Bill Casey made Run It Up Reno history on Sunday evening. The local grinder and construction company owner took down the first-ever RIU live streamed final table. He defeated a 262-entry field in the $440 Mini Main Event to earn the trophy, a seat into the Platinum Pass freeroll, and $19,100 after a three-way deal.

As they got deeper into the final table, Casey began to pull away from the rest of the pack and open up a massive chip lead. He went into heads-up play with a better than 3-to-1 chip lead and was never in danger of losing it. He held a huge lead at the final table, but a day earlier it wasn’t that easy.

With just four levels left on Day 1, Casey was one of the shortest stacks in the room. Already in the money, Casey was down to just 1,500 from a 20,000-chip starting stack. In those final two hours of play, he went on a tear and turned a couple chips into a formidable stack.

“I ran it up, didn’t I?” said Casey with a laugh. “I was down to 1,500 chips two hours before we bagged. I had a deuce and a four in the big blind. I had 1,500 in chips and I was already in the blind, so where was I going? I put the rest in and it came deuce-deuce-five. The guy behind me had ace-deuce and I turned the four. The rest is history. In two hours, I went from 1,500 to 354,000.”

Casey was filled with emotion after the victory and couldn’t hide the joy that filled him. After enduring the swings of winning a poker tournament, he was just happy that all the effort he put in on the felt paid off.

“It’s just crazy,” said Casey. “It’s a roller coaster out here when you’re playing so hard and you’re trying to win. Every pot means so much. You have to play so hard to get to the top and I had to fight the whole way. It was a lot of fun, now. Now it’s fun when you can win and take the winnings down and take the trophy home with you.”

Not only was this the first-ever live streamed final table at Run It Up Reno, but it was the first time that Casey played in front of cameras and an audience. In front of that audience, Casey earned a seat into the Platinum Pass freeroll, but didn’t know the details of the PokerStars Players Championship taking place in the Bahamas this January.

After learning about the $25,000 event and the $30,000 package that comes with a Platinum Pass, Casey was pretty excited at the opportunity.

“It makes me want to play a lot harder,” he said.

Jordan Spurlin was eliminated in fourth, which immediately sparked a chop discussion among the final three players. They agreed to save $5,000 to play for and they all locked up $14,100. David Oppenheim finished in third. Both Hanley and Oppenheim walked away with $14,100, while Casey left with the lion’s share of the prize pool.

Here are the full results:

1st: Bill Casey – $19,120
2nd: Dick Hanley – $14,100
3rd: David Oppenheim – $14,100
4th: Jordan Sprulin – $7,200
5th: Andrew Joros – $5,100
6th: Kevin Gerhart – $3,700
7th: Paul McGurk – $2,746
8th: Felix Schneiders – $2,110
9th: Chris Golerady – $1,660
10th: Ben Spragg – $1,660
11th: Matt Staples – $1,470
12th: Brian Sherrier – $1,470
13th: Bob Galina – $1,310
14th: Nick Thomson – $1,310
15th: John Skrovan – $1,200
16th: Naomi Wager – $1,200
17th: Eric Peterson – $1,080
18th: Anthony Nguyen – $1,080
19th: Patrick Preston – $1,080
20th: Maria Maceiras – $1,080
21st: Robert Rawlinson – $1,000
22nd: Scott Hoffer – $1,000
23rd: Dylan Lamde – $1,000
24th: Andrew Pokrimak – $1,000
25th: Shawn Van Asdale – $940
26th: Lynnore Goldfarb – $940
27th: Jeffrey Goodate – $940
28th: Deborah Swift – $940
29th: John Miner – $880
30th: David Lucchesi – $880
31st: Kenneth Adams – $880
32nd: Patrick Tardif – $880
33rd: Gregory Gius – $825
34th: Steven Filipovic – $825
35th: Joseph Ogden – $825
36th: Jesse Capps – $825
37th: Daniel Chevrie – $825
38th: Albert Ng – $825
39th: Lex Veldhuis – $825
40th: Steven Richards – $825