A long day was ahead of the players who made Day 2 of the event, with the total number of entrants for the 3rd RunGood Poker Series St. Louis Main Event tallied up to 547 creating a prize pool of $388,370. Judging by how deep the players were, it was assumed that the tournament would be a grind, and it was. At just after 1 a.m. (roughly 13 hours of play), the field of 67 was whittled down to just one sole survivor here at The Hollywood Casino.
After the dust settled, it was RGPS crusher Jesse Jones taking home his first piece of RunGood hardware after an epic three-way battle with Jeremy Drewery and Gil Shadower.
A man of few words, Jones did not have much to say after his win, but he did express a deep satisfaction for finally winning a RunGood Main event and the respect he had for his fellow opponents. He was also excited to get back into playing tournament poker and that he will see the RunGood crew in Kansas City!
| Place | Player | Payout |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jesse Jones | $73,448 |
| 2 | Jeremy Drewery | $48,965 |
| 3 | Gil Shadower | $36,018 |
| 4 | William Henricks | $26,809 |
| 5 | Saad Ghenam | $20,193 |
| 6 | Michael Schoonover | $15,395 |
| 7 | Lance Hendricks | $11,881 |
| 8 | Timothy Hicks | $9,283 |
| 9 | Brian Roberts | $7,345 |
Even though most of the players returned to a lower blind level than they bagged, the action was still hot and heavy throughout the day as players fell to the wayside.
Falling throughout the day were Walker Miskelly (60th-$1,459), Jaymie Virtusio(35th-$2,052) Dan Lowery (55th-$1,611), and Cody Stanford (43rd-$1,806). It should also be noted that with this finish along with two rings this stop, Stanford was named the NAPT Golden Player of the Series and was the recipient of a tournament package worth approximately $10,000,
Finishing right on the final table bubble was Jeff Copeland who was good on the flop with a pair of sixes but the river was nasty for him as it brought in a king to give Drewery a better pair to send him out in tenth place for $7,345.
Once they made it to the final table, the action slowed down a little bit as the depth of their stacks came into play.
The first person to exit the table was Brian Roberts who shoved from the big blind with king-queen and was called by Lance Hendricks with ace-king to put him at risk. Unfortunately for Roberts, an ace appeared on the flop to send him out in ninth place.
Throughout the day, Timothy Hicks was running hot and knocking players out left and right, and at one point it seemed it was his tournament to lose, but he was the second player to exit from the final table.
He tried to run a triple-barrel bluff against Drewery but he ended up calling with a set of eights to send Hicks to the rail.
After his elimination, it quickly became and the Jones and Shadower show as they began knocking out players. Jones drew his first blood at the final table by knocking out Hendricks when he called his shove with queens and held against jacks to send him out in seventh place.
After that, it was Shadower’s turn when he knocked out Michael Schoonover by cracking his kings with ace-queen to send him out in sixth.
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Then it was back to Jones as he sent Saad Ghanem to the rail with ace-jack against king-queen.
A few orbits later, it was William Henricks who found the exit in fourth when he moved in with ace-five but ran into the ace-king of Shadower.
After that, it became the three-handed battle of the century as the chips traded around for almost three and a half hours before it was Shadower who finally bit the dust after losing a huge pot to Jones when his trip sevens were no good against Jones’ flopped straight and then exited soon after.
Jones and Drewery then entered their heads-up battle but it only lasted a few hands before Jones closed it out when his ace-high trumped Drewery’s jack-high to send him out as the runner-up. Jones was then crowned the undisputed champion of the RGPS St Louis and awarded the grand prize of $73,448 for his efforts.