Shawn Daniels Wins World Poker Tour Rolling Thunder Main Event

Placerville, Ca. native Shawn Daniels took down his first World Poker Tour title by successful his hometown title.

Daniels beat out a subject of 404 entries within the WPT Rolling Thunder primary occasion at Thunder Valley Casino Wednesday night. The Lincoln on line casino, like Placerville, is a part of the larger Sacramento space.

Daniels earned $218,600 for besting the $3,500 no-limit maintain’em. It’s the second-largest rating of his profession, behind solely his victory within the 2023 World Series of Poker $777 no-limit maintain’em for $777,777. His WPT win bumps his profession earnings north of $3.2 million.

As with all primary occasion champions on the tour, Daniels’ identify will probably be added to the Mike Sexton WPT Champions Cup.

“To get my name on the cup is very special,” Daniels advised WPT reporters. “It’s simply one thing meaning lots and that I’ll keep in mind ceaselessly.”

This was the second final-table end of the yr for Daniels. It got here with 1,080 Card Player Player of the Year factors. With 1,164 whole factors, he now sits inside the highest 80 within the 2025 POY standings offered by Global Poker.

The prime 51 finishers earned a chunk of the $1,292,800 prize pool on this occasion, with notables like two-time WPT champion J.C. Tran (twentieth), poker commentator Jeff Platt (seventeenth), 2023 WPT World Championship winner Daniel Sepiol (eleventh), all-time WSOP Circuit rings chief Ari Engel (eighth), and 2012 WPT Grand Prix de Paris winner Matthew Salsberg (seventh) all operating deep.

The closing day started with 2023 WSOPC Choctaw primary occasion champion Harvey Castro main the ultimate six gamers. Three-time WPT champion Eric Afriat was additionally nonetheless in competition, beginning the day in the course of the pack, whereas Daniels sat in fifth chip place to start out.

Benjamin Primus was knocked out only a few palms into the day, along with his Okay-8 unable to return from behind in opposition to the A-Okay of Castro. Primus earned $53,000 because the sixth-place finisher. David Ha quickly joined Primus on the rail when his J-10 clashed with the A-7 of Paul Richardson. Ha picked up an open-ended straight draw on the flip to go along with his two reside playing cards, however a clean on the tip despatched him packing with $69,000.

Daniels scored his first elimination of the day when his A3 bested the 99 of Richardson. Daniels raised from the button for 350,000 and referred to as the 950,000 shove of Richardson from the small blind. Daniels made aces up by the river to win the pot. Richardson earned $91,000 because the fourth-place finisher.

Afriat’s newest deep run concluded when Daniels cracked his 1010 with Okay3 in a battle of the blinds. Daniels shoved from the small blind for simply shy of 9 large blinds efficient and Afriat shortly referred to as. The board got here down OkayJJOkay6 to eradicate Afriat in third place ($122,000). The Canadian now has almost $6 million in profession earnings, with the vast majority of that cash coming from his success in WPT tournaments.

Castro held 13,900,000 to Daniels’ 6,150,000 when heads-up play started. It was a forwards and backwards affair, with each gamers holding the lead and having possibilities to shut it out. At some level alongside the way in which, the ultimate two hashed out a deal to redistribute the remaining prize cash a bit.

Daniels was effectively out in entrance when the ultimate hand of the occasion arrived. Castro shoved from the button with Q2 for only a handful of massive blinds. Danielsl referred to as with 86 and the board got here down Okay766J to offer Daniels journey sixes for the win.

Castro earned $193,600 because the runner-up, the third-largest rating of his profession. He now has greater than $1.1 million in profession cashes to his identify. Check out a replay of the ultimate desk reside stream under.

Final Table Results

Photos offered by WPT.