Day 1C of the $1,100 buy-in, $3.5 million guarantee MSPT Venetian Main Event attracted 1,312 runners, which along with 1A’s 477 and 1B’s 750 brought the total field up to 2,539 with just one flight remaining.
After 15 levels of player in Hall G of the Sands Expo Center, the field was whittled down to 175 players with Jason Sater and his stack of 770,500 leading the way. That is ahead of both of Gavin O’Rourke (530,000) and David McConachie (426,000), who finished as the Day 1B and 1A chip leaders respectively.
Thus far, 343 players (63 from 1A, 105 1B, and 175 1C) have punched their ticket to Thursday’s Day 2. Others to bag big stacks on 1C were Aleksandras Rusinovas (528,500), Kevin Albers (528,500), Jonatan Simchon (425,500), and Kuppuraj Mohan (411,000), who round out the top five.
They were joined by Mike Del Vecchio (295,000), Kyle Julius (264,000), MSPT Season 7 FireKeepers champ Aaron Massey (262,000), 2017 MSPT Wisconsin State Poker Champ Richard Bai (217,000), Maurice Hawkins (199,500), MSPT Season 5 Running Aces champ (150,000), and MSPT Pro Blake Bohn (141,500).
Of course, not everyone was fortunate enough to find a bag. Among those to hit the rail on 1C were 2016 MSPT Wisconsin State Poker champ Andy Rubinberg, two-time MSPT champs Johnny Hayes and Greg Himmelbrand, Poker Hall of Famer Scotty Nguyen, 2007 WSOP Main Event champ Jerry Yang, MSPT Season 6 Player of the Year Mark Hodge, WSOP bracelet winner Chris Tryba, poker vlogger Matt Vaughan, and two-time bracelet winner Loni Harwood.
The fourth and final starting flight will begin at Noon local time on Wednesday. It’s expected to be the biggest yet with a chance of alternates, so be sure to take that into account.