The field of 280 entries has played down to the final six at the WPT Rolling Thunder Main Event. Jim Collopy (pictured) will take a chip lead of 5,715,000 into the final day of the tournament. Rounding out the top three are Dylan Linde (1,675,000) and Erkut Yilmaz (1,635,000).
“It feels wonderful,” said Collopy when he was asked how it felt to make his second WPT final table.
Collopy took the chip lead in a full house over full house hand he played against Ajay Chabra during seven-handed play late in the day.”It was a cooler, I was overthinking if there were straight flushes or not. I had to triple-check that I had the second nuts. That was a really unique spot certainly with all the final table considerations,” said Collopy of the hand.
“It started with making the money, and then from there trying to win the tournament,” said Collopy about his journey through the day. And as far as tomorrow is concerned? “Divide and conquer.”
Tuesday’s final table will feature three WPT Champions Club members, and one former WPT Player of the Year in Anthony Zinno. Linde won his first WPT title at the Five Diamond World Poker Classic back in December, and Yilmaz grabbed his WPT title at the Borgata Poker Open last September. Zinno has won his three titles at the Fallsview Poker Classic, Borgata Poker Open, and the L.A. Poker Classic.
Linde is also a major factor in this season’s Hublot WPT Player of the Year race, where he is currently in fifth place. Linde can take the lead tomorrow if he takes fourth place or better, and he can tie the current leader Ping Liu with a fifth-place finish.
Jerry Robinson is appearing at his first WPT final table, while Zinno is appearing at his sixth. It’s the second WPT final table for Chabra, Collopy, Linde, and Yilmaz.
WPT Rolling Thunder Final Table
Seat 1: Jim Collopy – 5,715,000
Seat 2: Erkut Yilmaz – 1,635,000
Seat 3: Ajay Chabra – 1,135,000
Seat 4: Dylan Linde – 1,675,000
Seat 5: Jerry Robinson – 795,000
Seat 6: Anthony Zinno – 245,000
WPT Rolling Thunder Final Table Payouts
1st: $303,920*
2nd: $200,780
3rd: $130,345
4th: $95,530
5th: $68,860
6th: $50,720
*: Includes a $15,000 seat in the Baccarat Crystal WPT Tournament of Champions.
Play started on Day 3 with 40 players remaining, including quite a few WPT Champions Club members. The top 35 players made the money after Brendan Sully busted on the money bubble two hours into the day. The field then quickly played down to the final two tables, and players lost along the way included Matt Affleck (35th), Jeff Fielder (32nd), Tyler Patterson (28th), Upeshka De Silva (27th), Tony Tran (25th), Pat Lyons (24th), Jasthi Kumar (23rd), Maxwell Young (18th), and Jake Schwartz (14th).
The field pumped the brakes once things got down to two, six-handed final tables. Shankar Pillai (ninth) and Joseph Cheong (eighth) were lost during the journey to the unofficial final table of seven, and Bryan Piccioli was lost on the final table bubble in seventh place just before 11 pm.
The final table starts at Noon local time on Tuesday here at Thunder Valley Casino Resort in Lincoln, California. There will also be a WPT Live Stream of the final table on a 30-minute delay.
As always, stay tuned to WPT.com for complete coverage of the WPT Rolling Thunder Main Event.
Photography by Melissa Haereiti / PokerPhotoArchive.com
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