Jim Brundige is a first-timer at Run It Up Reno. Having made the trip out here from Charlotte, he scheduled his flight back on Monday morning. After his in the early hours of Friday morning, he’s planning on pushing it back a day.

Brundige made his third final table of the series and earned his first-ever RIU trophy by taking down the $150 six-max pot-limit Omaha knockout event. He defeated a field of 141 entries and earned $3,280 for his victory, along with $25 for every knockout he scored. Now that he’s got a RIU victory on his resume, he qualified for the Platinum Pass freeroll, taking place on Monday.

“My plane was supposed to leave on Monday, but I guess I’ll have to call and add an extra day to it,” said Brundige with a laugh.

Brundige has been on an absolute tear over the last few weeks. Just a couple weeks ago, he finished 38th out of a massive 1,400-entry field in the Moneymaker Tour event at Live! Casino in Maryland.

Then, he came out here to his first-ever Run It Up Reno and made three more final tables, including a seventh place finish in the Moneymaker Tour here at RIU just two days ago. He’s cashed in two other events this series aside from his three final tables and is just putting on a clinic.

With these kind of results, you’d think he’s putting in a ton of work on his game. But after leaving Maryland for Charlotte, he doesn’t have many places to actually play the game. Between the tournament and cash game options here in Reno, Brundige is making the most of his opportunity to grind.

“I’ve just been playing as much as I can out here,” said Brundige. “I’m just having a great time out here. It’s my first time. I’m just having a blast living the dream.”

Most of his cashes here in Reno came in no-limit hold’em events. His win came in a pot-limit Omaha events. His favorite game? None of the above. At his core, Brundige fancies himself a limit player.

“I like the mixed games a lot,” he said. “Omaha 8, stud 8 and razz are my favorites. But PLO has always been my cash game to run to. It’s just my favorite to play and there’s just so much action. You can get the pots really big really quick and just have a lot of fun.”

For Brundige, the final table of this event was smooth sailing the whole way. He came in with a massive chip-stack and only extended it. He steamrolled the table and went heads-up with Sarah Sherman with a 6-to-1 chip advantage.

Sherman couldn’t muster up enough momentum to put any sizable dent in Brundige’s chip stack, eventually finishing runner-up for $1,421.

“When we got four-handed, I had 700,000, so I had 50% of the chips in play and three-handed I had over 800,000. And then heads-up it was 1,200,000 to 200,000. It was a great final table. There was a lot of banter and everyone was having a great time.”

Third-place finisher Steven Filipovic won the RIU gear last longer competition and also qualifies for the Platinum Pass freeroll.

Results:

1st: Jim Brundige – $3,280
2nd: Sarah Sherman – $2,135
3rd: Steven Filipovic – $1,421 + platinum pass freeroll seat (RIU gear last longer winner)
4th: Claudio Elizalde – $970
5th: Charles Edwards – $680
6th: Derek Swell – $500
7th: Paul Holder – $380
8th: Karl Lander – $380
9th: Kimberly Kilroy – $320
10th: Dillion Kefler – $320
11th: Timothy Guilford – $280
12th: Kevin Gerhart – $280
13th: Ori Kossonogi – $245
14th: Rory Macdonald – $245
15th: Adam Johnson – $245
16th: Jason Miller – $220
17th: Burton Rubin – $220
18th: Albert Ng – $220
19th: Ali Hamidiradeh – $210
20th: Ryan Schoonbaert – $210
21st: Deborah Swift – $210
22nd: Stuart Kerridge – $200
23rd: Akash Desai – $134
24th: Jason Roberts – $134
25th: James Maxwell – $134