The Venetian

On Monday, the Mid-States Poker Tour Venetian $1,100 Main Event, which features a juicy $2 million guarantee, attracted 499 entrants to Day 1a, the first of three starting flights. After 15 levels of play, just 61 remained with Brazil's Felipe Difini and his stack of 554,000 leading the way.

Difini, who finished 120^th in last year's World Series of Poker Main Event for a career-high $46,890, actually had some luck last summer here at The Venetian, which is when he finished third in the DeepStack Extravaganza III Event #54: $600 Limit Omaha 8/B for $15,485. Difini is primed to top that score as a big double knockout right at the end of the night firmly established him as the chip leader.

Others who bagged of big stacks were Joe Serock (329,500), Mukul Pahuja (282,500), Michael Wynn (260,000), and Mark Darner (255,500), who round out the top five. Others who made it through, albeit it with a bit less, were last year's sixth-place finisher Sergio Aido (175,000), MSPT Potawatomi champ Travis Lauson (166,500), recent WPT Montreal winner Seth Davies (108,500), and 2001 WSOP Main Event champ Carlos Mortensen (70,000).

Another interesting storyline is that of Angelina Rich and Alex Lynskey. The poker couple, who spend most of their time in Australia, bagged 43,000 and 99,000 respectively. Rich is no doubt familiar to MSPT fans as she is the defending champion of this very event. Last summer, Rich topped a field of 1,964 entrants to take home a $215,815 first-place prize and become the first woman in history to win a MSPT title. Rich is on the shorter side of things, but her title defense is very much alive.

Of course not everyone was fortunate enough to survive. Among those to fall on Day 1a were MSPT Pro Matt Alexander, 2007 WSOP Main Event champ Jerry Yang, reigning MSPT Player of the Year Mark Hodge, WPT world champ Asher Conniff, Venetian Ambassador Erica Lindgren, MSPT Meskwaki winner Keith Heine, and 2010 PCA victor Harrison Gimbel. Fortunately, those players can try again tomorrow if they so choose.

Day 1b is set to kickoff at Noon local time on Tuesday. Once again the plan is to play 15 levels, and late registration will be open until 6:30 p.m. Players have the opportunity to reenter once during each flight. Join us then as we bring you all the action and eliminations straight from the floor of The Venetian Poker Room.

Felipe Difini 554,000
Joe Serock 329,500
Mukul Pahuja 282,500
Michael Wynn 260,000
Mark Darner 255,500
Gavin O'Rourke 218,000
Travis Hartshorn 210,000
Catherine Dever 192,500
Brennan Benglas 185,500
Tizzy Brown 183,000
Sergio Aido 175,000
Travis Lauson 166,500
Jonas Wewer 161,000
Derek Wolters 156,000
Gilberto Amaral 155,000
Dusty Nelson 150,000
Norbert Szelsi 147,000
Kirill Zapletin 144,500
Sinh Nguyen 142,500
Justin Adams 122,500
Jake Nguyen 116,500
Collin Grubaugh 116,500
Bill Berglund 113,000
Schleser Severia 113,000
Chaz Wexler 109,500
Seth Davies 108,500
Daniel Wellborn 107,500
Bartlomie Machon 106,500
Thomas Williams 103,000
Alex Lynskey 99,000
Nick Welu 98,000
Vitor Coelho 96,500
Joshua Steiner 94,000
Aziz Wehbey 94,000
Mina Greco 94,000
Anthony Alonso 93,500
Viktoria Lucewkova 91,500
Marcel Sabag 87,000
Ryan Amoroso 85,500
Brandon Ienn 85,500
Shaun Plummer 85,000
Allan Hedin 77,000
Scott Hart 75,000
Michael Sanders 75,000
Guy Cilloni 74,500
Noel Herbert 73,500
Art Alaniz 73,500
Keith Oakley 72,500
Marvin Rettenaski 70,500
Carlos Mortensen 70,000
Joseph Calderon 69,500
Soma Sekar Madadhratla 64,000
Riley Fuller 63,000
Adam Levy 53,000
Vlad Mezheritsky 52,500
Michael Cohen 44,500
Angelina Rich 43,000
Christopher Caruso 42,500
Jared Koppel 41,000
Jewook Oh 39,500
Jean Ledoux 25,000

The tournament staff just announced that the remaining players will play seven more hands before bagging and tagging for the night. We’re headed out to capture any last minute action and to compile a list of chip counts. Stay tuned for those as well as a full recap of the Day 1a action.

We missed the action unfold, but we do know that Brazil’s Felipe Difini got his stack all in on a flop against two players, one who had roughly 100,000.

Difini:

Opponent #1:

Opponent #2:

Difini flopped a set to take a hammerlock on the hand, and he scored the double knockout after the appeared on the turn followed by the on the river.

Felipe Difini - 540,000

We missed the elimination of Darryll Fish, but we learned after the fact that he went bust after getting his stack all in preflop holding and flipping against Joe Serock, who held . The tens failed to hold, and Fish came up just shy of surviving the Day 1a flight.

Joe Serock - 200,000

Darryll Fish - Busted

Michael Wynn - 310,000

Mukul Pahuja - 255,000

Felipe Difini - 220,000

Brennan Benglas - 190,000

Alex Lynskey - 180,000

Justin Adams - 170,000

Travis Lauson - 170,000

Joe Serock - 157,000

Severin Schleser - 150,000

Sergio Aido - 110,000

Gavin O’Rourke - 90,000

Angelina Rich - 60,000

Marvin Rettenmaier - 58,000

Michael Sanders - 40,000

Carlos Mortensen - 40,000

Mina Greco - 30,000

Action folded to Darryll Fish in the small blind and he raised to 6,000. Wisconsin’s Rick Syverud, who had a big stack earlier in the tournament but has been nursing a shorter one as of late, then three-bet all in for right around 35,000. Fish snap-called.

Fish:

Syverud:

Syverud was in rough shape and in desperate need of a king, but he came up empty as the board ran out a dry .

Darryll Fish - 90,000

Rick Syverud - Busted

From 2013-2014, few players enjoyed as much success as Mukul Pahuja, the younger brother of poker pro Vinny Pahuja. In April 2014, Pahuja locked up the WPT Season XII Player of the Year award after

cashing five times, making three final tables, and battling for a WPT title on two different occasions. Here’s a look at his $1.4 million season:

partypoker WPT Montreal – 2nd place ($340,928)

WPT Lucky Hearts Poker Open – 8th place ($36,147)

WPT L.A. Poker Classic – 30th place ($36,400)

WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star – 4th place ($320,800)

WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown – 2nd place ($691,965)

According to the WPT, Pahuja became the third WPT Player of the Year to achieve that feat without winning a title in the same season. His 3,450 POY points were also a record under the current scoring system, and his three final tables tie him with the likes of Negreanu and Ivey for most in a season.

As if that wasn't impressive enough, in December 2014, Pahuja capped off the year by topped a field of 460 entries to win the World Series of Poker Circuit Harrah's Atlantic City for $148,345. Then, in February of this year, Pahuja topped a field of 613 runners to win the WSOP Circuit Main Event at Palm Beach Kennel Club for $193,095., giving him his third ring overall and second Main Event title.

Here's how Julio Rodriguez (the winner of the MSPT Venetian Media Freeroll earlier today) described Pahuja:

"Mukul spent his time after college in finance on Wall Street, but a successful week at a WSOP Circuit stop gave him the courage to try and make it as a full-time poker pro. Although it hasn’t always been smooth sailing, Pahuja righted the ship and has since cemented his status as one of the best up-and-coming players in the game today."

For more on Pahuja, who right now is the chip leader among the remaining 84 player, check out Rodriguez's A Poker Life: Mukul Pahuja on CardPlayer.

Seth Davies, who is a month removed from winning the WPT Montreal for $226,893, opened for 4,500 from the cutoff and Minneapolis’ Jason Corrigan three-bet all in for 22,700 from the button. Both blinds folded and Davies opted to make the call.

Davies:

Corrigan:

Corrigan not only had the better hand, he had clubs covered. That said, Davies was drawing to two live cards. Fortunately for Corrigan, neither appeared as the board ran out a clean .

Seth Davies - 78,000

Jason Corrigan - 50,000

Players are now on their last 10-minute break of the night. When they return they’ll play three more levels before bagging and tagging for the evening.