Less than a month after PokerStars and Jason Somerville jointly hosted the Run It Up Rumble in Atlantic City, Jason did the third installment of his Run It Up event on the Peppermill Hotel and Casino in Reno, Nevada. I USED TO BE fortunate enough to wait - not as an organizer, but as a representative of PokerStars. So I got to be a participant greater than a worker bee - it was absurdly fun. 

To provide you with an idea of the vibe, I offer this one-minute video from five #RunItUpReno warriors, explaining why they were there.

As I walked in, the seminar was going full force with Jason Somerville and PokerStars Team Pro Online Randy "nanonoko" Lew answering questions for an enthusiastic crowd.

It's the Randy and Jason show!

Only for this event, Randy were renamed "renonoko". 

Obviously.

Poker seminars make you hungry

After the seminar I went to the merchandise table so I'LL buy my Run It Up buttons. You see, subscribers to Jason's stream on Twitch get a distinct set of emoji that they are able to drop within the Twitch chat. Jason's team had those emoji made into buttons which showed up on shirts and hats all around the event.

Jason has a mechanical crow named "Mirko" who's his co-star at the Twitch stream. Mirko could also be his poker advisor. When Jason's in a tricky poker spot, he says "Mirko - what should I do?" Mirko, the mechanical crow, says "Caw!" "Okay, I caw." The Run It Up Warriors even have a meme called "Feels Bad, Man", that you simply use when, well, it feels bad, man. One of the crucial buttons at RIU Reno has an image of Mirko; it's called "Feels Bird, Man."

The four-card PLO event was already going on, but I played the 5-card PLO event two days later. I also set out to the $4-8 mixed cash game that was happening within the poker site. That gave me an opportunity to play seven, in preference to one, games at which I'm tolerably mediocre.

At some point, I NOTICED that Jason himself was playing at similar game on the next table over. "Hey Jason - let's play each other's stacks." "LeeJones - we're playing razz; I AM NOT leaving a razz game." "We're playing razz too!"

So we swapped. I promptly got dealt 6-4-A and was on my method to winning a large pot. I won the following (smaller) pot. "Hey Jason - the way you doing over there?" "Folding like a professional"! "Cool - I'm shipping pots like an amateur."

Normally, it might be unthinkable for 2 players in a poker site to simply swap places and play each other's stacks. But then again, the dealers saw a large number of things they probably don't see much.

Like Runways.

When a brand new dealer sat down on the mixed game, somebody would announce, "Okay, Runway." Each player puts out $11 - $10 is their buy-in and the $1's are collected to make a buy-in for the dealer. The dealer deals one four-card Omaha hand to each player, plus one to him/herself (watching the dealer looking to grok dealing themselves a hand was fun). Everybody rolls over one card. The dealer puts out a flop. Roll a second card. Turn card. Third Omaha card rolled up. River card. And everyone rolls up their fourth and final card. Best Omaha hand ships all of the thing, and the dealer's hand is freerolling for the dealer.

One of our runways, I flopped trip 3's and was way in front until the river, when the dealer discovered the case 3 on the bottom of her hand. With a greater kicker. That pot was worth $100 to her. Me, I USED TO BE tickled to death; I MIGHT have just spewed the $100 off in a nasty call somewhere.

Just like Run It Up Resorts, the low buy-ins and community made all-in events cause for celebration as opposed to nail-biting drama. Entire tables would erupt in a sequence of cheers and groans as unbelievable run-outs would happen, just as they do in poker tournaments everywhere. Only these are more fun. 

Not like this!

And this generosity of spirit spread inside the Peppermill. "I wish everybody was as polite and tipped in addition to this crowd," said one coffee shop waitress, nodding toward a Run It Up hoodie the following booth over.

One Run It Up emoji (enshrined on a button in fact) includes a cupcake, within the center of a bear trap. When Jason has a large hand on-stream and needs to lure an unsuspecting opponent in, he'll say, "Let's just put a little bit cupcake in the market"...  Of course, when Jason gets a large hand, cupcake emoji fill the Twitch chat. Desirous to follow the theme, I brought cupcakes into the tournament area on a few days. I got to Jason's table and he shrieked "No bear traps on these!"

All too soon, it was Monday evening and everyone was saying their good-byes and needs for safe travels. The last chance last chance turbo tournament was running, while games of Open Face Chinese Poker and Exploding Kittens (yes, "Exploding Kittens") continued on side tables. Some folks were headed all the way down to the WSOP, others back home. But everybody was talking concerning the next gathering of the Run It Up legion.

It takes a crowd to have a Run It Up event. Mostly it takes the folks who wish to celebrate poker and all of its ups and downs. And enough people thought this was a good suggestion to succeed in almost 400 buy-ins to the $565 main event - a record for the Reno poker year (bigger than WPT, WSOP Circuit, and HPT). Nevertheless it was one guy who said, "What if all of us social gathering and feature an immense party with poker tables in the midst of it?" 

Feels good, man.

P.S. Big way to Drew Amato for permitting us to make use of his excellent photos from the development on this blog piece.

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Lee Jones first joined PokerStars in 2003 and was a part of the pro poker world for over 25 years. You'll read his occasional Twitter-bites at @leehjones

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