It may not seem like it, but the 2025 season of the World Poker Tour has been traversing the world. They did make it back to the States this week for their first event, the WPT Rolling Thunder at Thunder Valley Casino Resort in California. That tournament is in the books and, after a deal was struck between the final two combatants, Shawn Daniels emerged as the champion of the tournament.
Top Names Dropped Before Final Table
Some of those who were eliminated from the event on Day Two would have been looking to add to their own personal WPT histories. Former WPT Players of the Year such as Matt Salsberg (seventh place), 2023 WPT World Champion Dan Sepiol (eleventh place), and a longtime veteran of the poker world, Season V POY J.C. Tran (twentieth place), all came up just short of the final table. Those that did make it, however, put on a show for the railbirds in attendance.
With their shorter stacks, both Benjamin Primus (sixth place) and David Ha (fifth place) were gone within the first twenty hands of action at the final table. Daniels was in charge at this point, with nearly six million in chips, but the always dangerous Eric Afriat was splashing about and garnering chips. Harvey Castro would chop a substantial chunk of Afriat’s chips away to assume the lead as the hand count eclipsed fifty hands.
Castro’s lead was so large (11.4 million in chips) that his three opponents added together – Afriat (3.525 million), Daniels (3.125 million), and Paul Richardson (two million) – did not even top him. Richardson would be the first to go from the foursome, contributing his ammo to Daniels. Afriat would get his final chips in good with pocket tens, but Daniels’ K-3 was able to hit a King on the flop and another on the turn to best Afriat and end his run at a fourth championship.
Even with those knockouts, Daniels (6.15 million) was facing a daunting task against Castro (13.9 million). In a dozen hands, though, Daniels would move into the lead after hitting trip fours against Castro. Over the next 2 ½ hours and eighty hands of play, the lead was swapped back and forth, with the two titans eventually agreeing to a deal that left the title on the felt. From there, Daniels was able to take control and capture the largest part of the $1.29 million prize pool of the 2025 WPT Rolling Thunder, put his name on the Mike Sexton WPT Champions’ Cup, and earn entry to the 2025 WPT World Championship.
1. Shawn Daniels, $218,600*
2. Harvey Castro, $193,600*
3. Eric Afriat, $122,000
4. Paul Richardson, $91,000
5. David Ha, $69,000
6. Benjamin Primus, $53,000
“To get my name on the cup is very special,” Daniels said as he celebrated the victory. “It’s just something that means a lot and that I’ll remember forever.”
Artem Vezhenkov Holds Early WPT POY Lead
With only four events on the books at this point (and Daniels’ WPT Rolling Thunder victory not yet on the official count), the WPT Player of the Year race is heavily dominated by players who have scored on the international events on the WPT schedule. Topping that list is the champion of the WPT Cambodia in February, Artem Vezhenkov. In that event, Vezhenkov was able to pick up 1100 points for his win, seizing the early WPT POY lead as of the midpoint of March.
Other recent WPT champions are arranged behind Vezhenkov. Omar Lakhdari, who took down the WPT Prime Cyprus championship, and Alexander Puchalski (WPT Prime Cambodia) are tied with the man who was runner-up to Vezhenkov in Phnom Penh, Ronald Haverkamp. All three of those men have 900 to tie for the second-place position on the leaderboard. Three more men hold the #5 slot on the WPT POY. Ankit Ahuja (WPT Cambodia), Khorshad Sagor (WPT Prime Cambodia), and Atilla Saracoglu (WPT Prime Cyprus) all have picked up 700 points for their finishes.
There are currently seven more WPT events on the calendar, and that list could certainly be added to. That means that this list could be in flux as more events are completed in the 2025 season for the World Poker Tour.
(Photo courtesy of the World Poker Tour)
