Home » News » Run It Up Reno VIII: Dan O’Brien Beats 2-Time RIU Main Event Champion Loren Klein to Take Down Main Event For $46,681

Run It Up Reno VIII: Dan O’Brien Beats 2-Time RIU Main Event Champion Loren Klein to Take Down Main Event For $46,681

Namita Ghosh April 23, 2019
2 Minutes Read

The 11-day long Run It Up Reno (RIU) VIII is finally in the books! The series returned to the Peppermill Resort and Spa on April 12 this year with a packed 26-event schedule. The flagship event at the stop – the $600 Main Event offered a guarantee of $250,000. Last year it was Matt Stout who won the Main Event, but this time around it was Las Vegas resident Dan O’Brien (cover image) who topped a field of 629 runners to win the Main Event title.

It was an intense fight for the title on Monday where the final nine players returned to the felts. It took nearly 11 hours of grueling play on the final table for O’Brien to claim victory – all of which was live streamed. His heads-up opponent was none other the two-time RIU Main Event champion Loren Klein himself. Klien, however, was unable to win his third title and it was O’Brien who eventually took home the shining RIU trophy along with a $46,681 payday!

“It feels really good to win, it really does. It was a lot of fun,” O’Brien said. “I ran really well the entire tournament obviously. I tried to focus on playing well and really not worrying about anything else.”

O’ Brien it seems hardly played many live tournaments last year. This year though, he seems to be back in top gear. He pulled in a significant score at the $25K NLHE PokerStars Players NLHE Championship (PSPC) in January where he finished 31^st for $105,000. Winning the RIU Main Event has now taken his lifetime winnings closer to $3.3 Million.

“I really didn’t play much in 2018, I was working on some other things. In the fall I decided to actually put some work in. It’s really nice to put in all that work and see immediate results even though it’s still a lot of luck to get here.”

All praises for his heads-up opponent Klien, O’Brien added, “He’s incredible. He has a really high success rate in tournaments, and generally, he doesn’t play that many. He’s definitely a tough opponent. I like him as a person but I was certainly rooting against him.”

The tournament featured two entry flights with 629 runners ponying up the $600 to get into the event. 142 among them made it through to Day 2 that halted with 42 players left standing. Many including Jesse Sylvia, Frank Lagodich, Ryan Laplante, Arlie Shaban, Chris Moneymaker, Mark Mazza, and Walter Parker were unable to earn a payout. Parker was the unfortunate bubble boy and was eliminated at the hands of Andrew Neeme.

Even as RIU founder Jason Somerville (75th for $970) managed to score, Michael Trivett (10^th for $6,750), Johnnie “JohnnieVibes” Moreno (12th for $5,400), Jim Petzing (17th for $3,455), Andrew Neeme (20th for $3,455), Adam Owen (33rd for $1,780), DJ Fenton (71st for $1,190), $1,100 Thursday Thrilla champion Adin Cota (73rd for $970), Ryan Schoonbaert (90th for $970), and Katie Lindsay (95th for $970) , were the other notable scorers.

When the final table began, Brien was somewhere in the middle of the pack with a stack of 1,995,000. Vito Distefano was out front with 3,610,000 in chips, and Tim Tucker (2,465,000) and Kevin Gerhart (2,405,000) came in as the next top stacks.

Final Table Chip Counts

Vito Distefano – 3,610,000
Tim Tucker – 2,465,000
Kevin Gerhart – 2,405,000
Dan O’Brien – 1,995,000
Loren Klein – 1,622,000
Julio Uribe – 1,400,000
Christopher Gallagher – 1,235,000
Austin Roberts – 790,000
Robert Valdez – 405,000

Final Table Recap

With the shortest starting stack on the final table, Robert Valdez was the first one to get the boot in ninth place.

It took several hours for the next elimination to come through and taking the hit was Chris Gallagher who was eliminated by Klien in eighth place.

Klein scored another knockout in Kevin Gerhart after the latter’s king-six failed to get there against Klein’s pocket fours.

Following Gerhart in sixth place was Julio Uribe who ran his ace-deuce into O’Brien’s pocket aces.

Vito Distefano had come into the final table holding the chip lead but went down in fifth place nonetheless. He lost most of his stack first with the remainder going away holding queen-jack to Klein`s ace-eight.

RIU IV champion Tim Tucker then saw a surprise end to his run. Tucker raised to 410K from the small blind holding and saw Klein jam for 2 Million from the big blind. Tucker, who held snapped-called. Tucker was clearly ahead but the flop improved Klein to a higher pair, and Tucker got no help from the runout and crashed out in fourth place.

Austin Roberts then exited in third place after moving all-in for 2.4 Million preflop. Small blind O’Brien called with against Roberts’ . The flop saw Roberts pair his ten. The turn kept Roberts ahead, but not many were expecting the on the river. O’Brien scooped the pot with top-pair.

Heads-up, O’Brien held 9,250,000 versus Loren Klein’s 6,475,000. The chips flew back and forth before Klein called off for 1.7 Million after O’Brien moved all in.

Loren Klein

Dan O’Brien

The flop extended Klein’s lead, but the on the turn gave O’Brien a better pair. The river bricked for Klein who finished runner-up even as O’Brien claimed his very first RIU Main Event title!