Brian Winter Crushes Again to Lead 8 Players from Day 1a into Day 2 of the RGPS Jacksonville Main Event
After just over 13 levels of play, RunGood Poker Series Player of the Year leader Brian Winter is the chip leader in the opening flight of the $1,200 Destination RunGood: Jacksonville Main Event at bestbet Jacksonville.
The opening flight drew 59 players, from which eight will return on Sunday for the Day 2 finale. They’re all fighting for a piece of the $300,000 guarantee, a bestbet trophy, and a coveted RGPS ring.
Winter is followed by Dimas Martinez Jr. in second and John Connors in third, the only other players over 300,000. Tyler Phillips and Raminder Singh round out the top five.
Destination RunGood: Jacksonville Day 1a Leaderboard
| Rank | Player | Hometown | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Brian Winter | Geneva, IL | 382,000 |
| 2 | Dimas Martinez Jr. | Abbeville, SC | 338,000 |
| 3 | John Connors | Saint Johns, FL | 300,000 |
| 4 | Tyler Phillips | Charlotte, NC | 261,000 |
| 5 | Raminder Singh | Del Ray Beach, FL | 214,000 |
| 6 | Bradley Beetz | Jacksonville, FL | 175,000 |
| 7 | Sean Conklin | Jacksonville, FL | 84,000 |
| 8 | Matthew Wright | Perry, FL | 17,000 |
Day 1a Highlights
The day kicked off with 21 players in their seats and among them were Day 2 qualifiers Matthew Wright, Martinez Jr. and Phillips. Reigning RGPS Jacksonville champion Antwan Prince also stopped by, but he failed to make it to Day 2.
Wayne Murphy was one of the early chip leaders after he cracked a pair of pocket kings with ace-seven, but his run came to an end in Level 9 when his own kings ran into Winter’s aces. Local favorite Edward Mroczkowski jumped in, as well, but he did not make it to Day 2 from the opening flight.
Winter took his seat in Level 4 and he chipped up steadily prior to his hand with Murphy, but he didn’t stop there. Pablo Valdivieso, winner of the opening tournament in the series, held the lead at different points in early stages of the day. Eventually, Valdivieso got it in with ace-queen against Winter in a hand where the former jammed after the opening round of betting but before he saw the flop. Winter called quickly with pocket aces and held on to cross the 400K mark for the day.
For a while, Winter’s closest competitor was Singh, but a late hand against Martinez allowed Winter to hang on for the overall chip lead. Singh picked up a set on the river, but the same card gave Martinez a straight and Singh fell back to the middle of the pack.
Connors was also a late mover with a few pots that put him near the top of the leaderboard, most notably the bubble hand. James Ollis got the last of it in with nine players left and pocket tens, but Connors called with a suited ace-four and a third four on the river sealed the fate of Ollis.
Day 1a wrapped up with 25 minutes left in Level 13. The tournament will offer two more opening flights on Friday and Saturday, both at 12 p.m. local time. All surviving players will return on Sunday at 12 p.m. to play down to a winner in the Day 2 finale.
Be sure to keep it with the PokerNews team for live updates from the floor of the RunGood Poker Series Main Event at bestbet Jacksonville.