Alexander Farahi Wins WPT Rolling Thunder Championship; Salsberg Runner-Up

Alexander Farahi entered Wednesday’s last desk within the $3,500 WPT Rolling Thunder Championship second in chips. He left Thunder Valley On line casino Resort in Northern California with all of the chips.

The most recent World Poker Tour champion beat a earlier WPT champion — Matt Salsberg — heads-up for the title, and the $193,725 first-place prize, his share of the two-way heads-up deal. Salsberg, a Southern California match grinder and TV author, went house with $151,275 as a comfort prize.

Chip Leaders Dominate

The six gamers on the last desk all completed in the identical place they have been in initially of the session. There wasn’t a lot motion among the many chip stacks.

Alec Gould, who began the day with simply 15 huge blinds, was the primary out the door when his pocket kings misplaced to the ace-queen Marco Johnson held. Sixth place paid $43,000, and Darrell Cain, additionally a small stack getting into play, earned himself a stable pay leap.

Ultimate Desk Outcomes

Cain, nonetheless, misplaced a race and his last six huge blinds to Farahi and was eradicated in fifth place for $56,000. Farahi then hit a flush to crack Johnson’s prime pair, sending the participant with the dropping hand to the cashier’s cage to gather his $74,000 fourth-place payout.

It took simply 28 palms to remove half the ultimate desk, and solely 9 extra to felt Arish Nat in third place for $100,000 when Salsberg gained a key race.

A chop would then be reached between Farahi, the chip chief, and Salsberg, earlier than what would transform a prolonged heads-up battle between two achieved match grinders with thousands and thousands every in The Hendon Mob cashes.

With $34,500 additional and a $10,400 seat into the season-ending WPT World Championship in December to play for on prime of the in any other case near-identical payouts, heads-up play started. Farahi would rapidly prolong his chip benefit by almost 4:1, profitable seven palms in a row, however his opponent nonetheless had loads of chips — 36 huge blinds.

Salsberg then took his flip to win pot after pot, and almost caught up in chips. However Farahi got here again with a check-raise on the flop, guess on flip, guess on river to induce a fold in a large pot that shifted the match again the opposite method.

Salsberg by no means gave in and would once more shut the hole a bit, however he could not ever discover a double-up or win a monster pot to seize the chip lead. Farahi, together with his opponent all the way down to eight huge blinds, moved all in on the 93rd hand on the last desk with A♦6♦. Salsberg referred to as it off with A♣2♣. The board got here out 6♥5♠2♦7♥10♦, and that was the ballgame.

Farahi, who now has over $2.7 million in The Hendon Mob cashes, gained his first recorded dwell poker match and joins the WPT Champions Membership, a membership that the runner-up joined in 2012.

*Photos courtesy of the World Poker Tour/Rachel Kay Winter.