Laughlin Leads The Final 23 Players Of Day 1b; Kopp Looking for Back To Back
The RunGood Poker Series Road Trip $700 Council Bluffs Main Event has seen its second flight of play conclude at The Horseshoe Casino in Council Bluffs, Iowa. This first flight saw 180 entrants come out for their shot at a bag and the second flight saw 189 players go for a piece of the $200,000 guaranteed prizepool. After the dust settled, just 23 players remained with their hopes intact while all others will have one final chance tonight in the final flight.
Leading the way is Mark Laughlin who ended their day with 513,000. Laughlin spent much of the early chunk of the tournament on the short stack. It wasn’t until a triple up he had through defending champion Joshua Kopp (279,000), and knocking out Brian Winter shortly afterwards where he defined himself as one of the flight chip leaders. Laughlin final tabled this event in 2020, finishing in 6th place for $7,990. With this stack today, he looks to better the finish he had back then with a massive score.
Day 1b Top Ten Chip Counts
| Place | Player | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mark Laughlin | 513,000 |
| 2 | Lionel Jiang | 496,000 |
| 3 | Robert Whitney | 426,000 |
| 4 | Robbie Kent | 404,000 |
| 5 | Tyler Bock | 351,000 |
| 6 | Ben Ludlow | 322,000 |
| 7 | Andre Allen | 315,000 |
| 8 | Joshua Kopp | 279,000 |
| 9 | James Girouard | 265,000 |
| 10 | Shane Fuller | 260,000 |
Kopp also found a bag and will be looking to match Derrick Plumage’s feat of winning two RGPS main events in a row. Others that found bags included Ben Ludlow (322,000), RGPS St. Louis Champion Andre Allen (315,000), Yashveen Mudireddy (242,000), Angela Jordison (215,000), and Maxx Holland (195,000). Each one of them looking to carve a piece of RG history as the season winds to a close.
Not all saw fortune favor them. Players like Mark Lafata, Michael Marder, Mallory Johnson, Mo Nuwwarah, former RGPS Council Bluffs main event champion Nate Steuer and WSOP bracelet winner Blair Hinkle. With one more opportunity tonight in the final flight, they will try once more to secure a bag to make Day 2 of this event.
Play ended with 25:57 left in Level 16 with blinds at 5,000/10,000 and a 10,000 big blind ante in the prior flight. This flight went longer than the previous flight, so all will be returning to this level barring an early end on the final flight.
PokerNews coverage will now go on a pause. Check back in later tonight for coverage of the final flight. Also be sure to check out all updates with the concurrent RGPS main event that is running in San Diego at Jamul Casino.