Ashley Frank was all in and at risk from the button against under-the-gun player Brian Winter, who had a bigger stack.
Ashley Frank: 8♦8♣
Brian Winter: J♥J♦
Frank had the inferior pair, but that mattered little as the flop landed 8♠5♥Q♦ to give her a set ahead of brick runout of 6♦3♠ to double through the RunGood Player of the Year contender, who took the beat with a smile.
In a small blind versus big blind confrontation on a board of 9♥8♥7♦3♥7♠, Tony Birney checked and Daniel Lowery bet 36,000. Birney mulled it over and called.
Lowery showed 7♥2♠ for trip sevens and it was good to win the pot.
It's the final day of the RunGood Poker Series (RGPS) Joplin $600 Main Event and there are 75 players returning for a chance at the title. Leading the way are the chip leaders from the four starting flights, Brant Jolley (Day 1a - 741,000), Charles Deatherage (Day 1b - 723,000) and David Greufe (Day 1c - 680,000) and Rachel Sawyer (Day 1d - 675,000).
They may have big stacks, but they face tough competition as serial ring collector Daniel Lowery, RunGood Player of the Year contender Brian Winter and last year's runner-up Blair Hinkle are all still in contention. Others in the Day 2 field include Forrest Kollar, Mark Lafata, Derek Baxter, Sarah McCain and content creator Ashley "PokerFace Ash" Frank.
Day 2 Top Ten Chip Counts
RANK
PLAYER
HOMETOWN
Chip Count
BIG BLINDS
1
Charles Deatherage
Fayetteville
723,000
121
2
Brant Jolly
Fayetteville
716,000
119
3
David Greufe
Kansas City
680,000
113
4
Rachel Sawyer
Broken Arrow
675,000
113
5
Vincent Meyer
Shawnee Mission
650,000
108
6
Derek Baxter
Springfield
487,000
81
7
Jesse Jones
Springfield
455,000
76
8
Zhuo Liu
Rogers
452,000
75
9
Jackson Turrentine
Shawnee Mission
448,000
75
10
Eldon Penn
Yukon
447,000
75
Action will pick up where all but the last starting flight left off, on Level 14 with blinds of 3,000/6,000/6,000. Level lengths will increase to 40 minutes for Day 2, meaning action should slow a bit.
The tournament will play down to a winner, who will walk away with the lion's share of the prize pool, the champion ring and the glory of being named 2024 RGPS Joplin champion.
Will another pair of aces get cracked by a Royal Flush? There is only one way to find out, and that's by following the live updates. Stay tuned as the PokerNews live reporting team is on-site and will continue providing live updates ahead of the next RGPS Joplin champion being crowned.