Boston Rob Takes RGPS All-Stars ProAM Trophy

Written by Jennifer Newell

Last updated on December 27th, 2022

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The RunGood Poker Series ended its normal season at the beginning of December. It was the mid-stakes poker tour’s best season to date, with its sixteen tour stops attracting entries totaling 10,119 in Main Event tournaments alone. And those Main Events paid out $6,168,379, up 102% from the previous equivalent season. RGPS started its year at Thunder Valley Casino in Northern California and ended it there as well. The poker room’s love for the game matched the passion of RGPS crew, and players benefited from a $1M guarantee to close it out. And then it was time for the best of the best of the RunGood Poker Series to gather in Las Vegas for one last poker tournament to close the year.

ProAM Featured RGPS Stars

It was the second annual RGPS All-Stars ProAM presented by PokerGO, a chance for tour qualifiers to gather for a freeroll poker tournament. The PokerGO Studio was the place to be for the 48 players, including seat winners from the RunGood Poker Series season and others invited to play for just $550. They gathered on December 16 in Las Vegas to play it out. Some of the well-known names in the field, ones who bought in to participate, included Eli Elezra, David Williams, Johnnie Vibes, Josh Arieh, Daniel Weinman, Tyson Apostol, PokerGO Ambassador Rob “Boston Rob” Mariano, and Chad Holloway. Day 1 played to the final table of nine, with Dakotah O’Dell as the chip leader going into the final day of play. Mariano held second place on the leaderboard, with Denise Pratt in third. https://twitter.com/RGPokerSeries/status/1604227352937914368?s=20&t=URdPNbvWWNB2xBI1p3ehaw

Boston Runs Good

Mariano started strong and right into the chip lead by eliminating Vladimir Grechnikov in ninth place and then Jean Ortega in eighth and Forrest Kollar in seventh. O’Dell stapped in to bust Timoteo Callejo Jr in sixth place and Ashley Jenkins in fifth. https://twitter.com/PokerGO/status/1604246597625614336?s=20&t=URdPNbvWWNB2xBI1p3ehaw Mariano was back in action to bust Kulwant Singh in fourth place. Three-handed play saw Mariano holding most of the chips, though he lost some when Pratt doubled through him. Mariano did bust O’Dell in third place, however, and he took 4.71M chips into heads-up play. Pratt had 1.79M. It took only a minute for Mariano to shove with A-3 and Pratt to call with K-Q. Pratt hit a spade flush on the river to double her stack and take the lead. https://twitter.com/PokerGO/status/1604290533173911552?s=20&t=URdPNbvWWNB2xBI1p3ehaw But in less than 15 minutes, Mariano worked his stack back over 4M and then to a two-to-one chip lead within 30 minutes. Finally, Pratt pushed her stack in with K-9 (king of spades) on an all-spade flop of A-8-2, and Mariano called with A-8 and two pair. Pratt couldn’t catch a spade flush again, though, as Mariano filled up on the river. https://twitter.com/BostonRob/status/1604312115128389633?s=20&t=URdPNbvWWNB2xBI1p3ehaw The final results were:

-1^st place: Rob Mariano ($8,775) -2^nd place: Denise Pratt ($6,500) -3^rd place: Dakotah O’Dell ($4,225) -4^th place: Kulwant Singh ($3,250) -5^th place: Ashley Jenkins ($2,600) -6^th place: Tim Callego ($1,950) -7^th place: Forrest Kollar ($1,625) -8^th place: Jean Ortega ($1,300) -9^th place: Vladimir Grechnikov ($1,300)

With that, the RunGood Poker Series went on a short holiday hiatus.