Rodriguez Leads The First Two Flights; Lowery, Stanford, and Johnson Bag Big
A total of 236 players came out for the first flight of The RunGood Poker Series Graton Casino $800 Main Event in Rohnert Park, California, ensuring that 30 players from that flight would find their way to a bag and come back on Sunday March 5th. The following flight saw 157 entrants come out, making way for 20 players to bag and already the prize pool has amassed $275,100. Given the guarantee was set at $250,000, the prizepool is expected to be massive as the following two flights kick off tomorrow at 11 AM and 5 PM.
Leading the field with the only bag over 600,000 is Day 1a’s chip leader Noel Rodriguez who ended his flight with 799,000. Rodriguez is no stranger to the RunGood Poker Series, as he holds a RGPS ring of his own, as well as tournament lifetime earnings that are well over $200,000. A main event run deep run seemed in the cards for Rodriguez as his ace-three cracked his opponent’s ace-jack, which was followed by a massive spin up of chips that had him tripling his stack within minutes. With his bag, he could be setting himself for his first RGPS Main Event title in this massive field.
Jonathan Warta (577,000),Daniel Lowery (576,000) and recent RGPS PLO champion Cody Stanford (507,000) also bagged over 500,000. Lowery and Stanford possess numerous RGPS accolades, with Lowery holding more tour titles than anyone else. Their massive chip stacks going into the final day bode well for their chances of more RGPS big titles.
Day 1ab Top Ten Chip Counts
| Place | Player | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Noel Rodriguez | 799,000 |
| 2 | Jonathan Warta | 577,000 |
| 3 | Daniel Lowery | 576,000 |
| 4 | Cody Stanford | 507,000 |
| 5 | Tomas Padilla | 500,000 |
| 6 | Marco Johnson | 418,000 |
| 7 | Danny Jon | 417,000 |
| 8 | Ekasit Aroonrungrudsamee | 416,000 |
| 9 | Peter Pap | 412,000 |
| 10 | Rickey Evans | 357,000 |
Tomas Padilla (500,000) ended up bagging the chip lead of Day 1b after a late night clash with Kyle Kitagawa saw his pocket fives hold against Kittigawa’s ace queen. After that, the eliminations went quickly and Alex Loncar (322,000) sent home the final player of the night when her queens held up to make the flight bag up prior to hand for hand play. WSOP bracelet winner Marco Johnson (417,000) played many pots late at night to give him a massive stack, making him the only player bagging up with a WSOP bracelet. Others that found bags in these first two flights included Rickey Evans (357,000), Julian Ruvalcaba (317,000), Taylor Pollard (312,000), Bill Murray (193,000) and Bilguun Odgerel (79,000).
The days were not kind to everyone as many players fell by the wayside. Players like Michael Loncar, Josh Prager, Ian Steinman, Shirin Oksooi, and Lon McEachern all will have to look to tomorrow’s flights in the hopes to bag up for the massive prize pool. Play ended with 15:16 left in Level 15 with blinds at 4,000/8,000 and an 8,000 big blind ante.
Stay tuned to PokerNews for all updates regarding The RunGood Poker Series at Graton Casino in Rohnert Park, California. Also be sure to check out the concurrently running RunGood Poker Series at Horseshoe Casino in Tunica, Mississippi.