Blair Hinkle Wins RGPS Tulsa Hard Rock for $44,012

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Blair Hinkle Wins RGPS Tulsa Hard Rock for $44,012

Blair Hinkle capped off a long day at the RGPS Tulsa Hard Rock Main Event. He entered the day the overall chip leader and then cruised to over 1,000,000 and roughly one-sixth of the chips in play with 37 players remaining.

He dipped pretty low and found himself among the shorter stacks for part of the tournament, but reclaimed a massive lead at the final table. He gave up the lead for a moment during heads up play, but eventually, he finished off Matthew Blackwell to claim the RGPS Tulsa Hard Rock Main Event title and the $44,012 first prize.

RGPS Tulsa Hard Rock Main Event Final Table Payout

PositionPlayerCountryPrize
1Blair HinkleUnited States$44,012
2Matthew BlackwellUnited States$27,868
3Michael CrawfordUnited States$18,662
4Greg JenningsUnited States$13,015
5Tai PhanUnited States$9,761
6Matt NewcombUnited States$7,656
7Stephen HartUnited States$6,469
8Eric BunchUnited States$5,359
9James JewellUnited States$4,613
Blair Hinkle and friends celebrate his win
Blair Hinkle and friends celebrate his win

Day 2 started with sixty-one players, and RunGood's own Ray Henson was the stone bubble with thirty-six players making the money.

Beau Wilshire (35th) and Jacob Seale (33rd) both cashed a week after final tabling the RGPS Kansas City Main Event. Wadih Kaawar (24th) and Catherine Chen (16th) both final tabled the RGPS Bossier City event and found a cash again in Tulsa.

Tai Phan and Matthew Blackwell both made their second final tables of the RGPS season.

RGPS Tulsa Hard Rock Main Event Final Table Recap

The final table action started after Jeremy Tinsley and Dan Martin both busted within a hand of each other in eleventh and tenth place. Martin was short and got finished off by Stephen Hart, and Tinsley got knocked out by Tai Phan.

Once the nine remaining players started the final table, it took some time for the first elimination. Eventually, James Jewell, who had entered the final table with the chip lead but had since lost some chips, fell to Blackwell when he got ace-king in against Blackwell's pocket queens.

Eric Bunch spent some time as the chip leader later in the tournament but fell in eighth place when Hart rivered a wheel.

Stephen Hart himself was next to go, falling to Michael Crawford in seventh place, after three-bet shoving pocket threes into the pocket jacks of Crawford.

Matt Newcomb busted in sixth the very next hand when he got ace-king in against Crawford. This time, Crawford had pocket kings and sent Newcomb to the rail.

Tai Phan managed to ride a short stack up a few places in the payouts but came up short against Hinkle. Hinkle flopped trips to send Phan home in fifth.

Greg Jennings went out in fourth place. He flipped against Hinkle with sixes and couldn't catch up when Hinkle flopped one of his two over cards.

Michael Crawford was the next to go, falling to Blackwell after calling a shove with second pair while Blackwell had flopped top pair.

Finally, after a lengthy heads up match, Matthew Blackwell fell in second place when he got all in preflop with Hinkle. Both held ace-high, but Hinkle had the better kicker. Neither player connected with the board and Hinkle claimed the title.

Poker After Dark Satellite

Any player who made a final table in an RGPS Main Event or won an RGPS side event has been invited to breakfast and a satellite that will send two players to play at the PokerGO Studio in Las Vegas on Poker After Dark.

Stay tuned to PokerNews.com RGPS Live Reporting for all the information on the players in that tournament and find out who win the two $5,000 sit-n-go seats.

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Brent Harrington

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