Short-stacked from late on Day 3 through most of the final table, David Larson comes back from 15th in chips with 15 remaining to claim the March 2018 @WPT Rolling Thunder $3,500 Main Event title.
Larson - from San Jose who is a tournament regular at TVPokerRoom - overcame nearly a 2-1 chip deficit as heads-up play began to defeat Ian Steinman for the victory. Larson eliminated former WSOP Main event champ Joe McKeehen in third place en route to the win.
McKeehen held a substantial chiplead during heads-up play but clearly was showing effects of flighting off the flu all weekend long. Ping Liu (4th) Andreas 'Rayo' Kniep and Dejuante Alexander (6th) rounded out the final table cashes.
The 440-entry field created a $1,408,000 prize pool and paid 55 places.
Among the Day 3 cashes was Pat Lyons (9th), Sam Panzica (10th), Chris Hinchcliffe (13th), Vince Moscati (17th), Amnon Filippi (19th), Ari Engel (21st), Jared Greiner (27th), Brett Murray (30th), Olivier Busquet (32nd), Rellie Sigua (33rd), Mike Ross (39th), Michael Loncar (41st), John Richards (45th), Derek Wolters (49th), Dylan Wilkerson (50th), Anthony Zinno (53rd) and Steven Tabb (55th).
The field also included defending champ Mike Del Vecchio, JC Tran, Tyler Patterson Jake Balsiger, Ben Keeline, Blair Hinkle, Rep Porter, Aaron Mermelstein, Loren Klein, Steve Gee, Allen Kessler, Taylor Paur, Lee Markholt, Brian Altman, Mimi Luu, Darren Elias, Darren Rabinowitz, Benjamin Zamani, Curt Kohlberg, Rex Clinkscales and Hafiz Khan.
Next up at Thunder Valley is the WPTDeepStacks series March 24-April 9 featuring a Celebrity Bounty tournament, poker room grand opening festivities and a $500,000 Guarantee $1,100 buy-in Main Event.
Here are the final results
| 3/2-6/18 | WPT | Rolling Thunder | |
| $3,500 | Main Event | | |
| 440 | Entries | | |
| $1,408,000 | Prize Pool | | |
| 55 | Places Paid | | |
| 1st includes | $15,000 WPT | TOC Entry | |
| | | | |
| Place | | | City | Payout |
| 1 | David | Larson | San Jose, CA | $295,128 |
| 2 | Ian | Steinman | Carson City, NV | $201,428 |
| 3 | Joseph | McKeehen | North Wales, PA | $131,081 |
| 4 | Ping | Liu | Irvine, CA | $97,510 |
| 5 | Andreas | Kniep | SF, CA | $69,650 |
| 6 | DeJuante | Alexander | Houston, TX | $56,417 |
| 7 | Paul | McCaffrey | San Ramon, CA | $43,322 |
| 8 | Glenn | Larson | Olympia, WA | $43,322 |
| 9 | Patrick | Lyons | Hillsborough, CA | $30,228 |
| 10 | Sam | Panzica | Ft. Lauderdale, FL | $30,228 |
| 11 | Ziran | Xiao | SF, CA | $22,706 |
| 12 | George | Saca | Sacramento, CA | $22,706 |
| 13 | Chris | Hinchcliffe | Thunder Valley, CA | $17,970 |
| 14 | Man | Pham | San Jose, CA | $17,970 |
| 15 | Anthony | Hubernberg | Sacramento, CA | $14,627 |
| 16 | Ubaid | Habib | LA, CA | $14,627 |
| 17 | Vincent | Moscati | Verplank, NY | $11,980 |
| 18 | Andy | Pham | Sacramento, CA | $11,980 |
| 19 | Amnon | Filippi | NY, NY | $10,030 |
| 20 | Kenneth | Jorgensen | Rancho Cord, CA | $10,030 |
| 21 | Alan | Engel | Delray Bch, FL | $10,030 |
| 22 | Jason | Young | Berkeley, CA | $10,030 |
| 23 | John | Simunich | Antelope, CA | $10,030 |
| 24 | Vijay | Ramani | Redwood City, CA | $10,030 |
| 25 | Kao | Saeturn | Portland, OR | $8,497 |
| 26 | Sean | Marshall | Burlingame, CA | $8,497 |
| 27 | Jared | Greiner | Hunt Beach, CA | $8,497 |
| 28 | Marry | Williams | n/a | $8,497 |
| 29 | Mario | Lopez | Cloverdale, CA | $8,497 |
| 30 | Brett | Murray | Santa Rosa, CA | $8,497 |
| 31 | Lance | Oliver | Roseville, CA | $7,522 |
| 32 | Olivier | Busquet | NY, NY | $7,522 |
| 33 | Rellie | Sigua | Daly City, CA | $7,522 |
| 34 | William | Migely | Mill Valley, CA | $7,522 |
| 35 | Rafael | Gonzalez | Modesto, CA | $7,522 |
| 36 | Seymond | Pon | Oakland, CA | $7,522 |
| 37 | David | Eldridge | Gibsonia, PA | $6,686 |
| 38 | Omer | Savir | Los Altos, CA | $6,686 |
| 39 | Michael | Ross | Chicago, IL | $6,686 |
| 40 | Andres | Tamberg | SF, CA | $6,686 |
| 41 | Michael | Loncar | Folsom, CA | $6,269 |
| 42 | Imad | Allahham | Redwood City, CA | $6,269 |
| 43 | James | Rann | London, UK | $6,269 |
| 44 | Adam | Duong | San Jose, CA | $6,269 |
| 45 | John | Richards | Roxanna, IL | $6,269 |
| 46 | Lumni | Zhuta | xx, CT | $6,269 |
| 47 | Ajay | Gnanambanthan | Phoenix, AZ | $6,269 |
| 48 | Ron | Fetsch | xx, ND | $6,269 |
| 49 | Derek | Wolters | Tempe, AZ | $5,990 |
| 50 | Dylan | Wilkerson | Las Vegas, NV | $5,990 |
| 51 | Hock Loon | Lay | n/a | $5,990 |
| 52 | Yanki | Koppel | Santa Clara, CA | $5,990 |
| 53 | Anthony | Zinno | | $5,990 |
| 54 | William | Powell-Haley | Wasilla, AK | $5,990 |
| 55 | Steven | Tabb | San Mateo, CA | $5,990 |
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