If you’ve been following the action from WPT Rolling Thunder then you already know that this was one of the biggest events in the history of the casino and the largest WPT Rolling Thunder of all time. It boasts the most entries (590), the largest prize pool ($1,888,000), and the winner is set to take home a $361,660 first-place prize, the largest poker payout in Thunder Valley history.
WPT Rolling Thunder kicked off the Main Tour of Season XXI of the WPT and in doing so, it really put on a show. Not only was the tournament floor packed, but everywhere you looked there were notable names in the field. WPT Champions Club members like Taylor Black, Andy Frankenberger, Eric Afrait, David ODB Baker, Pat Lyons, Anthony Zinno, Brian Altman, and 2014 WPT Rolling Thunder champion J.C Tran all made an appearance.
Joining them were a host of top pros looking to claim their first WPT title and have their name etched on the Mike Sexton WPT Champions Cup including Jesse Lonis, Dan O’Brien, Adam Hendrix, Farid Jattin, Bryan Piccioli, Angela Jordison, and Shannon Shorr.
But after three days of play, one six players remain. Five of these players are aiming to become a WPT champion for the first time, earning a title that will to help define their poker career. And then there’s Tony Dunst, WPT commentator and past champion who has put himself in position to make history with a second title.
Here’s a closer look at the intriguing 2023 WPT Rolling Thunder final table.
Alejandro Jauregui – 10,450,000 (105 big blinds)
Lifetime Live Tournament Earnings: $281,291
Biggest Lifetime Cash: $140,665 – May, 2021 MSPT San Diego Main Event
Prominent Scores: 2021 WSOP Main Event (490th, $23,900), $600 Lodge Monthly Monster (2nd, $75,240)
It’s safe to say that Alejandro Jauregai is in the biggest spot of his poker career. Hailing from Salinas, CA, Jaurgai has scored dating back to 2014, but they are few and far in between until 2021 when he binked a victory in the MSPT San Diego Main Event for more than $140,000.
But here, once he grabbed the chip lead and continued to chip up as play winded down doing damage along the way including scoring the knockout of seventh-place finisher Dann Turner that sent everyone home for the night. He’s the only player sitting with more than 100 big blinds and is firmly in the driver’s seat. Jauregai has proven he can close a major tournament in the past, but, on paper, he’s by no means the most experienced at the table. It will be interesting to see if Jauregui can either go wire-to-wire with the lead, or bounce back and recover if he loses it.
Tony Dunst – 7,125,000 (71 big blinds)
Lifetime Live Tournament Earnings: $3,987,829
Biggest Lifetime Cash: $700,069 – 2016 APPT Aussie Millions Poker Championship Main Event
Prominent Scores: 2013 WPR Caribbean Poker Tour (1st, $145,000), 2014 $15,000 WPT World Championship Borgata Spring Open (3rd, $452,729), 2016 WSOP $1,000 NLHE (1st, $399,254)
Of course, you know Tony Dunst for his work as one of the faces and voices of the World Poker Tour, but even prior to his on-screen work, Dunst had found success in the WPT. All-in-all, prior to this event, he has 26 total WPT cashes with seven final tables and a WPT title. He’s accumulated more than $1.4 million in earnings while playing on the WPT, including some of the largest scores of his storied career.
Dunst enters the final table with a very healthy stack (71 big blinds) and a wealth of experience to help him navigate this situation. At just 38 years old, a second title for Dunst would not only add to his young legacy but, with him available to play every Main Tour stop, start one thinking about what it might take for him to start chasing the record. Maybe that’s a stretch at this juncture, but every step for Dunst is a step closer to history.
Albert Tapia – 4,500,000 (45 big blinds)
Lifetime Live Tournament Earnings: $12,443
Biggest Lifetime Cash: $5,910 2021 Summer Poker Series $200 NLHE
Prominent Scores: n/a
California’s Albert Tapia is likely already on cloud nine. With only four recorded scores on his Hendon Mob, there’s little doubt that even the minimum payout of $73,400 is going to be huge for a guy with a recreational resume and only $12K in earnings.
Sure, Tapia had to come from behind in a couple of critical spots to stay alive, but with 45 big blinds and only six players left, anything can happen…including Tapia making history for himself and playing his way to a six-figure score and WPT title.
Victor Paredes – 3,125,000 (31 big blinds)
Lifetime Live Tournament Earnings: $877,075
Biggest Lifetime Live Cash: $169,294, 1st, 2022 WSOP Circuit Thunder Valley $1,700 Main Event
Prominent Scores: 2021 $600 No Limit Hold’em/Pot Limit Omaha (2nd, $78,605)
Victor Paredes is one of three local players at the WPT Rolling Thunder final table, but he’s had the most tournament success of the trio. He’s been particularly good at Thunder Valley casino, where he won a WSOP Circuit ring for $169,294 in January 2022 and recently finished fifth in Event 2 of this very festival – a $1,100 buy-in, $1 million guaranteed No Limit Hold’em tournament in which Paredes finished second. He also recorded four cashes in WPTDeepStacks events in Northern California – two at Thunder Valley, and two at the Turlock Poker Room.
There’s some distance between Paredes and the two stacks shorter than his to start the final table, but that could change quickly. In terms of position, Paredes is seated opposite chip leader Alejandro Jauregui and wedged between two larger stacks in WPT Champions Club member Tony Dunst and Albert Tapia.
Scott Eskenazi – 2,150,000 (22 big blinds)
Lifetime Live Tournament Earnings: $849,688
Biggest Lifetime Live Cash: $233,600 – 2022 Wynn Fall Classic $3,000 Championship (2nd)
Prominent Scores: 2017 Aussie Millions $10,600 Main Event (15th, $60,418), 2008 Venetian Deep Stack Extravaganza $1,060 No Limit Hold’em Event (1st, $49,059)
Scott Eskanazi posted a victory in his first cash recorded by Hendon Mob – a victory in a Venetian Deep Stack tournament in 2008 for just shy of $50K. It would take Eskanazi more than 14 years to crack a six-figure number, but he did so in October 2022 in the Wynn Fall Classic $3K Championship. Along the way, he has cashes in the 2009 WSOP Main Event and the 2014 $15,400 WPT Championship at Borgata.
Coming into this tournament, all five of Eskenazi’s WPT main tour cashes were top-100 results, with the best result a 29th-place finish at the 2019 WPT Legends of Poker event in Los Angeles. Eskenazi was on a shorter stack for the last few hours of play on Monday, after losing a coinflip with 
to Victor Paredes’ 
despite a 
on the flop (a runner-runner four-card straight ran out on the board). But like similarly stacked Jeremy Joseph, Eskenazi is a single double-up away from being in the thick of contention.
Jeremy Joseph – 2,050,000 (21 big blinds)
Lifetime Live Tournament Earnings: $2,106,085
Biggest Lifetime Live Cash: $315,911 – 2017 WSOP $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha Hi-Lo Championship
Prominent Scores: 2018 WPT Seminole Rock ‘n’ Roll Poker Open (3rd, $240,945)
Poker players don’t typically accumulate $2.1 million in lifetime earnings by accident, and that’s certainly not the case with Jeremy Joseph. He’s done it with just four six-figure cashes – none higher than the $315,911 he took home for his runner-up finish to Bryce Yockey in a WSOP $10K PLO8 event back in 2017.
Joseph’s results date back for the better part of two decades, to 2007, and he’s had close runs in big spots before. In addition to a top-60 finish in the 2008 WSOP Main Event, Joseph has been within striking distance of a WPT title on two different occasions. He finished third at the 2018 Seminole Rock ‘n’ Roll Poker Open, and ninth in the 2018 WPT Legends of Poker in Los Angeles. Joseph will start the final table last in chips, but with over 20 big blinds, he’s only one or two hands from pulling himself up into contention.