The first ever RunGood Player of The Year race has come to its conclusion after a total of 21 stops over the course of two seasons. From Baltimore to San Diego, players from far and wide collected points over a wide variety of events with buy-ins ranging from $100 to $1,100. Some came with the intention to grind every stop, some saw early success lead to a chance for glory, but all joined together with The RunGood family to witness this exciting and competitive race across the country. The points were calculated by The Hendon Mob based on a variety of factors like buy-in and field size, but any cash in any event counted and saw the placement of a name on The RunGood Player of The Year List.
Before we list the top ten finishers, one special award needs to be mentioned.
Ari Engel Wins The First Ever Mixed Game Championship
The Graton Casino and Resort in Rohnert Park, California became the host of the first ever RGPS Mixed Game championship. The series ran just prior to the RGPS main event from May 6th-May 10th. A departure from the usual schedule of primarily No-Limit Hold’em tournaments, this stretch saw a H.O.R.S.E. tournament, an Omaha 8 tournament, a T.O.E. tournament, a Triple Draw tournament, and a Big O tournament.
Top 5 points breakdown saw Ken Po finish in fifth place with a second place finish in the Big O, and a fourth place finish in the Triple Draw tournament. Liam Gannon landed in fourth place with his victory in the T.O.E. event. Kathy Chang finished in third place after her runner-up finish to Gannon saw her win the Triple Draw the very next day. James Hinton landed in second place after impressively winning both the Omaha 8 tournament and the Big O tournament.
In the end it was none other than mixed game legend and tournament crusher extraordinaire Ari Engel who took down the coveted trophy. Engel’s tournament winnings are no secret as the man holds an Aussie Millions title, two WSOP bracelets, and an astonishing seventeen WSOP rings, the most of any player ever.
Engel can now add RGPS ring winner to that list of accomplishments as he won the very first event of the mixed game series, the $500 H.O.R.S.E., and continued his week by coming in third place in two other events, the $500 T.O.E. and $500 Big O. Now holding a very special piece, not to mention a sizable trophy.
On top of this competition, Engel also competed in the first ever RunGood Poker Series Player of The Year race. A race that saw all manner of players from all around the country take part in.
Known as “The King of The South,” William “Cody” Stanford has made a name for himself all around the country as one of the most fearsome players on any circuit he plays. Securing his first RGPS cash back in 2017 where he final tabled the main event at the Horseshoe Tunica, finishing in third place.
Since then he has become a regular at RG stops all over the country, even coming back to win the RGPS Main Event in Tunica in 2020 for what at the time was his first RGPS title. The Tupelo, Mississippi man still has found success at other casinos across the circuit, including deep runs at the RGPS Graton Main Event out in California.
Stanford added more to his RunGood accolades this year as he added another title from Tunica, after winning the $200 RGPS Ambassadors’ bounty in Tunica for $8,136. On top of that, he added an additional five final tables and twelve cashes these past two seasons. His dominance is felt all across the country as he ended up placing tenth place on the RGPS player of the year list.
If you’re a player who has never been to The Horseshoe Casino in Tunica, Mississippi you may have never heard of the player Loi Hoang. To all those within the poker community in that area, he’s a player who one is bound to see at every stop there.
Hoang is of the rare distinction of being the player on the top 10 list with only cashes from one casino. With only eight cashes in this RGPS POY race, he also holds the distinction of holding the least amount of cashes on the list but the highest frequency of final tables of those cashes with seven out of eight.
These past 365 days were a coming out party for Hoang as he made the Tunica $600 Main Event his own personal piggy bank. He won the event at the end of August 2023, final tabled it a second time in November, and finished in second place in March cashing for over $100,000 in this tournament alone. With only two prior RGPS cashes to before this year, Hoang has shown his dominance on Tunica’s felt and will be a force to be reckoned with into the future of the stops.
Walker Miskelly is one of the friendliest and most consistent faces you will see on the RGPS circuit. From St. Louis, to Kansas City, to Tunica, Miskelly has made his mark as a fearsome competitor. The young gun has been quickly building a resume over the past couple of years with tournaments all around the country and on the cusp of being one of the next big stars of the game.
His history with the RPGS runs deep as his first cash was a 2018 Deepstack final table in Tunica, and the past 6 years he has been a regular on the tour, making final tables left and right. It’s in the main events where Miskelly really shines as this year he found himself making two different Main Event final tables at two different stops.
Though yet to claim his first RGPS title, Miskelly has been making a name for himself around the poker scene with many different titles to his name, including a title claimed at the Gulf Poker Open this year for $22,851. The young man certainly looks to have a bright future in the game and his success on this circuit is indicative of what’s to come.
Players who played any stop in the midwest will know the face of Michael Miller. The friendly Wisconsinite has made himself a regular on many stops of poker across the country over many different tours. This year he has become a staple of The RunGood Poker Series and managed to crack the top ten of the first RGPS Player of the Year.
Starting off the year primarily focusing on Seniors Events, Miller quickly became a contender for the Player of The Year as he cashed consistently at five of the RunGood locations throughout the year, averaging at least one final table at every stop.
Miller’s consistency in cashing, made him a force to be reckoned with in the points throughout the year, constantly jockeying in and out of the top five spots. The final stop eligible for points saw Miller come very close to grabbing a spot in the top five, but even though the end of the season did not pan out for him to take the pot, he made his mark on these seasons of the RGPS and will be back again.
Jackson Turrentine made a late season run up the leaderboard of The RunGood Player of the year. The Kansas poker player is no stranger to the RGPS circuit, having collected his first RGPS cash back in 2020 in Joplin. Since then, he has accumulated many cashes and this year looks to be his best on the circuit.
He won his first RGPS ring in Jacksonville in the $200 Ambassador Bounty for a cash of $8,911 which motivated him to chase the top five points on this list. He followed that up with a final table in the Joplin Main Event and another deep run in both the Kansas City and St. Louis Main Event. Each time he looked to lock himself up for the position, each time collecting healthy scores for himself.
Turrentine’s may not be a household name on the RGPS tour just yet, but his late run in the season saw determination and talent combine to put somebody who was not even on the radar at the beginning of the season, to somebody who came so close to securing a seat in the top 5 on the list. He will no doubt be back on the tour to further secure his name on the RGPS circuit.
The following five players have all secured themselves a seat to the Hendon Mob Mid-Major Championship in Thunder Valley in July.
A list for the RGPS of any kind would feel incomplete without Blair Hinkle appearing on it in some way. With over $5 million in lifetime earnings, the Kansas City born poker pro is a very accomplished player in many respects. The WSOP bracelet winner and long-time tournament player has been with the tour for many years, and was the all-time leader of RGPS Main Event championships with three.
This year, he further extended that lead by winning his fourth RGPS Main Event title at the conclusion of the year. He took home the RGPS Kansas City Main Event for $92,228, an event that he had final tabled in the Fall, coming in sixth place for $17,421. With this win, he once again established himself as a dominant force on the RGPS circuit and is a respected player and human being wherever he goes.
Hinkle was not in the top ten until the very end of the series, once Kansas City rolled around. Hinkle started the week by coming in second place in the Ambassador bounty, then shot up the leaderboard the deeper he got into the Main Event. Hinkle’s full poker talent was on display as he never relinquished the chip lead from 17 players down. With his victory he successfully took the title and won his seat into the $600 Hendon Mob Championship in Thunder Valley. Hinkle remains one of the toughest, most feared players in RunGood history and he’s here to stay.
Don’t let his nickname fool you, Daniel Hughes is no slouch when it comes to poker. A player on the tour for ten years now, Hughes has been a staple of the tour since its inception. Cracking the top ten in all time cashes on the RunGood circuit, and top five all time for final tables, Hughes uses his image and aggression to put massive pressure on his opponents all across the country.
Hughes not only had an impressive nine final tables this year, but each one of the final tables he finished in the top five positions. Always ready to battle hard for his titles, Hughes has made a name for himself as one of the tour’s icons. He claimed his third RGPS title this year and also had a deep run at the Cleveland Main Event. Always repping the brand, Hughes climbed the ranks to be listed as one of the top five players of the year, matching his final table results.
Able to breathe easy towards the end of the season, knowing full well his title was secured, he is looking forward to making another appearance out at Thunder Valley for the Hendon Mob mid-major championship and compete for what is sure to be a huge prize pool. Hughes looks to continue his tour dominance into the future.
This Forrest stands out from the trees. RGPS Ring winner Forrest Kollar has become one of the new staples of the RGPS tour over the past couple of years. Winning his first RG title in 2022 and final tabling the RG Pro-Am on PokerGO, Kollar now travels all around the country with the tour. As south as Tunica, Mississippi, to the plains of Rohnert Park, California, Kollar is alway a threat in any tournament he enters as his results plainly show.
Kollar’s 19 cashes during the year see a multitude of top 20 finishes in the Main Events all around, from Kansas City, Tunica, St. Louis and more. This accounts for more than half of his earnings throughout the year, making him one of the most consistent players in main events all across the country. On top of that, he has made seven final tables with multiple runner-up finishes in side events and next year he will be looking to rise up the ranks of the RGPS rankings.
Once Kansas City rolled around and there were two tables left in the main event, Kollar could breathe easy knowing full well that he could not lose the third place spot on the leaderboard, even if Hinkle won the tournament(which he did end up doing). Kollar will be excited to make his Thunder Valley appearance this November, a place where he did win his first RGPS title ever.
Few players ever have had the coming out party with the tour like Shaun Emery. Emery had never cashed in a RunGood event before the inaugural St. Louis stop at Hollywood Casino in October. He finished runner up to Keith Heine for at that point a career best score of $59,006. After that, Emery made it his mission to play as many RGPS stops as possible all across the country.
Within just months, The Ghost’s presence became a mainstay of the tour as he played in locations all around the country, racking up big score after big score. The Illinois native utilized his poker skills to final table ten events around the country and shot up to one of the top ten all-time RG earners in a record amount of time. Emery’s signature hoodie became one of the most feared sights in any RG event.
He collected his first RGPS title in Tunica in the Flip and Go Event and he also ran deep in that Main Event later in the week. He managed to final three Main Events at two different casinos throughout the year. After his initial runner-up finish, he ended up coming in fourth place at the RGPS Kansas City Main Event, losing a brutal cooler with kings into aces. As the year came to a close, it seemed like the points were pretty much set where they were. But that didn’t deter Emery as he ended up final tabling the next Kansas City main event and finishing in second place for a new career best score of $61,485.
Emery finished with what would be the most impressive performance on the RGPS circuit in any other year. However this year there was one name who rose to the top.
“TheGoldenBlazer” shone the brightest in the inaugural RunGood Poker Series player of the year race. Brian Winter already had conquered three RGPS titles prior to this year, but he made it a mission to win and he did. Winter has made the strong case as to why he should be considered as one of the best RGPS players of all time. Now holding more cashes than anyone else in tour history, fourth place in all-time earnings, thirty-five final tables, and nine series titles tied only with Daniel Lowery at first place.
Winter began the year began the year very strong, with two wins in the course of less than a week. This put him in the lead initially for points, but he didn’t let this stop him from outdoing himself when in Tulsa later that year, he won two tournament in a single day. The run didn’t stop as he put on what is to be looked as one of the most dominant performances by a player on any tour in a single year.
Winter’s results saw a career best cash as he finished runner-up in the Tunica Main Event for $41,894. He final tabled that main event a couple of months later as well. For many years he dominated online tournaments and with his year with the tour, it’s hard to say the transition to live tournaments was not successful. For the final three stops on the tour, his lead was insurmountable by any player in the running. He comfortably relaxed at season’s end when his lead was far too large to be passed. His volume on the tour next year will be significantly less, and his presence will be missed.
Congratulations to Winter who will get the first ever poster for being the RunGood Player of the Year. This will be taken and displayed at all stops throughout the following year as his year of incredible success will be chronicled and talked about well into the future.
We hope for you to join us into into the next RunGood Season where there will no doubt be a new points race, maybe even more competitive than this year. Stay tuned to RunGood.com for all updates on the tour and the new points race.