Day 1A of the $1,100 buy-in, $500,000 GTD MSPT Poker Bowl II at The Venetian Las Vegas attracted 268 entries, up from 253 the year before. After 15 levels of play, the field was whittled down to 35 players with Dylan Thomassie and his stack of 324,000 leading the way.
Thomassie is no stranger to the MSPT. He has three cashes, two of which have come here at The Venetian. Back in 2014 during the MSPT’s first-ever visit to the venue, Thomassie finished in eighth place for $19,328. Last summer, he finished 191st in what was the largest MSPT in history – and also the biggest tournament ever held at Venetian – for a more modest $3,208.
Rounding out the top five Day 1A big stacks are William James (322,500), Kevin O’Donnell (291,500), Matthias De Cercq (269,000), and Vincent Moscati (229,000)
Others to advance to Saturday’s Day 2 are MSPT Season 8 Grand Falls champ Ahmed Taleb (206,500), WPT champ Jordan Cristos (195,500), Jon “Pearljammer” Turner (168,500), Colin Lovelock (145,500), Kathy Liebert (130,000), Jerry Cunniff (120,500), Darren Rabinowitz (100,000), WSOP bracelet winners Ben Keeline (98,000) and Ryan Laplante (96,000), and MSPT Season 3 Running Aces champ Rodger Johnson (83,500).
Of course, not everyone was so lucky. Among those to try and fall on 1A were five-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner Allen Cunningham, former November Niner Joseph Cheong, last year’s runner-up Ankush Mandavia, and defending champ Jordan Young.
Likewise, former MSPT champs Dan “DQ” Hendrickson, Keith Heine, and Mike Shanahan all hit the rail, as did tour regulars Hank Mlekoday, Vlad Tkachuk, John Morgan, “Big” Al Hedin, Sammy Aweida, Loki Abboud, Griff Woodman, and Jeff Fielder.
The good news is that all of those players will have the opportunity to try again if they so choose as there’s still another flight to go. Day 1B will kick off at Noon local time on Friday (registration is open now. Late registration and re-entries will remain open through Level 9, which is roughly 7 p.m.
Be sure to join us tomorrow as we bring you all the actions and eliminations straight from The Venetian tournament floor.