Brett Reichard Bags Overall Chip Lead on Day 1bc of RGPS Contenders Council Bluffs $575 Main Event
Two starting flights of the RunGood Poker Series Contenders Council Bluffs $575 Main Event came and went on Saturday, totaling nearly 15 hours of combined play. Day 1b began at 11 a.m. and drew 269 entries, with 44 players making their way through 13 levels of play. Then, Day 1c took center stage, generating the largest turnout of the event with 292 entries and bringing the three-day tournament total to 813.
On that center stage, Brett Reichard wound up stealing the show in the final hour of play for the night, roughly tripling his stack largely in part to a massive pot he won just before bagging in which his ace-nine hit a nine on the river to beat the ace-king of Joe Corbin, who had well above an average bagging stack of his own prior to his knockout blow. When chips went into bags, Reichard finished the day with 465,500, easily the largest stack among the 55 that remained in his flight and in the overall field.
Day 1b chip leader Daniel Thomas (290,000) finished with the next largest stack of the combined flights, while both flight's second place finishers in Mike Vanier and Beriz Turnadzic each ended their respective flights with 277,500.
Other notables to make it through the field included Luke Blindert, former RGPS Champions Nate Steuer (161,000) and Mark Fink (136,000), Brian Frenzel (110,500), and Johnnie Moreno (91,000).
Plenty more failed to advance, including RunGood Ambassador Grant Hinkle, Taylor Howard, Greg Jennings, Phil Mader, and William Reynolds.
In total, 137 players will return at 11 a.m. for Day 2 of the event with 45-minute levels to start the day. Prize pool information has yet to be released, but PokerNews will be bringing you all the action again from the time cards go in the air, through the bubble, and all the way to the finish line. See you in the morning.
, leaving his opponent in need of running straight or flush cards. The latter of the two became a possibility after the turn 
, but the draw was left dry on the river 
and Hinkle scooped up the pot and the knockout.
to give Karn a full house.
did not save him, and Karn shipped the pot and knockout.
, giving Belcher a flopped set of queens. Belcher slammed his fist down onto the pot in celebration of the won pot, while Lammers congratulated him on a nice hand and wished the table the best of luck.
. Both blinds checked once more, with Frenzel asking the big blind if he had checked. Upon receiving confirmation, Frenzel bet 4,000.
.
completed the runout and he was eliminated by Rathe as a result.
