Burchfield Soars As 81 Players Return Tomorrow For RGPS Tulsa Main Event
The RunGood Poker Series $600 Main Event at Hard Rock Casino in Tulsa, Oklahoma has seen all of its’ flights run their course. 269 players entered into the final flight of the night, putting the total number of entrants at 649, smashing the $100,000 prize pool guarantee with a new total of $337,480. Out of these entrants, only 81 found themselves a bag for Day 2, each one of them securing a cash as well as a bag.
Top Ten Chip Counts Day 2
| Place | Name | Hometown | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kris Burchfield | Spring, TX | 1,011,000 |
| 2 | Mark Martin | Dexter, KS | 817,000 |
| 3 | Ryan Moore | Sapulpa, OK | 599,000 |
| 4 | Michael Long | Strigler, OK | 577,000 |
| 5 | Pete Petree | Broken Arrow, OK | 511,000 |
| 6 | Jack Arnold | Tulsa, OK | 484,000 |
| 7 | Ashley Frank | Scottsdale, AZ | 424,000 |
| 8 | Tyler Barnes | Miami, OK | 415,000 |
| 9 | Joey McCaig | Nixa, MO | 414,000 |
| 10 | Brandon Elmore | Raymore, MO | 391,000 |
Leading the tournament is the final flight’s leader Kris Burchfield, who ended the day with a whopping 1,011,000 in the bag. Burchfield made up for lack of success in the previous two flights, by hitting the ground running in this one and never slowing down. Floating at the top of the chip counts for the entire day, and being on the right end of massive confrontations, benefitted the Texas resident greatly. He burst the bubble by eliminating a fellow RunGood ambassador Justin Gardenhire on the stone bubble when his queens held up against ace-king. The RunGood Ambassador has become a staple of most of the live stops and has consistently cashed in a large number of them. Burchfield has made nine total RGPS final tables, and a win here would be the cherry on top of an already impressive RunGood resume.
Second in chips and the chip leader of their respective flight was Kansas resident Mark Martin, who ended the second flight with 877,000. Martin hovered in the top five in chips all day, but it wasn’t until the hand that he eliminated Dakotah O’Dell with a rivered flush for a 700,000 chip pot that he soared to the largest stack in his flight. Martin isn’t hunting for his first RGPS title, as he already claimed that victory in 2014 at RGPS Joplin for his second biggest career score. Martin seeks to be the second player to ever win two RGPS Main Event titles, and his massive stack has put him in a position to do so.
Many players remain in this stacked field of names, including Jared Ward (384,000), recent RGPS ring winners Joseph Gargiulo (383,000) and Sandra Main (217,000), poker player and twitter personality Caitlin Comeskey (281,000), Kami Hudson (157,000), Yoel Gonzalez (119,000), and RGPS regular Duster Ellis (82,000). Joe Ferguson (205,000) became the only player in this event to bag twice, which will net him at least one min cash of his shorter stack. Not all were fortunate enough to see tomorrow, as many including Will Berry, Edward Welch, Daniel Pigago, Daniel “Donk” Hughes, and WSOP Main Event Champion Scotty Nguyen all found their hopes of a RGPS Tulsa Main Event Title dashed on this trip. The unfortunate pair of bubble boys were Derek Gomez, who’s ace-ten could not survive against Michael Long’s Jacks, and Justin Gardenhire. All of these players will have to look elsewhere for a new RGPS Main Event title.
Flight 1a ended earlier than the following two flights. Play ended and 15:29 was left in level 14 with blinds at 3,000/6,000 and a 6,000 big blind ante. The 81 surviving players will start play again on Sunday, January 29th at 12 pm in the poker room. After this, the levels will be changed to 40-minute blinds, with a 15-minute break after every three levels, with play continuing until a new champion is crowned.
Stay tuned to PokerNews for all updates on The RunGood Tulsa Main Event.