The second day of Run It Up Reno VII saw the tournament area packed to the brim with two more trophy events, including the kickoff of the first-ever Mini Main Event.
The Mini Main Event drew 262 entries for the $440 buy-in, which more than doubled the $50,000 guarantee on the prize pool. Shortly after level 19 started, the field was trimmed down to its final 16 players, who bagged up and are coming back on Sunday at 2 p.m. to play down to a winner.
Dick Hanley narrowly edged out Kevin Gerhart for the chip lead after bagging up 907,000. Gerhart finished the day with 890,000 and will come back second in chips.
Dick Hanley
Team RIU streamers Ben Spragg and Matt Staples are both still alive heading into Day 2, as well as Team PokerStars Pro Felix Schneiders.
Ben Spragg
Day 2 of the Mini Main Event marks first-ever live streamed RIU event. It’s the first of a few events on the schedule that are scheduled to be live streamed on a three-hour delay on Twitch at RunItUp.TV. With 16 players returning, they will have one table on stream and the other as the secondary table until just nine players remain and they combine to the final table, which will be streamed in its entirety.
Felix Schneiders was getting his own footage on Day 1 of the Mini Main, but he’ll be on RunItUp.TV on Day 2
The final 16 players are all guaranteed a cash of at least $1,200, but the winner will earn $22,000, the trophy and a spot in the Platinum Pass freeroll at the end of the series.
The $125 HORSE was the 5 p.m. event and it drew an impressive 145 entries, smashing the $10,000 guaranteed prize pool. While Matt Staples was deep in the Mini Main Event, his brother Jaime was deep in the first mixed event of the series. The elder Staples finished third for $1,550, leaving Derek Gomez and Nick Kiley heads-up for the title.
Jaime Staples (left) finished third in the $125 HORSE
After both Kiley and Gomez rivered a full house in Omaha hi-lo, Gomez’s was bigger, which secured his first-ever RIU title. He earned $3,100 and a spot in the Platinum Pass freeroll with his victory. Kiley left with $2,535 thanks to a deal they made at the outset of heads-up play.
Derek Gomez (left) defeated Nick Kiley (right) in the $125 HORSE
For the unlucky players who didn’t go deep in an event on Saturday, there was a cash game hangout in the poker room at 8 p.m. Fans had a chance to play some small-stakes cash games with Jason Somerville and Arlie Shaban. Somerville was having a blast playing $2 ante short-deck no-limit hold’em, while Shaban was at another table mixing it up with some of other RIU faithful.
Fans got to play with Arlie Shaban in the RIU cash game hangout
With three events running on Sunday, it’s going to be one of the busiest days on the schedule. Keep up with our social media channels and check back to RunItUp.com for continued coverage of the action. You can check out more amazing photos from Antonio Abrego by heading over to the Run It Up Flickr library.
