Vincent Leads, Somerville Still in Contention in Run It Up Reno Main Event
Blake Vincent won a huge pot off former PokerNews Managing Editor Chad Holloway, busting him on the official final table bubble in the process at the 2016 Run It Up Reno $535 Main Event. Since they were two of the top three stacks at the time, that makes Vincent the overwhelming chip leader heading into the final day, which will see the final eight players battle for a $46,410 first-place prize.
The real headliner of the final table, however, is tournament host and Run It Up architect Jason Somerville, who continued his winning ways in his own tournament series. He's put together a number of cashes and final table runs already, and now he finds himself in contention for the Main Event win, albeit with a short stack that has him in sixth place.
Day 2 dawned with 136 players opening up bags and 56 places set to be paid. "Boston" Rob Mariano of Survivor fame, PokerStars Team Online member Kevin Martin, and Run It Up Reno regulars Andy Peplinski, Kevin Barrett, and Zac Dowhower were some of the players falling short of cashing.
Garry Gates (53rd), Jesse Capps (50th), World Series of Poker bracelet winner Leo Wolpert (36th), and PokerStars Team Online member Randy "nanonoko" Lew (35th) made their way into the money and walked away with fatter wallets.
Defending champ Nick Aguilera looked like he was going to threaten to repeat, but he saw his run end in 17th. He doubled a number of times, but he couldn't come from behind with the 
all in preflop against Loren Klein's 
.
Holloway surged to the top of the counts while the final two tables played down, scoring a number of eliminations. He was the chip leader as the final nine combined to a single table, but Vincent was a thorn in his side he was unable to overcome.
First, Holloway played a large pot with him after Jeffrey Newman opened for 125,000 at Level 26 (20,000/40,000/5,000). Holloway called on the button but Vincent popped it to 440,000 in the big blind. Newman folded but Holloway called. The flop came 
, and Holloway snap-folded to an all-in shove from Vincent.
Then, during the next level (25,000/50,000/5,000), the pot of the tournament to this point went down. Holloway opened for a raise early and got flatted by Vincent in middle position.
"It's like you always have triple red shells in Mario Kart and I'm in first," Holloway said of Vincent coming after him once more.
The flop came 
. Holloway bet 125,000, and Vincent raised to 320,000. Holloway called, and the 
turned. This time, Holloway checked and Vincent bet 550,000. Holloway moved all in for 1.6 million and got snap-called by Vincent with the 
for a set of snowmen. Holloway had the 
.
Holloway needed a miracle queen but didn't get it as the 
fell. Vincent had Holloway covered by just 10,000, and the final eight players packed up with Vincent putting 4.635 million in the bag, almost half of the chips in play. Somerville, meanwhile, had just 435,000 after dropping a few late pots that left him short after he was once among the leaders.
Vincent will try to leverage that stack at 2 p.m. local time on Monday when Day 3 of the 2016 Run It Up Reno Main Event commences, covered right here on PokerNews. Stay tuned to find out who will be wearing the next crown.
While you wait, give a listen to the latest PokerNews Podcast. Donnie "DP" Peters was joined by Somerville while at Run it Up Reno to talk about the series, online poker in the US, the WSOP, and more.