David Larson Wins WPT Rolling Thunder for $295k

David Larson has taken down the WPT Rolling Thunder, after topping a field of 440 players over five days on his way to picking up a $295,128 first place prize. As a result, the Nevada resident now boosts his live earnings to $817,941, with his previous biggest score recorded last year after winning the $250 Superstack DeepStack Extravaganza in Las Vegas for $39,515.
The $3,500 WPT Rolling Thunder Main Event took place in Lincoln, Nebraska, and featured a prize pool of $1,408,000. Amongst the pros finishing in one of its 55 money spots was Anthony Zinno in 53rd ($5,990), Olivier Busquet in 32nd ($7,522), Alan Engel in 21st ($10,030), and Samuel Panzica II in 10th ($30,228).
David Larson entered the final table with by far the shortest stack, but soon manged a much needed double up holding pocket queens against the A-J of 2015 WSOP Main Event winner Joseph McKeehen. David Larson (10-10) then added further to his stack after sending D.J. Alexander (K-9) to the rail in 6th, while McKeehen won pot after pot to take command of the final table action. On a subsequent hand, however, Ian Steinman (K-K) laid down his set against McKeehen (Q-10) on an A-5-7-K-J board, preserving a significant portion of his chips, and later busted Ping Liu in 4th to keep his title challenge alive.
Meanwhile, McKeehen (Q-9) bluff-reraised Larson all-in on a Jh-5s-4h flop, and after the latter made the call holding Ah-7h, no further assistance arrived on turn and river to see McKeehen eliminated in 3rd place for $131,081.
Nevertheless, Steinman started heads-up play with an almost a 2-to-1 chip lead, but before long Larson managed to pull ahead when the final hand was played with his re-raising all-in holding A-6 on an A-J-6-A-Q board. Steinman elected to call holding pocket kings, and subsequently had to settle for a runner-up finish worth $201,428, while David Larson claimed the WPT Rolling Thunder title.
Final Table Results:
1: David Larson $295,128
2: Ian Steinman $201,428
3: Joseph McKeehen $131,081
4: Ping Liu $97,510
5: Andreas Kniep $69,650
6: D.J. Alexander $56,417
7: Paul McCaffrey $43,322
8: Glenn Larson $43,322
9: Pat Lyons $30,228