When it comes to the live poker industry, few are able to produce bigger events than the World Poker Tour. While other tours tend to host some massive events with a number of tournaments, the World Poker Tour is known for having only a few tournaments with a big prize pool.
The WPT Rolling Thunder Championship was recently held at the Thunder Valley Casino, and it was a local player who was able to take home the top prize. There are some big names located near this casino, but this time, the title went to Casey Sandretto.
Poker is unlike some of the other top sports, as there tend to be some surprising winners that pop up all of the time. Sandretto had won just $161,000 lifetime when playing live poker, but he took home $246,600 with a win in this event.
There is now some pressure on Sandretto to attend the next major WPT event down in Florida, but he’s not someone that goes around the world and chases big purses. After taking home his first ever WPT title, Sandretto will nwo look to get a bracelet while playing the World Series of Poker.
What made this win even more impressive for Sandretto was the fact that he defeated a prior WPT winner when it came time for heads up play.
A Great Comeback
Poker is not a sport in which you see a player stage a huge comeback to win often, but that is exactly what Sandretto did. Yunkyu Song actually had more than half of the chips entering the final day of the competition, and Sandretto was near the back of the pack.
Song looked like he was going to roll to a win at this event, but he had a number of events that went against him. Sandretto didn’t even have to do much to see Song go, and it wasn’t long before he made his move.
Michael Kinney ended up in second place in this event, and he was still awarded a massive payout thanks to Sandretto. Since both players had nearly the same amount of chips, the two players agreed to split the pot, but finish out the event.
It was triple Kings that ended up sealing the deal for Sandretto, capping off one of the most improbable wins during the 2024 calendar year.
Other Big Names
Kinney was the biggest name that made an appearance at the final table in this event as he is a past champion on the WPT Tour. He made a wise move in getting Sandretto to agree to chop the pot as he ended up coming up short.
There was a point in this event in which Travis Egbert looked like he would get things done, but he finished with $140,000 in third place. Cody Wiegmann is another player that has had success playing live poker, and he took home $78,000 in fifth place.
Brock Wilson barely even got seated at the final table before he was eliminated, but he still claimed $60,000 with a sixth place finish.
