The $5,000 buy-in WPT Rolling Thunder Main Event continued at Thunder Valley Casino Resort on Sunday, and the total field size was set at 280 entries on Day 2. That turnout put the total prize pool at $1,302,000.
The eventual champion will take home $303,920, which includes a $15,000 seat in the Baccarat Crystal WPT Tournament of Champions. The top 35 players will take home at least $9,305 in prize money. Click here for the full payout structure.
From the 40 survivors that advanced to Day 3 on Monday, Anthony Zinno is the chip leader with 612,000. Zinno is no stranger to the top of the chip standings, and the former WPT Player of the Year and WPT Champions Club member will be looking to capture his fourth WPT title.
“Today was pretty awesome, I love when I have the opportunity to come in with a pretty big stack, because you play a lot more hands than when you come in with 40 bigs. I was able to play more hands than usual, and I had a nice linear chip-up from my 125 to 230 with very few showdowns, and then that one magic hand that you dream of in tournaments occurred where I picked up aces against a guy’s ace-king. He’s a very good player, and once I four-bet him, he should be shoving ace-king, so the hand played itself,” said Zinno when was asked about his rise to the top today.
He continued, “I doubled with my 230, and then from there, of course, it was just the utilization of the big stack. I had the ability to see more flops, play more hands, more maneuverability almost like a cash-game style.”
Zinno is also looking forward to Day 3, because the field will draw new seats at six-handed tables once the field reaches 36 players remaining on the money bubble.
“I much prefer six-max so that is great. I love it for the physical comfort, and I actually think that every variant of poker is more fun six-handed, particularly limit games. If anyone has an opportunity out there to try limit hold’em, limit Omaha eight-or-better, any of the limit HORSE games, they’re actually really fun and intricate games when six-handed. No-limit is of course as well. I prefer six-max, so that sounds fun for tomorrow,” said Zinno.
Rounding out the top five in chips were Shankar Pillai (554,000), Jon Hill (553,000), Ajay Chabra (524,000), and Jake Schwartz (522,000), who is currently in third place in the Hublot WPT Player of the Year race. No other player finished with more than half a million.
WPT Champions Club members that advanced to Day 3 were Pat Lyons, Dylan Linde (fifth place in the POY race), Erkut Yilmaz, Tony Tran, and Tyler Patterson.
Other notables that advanced included WPTDeepStacks champions Upeshka De Silva, Maxwell Young, and Jeff Fielder, who won his second WPTDS title right here at Thunder Valley. There are many other talented poker professionals still in the hunt as well.
Day 3 starts at Noon local time on Monday here at Thunder Valley Casino Resort in Lincoln, California.
As always, stay tuned to WPT.com for complete coverage of the WPT Rolling Thunder Main Event. The chip count for every player remaining has now been updated on the chip counts tab.
Photography by Melissa Haereiti / PokerPhotoArchive.com
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