Hafiz Khan wins WSOP Circuit Thunder Valley Main Event for $188,686

(Photo: WSOP.com)

California pro Hafiz Khan doesn’t often hit the headlines, but when he does it’s usually courtesy of a massive win – this week seeing the Stockton man taking down the WSOP Circuit Thunder Valley Main Event for $188,686 and edging his lifetime live earnings total over the $2.7million mark.

Khan was one of those players who took to poker relatively late – changing career from software analyst to online poker pro and making his live debut in 2008 where he turned a satellite win into a $million score when he finished runner-up to Bertrand ‘ElKy’ Grospelier at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure.

Yesterday’s victory added a WSOP ring to his WPT title gained in 2009 at the LA Poker Classic in Los Angeles and confirmed that you don’t have to be a prolific casher to be regarded as an excellent player.

The 599 entries for the $1675 buy-in tournament saw the $½million guarantee boosted to a hefty $898,500, with 63 spots being paid in the 3-day event at the northern Californian Thunder Valley Casino resort –and Khan was at or near the top of the leaderboard for most of that stretch.

As the ‘UpTheAnte’ poker room updates from the site relate, ‘Khan had a competitive stack for most of final table play, but it was Roland Shen who took a dominant lead 3-handed. Shen took two massive pots from Greg Guth, then eliminated Guth in 3rd to start heads-up play with a 4-1 lead over Khan.’

With Khan a 10:1 chip dog at one point, it looked as though San Frabcisco’s Shen was all set to take the bracelet down, but a double-up and a huge river fold in a massive pot brought the two men closer…and it would take almost 4 hours to break the heads-up deadlock… Shen flopping a pair when ‘all-in preflop on the final hand, only to see Khan river Broadway for the victory’.

Khan’s impressive run at Thunder Valley has now added a WSOP Circuit ring to his 3rd spot last weekend in the 1500+ field opening event of the series, as well as an 8th place finish at the WPTDeepStacks Season Championship Million Dollar Guarantee last month.

Finale Table results: