Tony Wasaya Leads 56 Players After First Day of Opening Flights in RGPS Main Event
The first two flights of the $600 Main Event at the RunGood Poker Series at Graton Resort and Casino have come to an end and Tony Wasaya is the overall chip after just over 15 levels of play in Day 1b. Saturday will feature two more flights and all surviving players will return on Sunday at 11 a.m. local time for the Day 2 finale.
Igor Sorokin leads 31 returning players from Day 1a, a flight that attracted 244 runners to kick off the Main Event, while Wasaya leads the 25 players that survived Day 1b. Day 1b drew 200 entries and the total prize pool sits at $230,880 after the first two flights.
RGPS Bay Area Main Event Day 1ab Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Chip Count | Day 2 Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tony Wasaya | 705,000 | 70 |
| 2 | Igor Sorokin | 637,000 | 64 |
| 3 | Victor Paredes | 609,000 | 61 |
| 4 | Chad Ducharme | 565,000 | 57 |
| 5 | Julian Ruvalcaba | 504,000 | 50 |
| 6 | Randy Gil | 439,000 | 44 |
| 7 | Frank Neuhauser | 385,000 | 38 |
| 8 | Daniel Ullmann | 364,000 | 36 |
| 9 | Zhiqing Chen | 355,000 | 36 |
| 10 | Ali Zandiyeh | 349,000 | 35 |
Day 1ab Action
The combined opening flights welcomed some familiar faces, including RunGood Ambassadors Ray Henson, Joe Stapleton, and Kris Burchfield. Stapleton stopped in for the second flight, but he failed to find a bag for Day 2 after a failed attempt to bluff the river left him on the outs. Burchfield bagged in the opening flight of the day and he will return with just over 20 big blinds for Day 2.
Sorokin, the Day 1a chip leader, found his way near the top of the leaderboard with a late run that included a big hand with queen-jack that cracked pocket aces when two queens fell on the board.
Michael Vlastnik was one of the standout players in the opening flight after he picked up a lot of chips early on in the. Vlastnik was one of the first to cross the 100,000 mark, and he kept the momentum going throughout the day to finish with just over 31 big blinds.
Also bagging for Day 2 from the Day 1a flight was Marco Johnson. The two-time bracelet winner was near the felt at the end of the flight but he picked his spots well and bagged 13 big blinds. Other players joining Day 2 from the first flight include Sean Burson, Brian Tipton, and Ron Gil.
Day 1b standouts include Peter Totah, who found a run in the middle levels to finish with 17 big blinds. He’s joined by Weston Mizumoto, Jerez Mercado, Bruno Gaillard, and the short stack Aaron Pressman–who finished with 27,000 after barely surviving the stone bubble.
Day 1c will kick off at 11 a.m. local time on Saturday and the final flight will get started at 6 p.m. Players once again start with 30,000 chips and registration is open until the beginning of Level 9 in both flights. All returning players come back on Sunday at 11 a.m. for the finale. Day 2 will begin where the earlier ending flight left off – currently with 28:30 left in Level 16.
Be sure to keep it with the PokerNews team all weekend long for live coverage of the RunGood Poker Series Main Event at Graton Resort and Casino in Rohnert Park, California.