Ivan Zarate Bags RIU Reno VIII Mini Main Day 1b Chip Lead; Spraggy & Kevin Martin Advance
On Saturday, Day 1b of the Run It Up Reno VIII Event #1: $440 Mini Main Event played out inside the Peppermill Casino. The second of two starting flights attracted 158 runners, which along with Day 1a’s 127 entrants brought the total field up to 285 entries.
That means the top 46 players with a min-cash being worth $720. The eventual winner, who will be crowned on Sunday, will walk away with a $26,065 first-place prize.
The player from 1b best positioned to make a run at it is Ivan Zarate, who after 12 levels led the surviving 38 players with a stack of 185,000. That is well behind Day 1a chip leader Alan Mastic, who bagged 310,000.
Zarate, who hails from Arkansas, has $69,748 in lifetime tournament earnings including a career-high $7,779 for winning the 2015 $330 Holiday Hangover Tournament at Mohegan Sun. Two years ago he also finished sixth in the Run It Up Reno IV Main Event for $5,525.
Others to make it through Day 1b with big stacks were Michael Trivett (184,000), Kyle Keating (181,500), Jovanny Jayme (166,500), and Stanley Wang (148,500), who round out the top five. They were joined by Ben “Spraggy” Spragg (126,500), Patrick Tardif (117,000), former RIU Reno Main Event champ DJ Fenton (106,500), Albert Ng (85,00), and Kevin Martin (49,500).
Of course, not everyone was so lucky. Among those to fire and fall on Saturday were Jason Somerville, Brad Owen, Jimmy Cappucci, Fintan Hand, Holly Brightly, Abraham Meyers, Sung Song, Joe Brandenburg, Vincent Newland, Jamie Kerstetter, Arlie Shaban, and Paul Sampson.
Day 2 will get underway at Noon local time on Sunday with 64 returning players (26 from 1a and 38 from 1b). The RunItUp.TV live stream will begin at 5 p.m. local time, but you can tune back into PokerNews straight away for live updates straight from the tournament floor.