The eighth Run It Up Reno came to an end on Monday night when the $600 buy-in Main Event wrapped up, having attracted a total of 629 entries. Nine players came back on the last day to take a shot at the main title, and Dan O’Brien ended up being the most skilful one and winning a total of $46,681 as the first place. Poker lovers who were not able to watch the event live in the Peppermill Casino had an opportunity to follow the final table via live-streaming.
The heads up play was the most interesting part of the event since the two players duelling for the title were Dan O’Brien and Loren Klein, who wanted to win his third RIU Main Event title. Despite his outstanding play, Dan O’Brien proved more skilful and luckier in the end, thus bringing his lifetime earnings to more than $3.3 million, thus returning to the poker tournament world after laying low for the entire past year. This is his most prestigious win so far.
A Few Words By O’Brien
O’Brien was pretty excited about winning the main event and was eager to share his thoughts with the press. He stated that it felt really good to become a winner of such a prestigious tournament and that it was a lot of fun. Furthermore, he added that he had run pretty well during the entire tournament and had tried to focus on playing well and putting all the worries behind him. He continued by saying that he wasn’t very active during 2018 as he had been focusing on some other things. He added that he had decided in the fall that it was high time for him to ‘put in some work’ and that it was really nice to see the work paying off.
When it comes to Loren Klein, he has more than $2.7 million in earnings from live tournaments. He also managed to win RIU Reno Main Event two times in addition to winning a WSOP bracelet three times. The three WSOP events he won were the $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Championship where he won a total of $1,018,336, the 2017 WSOP Event #4: $1,500 PLO for $231,483, and the 2016 WSOP Event #45: $1,500 Mixed No Limit Holdem/Pot Limit Omaha for $241,427.
O’Brien commented on his heads-up foe, saying that he was incredible and that he had had a high tournament success rate. Furthermore, he added that Klein was definitely a tough opponent and that he liked him as a person but had been rooting against him in the last part of the tournament. Loren Klein managed to win a total of $30,950. Other players in the final table include Austin Roberts, Tim Tucker, Vito Distefano, Julio Uribe, Kevin Gerhart, Christ Gallagher, and Robert Valdez.