$

Awarded to date

The Venetian

January 1 - 3, 2021
Main Event: 1009 Entrants
Winner: James Carroll
recap_icon

EVENT RECAP

James Carroll shined at Venetian again, but unlike last time, he didn't have to share the spotlight after a chop.

Two years ago in February, he chopped a big DeepStack Extravaganza event here for $184K apiece. At MSPT Venetian $1,100 this time around, after a small saver that still left the vast majority of the first-place money in play against William Chao, Carroll came out on top for the trophy and $180,850.

It's step one in recapturing the momentum from his stellar 2019 — he cashed for just shy of $1.3 million — that was halted by coronavirus. He said it was his fourth tournament since the lockdowns hit and put the kibosh on most live poker.

"It's nice to stop that online grind," he said. "Probably the best I've ran in a tournament in a single day in my life. Just had a lot of big hands and got paid a lot."

Carroll got some heat early in the day and was cruising with a big stack of about 100 blinds, but where he really started to take over was at the final two tables. There, he opened constantly and swept up blinds while also showing up with some big hands when players tried shoving on him, and he soon had about 20% of the total chips with the final table still yet to convene.

From those final two tables on, it seemed Carroll was locked in a collision course with Chao. Despite being in second place, Chao still had almost double the chips of the third-place Bill Lewis when the final table went to battle.

Chao tested Carroll early with a four-bet and did his best to keep pace even as Carroll collected a couple of knockouts, of Lewis and Veselin Dimitrov.

In fact, Carroll did slip into second momentarily, but he recovered with the good run he referenced when he three-outed Daniel Sammarco shoving king-three suited into queens in a blinds battle. He then dispatched Daniel Jones — it was a day of near misses for Daniel Joneses as a more famous one bubbled the NFL playoffs — and looked to be complete command with a big lead heads up against Chao.

Heads-Up Save

However, Chao let him know he wasn't going quietly with a three-street value play holding top pair on a pretty coordinated board. That put him down only about 14 million to 10 million.

With deep stacks, the two opted to look at the numbers and quickly agreed to a $10K saver that tightened the payouts a bit.

"He's a super tough player," Carroll said. "So, I didn't mind doing a small saver. But, I wanted to get some heads-up practice in live and make sure the money still meant something."

In the end, he wouldn't get much practice at all. He turned on the aggression with a couple of three-bets that got through, and when Chao three-bet him, Carroll four-bet jammed ace-nine. Chao opted to go with ace-six suited and was left wanting when each player paired his ace but the kicker of Carroll played.

Carroll said it's onwards for him as he plans to play the WPT in Florida next, and he'll presumably be right back to his adopted home city for the following WPT events in March at Venetian.

result

The RESULTS

Rank
Player Name
City
State
Amount
Points
1
NV 
$180,850
1,700
2
CA 
$135,277
1,700
3
TX 
$84,171
1,600
4
NV 
$57,745
1,500
5
AZ 
$38,170
1,400
6
NV 
$28,383
1,300
7
Tempe 
AZ 
$21,532
1,200
8
WA 
$15,660
1,100
9
CA 
$13,702
1,000
10
IL 
$13,702
1,000
11
Covina 
CA 
$11,745
900
12
CA 
$11,745
900
13
NV 
$10,081
800
14
MN 
$10,081
800
15
WA 
$8,515
700
16
WI 
$8,515
700
17
CA 
$7,047
600
18
FL 
$7,047
600
19
CA 
$7,047
600
20
FL 
$7,047
600
21
 
 
$7,047
600
22
TX 
$7,047
600
23
Dallas 
TX 
$7,047
600
24
SC 
$7,047
600
25
MN 
$5,677
500
26
NY 
$5,677
500
27
NJ 
$5,677
500
28
NY 
$5,677
500
29
IL 
$5,677
500
30
GA 
$5,677
500
31
TX 
$5,677
500
32
MN 
$5,677
500
33
CO 
$4,600
400
34
Davie 
FL 
$4,600
400
35
CA 
$4,600
400
36
NY 
$4,600
400
37
Cary 
IL 
$4,600
400
38
MI 
$4,600
400
39
Boston 
MA 
$4,600
400
40
CO 
$4,600
400
41
KY 
$3,817
350
42
Almont 
MI 
$3,817
350
43
CA 
$3,817
350
44
OH 
$3,817
350
45
CA 
$3,817
350
46
CA 
$3,817
350
47
IL 
$3,817
350
48
AZ 
$3,817
350
49
NV 
$3,523
300
50
CT 
$3,523
300
51
CA 
$3,523
300
52
 
 
$3,523
300
53
Reno 
NV 
$3,523
300
54
CA 
$3,523
300
55
CA 
$3,523
300
56
MA 
$3,523
300
57
IL 
$3,230
250
58
MN 
$3,230
250
59
WA 
$3,230
250
60
 
 
$3,230
250
61
FL 
$3,230
250
62
MN 
$3,230
250
63
TX 
$3,230
250
64
MI 
$3,230
250
65
NV 
$3,034
200
66
ND 
$3,034
200
67
MO 
$3,034
200
68
IN 
$3,034
200
69
CO 
$3,034
200
70
OH 
$3,034
200
71
 
 
$3,034
200
72
CA 
$3,034
200
74
Miami 
FL 
$2,838
150
75
AL 
$2,838
150
76
MD 
$2,838
150
77
Edison 
NJ 
$2,838
150
78
NV 
$2,838
150
79
WI 
$2,838
150
80
MI 
$2,838
150
81
MN 
$2,643
100
82
Reno 
NV 
$2,643
100
83
AZ 
$2,643
100
84
TX 
$2,643
100
85
GA 
$2,643
100
86
Denver 
CO 
$2,643
100
87
CA 
$2,643
100
88
CA 
$2,643
100
89
Orange 
CA 
$2,447
75
90
CA 
$2,447
75
91
CO 
$2,447
75
92
CA 
$2,447
75
93
NY 
$2,447
75
94
NY 
$2,447
75
95
NC 
$2,447
75
96
CA 
$2,447
75
97
MI 
$2,251
50
98
AZ 
$2,251
50
99
HI 
$2,251
50
100
NV 
$2,251
50
101
NM 
$2,251
50
102
Denver 
CO 
$2,251
50
103
Tuscan 
CA 
$2,251
50
104
CA 
$2,251
50