The RunGood Resort has made its home this week in Cleveland, Ohio at JACK Casino. Nine events were throughout the trip here, with the flagship being The $1,000 buy-in RGPS Main Event, which saw three flights over three days. The 510 players came out to smash the guarantee and create a prize pool of $474,962. At the start of the day, only 67 players were guaranteed cash, and from that starting field, players were whittled down over 13 hours until there was just one standing.
At the end of it all, Dane Miller was the newly crowned champion and the recipient of a career-best live tournament score of $98,607.
Coming into the day on the short end with just 24 big blinds, Miller scraped his way to the final table.
“I literally could not make any hands at all, no flushes…didn’t have aces a single time, but when I would get short, I would just win all of my flips,” Miller told PokerNews.
He then reflected on the defining hand that allowed him some manoeuvrability at the final table.
“Yeah, I was one of the shortest stacks, and then I scoop a massive pot, and all of a sudden, I can actually play.”
The moment the Pittsburg native knew he was destined to win the tournament happened a little later against Kyle Grupp. Miller held ace-king against the pocket threes of Grupp when the flop came out ace-king-seven, but the turn was three to give Grupp the lead with a set, but then a miracle ace appeared on the river to give Miller a bigger full house to soar to the top of the counts.
“Yeah, I’m on a bit of a sun run.”
| Place | Player | Payout |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dane Miller | $98,607 |
| 2 | Thomas Gray | $60,495 |
| 3 | Andrew Manchen | $44,080 |
| 4 | Kyle Grupp | $32,825 |
| 5 | Katie Kopp | $24,850 |
| 6 | Michael Valore | $18,755 |
| 7 | Gregory Brletich | $14,535 |
| 8 | David Berman | $11,255 |
| 9 | Shane Swank | $8,910 |
The day got off to a semi-hot start as only 20 players had hit the rail before the first break, but it quickly picked up steam afterwards. Notable players like Keven Stammen, William Kopp, Greg Harris and Renmei Liu made their exit during this time. Once they were cut down to the final 27, local staples like Sam Delio (26th-$2,905), Michael Barlow (25th- $2,905), and William Masters (23rd-$3,420) hit the rail. ClubWPT Golden Passport Points leaders Vitaliy Neyman (21st-$4,125) and Matthew Park (19th-$4,125) both made deep runs before exiting and entering into the $1,000 PLO Championship.
Play then slowed down significantly, and they were stuck at 13 players for quite a while before Xing He, who had been chip-leading for most of the tournament, lost a series of huge hands in a row (two of them with aces) and eventually busted out to end the stagnancy. Then it was Brett Stevens who exited in 10th place when he tried to get a big bluff through on the turn with five-high but was ultimately called by Gregory Brletich who to send him out on the final table bubble.
The players were then reseated at the final table, and the pressure was on!
On one of the first few hands at the final table, a massive hand got underway as Day 1b chip leader Shane Swank moved all in with queen-jack, followed by both Dane Miller with kings and Andrew Manchen with queen. Miller emerged victorious, while Swank was eliminated in 9th place.
Next to go was David Berman who fell to Thomas ‘Beau’ Gray when his ace-three could not hold up to the ace-ten of Gray and in 7th was Greg Bletich who exited in the same manner when his ace-eight was beaten by the ace-queen of Kyle Grupp.
In 6th place was Michael Valore who got it in with ace-nine but could not win the flip against Manchen’s pocket sevens. But Valore was far from upset as this was a cherry on top of a stellar series as he won Event #2: $350 Opener and got tenth in the Ambassador Bounty, cementing his spot at the top of the ClubWPT Golden Podium Leaderboard.
Next to go was fan favorite Katie Kopp who was one of the only players with a rail that consisted of her brother and her mom who cheered her on every chance they got. She fought hard all tournament long but eventually fell when she pushed with ace-four but could not improve against the pocket sevens of Grupp.
Grupp himself, who had held the chip lead for a while before suffering a brutal cooler to Miller, exited the very next hand when he shoved with pocket fives but ran right into the pocket nines of Manchen to send him out in 4th.
After nearly an hour of three-way action, it was Manchen who fell when he got short and shoved three-four offsuit into the king-three suited of Gray and failed to improve, sending him out in for a third-place podium finish.
The heads-up battle between Gray and Miller featured several big pots, including one where Gray admitted to folding a set on the turn when Miller put him all in on a straight and flush board.
Soon after that, Miller four-bet jammed on Gray with ace-queen, who made the call with pocket eights to put his tournament life on the line. Unfortunately for Gray, a queen appeared on the flop and on the turn to secure Miller’s win, while Gray was eliminated as the tournament’s runner-up.
Miller was then adorned with the RGPS Championship ring and awarded the handsome payday of $98,607.
