Kasey Orr Takes Down RunGood Thunder Valley Main Event

The first event of the 2022 RunGood Poker Series is in the bag with the Thunder Valley Main Event crowning its champion. Kasey Orr of California is that champion and the recipient of $65,728.

The $525 buy-in event at the Thunder Valley Casino Resort attracted 890 entrants. This surpassed the previous best attendance for the tour, with the Horseshoe Council Bluffs events on June 2021 drawing in an 851-strong crowd. Those 891 players generated a $445,000 prize pool that the top 112 finishers shared.

Orr bought into Day 1C and progressed with 429,000 chips, enough for seventh-place at the end of the day. Blair Hinkle was the first casualty of Day 2. His short-stack shove with Ad-9c lost to the Ac-Js of Janice Lau.

Day 2 went well for Orr from start to finish. He was second in chips with a 2,515,000 stack when only 18 players remained. Orr improved to 4,600,000 when only the final table of nine has chips in front of them.

Orr Leads The Nine-Handed Final Table

Balthazar Villa crashed out in ninth and collected $7,790. He shoved for 450,000 with Ad-Jh with blinds at 75,000/125,000/125,000a. Both Mike Hanson and Nicolaus Estrella called. The active pair checked down the 3c-Kh-Qh-8c-2h board, and Estrella won with Qc-Js.

Estrella sent another player to the showers when he eliminated Daniel Hatch in eighth-place. Hatch open-shoved for 4.5 big blinds with Ax-Kx, and Estrella called with Jx-Tx. The board ran jack-high, and Hatch busted with $10,370 to show for his efforts.

Seventh-place and $13,040 went to the last standing female player, Theresa Cummings. She shoved for 1,150,000 during the 150,000 big blind level. Jack Jenson called from an almost identical stack, and Orr over-called. Cummings’ 7h-7c was against the Kh-Kc of Jenco and the Ah-Js of Orr. By the river the board read 9h-4s-Kd-Jh-Ad and Cummings bowed out.

Ryan Awwad did not last much longer and was next out of the door. Awwad looked down at Ac-8c and decided to shove for 8.6 big blinds. Estrella looked him up with 6s-6h, which won courtesy of the As-Qh-4s-6c-5s run-out.

Orr claimed his first final table scalp during Level 31 when blinds cost 100,000,200,000/200,000a. Hanson ripped it in for 1,200,000 with Qs-8s on the button. Orr called with Ks-9s out of the big blind. King-high was good for the pot because the board ran 3d-Jc-Ac-As-Tc.

Pay Jumps Increase

Hanson collected $19,760 for his fifth-place exit, while Jenco banked $26,075 when he fell in fourth. Orr set Jenco all-in on a 2s-Kh-6h flop and Jenco called with Kc-6c. Jenco lost to the 8h-7h of Orr when the turn and river fell Td and 2h.

Heads-up was set when Dustin Russell ran out of steam. He was down to 725,000 at the 100,000/200,000/200,000a level, and moved all-in with Kh-9h. Unfortunately for Russell, Orr woke up with Ac-9d and called. An ace on the turn of the Qh-6c-Tc-Ad-8h board ended Russell’s participation. He won $34,815 for his third-place finish.

That was the last action this tournament saw because the heads-up players struck a deal. Orr won only $2 more from the deal despite holding the chip lead going into the one-on-one battle. However, Orr also got his hands on the winner’s trophy plus a ticket to the 2022 RunGood ProAm.

It is easy to see why the players decided on chopping the prize pool. This is Orr’s first-ever live tournament cash. Furthermore, Estrella last cashed in a tournament in November 2015. Both now have $65,000 scores, and 2022 is in full swing.

RunGood Poker Series Thunder Valley Main Event Final Table

Place	Player	Prize
1	Kasey Orr	$65,728*
2	Nicolaus Estrella	$65,726*
3	Dustin Russell	$34,815
4	Jack Jenco	$26,075
5	Mike Hanson	$19,760
6	Ryan Awwad	$15,755
7	Theresa Cummings	$13,040
8	Daniel Hatch	$10,370
9	Balthazar Villa	$7,790

*reflects a heads-up deal

Brad Johnson

You name the game, and you can bet your bottom dollar that Brad has either played it or placed a wager on it! Brad calls himself a natural gambler, and someone who gains as much enjoyment from writing about the crazy game of poker as he does playing it.

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