Brett Hagopian Wins Gateway Poker Classic Main Event
The Granite City police officer beat Ben Miller heads-up in St. Louis after a 705-entry field and a six-way ICM chop.
Brett Hagopian, a police officer from Granite City, won the RunGood Poker Series Gateway Poker Classic $800 Main Event at Hollywood Casino in St. Louis after beating Ben Miller heads-up. He called the victory his biggest poker accomplishment.
The main event drew 705 entries and built a $493,500 prize pool. The final 86 players came back for Day 2 already in the money. Before this run, The Hendon Mob listed Hagopian with $94,000 in live tournament earnings.
RunGood’s schedule showed the series ran from Aug. 4 to 9, with $800 Main Event flights on Aug. 6, 7, and 8, and Day 2 finals on Aug. 9. Hagopian said he plays every RunGood stop in St. Louis and had bagged about 200K late in Flight C after grinding through the week.
Day 2 had a few early names go quickly. WSOP bracelet winner Jason Simon was among the first bustouts, Horace Ingram fell within the first hour, Jeffrey Copeland finished 40th, and Day 1a chip leader Steph Martines ended up 24th.
Hagopian also had to survive some big spots. He nearly busted early against Adam Latham, but turned a straight to double up, then later shoved from the small blind with ace-five against Greg Iken and doubled again with aces against Javier Terrazas.
The final table opened with Iken in command on 9,200,000, more than twice Keith Heine’s stack. The short stacks kept hanging around, with Jerry Knoche doubling with kings, Matthew Blackwell winning a flip against Iken, Ben Miller doubling through Knoche, and Tyler Breeding making a full house against Heine.
The table thinned fast after Blackwell busted to Miller, Cameron Dugan fell eighth to Heine, and Knoche went out seventh to Heine. Terrazas later doubled through Iken, and with the stacks getting shallow the remaining six players paused, agreed to an ICM chop, and locked in a deal.
PokerNews reported that Hagopian secured $45,740 as the chip leader and left $26,000 for the eventual champion. A separate event-page summary listed him at $71,740 after the six-way deal.
Play resumed after the deal, and Miller busted Iken in sixth while Breeding sent Heine and Terrazas out in fifth and fourth. In heads-up play, Miller led 15,000,000 to 13,000,000 before Hagopian finally closed it out, and PokerNews said the RGPS returns to St. Louis in October, when Hagopian is expected to defend his title.
