WPTDeepStacks Retires Brand at Historic Thunder Valley

Written by Jennifer Newell

Last updated on May 4th, 2022

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It’s official the WPTDeepStacks brand is retired. It happened at Thunder Valley in Northern California, as WPTDeepStacks wrapped its final tournament. Of course, this is only the beginning for the new WPT Prime brand. The new tour will kick off later this month in Vietnam. After that, it will host a series at the Star Gold Coast in Australia in June, in Cambodia in August, and in Taiwan in November. At the same time, it is bittersweet for many to bid adieu to the WPTDS brand. It has created many winners over the years and brought more players into the World Poker Tour sphere with lower buy-ins and more tour stops. This year, WPTDS Amsterdam and WPTDS Sydney preceded the WPTDS Thunder Valley, and now those results are in the books. https://twitter.com/CathyZhaoyuan/status/1510200286576582657?s=20&t=vvP6n9rEAuEI7uPNevo2eQ Let’s take a look.

WPTDS Amsterdam

This was a stop to which the World Poker Tour had to return. It was the WPTDeepStacks tournament that was in progress when Covid-19 forced its shutdown in 2020. They weren’t able to complete their WPTDS Main Event that year, as they were only into Day 1 when the Dutch government announced the end of any gatherings of more than 100 people. The Holland Casino Group refunded all players. Therefore, WPTDeepStacks Amsterdam was first on the 2022 WPTDS schedule. The first of two starting days brought in 365 entries with only 46 surviving the day. The second added 392 entries, making the total 757 and the prize pool €734,290. Day 2 brought a total of 95 players back into action, all of whom were already in the money. And the field thinned quickly at the start of Day 2. Later in the evening, original chipleader Badre al Ghouch busted in 17^th place, and the last woman in the tournament, Tineke Bronkhorst, busted in 12^th place.. Even later, Daniel Pastor busted in ninth to set the final table. https://twitter.com/WPT/status/1509894841718947846?s=20&t=rxFXnp3P2v67w6m__TuPJA

-1^st in chips: David Hu (5,205,000) -2^nd: Hendrikus Soering (4,470,000) -3^rd: Fabio Peluso (3,940,000) -4^th: Santo Bakker (3,165,000) -5^th: Tonny van Eck (2,345,000) -6^th: Tian Mengshi (1,960,000) -7^th: Ivica Pezelj (1,200,000) -8^th: Woody Christy (450,000)

Van Eck took the first opportunity to knock out Christy right away, and he followed that with the elimination of Pezelj in seventh place. Soering busted Mengshi, but Bakker took a big pot from Soering to climb into the chip lead. Bakker then sent van Eck home in fifth place as Soering prepared to bust Peluso in fourth. Hu doubled through Soering and then Hu eliminated him in third. Hu had a chip lead of nearly 2:1 going into heads-up play, but Bakker took a huge pot from him to grab the lead. It didn’t take long from there for Hu to risk it all with 8-7 suited on a Q-T-6-2-7 board. He missed his flush and depended on his sevens, but Bakker had K-Q for top pair and won it.   https://twitter.com/WPT/status/1509946871120236550?s=20&t=rxFXnp3P2v67w6m__TuPJA

WPTDS Sydney

It was the first time that the World Poker Tour visited Sydney, Australia. WPTDS Sydney was well-received, with the entire series attracting 6,392 entries and awarding more than $6.5M in prize money. The Main Event offered three starting days with many reentry opportunities. The first of those days brought in 554 entries, adding another 659 on Day 1B and then a massive 810 on Day 1C. That put the total at 2,023 and made it the largest Main Event in WPTDeepStacks history. The prize pool stopped at $2,690,590, enough to pay out the top 253 players. https://twitter.com/WPT/status/1520628386644643840?s=20&t=rxFXnp3P2v67w6m__TuPJA Day 2 thinned the field from 316 survivors to just nine players. Along the way, players like Grant Levy, Ping Liu, Jeff Lisandro, Tony Hachem, Alex Lynskey, and Leo Boxell busted in the money but short of the final table. The unofficial final table of nine showed this leaderboard:

-1^st in chips: Benedikt Eberle (12,700,000) -2^nd: Nick Wright (12,675,000) -3^rd: Darius Bucinkas (9,325,000) -4^th: Mark Fester (6,925,000) -5^th: Lirui Zhang (6,400,000) -6^th: Luke McCredie (5,575,000) -7^th: Spencer Davies (3,325,000) -8^th: Marco Perri (2,100,000) -9^th: Anthony Cierco (1,375,000)

Perri was the person first eliminated at the final table, busting the official final table bubble. Cierco doubled through Fester to stay alive, as Eberle busted Davies and Wright did the same to Bucinkas and Zhang. Wright led the final five. Fester eliminated Eberle in fifth place and then McCredie in fourth. Wright dispatched Cierco in third place. Fester had a slight lead going into heads-up versus Wright, but Fester chipped up immediately. It didn’t take long for Wright to risk it all with pocket kings, but Fester had A-T on the K-5-Q-J-8 board for the turned straight.   https://twitter.com/WPT/status/1510331228834213889?s=20&t=rxFXnp3P2v67w6m__TuPJA

WPTDS Thunder Valley

One of the most popular tournament stops became the last one for the WPTDS books. Thunder Valley in Northern California hosted a festival culminating in a WPTDS Main Event. The three starting days delivered 245 entries on Day 1A, another 464 on Day 1B, and then 705 to cap it off on Day 1C. That brought the total to 1,414 and prize pool to $1,873,550. It was the largest tournament ever held at Thunder Valley to date. Day 2 brought 177 players back to the tables, all in the money and vying for final table seats. Some who finished in the top 100 for at least $3,200 but missed the final table included Jacki Burkhart, Victor Paredes, and JC Tran. When the field thinned to just 10 players, the WPT revealed these chips counts:

-1^st in chips: Nabil Zumout (8,750,000) -2^nd: Carl Oman (8,150,000) -3^rd: Kevin O’Donnell (7,225,000) -4^th: Travis Fujisaka (4,025,000) -5^th: Zlatan Klimenta (3,425,000) -6^th: David Ong (2,925,000) -7^th: Matt Boddorf (1,950,000) -8^th: Shijia Liu (1,600,000) -9^th: Catherine Miller (1,475,000) -10^th: Adam Duong (1,300,000)

In short order, O’Donnell busted Liu in tenth place and Miller sent Duong out in ninth. Then, the official final table of eight began. Boddorf was short but tripled through Miller, and the latter doubled through Klimenta and then O’Donnell. Ong and Oman ousted Fujisaka in eighth place, but Zumout busted Ong in seventh. The double-ups took over, with quite a few doubling up to stay alive, but Boddorf finally busted Klimenta in sixth place. More double-ups ensued, prompting the final five to agree to a payout chop. With that, they ended it per chip counts, giving Oman the title and trophy.   https://twitter.com/WPT/status/1521066546830856193?s=20&t=rxFXnp3P2v67w6m__TuPJA