Back-To-Back and Maybe More for Derek Wolters

By Matt Clark

Derek Wolters (pictured) is in the middle of a busy week. The Arizona pro traveled directly from Los Angeles to Thunder Valley after finishing third in the WPT L.A. Poker Classic Championship on Thursday. The $430,210 score is a career high for Wolters and marked his second final table finish of Season XVI.

Shot at Player of the Year

In addition to his WPT L.A. Poker Classic finish, Wolters placed third at WPT Montreal. He now owns 1,800 Hublot WPT Player of the Year points on the season. Art Papazyan is the only player ahead of Wolters on the leaderboard with four WPT Main Tour events left on the schedule after WPT Rolling Thunder.

There is a meticulousness about how the soft-spoken Wolters picks which WPT events to play. Prior to Season XVI, all four of Wolters’ WPT cashes were in California. Wolters cashed twice at both Bay 101 and Thunder Valley.

Most of the long-distance travel for Wolters takes him to Australia where he is an annual competitor in the Aussie Millions.

The Hublot WPT Player of the Year race plays a part in how Wolters figures out what to play for the rest of Season XVI. Wolters is upping his miles, but not the time zones he travels to.

“I’ll chase it a little bit, but I don’t think I will go to every single stop,” he said. “I heard there’s one or two coming up in Las Vegas and I’ll go to those ones. Florida is a little bit far for me, so I’m not planning to at the moment.”

The two events in Las Vegas that Wolters hinted at are the WPT Bellagio Elite Poker Championship May 1-6 and the WPT Bobby Baldwin Classic, both five-figure buy-in tournaments.

Friendly Confines in Lincoln

Thunder Valley was on the list for Wolters before his LAPC run and this week now carries more significance for him. Wolters made his first WPT final table in Season XIV when sixth place had his name on it at WPT Rolling Thunder.

“Honestly, the POY points help to motivate me a little bit to get me out there, but I love playing WPTs anyways,” Wolters told WPT.com. “They’re just the best structures in America and the best tournaments.”

Wolters wasn’t sure to expect for the field size when he arrived on Day 1a. He unloaded his bag, threw on the headphones, and bagged 59,000 for the start of Day 2. Wolters sits behind 100,000 at his current table that includes three-time WPT Champions Club member Anthony Zinno.

The 440 total entrants mark the second-largest field in WPT Rolling Thunder history and Wolters is pleased to be along for the ride.

“It’s a good field out here,” Wolters said. “I’m really happy. The new room is awesome so I’m looking forward to playing here for a few days.”

On to the Next One

LAPC withdrew six days of poker from Wolters. By bagging on Day 1a at Thunder Valley, Wolters gained his first day off from tournament poker in a week. The LAPC run finalized a second near-miss this season and Wolters is hungry to win both a title and Hublot WPT Player of the Year.

The prestige of winning a WPT event outweighs the season-long crown for Wolters, but he’d love either.

“I would rather win a WPT title, but Player of the Year would be really cool, too,” Wolters stated. “I was really happy with the run. Getting a title would be amazing, but you can’t ask for more than getting a huge score like that.”

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