On a heads-up completed board of J♠8♠J♣7♣4♠, there was 30,400 in the middle when Jason White checked over to Paul Vlahos, who fired off a bet of 26,000.
This amount covered White, so he went deep into debating the fate of his tournament life.
After over a minute, he decided to make the call, which Vlahos clearly did not like as he tossed out his hand to show Q♣9♣ for just queen-high. White then let out a big sigh of relief as he flipped over K♣K♥ to take down the substantial pot for the double-up.
Robert Tryon opened to 500 under-the-gun and was then three-bet by Dan Stavila to 1,600.
The action folded back to Tryon who then put in the cold four-bet to 4,100. After some thought, Stavila set out chips to make the call.
The dealer spread the flop of 7♥3♥4♦ and Tryon led for 6,200. Stavila chuckled to himself and promptly slid his hand to the dealer to award the pot to Tryon.
On a heads-up completed board of 4♦2♣6♥8♦7♦, Terrance Reid led out for 8,000 but was then quickly raised to 20,000 by his opponent, Torn Saelee.
Reid promptly tossed out calling chips and tabled A♠5♠ for a rivered straight, but was then shown the bad news when Saelee rolled over A♦3♦ for the rivered nut flush to take the pot.
Reid was left with only 15,500 but in the following minutes managed to spin it back up to 30,000.
It's a great weekend here at beautiful Thunder Valley Casino Resort in Lincoln California, just north of Sacramento, as the RunGood Poker Series wraps up its 2024 season with the Destination: Final Boarding $2,500 No-Limit Hold'em $1,000,000 Season Finale! This is the third time the tour has run a seven-figure guaranteed tournament, due to the huge success the past two years at this same location.
The $2,500 buy-in tournament begins at 11:00 a.m. today, and the excitement around the casino has been palpable all week as huge fields in side events and satellites have turned the Thunder Valley room into the epicenter of poker in California.
As it is their biggest event of the season, the RunGood team has spared no expense and pulled out all the stops to make this event truly feel as big as it is, including a pregame show that will take place before cards go into the air on Saturday for Day 1b.
RGPS Final Boarding
When play begins, entrants will start the day with 40,000 chips at blind levels of 100/200 with a 200 big blind ante. Eight 60-minute levels will be played on the two opening days, Friday and Sunday, with 15-minute breaks every two levels.
Ten more 60-minute levels are scheduled for Day 2 on Sunday, with Monday’s Day 3 seeing play continue until a player is awarded a huge payout and crowned the Destination Champion. The winner will also be awarded a RunGood Poker Series Dream Seat Entry for a chance at the $1 million freeroll at PokerGo Studio later this year. Last year's winner, Thunder Valley's official national ambassador, Tyler Patterson, brought home $200,422 and the prestigious RunGood ring after defeating Paul Sampson in a lengthy heads-up duel.
Tyler Patterson
2023 RGPS Checkpoint Season Finale Results
Place
Player
Prize
1
Tyler Patterson
$200,422
2
Paul Sampson
$141,585
3
Darren Rabinowitz
$90,315
4
Shijia Liu
$63,945
5
Kevin O'Donnell
$49,055
6
Adam Hannula
$41,025
7
Phatseluck Yang
$33,905
8
Michael Zimmer
$27,040
9
Alexander Rodriguez
$21,505
Players will be allowed one re-entry on each opening flight, with registration closing at the start of Level 9, so a maximum of four bullets ($10,000) can be fired into the event.
Stay tuned to PokerNews, as our live reporting team is on-site to provide updates on all the action until a champion is crowned on Monday.
