | $87,488 |
| 4 | Yifu He | Sunnyvale, California | $64,921 |
| 5 | Tony Bracy | West Sacramento, California | $48,847 |
| 6 | Chris Tham | San Francisco, California | $37,259 |
| 7 | Ryan Jaconetti | Las Vegas, Nevada | $28,813 |
| 8 | Paul Richardson | San Ramon, California | $22,586 |
| 9 | Paul Camby | Guernville, California | $17,943 |
| 10 | Paul Chai | Santa Clara, California | $14,443 |
The top 62 Main Event finishers made the money including former LFG Podcast guestValentin Vornicu (13th - $11,722), Craig Varnell (23rd - $6,881), Matt Affleck (40th - $3,592), Ricky Guan (45th - $3,592), Randy Lew (50th - $3,270), and Ping Liu (57th - $3,012).
WSOPC Thunder Valley Main Event Final Table Action
According to updates from the event, Kornechuk got off to a hot start at the final table by eliminating Paul Chai in tenth place. It happened when Chai jammed from late position with queen-nine suited and Kornechuk woke up with aces in the small blind. The pocket rockets held and Chai had to settle for $14,443 in prize money.
Kornechuk then dispatched Paul Camby in ninth – the result of the latter’s sixes failing to win a flip against the former’s ace-queen – and then notch his next knockout with six remaining. That is when Chris Tham got it in with king-jack and failed to get there against Kornechuk’s Big Slick suited.
Kornechuk wouldn’t earn another knockout until the final one. It happened in Level 34 (100,000/200,000/30,000) when Murray got his short stack all in with the and was behind the of Kornechuk. The board ran out and Murray took home $119,644 for his runner-up finish.
It was a great performance for Murray, who in September of last year won the WSOPC Thunder Valley Main Event for $151,145. Amazingly, he came up just one spot shy of defending that title.
WSOPC Thunder Valley Side Event News
Also winning a 2019 Global Casino Championship seat was Adam Dunkle, a 45-year-old general contractor out of Clovis, California. He did so after winning the Casino Champion title with 115 points. That included topping a 103-entry field to win Event #3: $400 NLH for $10,197 and his first career ring.
Prior to that he finished fourth out of 1,522 runners in Event #1: $400 NLH The Opener for $29,940, and after placed runner-up in Event #9: $400 No-Limit Hold'em for $7,995.
Also doing well at the stop was Stephen Song, who bested a 74-entry field to win the $3,250 High Roller for $75,480. It marked his second gold ring and gave him 50 points on the Global Casino Championship leaderboard, which moved him into first place with 265 points on the season.
“I was grinding pretty hard to get a [Global Casino Championship] seat, but at this point, I have locked one up,” said Song. “These [WSOP Circuit] stops are great, especially ones with high rollers. Small field tournaments are way more fun because you get to make the FT way more often.”
Here’s a look at all those who won rings at the Thunder Valley stop.
WSOPC Thunder Valley Ring Winners
| Event | Winner | Entries | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| Event #1: $400 NLH The Opener | Ryan Grant | 1,522 | $86,644 |
| Event #2: $400 NLH Multi-flight | Gregory Fils | 237 | $13,630 |
| Event #3: $400 NLH Single Entry | Adam Dunkle | 103 | $10,197 |
| Event #4: $400 H.O.R.S.E. | Omar Mehmood | 62 | $7,162 |
| Event #5: $400 NLH 6-Handed (1 Day) | Erle Mankin | 113 | $11,184 |
| Event #6: $400 Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better | Eric Estoque | 101 | 10,000 |
| Event #7: $400 Monster Stack | David Valdez | 686 | $46.411 |
| Event #8: $250 Seniors | Mark Crusha | 154 | $8,318 |
| Event #9: $400 No-Limit Hold'em (1 Day) | Minh 'Danny' Nguyen | 140 | $12,937 |
| Event #10: $3,250 High Roller | Stephen Song | 74 | $75,480 |
| Event #11: $1,700 Main Event | Thomas Kornechuk | 608 | $193,439 |
| Event #12: $400 Pot-Limit Omaha (1 Day) | Kennii Nguyen | 106 | $10,295 |
| Event #13: $1,125 No-Limit Hold'em 8-Handed | Jarod Minghini | 135 | $37,782 |
The next WSOPC stop is already underway at Horseshoe Tunica. PokerNews will bring you a recap of the stop’s $1,700 Main Event upon its completion.
Photos courtesy of WSOP Circuit.
Tags
Thomas KornechukAdam DunkleThunder ValleyWSOP CircuitTournament ResultsRelated Tournaments
World Series of Poker CircuitRelated Players
Thomas KornechukAdam Dunkle
Table Of Contents
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.
“I still had great luck, obviously you can’t win without great luck, but I’m really happy with how I played.”
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.
| 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 |
Thunder Valley Casino Poker Tournaments
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.
Poker Tournaments Thunder Valley Casino
Tags
JC TranPokerNews UpdatesTournament ResultsWSOP CircuitDavid ValdezJaime HaletkyRelated Tournaments
World Series of Poker CircuitRelated Players
JC TranDavid ValdezJaime Haletky