Adin Cota Wins RIU Reno VIII Thursday Thrilla; Truong Leads After Main Event Day 1a
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The biggest buy-in tournament of the Run It Up Reno VIII – the $1,100 Thursday Thrilla – began with 178 entries each with a $500 bounty on their head. After two days of play, Adin Cota finished as the last player standing at the Peppermill Casino. It was good for a $20,400 top prize and a dozen $500 bounties along the way for an additional $6,000.
The tournament offered $500 bounties on each player, meaning a regular prize pool of $82,720 was up for grabs. Among those to cash on Day 1 of the tournament were partypoker pro Patrick Tardif (10th - $2,400), Joel Danforth (13th - $1,500), Noel Rodriguez (16th - $1,500), and David Thomas (18th - $1,500).
Thursday Thrilla Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Adin Cota | $20,400 |
| 2nd | Timothy “VaderNader” Guilford | $13,020 |
| 3rd | Katie Lindsay | $8,940 |
| 4th | Max Brown | $6,650 |
| 5th | Derek Frye | $5,250 |
| 6th | Frank Lagodich | $4,310 |
| 7th | Jeff Newman | $3,580 |
| 8th | Finton Hand | $2,970 |
| 9th | Jerry White | $2,400 |
When the final table began Katie Lindsay held a large chip lead with approximately a third of the chips in play. It didn’t take long for Derek Frye to collect the $500 bounty of Jerry White after queens held against Big Slick, and then Timothy “VaderNader” Guilford sent Fintan “Easy with Aces” Hand to the rail in eighth place.
Frye proceeded to collect the bounties of both Jeff Newman and Frank Lagodich before busting himself in fifth place. It happened when he jammed jack-ten suited and failed to get there against Max Brown’s ace-queen.
The very next hand, Brown busted with the same hand against Cota’s pocket queens. That gave Cota a huge chip lead that he used to collect the bounties of Lindsay and Guilford, who finished in third and second place for $8,940 and $13,020 (plus 11 and 12 bounties) respectively.
Main Event Day 1a Recap
On Friday, Day 1a of the Run It Up Reno VIII $600 Main Event attracted 267 players, but after the field was whittled down to 20 percent – it happened with 26:32 remaining in Level 12 – just 53 remained with Patrick Truong and his stack of 471,000 leading the way.
Others to bag big stacks were James Brundige (281,500), Ricky “RatedGTO” Guan (275,500), Johnnie “JohnnieVibes” Moreno (227,500), and Kevin Gerhart (221,000). They were joined by the likes of Dan O’Brien (141,000), Andrew Neeme (117,000), 2003 WSOP champ Chris Moneymaker (109,500), LFG co-host Jamie Kerstetter (107,000), Katie Lindsay (103,500), former champ DJ Fenton (82,000), and WSOP bracelet winner Ryan Laplante (46,500).
Of course, not everyone was so lucky. Among those to fire and fall on 1a were traveling poker dealer Nate Patten, Jesse Fullen, social media star Cat “Catrific” Valdes, Chicago’s Jason Mangold, Eric “TABLECAPTAINN” Wemlinger, Global Poker Award winner Brad Owen, and Pro Bounty champ Jim Petzing, who was recently featured on the latest episode of PokerNews’ LFG Podcast.
Day 1b of the RIU Reno VIII Main Event will begin at Noon local time on Saturday and the field will play to the same point before stopping. Late registration and re-entries will end at that time.
Jimmy Cappucci Captures His Record 6th RIU Reno Title
Jimmy Cappucci is a Run It Up Reno beast! On Thursday night he captured his record sixth RIU Reno title, twice as many as his closest competition (Andrew Cha and Jason Daniele both have three titles).
Cappucci's latest win came when he topped an 82-entry field to win the RIU Reno VIII $125 6-Max N.O.R.S.E. That tournament surpassed its $5,000 guarantee by creating a $7,954 prize pool paid out to the top 13 places.
Among those to get a piece of it were Mini Main Event champ John Boriolo (11th - $200), Eric "Goldy" Goldstein (8th - $320), and Joe Brandenburg (3rd - $945), just to name a few.
In the end, Cappucci defeated Paul Holden in heads-up play with the final hand being in a round of Stud Hi-Lo.
Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Hometown | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | James Cappucci | Medford, MA | $2,219 |
| 2 | Paul Holder | Crested Butte, CO | $1,415 |
| 3 | Joe Brandenburg | Portland, OR | $945 |
| 4 | Ryan Slanicka | Gig Harbor, WA | $705 |
| 5 | Sky Marvin | Medford, OR | $545 |
| 6 | Scott Stewart | Las Vegas, NV | $435 |
PokerNews’ coverage of the RIU Reno VIII will continue Saturday with Day 1b of the Main Event. Check out our dedicated portal here for all things RIU Reno.
