William Latta Claims His First RGPS Tunica Ring

William Latta won the $600 RunGood Poker Series Tunica Main Event for $49,110 on March 15, beating 495 entries at Horseshoe Tunica. The Tennessee metal-industry manager, who lives 100 miles from the room, took his first RGPS ring after more than 20 years of coming close in that building.

He outlasted Kyle Cartwright heads-up. Cartwright already owned this property’s Circuit Main Event title, which made the last pot of the week feel less like a circuit coronation and more like a local score settled.

The Hobby Player Who Beat the Room

Latta entered the week still watching friends walk out of Horseshoe Tunica with hardware he did not have. He said the rings in that room had become a sore spot, and he was glad to get it off his back.

This has been a long-time obsession for me, it’s fun to play. I’ve got grandkids, I’ve got a job, so we do what we can. This is just a hobby for me, so it’s nice to finally get one.

William Latta, after winning the RGPS Tunica Main Event

He is not a touring pro. He manages work in the metal industry, plays when the calendar allows, and had his son in the room when the last hand ended. The wait had a paper trail at the same address: a third-place chop in the 2019 Tunica Main Event for $33,692, then a seventh-place finish in November 2024 for $9,299 behind Preston McEwen.

He already owned a Circuit seniors ring for $16,971 from a 219-entry event at Horseshoe Tunica in April 2023. The RGPS ring was the one his group kept collecting without him. That is the player the $200,000 guarantee actually paid.

Trip Fives End the Heads-Up Duel

Latta came back for Day 2 tenth in chips with 393,000, a stack he said was deep enough to take hits. Early on Sunday he flopped a straight with queen-jack of diamonds against Adam Thomas’s aces on a nine-eight-ten diamond flop and sent Thomas out in 25th place for $1,568. From that pot forward he was never short.

Michael Monaghan took third for $24,098 after Latta turned a wheel. That left a heads-up match with Cartwright that swapped the lead more than once. The last hand landed in level 28, blinds 75,000 and 150,000 with a 150,000 ante. Latta checked a queen-jack-five flop from the big blind. Cartwright bet 150,000 on the button, and Latta called. The turn was another five. Cartwright moved all in, and Latta called quickly with eight-hearts and five-clubs for trip fives against Cartwright’s ace-queen, a pair of queens.

Cartwright collected $32,740 for second. In January 2019 he had taken this same room’s Tunica Circuit Main Event for $198,451 from 639 entries, his eighth Circuit ring at the time. Seven years later the $600 RGPS title went to the part-timer who had been driving in from 100 miles away.

$252,450 From a 495-Entry Field

The Main Event cleared its $200,000 guarantee and built a $252,450 prize pool, $52,450 over the number on the poster. First prize still came in below the last Tunica Main Event on this tour. Carl Masters topped 645 entries in November 2025 for $60,251, with Rafael Lopez second for $40,172. March drew 150 fewer entries, and the winner’s check was $11,141 lighter.

MARCH FINAL TABLE PAYOUTS

All 58 players who bagged for Sunday were in the money. Ninth and tenth paid the same $4,911 band, so Cotant’s $4,911 was the last final-table number rather than a unique ninth-place prize.

TWO TUNICA MAINS

The March field still beat the printed guarantee. It did not beat the November turnout, and the trophy photo went to a regular who had been cashing here for years rather than to a visiting name from the Passport finale.

The $250 Event That Nearly Matched the Main

The volume play of the week was not the $600. Cody Stanford won the $250 PokerNews PowerStack, the two-flight event listed on the house sheet as a DeepStack with a $50,000 guarantee, and the live desk recorded 452 entries and a $90,400 prize pool. That is 43 entries shy of the Main Event at less than half the buy-in, and $40,400 over its own guarantee.

POWERSTACK AT HORSESHOE TUNICA

• Winner’s check: Stanford took $18,067 and the ring after beating Tony Wofford heads-up.
• Second place: Wofford cashed $12,045 from the same $90,400 pool.
• Day 2 size: Fifty-six players returned from the two $250 flights.
• November overlap: Stanford had finished seventh in Masters’ 645-entry Main Event for $9,775.

A $250 tournament that almost matches a $600 Main Event in bodies is how this stop actually fills. The advertised flagship still posted the bigger first prize. The cheaper ring event did the crowding.

How Three Flights Filled Sunday

RunGood listed 13 ring events over six days from March 10 to 15, with more than $250,000 in guarantees and the $600 Main Event as the closer. Flight A started Friday evening. Flights B and C ran Saturday, and the 58 survivors played to a winner on Sunday at noon local time.

THE WEEK INSIDE THE MAIN EVENT

1. March 13: Flight A opens the $600, $200,000 guarantee. Eleven players bag a paid stack from that flight.
2. March 14: Flight B draws 218 entries. David Frazier of Memphis bags 586,000, the overall lead through two flights. Twenty-seven more stacks survive. The two flights sit at 329 entries.
3. March 14: Flight C adds the rest of the field. Combined entries reach 495, and the prize pool clears $200,000.
4. March 15: Fifty-eight players return already in the money. Latta starts tenth with 393,000 and wins it that night with 8♥ 5♣.

Flight A’s 111 entries and Flight C’s 166 are the leftovers after subtracting the 218 on 1b from 329, then subtracting 329 from 495. The live desk also had Joseph Grimes at 579,000 and Kevin Wright of Canada at 539,000 among the Sunday leaders, with Chad Taylor at 510,000 and Adam Thomas at 504,000 before that aces hand ended Thomas’s run.

A Familiar Cast at Horseshoe Tunica

Masters, the November winner, was still in the March field on Sunday. He doubled through Michael Cordell with ace-three against king-queen on an ace-five-ten flop, a live-update note that the last champion had not yielded the room. Cordell later finished eighth for $6,211.

Latta’s own Tunica file reads like a regular’s log, not a one-week story.

LATTA AT THIS ADDRESS

• August 2019: Third in the $575 Tunica Main Event for $33,692 after a five-way deal, behind Tiffany Keathley.
• April 2023: Wins the WSOP Circuit seniors event for $16,971 from 219 entries, his Circuit ring in this room.
• November 2024: Seventh in the $600 Main Event for $9,299, a 598-entry field that paid McEwen $57,206.
• March 2026: First in the Passport Main Event for $49,110 from 495 entries.

He told the live desk he had been set up in a three-way all-in at a Tunica final table two years earlier, and that he usually runs well in these Main Events. The people around him already had RGPS rings. The $49,110 ended that argument in the same poker room, with the same faces on the rail.

Tunica Gets Another Stamp in November

The March stop sat in the middle of a Passport Season built as a stamp-collecting tour of 17 venues across the United States, running January through August and closing at Thunder Valley. Tana Karn, founder and president of the RunGood Poker Series, said the season was great poker, welcoming communities, and rooms that feel like home, and that the Passport idea was about the journey as much as the destination.

Horseshoe Tunica is back on that calendar. The Golden Expedition lists the property again from November 10 to 15, 2026, a second Tunica week on the 2026 sheet after the March rings were already handed out. The March Main Event did not set a field record and did not pay six figures. It paid a hobby player with grandkids, a job, and a long drive, which is the version of this stop the entry list keeps producing.