The MSPT returned to beautiful Venetian Resort in Las Vegas for the third time this season, but the first as MAJOR Series of Poker - The Tour, to host back-to-back $1,000,000 GTD events!
After tallying 1,171 entries in the $1,100 Main Event, just seven players returned to action for the final day on Thursday in hopes of securing the top prize from the $1,142,896 prize pool.
When the dust finally settled, it was start of day chip leader Samuel Bifarella who was able to use his large chip lead to seize the moment and capture his first MSPT title along with a career score of $141,905.
“It feels really good to win”, Bifarella said after his victory, “This was the first tournament I’ve played here so far so it's a good way to start.”
While Bifarella came into Day 3 with over a third of the chips in play, he stayed fairly quiet throughout most of it until the final three players remained.
From there, he switched gears and started picking apart both of his opponents until he collected every chip in play to become the new MSPT Venetian $1,100 Main Event Champion!
Day 3 Action
Once the final players got mic’d up for action, things kicked right into gear with Andre Rieder able to flush his way to an early double only to fall a few hands later to Hrachya Ohanyan to become the first elimination of the day.
After getting a pay jump, short-stack Robert Nemeskeri-Kiss found a pretty suited hand to roll and took a ride on a rollercoaster only to get rivered by Baurzhan Akimov to take a sixth-place finish for $40,769.
Once the two shorties hit the deck, Brett Bader found himself at the bottom of the chip counts and tried to make a move in a battle of the blinds against Claudiu Burlacu, only to roll over a dominated hand to depart in fifth-place exit for $52,366.
Bader's departure then left Ohanyan sitting with the least amount of chips, but the first cooler of the day would occur after he turned a four-card straight with a pair of tens to crack Akimov’s pocket aces to jump to the top of the chip counts.
The cooling hand then left Akimov no choice but to make a move, and he found a suited king to try to double his stack with, only to miss his flush draw against Burlacu to take home $67,822 for his fourth-place efforts.
Once Akimov’s hit the deck, the chips evened out between the three remaining players, and it took almost two full levels before Ohanyan became the third place finisher after being flushed out the door by Burlacu to take home $88,850.
The elimination then put Burlacu in contention with Bifarella, who held a slight chip lead when the heads-up match started only to lose it after Burlacu turned a double to even the playing field.
Even after doubling Burlacu, Bifarella didn’t lose his composure, as he was able to take back the chip lead in q matter of a few hands.
From there, Bifarella held over 90% of the chips in play, and Burlacu was able to find a few lucky double-ups before ultimately taking a second-place finish for $131,905 while Bifarella took home the MSPT Venetian Main Event title!
This wraps up our coverage of yet another amazing week at the Venetian Las Vegas. Make sure to join us next time when we make our trip back to Riverside, Iowa, for the Iowa Poker State Championship at the Riverside Casino from July 22nd - 27th!