Thursday, January 14, 2016 2:43 PM Local Time
TJ Thondup Wins His Second Gold Ring and $20,089 in Event #5
TJ Thondup is the champion of Event #5 at Choctaw. Thondup, who primarily plays cash games, defeated a field of 279 entries, winning $20,089 and his second gold ring. The victory also earned him 50 points in the race for Casino Champion at this venue.
The champ is a 32-year-old part time poker player from Santa Fe, New Mexico. The other half of his time is dedicated to running a non-profit gift shop benefiting the Free Tibet movement. He won his first ring in Black Hawk two years ago, then went on to make two more final tables during that same Circuit stop. This result brings his total live earnings to over $100,000.
Thondup began Day 2 in third place with 34 players remaining. A few hours later, he was one of three former ring winners sitting at a tough final table, starting nine-handed play in sixth place. The Circuit’s most prolific casher, Doug “Rico” Carli, was eliminated in fifth place, falling just shy of collecting what would have been his third gold ring. Nick Pupillo has a ring of his own, but he bowed out shortly thereafter in fourth place.
“I had all the chips three-handed, and everything went wrong from there.” Thondup told reporters. “It was a complete roller coaster.” Indeed, each of the final three players had their hands on the chip lead during the match, and Thondup was the short stack at one point after losing ace-king to ace-jack in a big preflop confrontation.
He recovered though, taking the chip lead into heads up play against Nathan Rowan. On the last hand, Thondup opened with a raise from the button, and Rowan appeared to make a mistake, putting out more than half a raise when he intended to call. It was ruled a raise, and Thondup made a four-bet with pocket deuces. Rowan called, and Thondup flopped a set on the Q-8-2 flop. Rowan check-raised the flop with Q-J, then barreled the turn and river, the last bet putting him all in. Thondup called, showing down his set to win the pot and the tournament.
“It’s a good feeling,” he said quietly, nodding his head. “It’s a good feeling.”