Thunder Valley Mid-Major Championship Starts Day 1d With 59 Seated
Three flights were in the books, 29 players were already through to Day 2, and early chip leads belonged to Ricardo Lazo, Jarod Minghini and Yang Lu.
The RunGood Poker Series Passport Season Finale $600 The Hendon Mob Mid-Major Championship was underway at Thunder Valley Casino Resort, with three starting flights in the books and Day 1d just getting started. PokerNews’ live updates said 59 players had already taken seats for the fourth flight, while 29 players had already punched tickets to Day 2 after the first two flights.
The broader festival, according to PokerNews, ran at Thunder Valley in Lincoln, California from July 13 to August 3. It featured 20 ring-awarding events over 22 days and more than $2.3 million in guarantees, including a $500,000 guarantee for the Mid-Major Championship.
Day 1a drew 118 entries and ended with 12 players advancing. Ricardo Lazo bagged the biggest stack at 572,000 after a key hand against Arthur Abraamyan helped his kings hold against pocket queens and push him past 200,000. Cirilo Esnardo finished second in chips with 472,000, Baljinder Bhupal took 470,000, and Esnardo closed the flight by busting Linwood Bailey when ace-queen made a full house.
The opening flight also sent home a few players still hoping to make an early bag. Tyler Patterson missed out when his king-high could not hold against Sok Chean, who hit a jack on the river, and Sasha Sabbaghian did not find traction on Day 1a either, though five more starting flights remained available.
Day 1b added 166 entries and 17 more qualifiers. Jarod Minghini topped the flight with 575,000, Jedidiah Hoffman followed with 560,000, and Tsztak Ho bagged 472,000. Through the first two flights, the field had reached 284 total entries, with 29 players moving on to Day 2.
Minghini entered the event with more than $2.5 million in live earnings on The Hendon Mob and still had not won an RGPS championship at that point. Hoffman helped end the bubble by knocking out Allan Capurro with a straight flush, and his own career earnings were described as nearly $1 million.
Day 1c brought in 119 more entries and 12 more Day 2 bags. Yang Lu led that flight with 694,000, Jane Bahk followed with 519,000, and David Larson finished with 474,000. Bahk had already won an RGPS ring at Thunder Valley and was chasing a second, while Larson’s resume included more than $500,000 in earnings and a 14th-place finish in the 2022 RGPS Contenders Thunder Valley Main Event.
Day 1d began at 11 a.m. local time with players starting on 30,000 chips. Blind levels were set at 30 minutes on the starting flights and were scheduled to stretch to 40 minutes on Day 2, where play would resume eight-handed and the final table would be nine-handed.
The structure also allowed one reentry per flight, with registration closing at the start of Level 9. The top 12.5% of each starting flight would cash for $1,100, and the top 10% from each field would advance to Day 2.
