Jaime Haletky Wins WSOP Circuit Thunder Valley Main Event

Jaime Haletky has won the 2020 World Series of Poker Circuit Thunder Valley $1,700 buy-in no-limit hold’em main event. The 42-year-old mathematician based out of Morgan Hill, CA defeated a field of 487 total entries in the event to secure his first WSOPC gold ring and the top prize of $147,706. This was the largest score of his career, with his next two biggest paydays also having taken place at Thunder Valley Casino Resort.

“It feels great," Haletky told WSOP reporters after emerging victorious from his third big final table at this venue. “I feel like the other [final tables] was a lot of luck, but I have really studied a lot these past two years to improve my game. Obviously this one was also luck, you can’t win without a lot of luck. I was really happy with how I played.”

Haletky came into the final day of action as the clear chip leader with 4,030,000, while five-time WSOPC ring winner Scott Stewart sat on the next largest stack with 3,105,000. It took only half an hour for the first elimination of the day to arrive. 2017 WSOP main event sixth-place finisher Bryan Piccioli got the last of his short stack into the middle with pocket deuces and was called in two spots. One of his opponents made a pair of eights by the river to secure the pot, sending Piccioli to the rail with $13,516.

Just a few minutes later, Bin Duan found himself all-in with ace-king up against the Q-9 of Stewart. A queen-high flop gave Stweart the lead and he held from there to knock Duan out in eighth place ($17,045).

Stewart scored his second elimination of the day with pocket nines, calling the all-in of Peter Pap after the two saw a six-high flop. Pap was behind with A-6, and he failed to improve any further on the subsequent streets. Pap took home $21,795 for his deep run in this event.

Haletky earned his first knockout of the day by busting Dann Turner. Turner got the last of his very short stack in with A-8. Haletky had called the preflop shove for just two blinds with 85 and made a full house by the river. Turner cashed for $28,251 as the sixth-place finisher.

The next elimination resulted from a classic preflop race situation. Marcus Laffen got his chips in with pocket nines and received a call from Marko Pantelic, who held A10. Pantelic spiked an ace on the flop to take a lead which he never relinquished. Leffen hit the rail in fifth place, earning $37,117.

Scott Stewart’s run in this event came to an end in heartbreaking fashion. Haletky four-bet all-in over the top of Stewart’s reraise preflop with AQ. Stewart quickly called for his tournament life with AA. Stewart was a 91.5 percent favorite to win the hand preflop, but a KJ8103 runout gave Haletky a straight. With that Haletky took a sizable lead into three-handed action, while Stweart was eliminated in fourth place ($49,418).

Marko Pantelic was the next to hit the rail. He found himself all-in with QJ up against the JJ of Adedapo Ajayi. The board was of no help, and Pantelic had to settle for $66,663.

With that knockout, Ajayi closed the gap to enter heads-up play with 7 million to Haletky’s 7.6 million. Haletky was able to get off to an early lead, though, and then managed to extend his advantage to roughly 2.5:1 by the time the final cards were dealt. In the last hand of the event, Ajayi raised to 180,000 from the button with AJ. Haletky three-bet to 600,000 holding 33. Ajayi four-bet all in for 3,950,000 and Haletky made to call. The board came down K9844 and Haletky’s threes were enough to lock up the pot and the title. Ajayi earned $91,009 as the runner-up.

Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded at the final table:

Winner photo provided by WSOP.

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