One of poker’s premier mid-stakes tours wrapped up its 2022 season in the Golden State Monday.
The American Poker Award-winning RunGood Poker Series hosted its season finale at Thunder Valley Casino Resort. The California tribal casino is located just outside Sacramento.
The 10-event series had a total of $1.55 million in guaranteed prize pools. Additionally, the winner of the $2,500 no-limit hold ’em main event and the $600 no-limit hold’em “PokerGO Studio Ticket” event each earned a seat into the 2022 RGPS All-Stars Pro-Am tournament in Las Vegas in just a few days.
Northern California poker pro Brett Murray wins main event title
The series’ marquee event, the $2,500 main event, featured a $1 million guaranteed prize pool. The guarantee proved useful for the 417 entries as the field size resulted in a small overlay.
Regardless of the overlay, the field drew quite a bit of top-tier poker talent to the Northern California casino. Longtime poker pro Brett Murray defeated Tyler Patterson heads-up to take home the title, the pro-am seat and the $172,845.
The six-figure score was the second-largest of Murray’s career. It’s only behind his runner-up finish in an $1,100 no-limit hold ’em event for $176,000 at the Venetian Las Vegas last November.
His largest score came in Sin City, but the Santa Rosa native puts up results at Thunder Valley. Murray won the $1,700 no-limit hold ’em World Series of Poker Circuit main event at Thunder Valley in 2018 for $151,145. A year later, he finished runner-up in the same event for $135,980.
Of Murray’s four Circuit titles, half of them came at Thunder Valley. His most recent cash moves his career tournament earnings north of $2 million.
As impressive as Murray’s resume is, Patterson’s is equally outstanding. The California poker pro has a World Poker Tour title and a World Series of Poker bracelet. He won the $1,500 pot-limit Omaha hi-lo at the 2014 WSOP for $270,992. The following year, he took down the WPT bestbet Bounty Scramble in Jacksonville, Fla. for $375,270.
With a $152,845 score for his runner-up finish, Patterson’s career tournament earnings pierced the $3 million mark.
WSOP bracelet winner Stephen Song and two-time WPT champion Cornel Cimpan just missed the final table. Cimpan finished in 10th for $19,580 and Song busted in 11th for $16,220.
RGPS Finale Main Event Final Table Results
| Place | Name | Prize Money |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Brett Murray | $172,835 |
| 2 | Tyler Patterson | $156,835 |
| 3 | Toan Nguyen | $88,250 |
| 4 | David Ong | $61,140 |
| 5 | Michael Loncar | $46,930 |
| 6 | Trevor O'Donoghue | $39,120 |
| 7 | Lam Le | $32,570 |
| 8 | Joe Nguyen | $26,070 |
| 9 | Arthur Tanimoto | $19,580 |
Henrieto Acain and Brett Murray earn pro-am seats
Everyone in attendance was trying to get their piece of the guaranteed prize money. However, the other most coveted aspect of the series was the final two seats to the All-Stars Pro-Am event.
Murray got one of them with his main event victory. Henrieto Acain got the other from his victory in the $600 no-limit hold’em “PokerGo Studio Ticket” event. Acain bested a 350-entry field to win $38,270 and secure his spot in Las Vegas.
Murray and Acain received a $550 buy-in to the event and a $250 travel stipend for the invitation-only tournament.
This is the second installment of the tournament. Last year, there were 32 qualifiers and 32 invitees. But this year, RunGood is reducing the field to 48. There are just 12 invitees.
According to the RunGood website, the invitees will be a mix of poker personalities, reality TV stars, Twitch streamers, influencers and other poker media personnel.
The event will be hosted at the PokerGO studio, outside the Aria Resort Casino on the Las Vegas Strip. The two-day tournament will run from Dec. 16-17.
Complete series results
| Event # | Buy-in | Game | Entrants | Winner | First Place |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $1,000 | No-Limit Hold'em Take 1 | 456 | Jeff Lennon | $78,040 |
| 2 | $300 | No-Limit Hold'em Knockout | 125 | Pedro Rodriguez | $5,795 |
| 3 | $135 | No-Limit Hold'em Bomb Pot Ambassador Bounty | 164 | Darrell Cain | $4,320 |
| 4 | $255 | No-Limit Hold'em RunGood Fifty-Five | 429 | Richard Troendly | $18,355 |
| 5 | $600 | No-Limit Hold'em PokerGO Studio Ticket | 350 | Henrieto Acain | $38,270 |
| 6 | $500 | Pot-Limit Omaha | 45 | Bob Mather | $7,890 |
| 7 | $2,500 | No-Limit Hold'em Main Event | 417 | Brett Murray | $172,845 |
| 8 | $1,000 | No-Limit Hold'em Director's Cut | 132 | Alfie Poetra | $31,720 |
| 9 | $500 | HORSE | 22 | Peter Dirksen | $3,606 |
| 10 | $500 | No-Limit Hold'em Curtain Call | 72 | Rashbir Singh | $11,090 |
