Team Pro Reason Books Day 1b Lead
Benjamin Reason finished Day 1b of RunGoodGear.com Downstream Casino Main Event with 277,500 in chips to lead the 17 surviving players. The second starting flight saw a big spike in numbers as 172 entries were tallied, compared to just 90 on Day 1a. Reason's stack is identical to that bagged by Day 1a leader Terry Presley, and the tour pro will seek to add to more than $418,000 in career live cashes to date.
Michael Beaty (270,500), Shannan Roberts (266,500), Terry Karn (221,000), and Grady Suneson (220,500) bagged more than 200,000 to end the night, while others to make it to Sunday's Day 2 included Reason's fellow sponsored pros Michael Sanders (193,000) and Ryan Tepen (56,500).
Reason grinded uneventfully for a while before getting things going in a pot against aggressive wild card Rodney Spriggs. Reason got it all in preflop with the 
and was able to hold against Spriggs' 
as the board came 
. That pot put Reason at 64,800 in Level 10 (600/1,200/200), and he quickly built up over 100,000 from there �� a stack he maintained for a few hours.
Reason was over 200,000 by the time he three-bet to 35,000 after Shawn McCracken made it 15,000 from under the gun. McCracken moved all in for about 60,000, and Reason called with the 
, dominating McCracken's 
. The ace-king held despite an all-heart 
flop.
Sanders, a fellow RunGood Pro, sent a player packing with swear words on his lips late in the night during Level 13 (1,200/2,400/400), when he checked a 
board to a player on the button, who bet 25,000. Sanders shoved for 47,300, and his opponent called.
Sanders:
Button:
"God, that's so f***ing sick," the player on the button said in distress.
Sanders had an unbeatable hand, and the 
completed the board.
Vince Pironti, Ross Bybee, Brady Bullard, and Eric Bunch, all of whom made the final table of the last RunGoodGear.com event in September, were among those to fall during the approximate 10 hours of play. Others who took shots and failed were Amanda Baker, Lauren Kling, Jonathan Gaviao, Daniel Hughes, Joe Hebda, and Will Berry. After busting on the bubble in Day 1a, Berry was one of the last players sent packing on Day 1b, another painful close call.
Day 2 play commences at 11 a.m. local time on Sunday, and that will be when the 17 players who made it through Day 1b will join the nine survivors of Day 1a and play down to a winner. That winner will take home $36,218. PokerNews will be on hand to provide more live coverage, so be sure to come back and see the conclusion of this tournament.