The first ever RunGood Poker Series stop in Central Pennsylvania has crowned a champion, as Chadd Beatty conquered the field in the RGPS Grand Prix Pennsylvania $800 Main Event.
The victory wraps up a very successful week for the local cash game player, earning his second RGPS ring of the series at Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course. The event drew 165 total entries, more than doubling the guarantee for a prize pool of $115,500.
“It feels good to make three final tables, win two of them,” Beatty told PokerNews shortly after his latest triumph. “I ran really good, it's not like I did that much work, you know, the deck hit me in the face.”
Beatty and Rob Gardner agreed to a deal to adjust the payouts once they reached heads-up play, with the stacks almost even at that point. As Beatty referenced, he ran pure from that point and closed out the week with another win after taking down the $200 One Day Ring Event on September 17.
This victory came with a slightly higher top prize, as Beatty earned $26,018 along with an entry into the RunGood Dream Seat Invitational in November.
RGPS Grand Prix Pennsylvania $800 Main EventFinal Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chadd Beatty | United States | $26,018* |
| 2 | Rob Gardner | United States | $22,351* |
| 3 | Christopher Coles | United States | $13,520 |
| 4 | Richard Wilburn | United States | $9,712 |
| 5 | Zachary Gruneberg | United States | $7,179 |
| 6 | Anthony Potis | United States | $5,465 |
| 7 | Mark Brodsky | United States | $4,289 |
| 8 | Patrick Waters | United States | $3,472 |
| 9 | Jonathan Ares | United States | $2,903 |
*Denotes heads-up deal
Beatty’s Path to Victory
Just 18 players returned in the money to battle for the title, with Beatty sitting in second place overall to begin the day after bagging the largest stack of Day 1c.
The road to leading his flight was anything but smooth, as Beatty found himself short on the final level before finding some help.
“I had 78,000 five-handed, blinds were 5,000-10,000,” explained the eventual champion. “I got kings versus deuces, doubled up, and ran pretty good after that.”
Despite carrying a big stack into the final day, it was a rough start to Day 2. Beatty lost more than half of his stack on the opening two levels, before winning a classic race to stay alive and recover some chips.
“I won a big flip with jack-jack versus ace-king, so then I thought I was probably the chip leader of the tournament after that hand. I just wanted to win.”
From there, Beatty saw a rush of eliminations over the next two levels, including RunGood Ambassador Ashley Frank, who hit the rail in 15th place.
The final table saw chips traded back and forth, and Beatty was chasing the lead again before slow-playing his ace-king to knock out Christopher Coles in third place.
“I got to 2,200,000 as we started three handed, and they basically crushed me three handed. I was down to 1.2 million, then I started hitting a few hands and I limped the ace-king. We held there and we had 2,500,000 out of the 4,900,000 starting heads-up, we were basically dead even.”
That’s when Beatty and Gardner agreed to change the top two payouts, while still playing for the RGPS ring. Beatty steadily increased his lead, holding with a pair on the final hand to clinch his second win of the week.
That concludes PokerNews coverage of the inaugural RGPS Main Event in Central Pennsylvania, but be sure to stay tuned when the Grand Prix series hits New Orleans in October.
