The Venetian

The final MSPT Main Event of the year has come to an end at Venetian Las Vegas and walking away the victor is none other than Eric Baldwin who defended his title to walk away with his third MSPT Championship along with $90,692.

Baldwin came into the final day sitting in the middle of the pack in chips and really didn’t start to catch steam until the final two tables and contributes a nice run of cards paved the way to victory.

“I love it when you guys here and that I run so well in MSPT’s,” Baldwin said jokingly after his win before continuing, “This is such a great tour, and it’s just ran really well especially here at the Venetian, and being from Wisconsin, it’s just awesome to play with all the players who travel from all over the country that come here to play it.”

The victory puts Baldwin in elite company as he now sits it a third place tie with three MSPT titles and is excited to get back at it next season.

“This is what I love doing and I always get excited when I see the MSPT on the Venetian schedule so I’m looking forward to the next stop here in February.”

The final day came back with 61 players already in the money so action kicked right into gear with Alex Milgrom being shot down by Dung Ho’s cowboys in one of the first hand of the day.

Action across the final tables continued with players dropping like wildfire as the march to the final table was on.

Among those to fall along the way, albeit with a payday were two-time WSOP bracelet winner Shannon Shorr (10th Place - $8,853), bracelet winner Ben Moon (14th Place - $6,025), Lovell “Da Wiz” Wilkerson (22nd Place - $4,314), and Season 14 Player of the Year Umut Ozturk (23rd Place - $4,314).

Final Table Action

The fast-paced action kept rolling with Ky Nguyen becoming the first final table elimination after he jammed his pocket sixes into Ankush Mandavia’s superior pocket tens.

The very next level saw Luke Wasikowski get his short stack in the middle holding a suited queen-jack only to miss his flush draw against the defending champ Baldwin.

After Wasikowski's departure, Bill Croft lost a battle of the blinds against Mandavia and was sent home in seventh place while Ho was able to ladder up making a sixth place exit.

In the very next level, Mandavia was the next one who found himself on the chopping block after he failed to connect with his two over cards against Baldwin’s pocket sixes and was sent home in fifth place for $28,688.

With four players remaining, the chips were pretty evenly dispersed between them, that was until Victorino Torres tried to bluff Bogdan Chornyy off of trip jacks and found himself taking a fourth place departure for $37,604.

Chornyy held over half the chips in play when three-handed action started with Baldwin sitting second in chips, leaving WSOP bracelet winner Darren Rabinowitz needing to make a move and he did, holding a made hand of fours.

Unfortunately for Rabinowitz, he was counterfeited on the turn by Chornyy and was awarded $49,861 for his third place efforts.

The heads-up battle begun with Chornyy holding a 2:1 chip advantage, but Baldwin was determined to defend his title and chipped away at Chornyy until the final hand where he flopped an eight to secure his third MSPT title.

MSPT Player of the Year

The MSPT Season 14 Player of the Year race went down to the wire, and it was MSPT Hall of Famer Ozturk who was able to claim the top spot after his fellow Hall of Famer Rob WazWaz was eliminated late in Friday’s Day 1b flight.

Ozturk and WazWaz had been neck-to-neck throughout the season, leapfrogging each other throughout the year racking up a record 16 cashes with five final table appearances apiece.

With his cash today, Ozturk has now cemented himself in the record book for most cashes in a single season with 17 and has brough his MSPT career earnings up to $327,507.

This wraps up our coverage of a very exciting 14th season!