The $600 RunGood Series Checkpoint Main Event has concluded after ten hours of play saw the 44 players that started the day, out of a field of 359, play all the way down to a winner.

Coming out on top with the $39,655 grand prize and getting the lion’s share of the $186,680 prize pool along with the RunGood Poker Series ring was Stacey Berger who captured the title in what became quite the story.

Berger is a Reno local realtor by trade, and she made no secret of the fact that she was not used to playing main events as this was only the second one she had ever played.

“I love the game; I love to play. But it’s just hard to find time to do so. I usually play about once or twice a month,” she said afterward. “I expected to come in today to win $900 dollars (the min-cash), and here I am with the ring!”

She said the moment where she thought that winning may be possible was when she clawed her way back from just two big blinds to survive and keep going in the middle part of the day. As she kept the momentum rolling, her supporting rail grew as her local friends rooted her on, which was a new phenomenon to Berger.

“I didn’t know what a rail was before today,” she was heard saying to her tablemates at the final table when her support was mentioned.

Final Table Results

Berger’s inexperience and freshness on the scene were a factor in the heads-up battle that eventually led to her win. She entered heads-up play with only 25% of the chips against Christian Vinluan, and she was nearly eliminated as runner-up just a couple of hands in as she blinked a river straight to stay alive and denied Vinluan the victory.

From there, it was mostly one-way traffic for her as she was using large preflop opens, as much as 7x in some cases, and making large 30-40 big blind jams on flops and turns, which kept Vinluan off balance. She compiled pot after pot this way and eventually whittled down her opponent to conquer the field and win the ring.

Action of the Day

The day began with 44 players and was trimmed exactly in half down to 22 before the first break of the day. That brisk pace of eliminations would continue as it was one after another all the way down until the final table, where things started to get interesting.

Paul Sampson was the first victim of the final table in ninth place to kick it off.

Pat Lyons entered the final table with a big chip lead as things were looking to be going his way. But his luck would change quickly as his aces were cracked by ace-jack to lose a significant portion of his stack. He would never quite recover from that as he lost some flips to complete his fall from chip leader to an eighth-place finish.

After the initial quickness of the day, play slowed down seven-handed as it took some time before Charles Himes was eliminated in seventh place. Harley Brooks followed him out the door in sixth and Tony Barrera went out in fifth, after he had been the one to deal the decisive early blow to Lyons and change the dynamic of the final table.

Dwight Englekirk went under the radar for most of the night and slid into fourth place.

Darrel Dier was eliminated next in third place as he has quite a story of his own, which he noted he would like to share at some point with the poker world.

That would set up the aforementioned heads-up match between Vinluan and Berger.

2023 RGPS Reno Ring Event Winners

Bin Weng has been virtually unstoppable since the beginning and the year and has now reached consecutive World Poker Tour (WPT) final tables.

The Philadelphia area poker pro is one of six players on Monday who made the WPT Choctaw final table, which will take place in Las Vegas at Luxor’s HyperX Arena on May 26. Weng will already be in town as he also made the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown final table, scheduled for May 25 in the same venue.

What’s even more impressive is that he’ll enter both final tables with the chip lead. But the competition will be stiff. In the Choctaw finale, he’ll be facing some tough opponents including former WPT Player of the Year Erkut Yilmaz and another past WPT champion, Jared Jaffee.

What’s Going Right for Bin Weng?

In January, Weng took down a Borgata tournament for $1 million, then won a World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOPC) ring in February for over $200,000. He followed that up by reaching the Seminole final table last week with $1.1 million on the line, and on Monday he earned a spot in the Choctaw final table, which pays $400,740 to first place.

According to Hendon Mob, he has over $3.4 million in live tournament cashes. But 2023 has been an extraordinary year for the poker pro. PokerNews spoke with him at the conclusion of Day 3 to find out why he’s on such a heater.

“I was not doing so great in the second half of 2022,” Weng said. “I skipped a couple of events, I spent a month at home. I skipped a WSOP ring series, studying at home. So I changed my strategy a little bit. I hope that works, but I know I’m just running good, running pure this year in a lot of big spots.”

It may be true that he’s been on the positive side of variance this year, but we aren’t talking about one or two deep runs. Weng’s already won two large field events in 2023 and has a shot at two more later this month. So it can’t just be the cards, right?

“I will say I did change my strategy, I play a little more aggressive than what I used to be,” Weng explained. “I played kind of a passive type or tighter in the past. But I play more aggressive than in the past years.”

The focus on being more aggressive has clearly worked wonders for Weng’s game. He’s arguably the hottest player in tournament poker right now and could add even more hardware to his 2023 poker accomplishments.

Weng told PokerNews he began playing poker “about 12 years ago” and that he was disappointed in his play during the second half of 2022. Prior to taking up poker as a hobby and then career, he worked in the restaurant industry “doing every position — bartender, manager, chef, almost everything.”

The 40-year-old married father who came to the United States from China when he was 18 may have a good luck charm helping carry him to a memorable year of poker.

“My biggest supporter is my wife,” Weng said. “Without her, I would not go this far.”

Weng will have to focus on multiple final tables later this month, something that his opponents both days won’t have to concern themselves with. He said that could work as a disadvantage for him.

“Right now my mindset, my head is too excited, I just can’t believe it. I made back-to-back. I haven’t thought about that for now, but when I go home I’m definitely going to think about what the best strategy I’m most likely going to input,” Weng said in regards to potentially preparing differently for each final table.

The WPT Choctaw Final Table

When the WPT Choctaw final table begins May 26 in Las Vegas, Weng will be in the chip lead with 8,800,000 (88 big blinds). But his lead over Jaffee — who bagged 7,225,000 on Day 3 — isn’t that large. There’s a bit of a gap between those two players and the rest of the field, however. Mike Vanier, who finished second in the WPT Venetian last year, is in third place with 5,300,000.

There are no super shorty’s who will be in immediate desperation mode when the final table begins. Rusty Farrin has the smallest stack at 1,900,000 (19 big blinds), and everyone else has at least 31 big blinds.

Weng and Jaffee spent much of the day battling for the chip lead after initial Day 3 chip leader Brandon Guzman fell back to the pack and eventually busted in eighth place for $49,000.

Jaffee, who won his first and only World Poker Tour title 10 years ago, is glad to be back in position to add his name to the WPT Champions Cup a second time.

“It’s been a minute,” Jaffee said of potentially winning a second WPT title 10 years after his first one. “I got to a couple WPT final tables after that that I didn’t win, but I haven’t been to one of these televised final ones in a while. It feels great, I definitely have been wanting to get back. It’s been too long and, yeah, I’m not playing for second. I’m coming down there and I’m trying to win the title.”

Each player at the final table was paid the $81,700 guaranteed for sixth place before leaving Choctaw Casino & Resort in Durant, Oklahoma. The next pay jump is to $107,000 and the winner in the 612-entrant event will take home a nice cool $400,740.

WPT Choctaw Final Table Chip Stacks

_{*Images courtesy of WPT.}

The World Poker Tour (WPT) Choctaw $3,800 buy-in Main Event has dwindled down from 612 entries to the final 14 players. At around 3:30 p.m. CT, the tournament staff merged the remaining players to two tables and there has been some major chip leader shifts thus far on Day 3.

Alex Foxen began the day second in chips behind Brandon Guzman and well ahead of third place Bin Weng. But Foxen’s had himself quite the roller coaster session.

Just two hours into the day, the two-time GPI Player of the Year winner had given away around 75% of his stack from the start of the day. He called off a huge all in bet in one hand with pocket nines on the turn against the set of 10’s from Erkut Yilmaz, a former WPT Player of the Year.

Can Anyone Cool Off Bin Weng?

That hand set Foxen back but the high roller crusher would battle back to one of the biggest stacks when his pocket aces were called by the ace-queen of Adrian Buckley, and the best hand held up.

But the biggest story that is progressing is the historic run by Weng, who at the time of publishing was still among the chip leaders. Weng’s on the heater of a lifetime and has an opportunity to reach consecutive WPT final tables.

Last week in South Florida, the poker pro from Philadelphia reached the final table of the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown with the chip lead playing for a $1.1 million first place prize. That event will wrap up in Las Vegas at Luxor’s HyperX Arena on May 25.

The WPT Choctaw event will take place in the same venue on the following day, and Weng very well could be seated at the table on both days. Should that happen, it would be one of the top accomplishments in World Poker Tour history. If he were to then go on and win both tournaments, we’re talking about one of the most impressive performances in poker history.

Weng’s heater spans beyond the WPT. He won the $5,300 buy-in Borgata Main Event for $1,000,000 in January and then a World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOPC) ring in February for $227,344.

Bin Weng Leads Final Table at WPT SHR Poker Showdown

Pay Jumps are Getting Serious

When the WPT Choctaw event ends later this month, the winner will take home $400,740. While everyone left in the field is hoping to claim that six-figure prize, there are some major pay jump considerations that will be in play the remainder of Day 3.

At the time of publishing, the minimum payout for those still in the tournament is $20,600. Slight bumps in pay will begin with 13th and 14th place taking home $25,020. But when the final session at Choctaw Casino & Resort concludes later tonight, the six players who bag chips will have a guaranteed minimum payout of $81,700.

_{*Images courtesy of WPT.}