William McCracken Battles Back to Win RGPS K.C. Main Event ($83,099)
Table Of Contents
After a marathon day of poker, William McCracken has been crowned the winner of the RGPS Kansas City Main Event after defeating Eddie Northcraft heads-up.
McCracken was awarded $83,099, the RGPS champions ring, and the Dream Seat in Thunder Valley later this year while Northcraft took home $55,399 for his runner-up finish. The two outlasted a field of 423 entries.
This is the Missouri native’s second-largest career cash after a Heartland Poker Tour (HPT) 1st-place finish here in Kansas City back in 2016. He also came runner-up in the same RGPS Kansas City Main Event back in 2016 for $28,833, so he is definitely not a stranger to tournaments. This latest score will bring his lifetime tournament earnings to over $450,000 which will move him up a few spots on the Missouri all-time money list. When asked what his plans were next, his response was simple.
“Well, can’t really travel too much, as I’m a full-time veterinarian, but this definitely makes it easier to play the Wynn Championship this December.”
Final Table Results
| Rank | Player | Prize |
| 1 | William McCracken | $83,099 |
| 2 | Eddie Northcraft | $55,399 |
| 3 | Jesse Jones | $40,754 |
| 4 | Shaun Emery | $30,335 |
| 5 | David Hengen | $22,850 |
| 6 | Blair Hinkle | $17,421 |
| 7 | Shane Fuller | $13,444 |
| 8 | Ron Walker | $10,504 |
| 9 | Spencer Sanchez | $8,310 |
Final Table Action
Throughout the day, it was Emery and Jones who were the forces to be reckoned with, amassing large piles of chips early in the day and keeping them as such all the way to the final table. They were first and second in chips going into the final table, Emery with 2,745,000 and Jones with 1,730,00 after eliminating Matt Snook in 10th place. Jones then drew first blood at the final table when he busted Spencer Sanchez after crippling him the hand before with a straight-over-straight situation.
Next to exit was Ron Walker who fell victim to Blair Hinkle’s five-six suited versus his own ace-queen suited when the board gave Hinkle trip fives to bust him in eighth. That is around the time that Northcraft began to catch fire and started winning pot after pot, and eventually scored the seventh-place knockout when he called Shane Fuller’s turn-shove with the bottom straight versus top-pair and a gutterball. The river bricked the chop-outs Fuller needed and he was sent to the rail while Northcraft began his rise into the chip lead.
After a series of unfortunate hands, Hinkle shoved with king-queen suited and was called by Jones with a superior ace-jack which held to send out the leading player on the Missouri all-time money list in sixth place. Soon after him, short-stacked David Hengen found the door in fifth as his jack-nine was no match for McCracken’s ace-nine. The players were then down to four-handed for quite a while and it seemed like Emery was going on a heater until McCracken coolered him in a massive pot in the classic kings versus aces scenario to send him out in fourth place.
McCracken then used this momentum to beat Jesse Jones in a huge flip with his ace-three versus Jones' king-queen and then Northcraft finished him off with queen-ten versus Jones’ queen-nine. Jones was sent out in third place for the second time in a row as he placed third back in May of this year.
At this point, Northcraft held a dominant 2-1 lead, but McCracken scored a huge double-up in the first hand of heads-up play to turn the tides in his favor. After taking down a few more hands, McCracken then moved all in preflop and was called by Northcraft with the title on the line. Northcraft flipped over ace-queen while McCracken tabled an inferior (to most) jack-nine but a nine appeared on the flop and held to secure his victory and Northcraft exited as the runner-up.
McCracken was then crowned the champion of the RGPS Kansas City Main Event and awarded the RunGood ring, the Dreamseat in Thunder Valley, and of course the $83,099 grand prize.
Click here for the RGPS Live Reporting Hub!
McCracken’s win concludes PokerNews coverage of the RGPS Kansas City Series, which has been a tremendous success here at Harrah’s Casino. RunGood will continue its Road Trip in Cleveland from November 2-12 and PokerNews will be there once again with live coverage of the Main Event.
RGPS Kansas City Side Event Winners
| Event | Entries | Prize Pool | Winner | Prize |
| Event #1: $250 Seniors Event | 214 | $42,800 | Douglas Patterson | $9,854 |
| Event #2: $200 Series Opener | 166 | $26,250 | William Wagoner | $6,426 |
| Event #3: $200 Ambassador Bounty | 255 | $40,800 | Paul Stratman | $7,521* |
| Event #4: $400 DeepStack | 475 | $154,375 | Jeffrey Shafferman | $19,513* |
| Event #5: $300 One Day | 203 | $48,720 | Nathan Davis | $9,405* |
| Event #6: $250 Double Green Chip Bounty | 151 | $22,650 | Darrel Filley | $5,615 |
| Event #7: $500 PLO | 96 | $41,280 | Scott Buller | $7,903 |
*- denotes chop deal
