Michael Cooper Wins First Trophy at 2016 Run It Up Reno

Mo Nuwwarah

May 25, 2016 2 min read Last updated Sep 28, 2019

Jason Somerville's Run It Up Reno got underway with the $235 Tuesday Takeoff, and 146 entries turned out to create a $29,200 prize pool. When the dust settled, local player Michael Cooper took the lion's share of a three-way chop for the majority of the prize money, banking $7,053 as fellow dealmakers Phillip Stumbo (officially 2nd) and Alex Huot (third3rd each took $5,000.

Final Table Results

Place	Player	Prize
1	Michael Cooper	$7,053*
2	Phillip Stumbo	$5,000*
3	Alex Huot	$5,000*
4	Jeff Chapman	$2,336
5	Andy Camou	$1,548
6	Lindsey Fross	$1,080
7	Andy Peplinski	$832
8	Jeff Newman	$628

_{*Denotes a three-way deal.}

The tournament reached the money bubble with 25 players left, and Run It Up architect Somerville found himself squarely in the hunt, grinding a short stack as the bubble burst. Some of the notable players who walked away empty-handed included Garry Gates, Brent Harrington, former The Big Game televised poker participant Nadya Magnus, and Survivor stars Stephen Fishbach and Tyson Apostol.

Somerville's run ended in 15th when he ran the A♦J♣ into the A♥K♥ of Stumbo, and when the final table kicked off, Cooper was the shortest stack with just eight big blinds.

He found a double with eight players left when he woke up with the A♦K♠ after a slightly shorter-stacked Jeff Newman jammed on the button with the A♣10♦.

Meanwhile, Stumbo rocketed to the top of the counts when he won a three-way all in with queens against the jacks of Andy Peplinski and the K♦Q♦ of Lindsey Fross. That gave him about 40 percent of the chips with play six-handed, and he then sent Fross packing in short order.

Cooper was content to simply survive as more players hit the rail, and he had only 12 big blinds when three-handed play kicked off. When he doubled with the A♦Q♠ against the A♣J♠ of Huot, the three talked a deal and an agreement was reached where $2,053 was left for the winner and everyone would walk away with $5,000.

Huot's A♥K♣ was clipped by the Q♣J♣ of Stumbo all in preflop when the board ran out 6♣10♦2♣7♣4♦, and Stumbo had about a 2-1 lead heads-up. That didn't last long though, as Cooper came out firing, using aggressive preflop play that no doubt helped him win a $500 heads-up tournament at this very venue for $8,000 in October 2014.

Luck was on Cooper's side when he got the A♣Q♣ in after a 3♠9♠3♣ flop against Stumbo's K♣9♣, finding a Q♠ on the river after a 4♣ turned to give him additional equity with the nut flush draw. That left Stumbo nearly felted and the remainder of the match didn't take long.