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 On line casino Wednesday night. The Lincoln on line casino, like Placerville, is a part of the better 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 Sequence 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 can be added to the Mike Sexton WPT Champions Cup.
“To get my identify on the cup could be very particular,” Daniels informed WPT reporters. “It’s simply one thing meaning lots and that I’ll keep in mind without end.”
This was the second final-table end of the yr for Daniels. It got here with 1,080 Card Participant Participant of the 12 months factors. With 1,164 whole factors, he now sits inside the highest 80 within the 2025 POY standings introduced by World Poker.
The highest 51 finishers earned a bit 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 working deep.
The ultimate 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 rivalry, 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, together with his Ok-8 unable to return from behind towards the A-Ok 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 together with his two dwell playing cards, however a clean on the top despatched him packing with $69,000.
Daniels scored his first elimination of the day when his A
3 bested the 9
9
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 Ok3 in a battle of the blinds. Daniels shoved from the small blind for simply shy of 9 massive blinds efficient and Afriat shortly referred to as. The board got here down OkJJOk6 to get rid of Afriat in third place ($122,000). The Canadian now has almost $6 million in profession earnings, with nearly all 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 backwards and forwards affair, with each gamers holding the lead and having possibilities to shut it out. In some unspecified time in the future alongside the best way, 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 Ok766J to present 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. Try a replay of the ultimate desk dwell stream under.
Remaining Desk Outcomes
Place
Participant
Earnings
POY Factors
1
Shawn R. Daniels
$218,600
1080
2
Harvey Castro
$193,600
900
3
Eric Afriat
$122,000
720
4
Paul Richardson
$91,000
540
5
David Ha
$69,000
450
6
Benjamin Primus
$53,000
360
7
Matthew Salsberg
$40,500
270
8
Ari Engel
$31,500
180
9
Eric Wong
$24,700
90
Pictures offered by WPT.
