Will Eric Afriat Win Record-Tying 4th WPT Title Today at Rolling Thunder Final Table?
The World Poker Tour (WPT) $3,500 Rolling Thunder Championship began with 404 entrants, but on Wednesday just six will return to action vying for a $257,600 first-place prize. One of those players is three-time WPT champ Eric Afriat (pictured above), who is looking for a record-tying fourth title to catch Darren Elias.
With $5,847,484 in lifetime earnings according to The Hendon Mob, Afriat is looking for his first WPT title since 2020. That is when he took down the WPT Fallsview C$5,000 Main Event for $383,539. Two years earlier, he won the 2018 WPT Borgata Winter Poker Open Championship for $651,928, and in 2014, he claimed his first WPT by winning the $3,500 WPT Seminole Hard Rock Showdown for a career-high $1,081,184.
Interestingly, Afriat nearly won the same WPT Seminole tournament in 2019, ultimately finishing as runner-up to James Carroll for $465,120.
"Whoever tells you to the contrary, it's all about winning the most titles, being first," Afriat previously told PokerNews.
Afriat will begin the final table third in chips with 3,125,000, which is less than half the stack of chip leader Harvey Castro with 6,600,000.
WPT Rolling Thunder Final Table
| Seat | Player | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Harvey Castro | 6,600,000 | 66 bb |
| 2 | David Ha | 4,075,000 | 41 bb |
| 3 | Shawn Daniels | 2,425,000 | 24 bb |
| 4 | Paul Richardson | 2,500,000 | 25 bb |
| 5 | Eric Afriat | 3,125,000 | 31 bb |
| 6 | Benjamin Primus | 1,325,000 | 13 bb |
Among those to get a piece of the $1,292,800 prize pool were Matt Salsberg (7th - $40,500), Ari Engel (8th - $31,500), Dan Sepiol (11th - $20,800), Jeff Platt (17th - $14,400), J.C. Tran (20th - $11,800), Blake Bohn (27th - $9,600), Andrew Moreno (33rd - $7,700), and Jeremy Becker (45th - $6,400).
Salsberg fell one spot short of the final table in Level 27 (50,000/100,000/100,000). According to live updates from the event, the WPT Season 11 Player of the Year three-bet jammed for 1.375 million from the cutoff after Afriat had opened from early position. Castro called from the button, both blinds folded, and Afriat got out of the way. Salsberg tabled two red tens but was dominated by Castro’s jack.
Salsberg managed to flop a set of tens, but his lead was short-lived as the dealer burned and turned a jack to give Castro a bigger set. The case ten failed to materialize on the river and Salsberg was out in seventh place for $40,500.
The remaining six players are guaranteed at least $53,000 in prize money. Action will resume at 11 a.m. PDT on Wednesday with a WPT Live Stream running on a 30-minute delay. PokerNews will have a recap of the action once a winner is determined.
*Images courtesy of WPT.
