It has been one heck of a busy month for the World Poker Tour (WPT) and it just keeps going. The first week of March saw the Commerce Casino host the L.A. Poker Classic. The following week, two tour stops ran simultaneously: the WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star in San Jose, California, and the Gioco Digitale WPT Venice Carnival in Venice, Italy. This week, the WPT is in the Golden State once again with WPT Rolling Thunder.
This is the first time the World Poker Tour has visited Sacramento’s Thunder Valley Casino Resort, marking the final stage of this season’s “California Swing.” As is the case with most WPT events, there were two starting flights leading into Monday’s Day 2. On Day 1A, 224 players paid the $3,500 to play and 85 made it through, led by Galen Hall with 211,100 chips. Day 1B, which is normally much larger than the first starting flight, was almost the same size: 241 players. 106 players emerged from Sunday’s action, led by Joe Serock with 261,800, putting Day 2’s field at 191.
The way the overall leaderboard has shaped up is fairly interesting. Typically, there is a nice mix of players from the two starting flights, but in this tournament the top three overall chip leaders are all from Day 1B. But after that, the next seven of the top ten are Day 1A players. And those seven all came from the small starting flight, the one with fewer total chips in play.
The total opening field of 465 players created a prize pool of $1,488,000, with $302,750 going to the winner. Payouts will begin at 54th place, with a minimum paycheck of $6,770.
Day 2 will begin in Sacramento at noon Pacific. The plan is to play through ten more hour-long levels before calling it a night. It is expected that the money bubble will burst on Monday.
2014 WPT Rolling Thunder Main Event – Day 1A Chip Leaders
1. Galen Hall – 211,100
2. Mark Pham – 195,000
3. Tony Recchia – 191,900
4. David Miscikowski – 189,000
5. Calvin Anderson – 187,300
6. Chris Hinchcliffe – 186,400
7. Brandon Shane – 183,800
8. Kevin Eyster – 179,900
9. Jordan Cristos – 173,600
10. Robert Panitch – 167,900
2014 WPT Rolling Thunder Main Event – Day 1B Chip Leaders
1. Joe Serock – 261,800
2. Benjamin Zamani – 238,000
3. David Forster – 231,500
4. Noah Vaillancourt – 162,200
5. Andy Frankenberger – 161,600
6. Bobby Oboodi – 142,700
7. Dylan Hortin – 131,200
8. Mohsin Charania – 123,500
9. Brian Park – 122,900
10. Jason Koon – 119,800
2014 WPT Rolling Thunder Main Event – Overall Day 1 Chip Leaders
1. Joe Serock – 261,800
2. Benjamin Zamani – 238,000
3. David Forster – 231,500
4. Galen Hall – 211,100
5. Mark Pham – 195,000
6. Tony Recchia – 191,900
7. David Miscikowski – 189,000
8. Calvin Anderson – 187,300
9. Chris Hinchcliffe – 186,400
10. Brandon Shane – 183,800
