Poker Writer
Thunder Valley Casino Resort was forced to cancel Flight A of its $1,200 Rungood poker main event on Thursday night due to a power outage caused by an off-property traffic accident involving a cement truck.
The first of four flights of the million-dollar main event was scheduled to begin at noon local time at the popular California poker room. The event is the premier tournament of the RunGood Poker Series Passport Season Finale.
Cement Truck Strikes Power Lines
But at 1:20 p.m. local time, the poker room’s X account announced the delay, offering no explanation at the time. Later, it was revealed that the delay was due to a nearby off-property traffic incident that triggered a local power outage.
Pacific Gas and Electric was working to try to fix the issue and restore service. The power company said that a cement truck had struck the power lines in the area. The power was restored to the casino around 2 p.m. but gaming remained affected.
By 7 p.m., Thunder Valley officials said the power was fully restored and gaming operations has resumed.
Main Event Flight A and Satellite Canceled
But the power did not come back early enough to allow for the poker events to continue for the day as it was already too late in the day for them to be completed.
Flight A of the main event was canceled, as well as the scheduled 6 p.m. $230 satellite.
The main event will now go on with just three opening flights rather than four. Canceling is likely not the end of the world for the event. The opening Thursday flight at these tournaments is usually by far the smallest anyway.
It also caused round three of the heads-up tournament to be postponed.
Jeff Platt Literally ‘Dims the Lights’
World Series of Poker broadcaster Jeff Platt, who often plays in the RGPS at Thunder Valley, joked on X that his “Dim the Lights” catch phrase finally literally came true. Ironically, this time he wanted to “undim” them to play in round three of the heads-up event.
