"Boston" Rob Mariano Wins $85 All In or Fold ($5,051)
Winning competitions is an old hat for "Boston" Rob Mariano, who made his name as a champion on popular reality TV series Survivor. He added a poker victory to his résumé by taking down the $85 All In or Fold event here at Run It Up Reno for $5,051. Mariano eliminated the final six players in succession to take the win.
The wild format of the tournament called for an $85 initial entry and $50 rebuys, which were unlimited for the first six levels. The catch, of course, is that players were only allowed two actions — shove all in or fold. Action progressed with plenty of rebuys, and after Chad Holloway was eliminated on the bubble, the final 16 were in the money.
When the final table of nine was reached, Mariano was in the lead but had less than 20 big blinds, so it was anyone's game. He completely took over after the first couple of eliminations though, winning preflop all ins against Scott Hoffer, Kevin Barrett, Emily Johnson, Briann Fletcher, Andy Peplinski, and Rob Hamilton in that order to mow through his final six opponents.
Amazingly, the worst equity Mariano had in that run was when his 
outdrew the 
of Johnson.
Last year, Mariano took ninth in the 2015 Run It Up Reno $565 Main Event for $2,760. While winning world-renowned TV competitions may be his thing, Mariano's ability to "run it up" in Reno is quickly becoming a thing.
Also of note in the event, third-place finisher Peplinski was following up a seventh-place in the opening event.
That's all from the first day of Jason Somerville's 2016 Run It Up Reno. Two more events are on top for Wednesday — the $235 Survivor at 12 p.m. local time and the $125 Six-Max Four-Card Pot-Limit Omaha at 8 p.m. — and you can find coverage right here on PokerNews.com. Stay tuned.