Blair Hinkle Wins RGPS Tulsa Hard Rock for $44,012
Blair Hinkle capped off a long day at the RGPS Tulsa Hard Rock Main Event. He entered the day the overall chip leader and then cruised to over 1,000,000 and roughly one-sixth of the chips in play with 37 players remaining.
He dipped pretty low and found himself among the shorter stacks for part of the tournament, but claimed a huge lead at the final table. He gave up the lead for a moment during heads up play, but eventually, he finished off Matthew Blackwell to claim the RGPS Tulsa Hard Rock Main Event title and the $44,012 first prize.
Here is a look at the final table payouts:
| Place | Player | Prize (USD) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Blair Hinkle | $44,012 |
| 2 | Matthew Blackwell | $27,868 |
| 3 | Michael Crawford | $18,662 |
| 4 | Greg Jennings | $13,015 |
| 5 | Tai Phan | $9,761 |
| 6 | Matt Newcomb | $7,656 |
| 7 | Stephen Hart | $6,469 |
| 8 | Eric Bunch | $5,359 |
| 9 | James Jewell | $4,613 |
The final table action started after Jeremy Tinsley and Dan Martin both busted within a hand of each other in tenth and 11th place. Martin was short and got finished off by Stephen Hart and Tinsley got knocked out by Tai Phan.
Once the nine remaining players started the final table, it took some time for the first elimination, but James Jewell, who had entered the final table with the chip lead fell to Blackwell when he got ace-king in against Blackwell's pocket queens.
Eric Bunch spent some time as the chip leader later in the tournament, but fell in eighth place when Stephen Hart rivered a wheel.
Hart was next to go, falling to Michael Crawford in seventh place, after three-bet shoving pocket threes into the pocket jacks of Crawford.
Matt Newcomb busted sixth the very next hand when he got ace-king in against Crawford. This time, Crawford had pocket kings and sent Newcomb to the rail.
Tai Phan managed to ride a short stack up a few places in the payouts but came up short against Hinkle. Hinke flopped trips to send Phan home in fifth.
Greg Jennings went out in fourth place. He flipped against Hinkle with sixes and couldn't catch up when Hinkle flopped one of his two over cards.
Crawford was the next to go, falling to Blackwell after calling a shove from Blackwell that had him covered by about 180,000. Crawford called off with second pair and Blackwell had flopped top pair.
Finally, after a lengthy heads up match, Blackwell fell in second place when he got all in preflop with Hinkle. Both held ace-high, but Hinkle had the better kicker. Neither player connected with the board and Hinkle claimed the title.
Day 2 started with 61 players and Run Good's own Ray Henson was the stone bubble. Thirty-six players made the money. Beau Wilshire (35th) and Jacob Seale (33rd) both cashed a week after final tabling the RGPS Kansas City Main Event.
Wadih Kaawar (24th) and Catherine Chen (16th) both final tabled the RGPS Bossier City event and found a cash here. That was the event that Stephen Hart won after a four-way deal.
Tai Phan and Matthew Blackwell both made their second final tables of the RGPS season. Now, all that's left for the RGPS is the Showbound satellite Monday at noon.
Any player who made a final table in an RGPS Main Event, or won an RGPS side event has been invited to breakfast and a satellite that will send two players to play at the PokerGO Studio in Las Vegas on Poker After Dark.
Stay tuned to PokerNews.com for all the information on the players in that tournament and find out who wins the two $5,000 sit-n-go seats.