Hafiz Khan Triumphs at WSOPC Thunder Valley for $188k

Latest stop on the WSOP Circuit was the Thunder Valley Casino Resort in Lincoln, California, with 599 players entering its $1,675 Main Event on Friday to create a prize pool of $898,500. By the Monday the competition had subsequently been decided with Hafiz Khan eventually triumphing over the field, including Roland Shen heads-up, to claim the title and a first place prize of $188,686.
Hafiz Khan has now earned $2,752,574 playing live tournaments since his first cash back in 2008, with $2,307,779 of that amount having been won between 2008 and 2011. This includes a runner-up finish in 2008 at an $8,000 PCA event for $1,094,976, and victory at the 2009 L.A. Poker Classic $5,100 event for $285,569.
More recently, Khan said that he had been considering shifting his focus from poker in order to pursue a career in Information Technology, but as he explained after his win:
“I was thinking about getting a real job, going back into tech. I was thinking about that but I just couldn’t wrap my mind around that. I just couldn’t do a nine-to-five, going back to that, and waking up at six in the morning again. I missed the game, so I finally decided I’m a poker player. That’s what I’m good at. I’m back.”
Amongst the recognizable pros entering the 2018 WSOP Circuit Thunder Valley and seeing a return on their investment was Tony Bracy in 57th ($2,938), Tommy Chen in 55th ($2,938), Justo Avalos in 51st ($3,190), Kindah Sakkal in 46th ($3,190), Sean Yu in 30th ($4,987), Ben Keeline in 27th ($5,750), and Charles Moore in 22nd ($6,712).
Hafiz Khan then entered the final table with the third highest chip stack, and was able to progress all the way through to heads-up play against Roland Shen, albeit at a significant 5-to-1 disadvantage. Khan soon managed to close the gap, though, and put himself ahead of his opponent when the deciding hand was played with Shen (Q-8) and Khan (A-Q) moving all-in preflop, with the dealer subsequently laying out a K-10-8-2-J board to decide the contest.
Final Table Results:
1: Hafiz Khan $188,686
2: Roland Shen $116,686
3: Gregory Guth $85,340
4: Elisa Nakagawa $63,326
5: Michael Scott $47,647
6: John Chase $36,344
7: Steven Michaelis $28,105
8: Vijay Ramani $22,031
9: Josh Prager $17,503