Jasthi Kumar Wins WPTDS Thunder Valley ($80,840)

Jasthi Kumar topped a field of 400 players to win the WPTDeepStacks Thunder Valley Main Event on Monday night at the beautiful Thunder Valley Resort Casino. Kumar was awarded $80,840 in prize money, a $3,000 Championship package, and the WPTDeepStacks trophy after winning a final table that clocked in at just under 5 hours of play today.

The action was slow to start the day, as it took nearly an hour and half before the first elimination occurred. Jimmy Zeldon was the first out the door, after Eugene Schwartz hit running cards to make trips and earn the elimination. After Zeldon it was Schwartz hitting the rail in 8th. Robert Pacleb was out in 7th, in a hand that propelled Theo Tran into the chip lead. David Forster followed Pacleb out the door as he finished in 6th at the hands of Jimmy Gorham. Gorham continued to chip up following the hand, as he found himself battling with Tran atop the leaderboard. Our last lady standing, Larissa Bushman, hit the rail in 4th, followed shortly thereafter by the start of the day chip leader, Adam Curchack.

Three handed play saw a ton of chips splashing around the table, but eventually it was Theo Tran exiting in third when his was run down by the of Jasthi Kumar. The hand left Kumar and Gorham with nearly identical stacks heading into heads up play.

The two battled it our for nearly two levels, with majority of the pots ending in pre flop raises, but Kumar slowly started to chip away at Gorham. After gaining a slight advantage in chips, the two collided in one final hand. Gorham flopped bottom two pair while Kumar turned top pair with top kicker. All of the money went in on the turn and Gorham looked poised to double. Unfortunately for Gorham, the board paired on the river to give Kumar a larger two pair and the best hand. Gorham was denied the title of first two-time WPTDS champion and Kumar earned the trophy, the money, and the Championship package!