In simply the second recorded reside event money of his life, Manjunath Mulinti completed in seventh place within the World Series of Poker Circuit essential occasion at Thunder Valley Casino Resort again in January. Mulinti returned to the Sacramento, California-area venue in October for one more WSOPC cease. He completed the job the second time round.
Mulinti received the autumn version of the $1,700 buy-in WSOP Circuit Thunder Valley essential occasion, outlasting 599 entries to earn his first ring and the highest prize of $172,325. This main title debut is available in simply his eleventh recorded event money.
Mulinti, who’s from simply outdoors San Jose, California, needed to cope with Northern California poker legend J.C. Tran on the last desk, with the two-time World Poker Tour champion and double bracelet winner from Sacramento finally ending in eighth place.
Between his two WSOP Circuit Thunder Valley last tables, Mulinti made a number of deep event runs over the summer season, together with a Sixteenth-place end within the $1,700 WSOP Circuit Championship bracelet occasion. His profession earnings, all of which have are available in 2026, now sit at $257,356, and will develop exponentially earlier than the shut of the 12 months.
As a Circuit ring winner, Mulinti now has a chance to go to WSOP Paradise, incomes a $5,000 prize bundle that features a seat within the $2,750 Circuit Championship thriller bounty occasion in December.
Thunder Valley Throw Down
A complete of 90 gamers earned a share of the $907,485 prize pool on this occasion, together with bracelet winner Andrew Ostapchenko (eighty fifth), 2024 WPT Rolling Thunder winner Casey Sandretto (78th), WSOP broadcaster Jeff Platt (62nd), two-time bracelet winner Barry Shulman (seventeenth), and 2025 WSOP essential occasion last tablist Jarod Minghini (tenth).
Heading into the ultimate day, Mulinti held a slender chip lead over Dawson Dvorak. The chips flew round early, with Matthew Kramer exiting in ninth place ($12,970), and Tran rising briefly earlier than tumbling again to a brief stack.
Tran noticed his event finish in probably the most cliché of preflop races, together with his A♦Ok♠ falling to Henry Acain’s Q♣Q♦. Although Tran discovered a king on an all-club flop, a fourth membership on the flip sealed the pot for Acain. Tran settled for eighth place ($16,730), tacking a little bit bit extra onto his $13.7 million in profession earnings.
Bin Duan noticed his brief stack disappear in seventh place ($22,010), and Andrew Nguyen’s stack was drained to zero quickly thereafter. The final of Nguyen’s chips went in preflop, and each Mulinti and Acain obtained concerned. Mulinti extracted much more worth from his overpair pocket jacks in opposition to Acain’s pocket nines and Nguyen’s Ok♥Q♥, considerably boosting his stack whereas Nguyen hit the rail in sixth place ($29,510).
A Race To The Finish Line
Dvorak outraced Acain with A♦Q♠ in opposition to Acain’s pocket sevens, sending the shorter stack packing in fifth place ($40,310). Dvorak regained the chip lead, however from that second on, it was all downhill for him. Wang picked up a vital double, after which got here the largest pot of the event.
On a 5♣4♦3♦Q♥3♠ board, Jesse Stephens shoved for simply over a pot-sized guess, placing Dvorak to the check. After utilizing a number of time banks, Dvorak referred to as and confirmed Q♣10♣, just for Stephens to desk Q♠J♠ for a similar pair with a greater kicker. Not lengthy after that, Mulinti took an enormous chunk of these chips from Stephens to climb again to the highest of the leaderboard.
Dvorak was then eradicated by Wang’s palms. The former chip chief headed to the payout desk to gather $56,090 for his fourth-place end. Stephens, Wang, and Mulinti had been nearly tied three-handed, however Mulinti took management from that time on. In brief order, his stack ascended to 16 million, which was twice as many chips as Stephens and Wang held, collectively. Wang was the primary to go, in third place ($79,490). His Q♥10♥ outflopped pocket nines, just for the total Q♣8♦7♠5♣6♣ runout to supply a straight for Mulinti.
Stephens wasn’t lengthy for the event, both. He obtained a dream 6♦4♦2♣ flop for his 7♦3♦, however by the point the chips obtained in on the Q♣ flip, Mulinti had the lead with Q♠8♣. Mulinti pale all of Stephens’ outs, because the Ok♠ river introduced the event to a swift shut.
This victory earned Mulinti 840 Card Player Player of the Year factors. With 1,187 POY factors for the 12 months, Mulinti cracks the highest 600 within the yearlong race offered by CoinPoker.
Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Payout | POY Points |
| 1 | Manjunath Mulinti | $172,325 | 840 |
| 2 | Jesse Stephens | $114,660 | 700 |
| 3 | Jonathan Wang | $79,490 | 560 |
| 4 | Dawson Dvorak | $56,090 | 420 |
| 5 | Henry Acain | $40,310 | 350 |
| 6 | Andrew Nguyen | $29,510 | 280 |
| 7 | Bin Duan | $22,010 | 210 |
| 8 | J.C. Tran | $16,730 | 140 |
| 9 | Matthew Kramer | $12,970 | 70 |
Photo credit: WSOP / Poker.Org
