Dan O'Brien Wins RIU Reno VIII Main Event for $46,681
The eighth edition of Run It Up Reno ended Monday night with the conclusion of the $600 buy-in Main Event, a tournament that attracted 629 runners. Nine players returned to the Peppermill Casino to battle it out on the live-streamed final table, and it was poker pro Dan O’Brien denying Loren Klein a third RIU Main Event title to capture a $46,681 first-place prize.
The win brought O’Brien’s lifetime earnings up over $3.3 million and, in a sense, symbolizes his return to tournament poker after laying relatively low in 2018. Surprisingly, it marked just his third documented win and is arguably the most prestigious.
“It feels really good to win, it really does. It was a lot of fun,” O’Brien said. “I ran really well the entire tournament obviously. I tried to focus on playing well and really not worrying about anything else.”
He continued: “I really didn’t play much in 2018, I was working on some other things. In the fall I decided to actually put some work in. It’s really nice to put in all that work and see immediate results even though it’s still a lot of luck to get here.”
As for Klein, he has more than $2.7 million in lifetime earnings. In addition to being a two-time RIU Reno Main Event champ – he won both the RIU Reno III and V – he is also a three-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner after taking down last summer’s $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Championship for $1,018,336, the 2017 WSOP Event #41: $1,500 PLO for $231,483, and the 2016 WSOP Event #45: $1,500 Mixed NLH/PLO for $241,427. He’s also finished runner up in two other WSOP tournaments for $552,713 and $195,147 respectively.
“He’s incredible. He has a really high success rate in tournaments, and generally he doesn’t play that many,” O’Brien said of his heads-up foe. “He’s definitely a tough opponent. I like him as a person but I was certainly rooting against him.”
Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dan O’Brien | $46,681 |
| 2 | Loren Klein | $30,950 |
| 3 | Austin Roberts | $22,180 |
| 4 | Tim Tucker | $17,120 |
| 5 | Vito Distefano | $13,920 |
| 6 | Julio Uribe | $11,640 |
| 7 | Kevin Gerhart | $9,825 |
| 8 | Chris Gallagher | $8,245 |
| 9 | Robert Valdez | $6,750 |
The short-stacked Robert Valdez bowed out right at the start of the final table – the result of losing a flip with pocket nines to Vito Distefano’s ace-jack – but then it took several hours for the next player to fall. It happened when Chris Gallagher three-bet jammed king-seven suited and received a call from Klein, who had ace-ten. Gallagher paired his seven on the flop but a river ten sent him packing in eighth place.
Kevin Gerhart was next to go losing a flip with king-six to Klein’s pocket fours, and then Julio Uribe followed him out the door in sixth place running ace-deuce suited into O’Brien’s aces. Distefano, who began the final table as chip leader, dwindled before getting all in with queen-jack and failing to get there against Klein’s ace-eight to exit in fifth place.
Not long after, RIU Reno IV champ Tim Tucker hit the rail when his pocket jacks were cracked by Klein’s queen-jack after a queen spiked on the flop. The elimination of Austin Roberts in third place – his queen-ten suited couldn’t overcome O’Brien’s ace-queen – saw the eventual champ take a small chip lead into heads-up play against Klein.
The two battled back and forth for quite some time and swapped the chip lead on several occasions. Eventually, a big hand played out that saw Klein flop two pair and O'Brien turn a bigger two pair. The latter doubled and a couple of hands later it was all over.