button in SafariSame Guarantee, Smaller Buy-in Main Event Headlines RGPS Bay Area
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The RunGood Poker Series (RGPS) is heading back to California this November, with Graton Resort & Casino in Rohnert Park hosting 11 days of tournament action and more than $500,000 in guaranteed prize pools.
The 2026 RGPS Bay Area runs from November 12-22, featuring 18 ring events, a $200,000 guaranteed PokerNews PowerStack Mystery Bounty, and a $300,000 guaranteed Main Event that will be covered live by PokerNews.
The festival comes as RGPS continues its busy run across the United States, with another stop at Horseshoe Casino Tunica also on the calendar. Now, players on the West Coast will have their own chance to chase RGPS hardware, with plenty of affordable tournaments alongside the festival's two headline events.
RGPS Golden Expedition Bay Area Full Schedule
PokerNews PowerStack Kicks Off the Big Guarantees
The first major attraction is the $400 PokerNews PowerStack Mystery Bounty, which carries a $200,000 guarantee and five starting flights spread across November 12-14.
Players have several opportunities to build a stack for Day 2 on Sunday, November 15, when the surviving field will return to compete for the title and mystery bounty prizes.
The PowerStack is one of the standout tournaments on the opening weekend, but there's plenty more on offer. The $300 Series Opener gets things underway on November 12, while a $400 Big Bounty event follows on November 15.
Other highlights include the $300 Graton Harvest Classic, the $400 Monster Stack, and a variety of mixed-game tournaments. Omaha players are particularly well catered for, with Limit Omaha 8, Mixed PLO, Pot-Limit Omaha, and Double Board Bomb Pot PLO all featuring on the schedule.
There's also a $400 Seniors 50+ tournament, a Tag Team PLO/NLH event, and several lower buy-in turbo tournaments for players looking to squeeze in some extra action.
$300K Main Event with a Smaller Buy-In
This time, the Main Event buy-in drops to $800 from $1,100 while retaining the $300,000 guarantee, giving players a cheaper shot at a major RGPS title. The tournament gets underway on Friday, November 20.
The Main Event features four starting flights across Friday and Saturday, giving players multiple opportunities to secure a place in Sunday's finale.
| Flight | Date | Start Time |
|---|---|---|
| Day 1A | Friday, November 20 | 10 a.m. |
| Day 1B | Friday, November 20 | 4 p.m. |
| Day 1C | Saturday, November 21 | 10 a.m. |
| Day 1D | Saturday, November 21 | 4 p.m. |
| Day 2 | Sunday, November 22 | Noon |
PokerNews will be on-site providing live reporting of the Main Event, bringing readers chip counts, big hands, eliminations, and updates from the tournament floor as the next RGPS champion is crowned.
Players looking to qualify for less than the full $800 buy-in will also find Main Event satellites on the schedule, including $200 qualifiers awarding one Main Event seat for every five entries.
Plenty More to Play for in the Bay Area
The Bay Area stop is also part of the RGPS Golden Expedition season, with players able to compete in the 2026/27 RunGood Player of the Year race and the PokerNews PowerStack Leaderboard.
The PowerStack competition offers an added incentive to perform well across the tour. The top 10 players on the PokerNews PowerStack Leaderboard will each earn a package to Thunder Valley and entry into the exclusive $300 Dream Seat Invitational.
The festival comes just months after RGPS visited Graton in March, when Aaron Overton took down the $1,100 Main Event for $94,050.
