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The Wait is Over for Grant Hart as he Captures First RGPS Main Event Title
The moment had finally come for Grant Hart. Hart is a regular at the RunGood Poker Series, but the title of main event champion had eluded him up until his fateful journey to The Big Easy. Hart no longer has to wonder when his time will come, as he outlasted a field of 279 entries to take down the RGPS New Orleans Golden Expedition $800 Main Event at Caesars New Orleans and be crowned champion for the first time. Hart took home the biggest share of the $200,000 prize pool with a first-place prize of $44,000.
Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Grant Hart | United States | $44,000 |
| 2 | Wess Durocher | United States | $29,327 |
| 3 | David Cocheles | United States | $21,458 |
| 4 | Christopher Savage | United States | $15,911 |
| 5 | Chris Baudean | United States | $11,961 |
| 6 | My Nguyen | United States | $9,118 |
| 7 | Crystal Galyon | United States | $7,050 |
| 8 | Brian Senie | United States | $5,529 |
| 9 | Preston McEwen | United States | $4,400 |
“I’m about as happy as one cowboy could be,” said Hart to PokerNews following his victory. “It feels great. I play a lot of PLO, so to get a win in No Limit Hold’em is a big deal for me.”
This win represents the second-biggest single-event cash of Hart’s career, and the biggest single-event cash at RunGood events, toppling his previous high of $29,091 when he took third in the RGPS Tulsa main event in 2023. Hart will no longer have to think about what it will feel like to close it out, as he can now call himself an RGPS main event champion.
Hart entered the day with less than 20 big blinds, but he arrived at the three-table redraw, improving his standing to 35 big blinds. His steady upward trend continued when he grew to an 85-big-blind stack with 18 to left in the tournament. Hart stayed on the sidelines and maintained a healthy stack, but he had work to do when he got to the final table as he was sixth in chips down the stretch.
The opening portion of the final table saw Hart take a steady approach. He picked his spots, but was not involved in any major pots. That began to change as the final table began to progress. Hart began to gain a grip on the tournament when he eliminated My Nguyen in sixth place.
“When Hamid (Izadi) busted, I knew I really had a chance. When Preston (McEwen) went out, then I put on the gas. I knew that this was mine to win or mine to lose,” said Hart. “I tried to put on as much pressure as I could and at the same time get out of trouble when they were coming back at me with a lot of all-ins to smaller stacks. I folded some pretty good hands because I thought I could outplay them on the back end.”
Hart saw his opportunity, and his ascension to the top of the counts began in earnest when he won a big pot against Christopher Savage to hit nearly four million in chips with four left in the tournament. This proved to be a critical junction for Hart as he rode that momentum down the final stretch. Hart went on to eliminate Savage in fourth and entered his heads-up match with Wess Durocher with the chip lead.
Hart dealt the first significant blow of the heads-up match when he showed a better two pair, but it was only moments later that the match was done for good when Hart caught Durocher bluffing with a missed straight draw to claim his first main event title.
Day 2 Action
A total of 33 players returned to the poker room at Caesars New Orleans with the hopes of becoming the next RunGood main event champion, and the players wasted little time getting to work as the bustouts came quickly.
Notables “Boston” Rob Mariano, Kathryn Lindsay, and Hamid Izadi fell in the opening levels of the day. World Series of Poker bracelet holder Corey Harrison was the next notable to go when he fell in 17th place.
Preston McEwen was the only former main event champion left by the time the field reached the final table, but he stumbled out of the gates at the final nine when Crystal Galyon doubled through McEwen to take a piece of his stack. McEwen’s misfortune continued when Brian Senie coolered him with aces versus jacks to leave McEwen on fumes. McEwen’s was unable to turn it around as the seasoned champion was eliminated in ninth place.
Senie was the next to go in eighth, and Galyon fell in seventh place and Nguyen in sixth place.
Durocher began to make his presence felt at the final table. Durocher took a chunk from Savage when he caught Savage bluffing with queen-high on the river. Durocher would go on to eliminate Chris Baudean in fifth place before dispatching David Cocheles in third to set up a showdown with Hart.
Hart would not take long to dispatch Durocher to finish off the RGPS Golden Expedition New Orleans $800 Main Event.
This concludes the coverage from PokerNews here at the Caesars New Orleans. Check back here at PokerNews for all your live tournament coverage and updates from the poker world.