Players battled for three long days at Thunder Valley Casino Resort in Lincoln, California, and now we are left with just six remaining potential champions. There’s a WPT Champions Club member in Michael Kinney who hasn’t cashed on the WPT since 2005. There’s a seasoned pro in Brock Wilson, who boasts over $7 million in career tournament earnings.
But the prohibitive favorite has to be 25-year-old Yunkyu Song, who took over late on Day 3 and accumulated just shy of 60% of the total chips in play – more than everyone else combined, and 5.6 times as many chips as Kinney, who sits in second place.
Three Northern Californians – Casey Sandretto, Cody Wiegmann and Travis Egbert – round out the final six. They’ll all return to action at 11 a.m. local time (2 p.m. EST) to battle it out for the $296,600 first-place prize, which includes a seat to the 2024 WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas. The action will be livestreamed on all WPT streaming platforms with hole cards up on a delay.
These are the prizes they’ll be playing for:
- $296,600
- $185,000
- $140,000
- $105,000
- $78,000
- $60,000
Before play resumes on the fourth and final day of WPT Rolling Thunder, let’s get to know all of our finalists a little better.
1. Yunkyu Song | 13,525,000 (135 big blinds)
Age: 25
Birthplace: Seoul, South Korea
Hometown: Seattle, Washington
Lifetime Live Tournament Earnings: $363,977
Biggest Lifetime Cash: $181,430, 3rd, 2024 Borgata Winter Poker $800 Kick Off Deep Stack
Other Prominent Scores: 9th, 2024 Borgata Winter Poker Open $5,300 Championship for $61,319
When it comes to a dominating chip lead, you’re not going to see many final tables start as lopsided as things appear to be for Yunkyu Song heading into Tuesday’s finale at Thunder Valley. Song has considerably more than all five of his remaining competitors put together, and so they’ll have a significant uphill climb to catch him.
He began nine-handed play with 5.5 million and a moderate chip lead, and by the time he eliminated Mitchell Haverson in seventh place, he’d built his stack to over 13.5 million.
“It went pretty good overall I think.” Song said. “I think there were some unlucky spots, lucky spots…but I guess I got lucky in some big spots and unlucky in small spots.”
The 25-year-old only has live results dating back to the fall of 2022, and he’s been ramping up his level of success over the first few months of 2024. A pair of final tables at Borgata in January netted Song his two best results to date and over $240,000. A win on Tuesday would earn him more than that in a single swing, along with his first major title, a seat in the 2024 WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas and a permanent spot on the Mike Sexton WPT Champions Cup.
End of Day 1 Chip Count: 66,500 (119/171)
End of Day 2 Chip Count: 2,010,000 (1/32)
2. Michael Kinney | 2,375,000 (24 big blinds)
Age: 56
Birthplace: Ketchikan, Alaska
Currently Resides: Sand Point, Idaho
Lifetime Live Tournament Earnings: $1,155,805
Biggest Lifetime Cash: $629,469, 1st, 2004 WPT World Poker Challenge
Other Prominent Scores: 3rd, 2023 $10,000 Seniors High Roller at WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas for $169,180; 11th, 2004 WPT Championship for $83,165
Twenty years ago this week, Michael Kinney was in Reno, Nevada putting together the performance of a lifetime. After three days of poker, Kinney beat Paul “Eskimo” Clark heads up to win the Season 2 edition of the World Poker Challenge for $629,469.
He’d go on to finish 10th the following year in Reno, and that would be his last cash on the World Poker Tour for another 19 years.
“I just quit playing, and then slowly got back into it and it’s a lot more fun now,” Kinney said. “Before I was juggling work, and I’ve got a lot more time, My dad was down here playing from Alaska, and I met him down here.”
Kinney’s making the most of his return, clinching a spot at the WPT Rolling Thunder final table as the only previous Champions Club member. If he manages to come back and overcome Song’s massive chip lead, Kinney would be just the 37th player in WPT history with multiple titles.
While this is his first cash in a WPT Main Tour event since 2005, Kinney’s return to form began back in December. In the $10,000 Seniors High Roller run during the 2023 WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas, Kinney finished third for $169,180.
End of Day 1 Chip Count: 195,600 (18/171)
End of Day 2 Chip Count: 1,035,000 (6/32)
Cody Wiegmann | 2,175,000 (22 big blinds)
Age: 31
Birthplace: Iowa
Currently Resides: San Jose, California
Lifetime Live Tournament Earnings: $659,522
Biggest Lifetime Cash: $113,800, 62nd, 2021 WSOP Main Event
Other Prominent Scores: 1st, 2018 Wynn Fall Classic $1,100 No Limit Hold’em for $73,845; 26th, 2017 WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star for $30,590
At a few points during Day 3 of WPT Rolling Thunder, Cody Wiegmann was perilously short-stacked and in danger of going out short of the final table. A runner-runner flush during his last all-in of the day was a saving grace, and a big bluff in a three-way pot when action got down to eight players pulled Wiegmann back into the thick of things.
Like everyone else not named Yunkyu Song, Wiegmann has quite a challenge ahead at the final table on Tuesday. But as one of three players from Northern California, he’ll have an outsized cheering section once the final table begins.
“I get to have friends and family come up that lives in the area, and I’ll have my other friends watching from around here. My family’s in San Jose, so they’re going to drive up from San Jose, and I’ll have my uncle here [too].”
End of Day 1 Chip Count: 124,500 (57/171)
End of Day 2 Chip Count: 505,000 (21/32)
Casey Sandretto | 2,000,000 (20 big blinds)
Age: 37
Birthplace: Sacramento, California
Currently Resides: Sacramento, California
Lifetime Live Tournament Earnings: $161,725
Biggest Lifetime Cash: $88,817, 3rd, 2023 WSOP Circuit Northern California Main Event
Casey Sandretto has tasted success at Thunder Valley before. In what was far and away the biggest result of his poker career, Sandretto finished third in the WSOP Circuit Main Event at the property just over one year ago. That singular cash makes up more than half of his career live tournament earnings.
The 37-year-old Sacramento native will have a chance to multiply that total again on Tuesday as he chases the WPT Rolling Thunder title.
“It’s very exciting. This is only my second WPT I’ve ever entered,” Sandretto said. “I play most of the tournaments here and play cash games here, but mostly play cash games around town. I really don’t play too much outside of the area.”
The former mortgage loan officer was one of the last few players at risk of elimination on Day 3 of the tournament, but managed a timely double up when the Yunkyu Song buzzsaw was briefly halted as Sandretto’s pocket kings held up in a preflop all-in against Song’s 
.
End of Day 1 Chip Count: 141,000 (47/171)
End of Day 2 Chip Count: 1,895,000 (2/32)
Travis Egbert | 1,750,000 (18 big blinds)
Age: 23
Birthplace: Santa Rosa, California
Currently Resides: Windsor, California
Lifetime Live Tournament Earnings: $419,742
Biggest Lifetime Cash: $77,440, 1st, 2024 WSOP Circuit Northern California $3,250 High Roller
Other Prominent Scores: 7th, November 2021 Venetian Deepstack $1,600 Championship for $49,190; 10th, 2023 WPT Gardens Poker Championship for $32,900
Like Sandretto, Travis Egbert’s biggest career success came at Thunder Valley. Two months ago during the WSOP Circuit Northern California stop, Egbert won a pair of WSOPC rings including a career-best $77,440 payout in the high roller.
During seven-handed play, Egbert flopped top pair and picked off a bluff from Kinney to lock down the final double-up of Day 3. Despite that pot, Egbert will start Tuesday’s final table with less than 20 big blinds.
At 23 years old, he’s the youngest player at this final table.
End of Day 1 Chip Count: 285,500 (2/171)
End of Day 2 Chip Count: 480,000 (22/32)
Brock Wilson | 1,075,000 (11 big blinds)
Age: 29
Currently Resides: Las Vegas, Nevada
Lifetime Live Tournament Earnings: $7,098,758
Biggest Lifetime Cash: $619,536, 2nd, 2019 partypoker Millions $25,500 Super High Roller
Other Prominent Scores: 2nd, 2022 PokerGo Cup $50,000 Event #8 for $416,000; 3rd, 2022 WPT Seminole Hard Rock Tampa for $411,678
The player with the deepest resume by far among the final six players at WPT Rolling Thunder also has the fewest chips. Brock Wilson has enjoyed success all over the world, from high rollers all the way down to the tune of over $7 million in results.
If he hopes to add the one thing that’s lacking from his lengthy list of accomplishments – a major title – he’ll have to do it against a chip leader with 13 times as many chips as him to start the day. But he’s not panicking by any means.
“One guy has a lot and everyone else is sort of jockeying, so my strategy is kind of to wait out some other stacks. I am the shortest, but I’ll pick my spots well and if I chip up I’ll be comfortably in second.”
Wilson almost didn’t get to this point at all. Sitting on a short stack, Wilson got into a three-way all in with the worst of it holding pocket sevens against pocket eights and ace-king. But a magical seven on the flop was enough to triple him up and keep him in the mix.
If there’s another triple-up or something along those lines come Tuesday morning, Wilson could pull himself right back into contention. He’s been on the big stage before, and come close to that major title on a number of occasions. He finished third on his quest for a WPT title in Tampa back in 2022, the same year he finished sixth in one of the toughest fields the WSOP has to offer in the $10,000 Six-handed No Limit Hold’em Championship.
“Winning one of these would mean a lot to me.”
End of Day 1 Chip Count: 123,000 (59/171)
End of Day 2 Chip Count: 660,000 (12/32)