Valdivieso Claims Day 1c Lead in Final Opening Flight of RGPS Jacksonville Main Event
The $1,200 Main Event of the RunGood Poker Series Jacksonville saw its largest field of the weekend on Day 1c, with 330 runners taking their shot at a share of the $653,120 prize pool and Sunday's champion scoring a six-figure payday of $119,773.
After a day of tightly contested play with no one truly staking their claim to the chip lead until late in the day, it’s Pablo Valdivieso taking 505,000 chips into Sunday’s final day of play. His stack will be the 2nd largest of the final 100 players that survived one of the three opening flights, with Day 1a chip leader Josh Wang and his 689,000 chips the largest stack taken forward into Day 2.
Day 2 Top 10 Chip Counts
| Place | Name | Hometown | State | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Josh Wang | Orlando | FL | 689,000 | 138 |
| 2 | Pablo Valdivieso | Jacksonville | FL | 505,000 | 101 |
| 3 | Jose Montes | Highland Village | TX | 484,000 | 97 |
| 4 | Matthew Johnson | Smyrna | TN | 471,000 | 94 |
| 5 | Dale North | Hilton Head | SC | 442,000 | 88 |
| 6 | Marvin Thomas | Amelia | LA | 395,000 | 79 |
| 7 | Charles Kelley | Jacksonville | FL | 368,000 | 74 |
| 8 | Geoffrey Blum | Jacksonville | FL | 353,000 | 71 |
| 9 | Rodrigo Herreros | Jacksonville | FL | 337,000 | 67 |
| 10 | Jerimiah Booher | Charlotte | NC | 328,000 | 66 |
Day 1c Action
As players knew they wouldn’t have another chance to reach Day 2, play was more cautious in the late stages than in the previous flights, with the tournament reaching the end of Level 14 with a little over 15% of the field remaining.
Plenty of notables took their shot on Day 1c, with such names as Steven Snyder (750,000), Jon Swift (213,000), Thomas Carroll (247,000), and RGPS Ambassadors Kris Burchfield (140,000) and Jonathan Gaviao (258,000) advancing, while others such as Corey Paggeot, Shane Barnard, and Joey Gargiulo weren’t as fortunate.
Day 2 Schedule
The final 100 players will now come back to the bestbet Jacksonville at noon tomorrow to play down to a winner. The top 79 players will take home at least a min-cash of $1,921.
All flights ended after completing 14 full levels, so play for Day 2 will begin at the start of Level 15 with blinds of 3,000/5,000 with a 5,000 big blind ante. Levels will again be 40 minutes in length with 15-minute breaks scheduled after every third level.
Stay close to PokerNews for live reporting of all the action until the first ever RunGood Poker Series Jacksonville Main Event champion is crowned here at the action-packed bestbet.
to give him two pair, kings and tens to defeat his opponent and sent him to the rail. 
, Ed Mroczkowski and Carson Nennsteil checked to Bradley Beetz who bet 8,000. 
appear on the turn, to which both players decided to check. 
and Nennsteil bet 4,000 into the pot but was then raised to 20,000 by Beetz. Nennsteil paused to think about it for some time and eventually flicked in a call chip but was then shown 
for a rivered seven. This was good enough to beat Nennsteil as he showed the 
as he tossed his cards into the muck.
quickly changed that as it gave Snyder a flush and left his opponents drawing stone dead. The board completed with the 
to secure his victory as two players were sent to the rail and Valdivieso was left short.
when Christopher Long pushed his stack of 17,100 into the pot of around 15,000. 
to give Robinson the victory with his superior straight for a big double-up. 