The Venetian

It was a busy day at The Venetian on Wednesday as third and final flight of the $1,100 buy-in MSPT Main Event catered to long lines and alternates. In fact, every seat in the house (there were 680 of them) were devoted to the tournament for more than nine hours and were sold out two times over as 1,432 total entrants tried their luck.

Along with the 839 entries from Day 1A and 1,002 from 1B, that brought the total field up to 3,273 runners. That made it the largest MSPT event in history by surpassing the previous record of 2,887 entries set last year in this same event.

The large turnout created a $3,207,540 prize pool and cruised past the advertised $2.5 million guarantee. Of the 404 players that’ll return for Day 2 (93 from 1A, 117 1B, and 194 1C), 351 of them will get paid a minimum of $2,085 while the eventual winner is slated to walk away with $440,029.

After 15 levels of play, WPT champ Taylor von Kriegenbergh bagged the chip lead among the 194 survivors with a stack of 536,500. That is just quite a bit ahead of both Day 1A and 1B chip leaders Ludovic Riehl (370,000) and Mike Shanahan bagged (377,500). Von Kriegenbergh, who won the 2011 WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open for more than $1.1 million, is seeking his first MSPT cash.

Others who bagged big stacks on Day 1C were Kurt Jewell (410,000), Kevin Grabel (325,000), Bob Mather (297,000), and Sheng Ye (270,500).

Likewise, former Marriage Boot Camp host Jim Carroll (232,000), former NFL star Richard Seymour (200,500), last year’s runner-up Mukul Pahuja (196,500), MSPT Season 6 Maryland Live! champ Greg Himmelbrand (109,500), and the better half of the aforementioned Bob Mathers, Candance Collins (91,000), all advanced to Day 2.

Among those to try and fall on Day 1C were Poker Hall of Famer Scotty Nguyen; MSPT Players of the Year Rich Alsup, Mark Hodge and Pat Steele; former champs Ari Engel, Dan “DQ” Hendrickson and Jon Kim; and defending champ Thomas Boivin.

The Belgian fell just after dinner when he got his short stack all in preflop holding the ace-eight of spade. Boivin was up against two opponents holding small pocket pairs, but despite holding two overs Boivin was unable to get there.

Day 2 of the MSPT Venetian will kick off at 11 a.m. on Thursday with the plan of playing through the money bubble on the way to the final table. Be sure to join us then as we bring you all the action and eliminations straight from the tournament floor.

The tournament staff just announced that the remaining players, of which there are approximately 210 remaining, will play seven more hands before bagging and tagging on Day 1C. Stay tuned for a recap of the action, chip counts, and the Day 2 seat draw.

We get to the table with about 50,000 in the pot and on the flop. Chino Rheem checked, as did Taylor von Kriegenbergh.

The dealer put the on the turn and Rheem check-called Kriegenbergh’s 20,000 bet.

On the river, Rheem checked for a final time and Kriegenbergh counted out a stack of blue chips.

Rheem shook his head, “Swear to god, I almost folded to you. First thing, I almost ripped it preflop. I was just gonna rip, over shove the pot.” Then he asked the dealer, “Sixty-five? That’s all my blues.”

“You get paid off if this card doesn’t come,” indicating the ace on the river. “You’ve probably got a set of queens, you check the flop, then bet again. I can’t see you riding ace-king on the turn for 20K. All I can beat is, like, ten’s now. You could turn tens into a bluff and that’s all I can beat.”

Kriegenbergh sat stone faced throughout the speech as Rheem counted out the sixty-five thousand in blue chips.

“If I show you jacks face up and fold will you show me? ‘Cuz I sort of want to call right now. You get paid off if that ace is a nine.”

Rheem eventually folds, flashing his cards (another player thought he saw red jacks).

“Can I see?” he asks and Kriegenbergh cracks a smile.

“You can see one,” von Kriegenbergh said.

“I can pick either one?” Chino asked. “Oh my god, you bluffed me!”

Rheem chose a card and turned over the .

“Oh my god, you bluffed me!”

Taylor von Kriegenbergh 335,000
Chino Rheem - 130,000

After the player in the cutoff raised to 5,500, Moldova’s Vyacheslav Stoyanov three-bet all in for 37,400 from the small blind. The player in the big folded and the original raiser called.

Stoyanov:
Opponent:

Stoyanov was way out in front, but the flop gave his opponent a straight draw. Fortunately for Stoyanov, the peeled off on the turn to give him Broadway. His opponent could still chop with a king on the river, but it wasn’t in the cards as the paired the board.

Vyacheslav Stoyanov - 80,000

Action folded to California’s Kaan Dogan on the button and he moved all in for 35,300. The player in the big blind opted to call and the cards were turned up.

Dogan:
Big Blind:

Dogan was just looking to hold to double, and that’s exactly what he did after the board ran out a safe .

Kaan Dogan - 75,000

Nick Pupillo, an HPT champ and regular at the MSPT stops, raised to 4,500 from middle position.

It folded around to WPT stud Chino Rheem in the cutoff and he asked to see Pupillo’s chips before three-betting to 12,000. The rest of the players got out of the way and Pupillo called.

Pupillo checked the flop, Rheem continued for 15,000 and Pupillo called.

The dealer turned the and Pupillo checked again. Rheem announced, “All in.”

Pupillo didn’t look happy about it but eventually called off. At that point the cards were turned up.

Rheem:
Pupillo:

Pupillo was drawing dead and officially eliminated with the on the river.

Chino Rheem - 150,000
Nicholas Pupillo - eliminated

Taylor von Kriegenbergh, who won the 2011 WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open for more than $1.1 million, is sitting with a mountain of chips, and he was kind enough to tell us about two big hands that helped boost his stack by 100,000 each.

In the first, he held and a series of raises saw two opponents get it in with and . The board ran out clean and that was von Kriegenbergh’s first big pot.

The second was fairly similar in that von Kriegenbergh, who held , got it in against opponents who held and . An ace appeared and von Kriegenbergh claimed another six-figure pot.

Taylor von Kriegenbergh - 335,000

The MSPT is heading back to Canterbury Park in Shakopee, Minnesota for the second time in Season 8. From August 5-13, the MSPT will host a series of satellites that will culminate in a $350 buy-in, $100,000 guaranteed Regional Event August 10-13.

It marks the first time a MSPT Regional Event has ever been held at the venue, which requires players be just 18 years old to play. There will be three starting flights, and players are allowed a max of one reentry per flight during the standard registration process.

The Regional Event will feature four starting flights beginning with Day 1A at 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday, August 9. Day 1B will take place at the same time on Thursday, August 10, while Days 1C and 1D will be held at 2:00 p.m. on Friday, August 11 and Saturday, August 12 respectively. The surviving players from each flight will then return for Day 2 at 11:00 a.m. on Sunday, August 13 to play down to a winner.

Satellites for the MSPT Canterbury Park Regional Event will begin on Thursday, July 6. Click here for a look at both the satellite and Canterbury Park weekly tournament schedule.

The Regional Events were introduced in January 2016 to offer recreational players an affordable opportunity to play our lauded “Chainsaw Approved” structure. The only differences from our $1,100 Main Event, which play 14 40-minute levels on Day 1, is that Regional Events starting flights play 16 levels and last 30 minutes each.

The tournament at Canterbury Park will mark the 20^th Regional Event in MSPT history. To date, the largest Regional Event ever held took place back in January at Potawatomi Hotel & Casino in downtown Milwaukee. That event drew 1,228 entries – then the largest poker tournament ever held in Wisconsin – and saw Craig Trost come out on top to take home a $63,252 top prize.

The MSPT last visited Canterbury Park in late April, which marked the 13^th Main Event held there. It ended up being the largest ever held at Canterbury Park with 475 entries, which surpassed the 470 entrants from December 2015.

After two long days of play, 56-year-old business development manager Mark Wadekamper emerged victorious to capture a $110,220 first-place prize. He did so by stopping reigning champ Jon Kim from defending his title. Back in December, Kim topped a field of 464 entrants to win the MSPT Canterbury Park for $107,659, but his title defense came up just one spot short. He took home $66,593 for finishing runner-up to Wadekamper.

While Canterbury Park does not have a hotel on sight, there are plenty of accommodation options nearby. For a list of hotels and how to contact them, visit Canterbury Park’s dedicated “Hotel Accommodations” page here.