$

Awarded to date

The Venetian

November 19 - 23, 2020
Main Event: 1239 Entrants
Winner: Korey Payne
recap_icon

EVENT RECAP

On Monday night, Korey Payne became the newest champion on the Mid-States Poker Tour (MSPT) after besting a field of 1,239 entries to take home the top prize of $327,773 in the MSPT Venetian $1,600 Main Event. His victory capped a three-day tournament and five-day-long event that generated an overall prize pool of $1,771,770.

Payne entered the day taking a stack of 605,000 to blinds of 8,000/16,000/16,000, just one big blind above the average stack for the 63 players that returned for Day 3. Four hours later, he had maintained that stack as the field reached 30, and had doubled it by the final two tables of 16.

The run started with Payne finding a double with pocket sixes by hitting a six on the turn against Jorden Helstern's flopped top pair of queens to double to over 2 million. From there, he hit a set of queens in a three-way pot to eliminate Zachary Grech in 10th place and wound up taking a second-place stack into the final table of eight.

From Eight To One

Day 1a Chip Leader Salim Admon came into the final table with a stack nearly double that of Payne's. On the first hand of the final table, he doubled Dale Eberle, but Eberle gave it all back on the next hand when he check-shoved king-queen on a queen-high board and Admon looked him up with two aces. Helstern was then the shortest stack and lost a coin flip versus Randy Froelich to bow out in seventh shortly thereafter.

Half a level passed before the next elimination in David Poces, who lost a coin flip of his own against Satoshi Tanaka. Tanaka then found himself in the hunt, but he became the next one to bust another 30 minutes later when his pocket tens were cracked by Martin Zamani hitting a diamond flush with ace-five suited for almost all of his chips. Finding himself left with crumbs, Tanaka watched Zamani hit another diamond flush on the following hand to make his fifth-place finish official.

One hand later, Zamani eliminated Froelich in fourth, but was still third in chips behind Admon and Payne. Chips flew across the table over the next 40 minutes with Zamani eventually four-bet-shoving with king-deuce suited in a blind-on-blind situation against Admon's ace-king. Zamani hit a deuce and doubled to become the chip leader, but he then ran two unsuccessful bluffs against Payne to first double him, and then fall to him.

As a result, Payne took a commanding chip lead into heads-up play but quickly doubled Admon. The two battled from there, with Payne grinding Admon down a bit before doubling him once more. Chips then went back and forth until the final hand of the night, when Payne made kings up on the turn and led out after check-calling a bet from Admon. Admon raised, Payne immediately announced he was all in, and Admon eventually wound up calling with a pair of queens that remained second best to earn Payne the title of MSPT champion and the top prize of $327,773 that came along with it.

result

The RESULTS

Rank
Player Name
City
State
Amount
Points
1
OR 
$327,773
1,900
2
CA 
$219,699
1,700
3
NV 
$148,829
1,600
4
OH 
$100,991
1,500
5
OH 
$65,555
1,400
6
FL 
$49,610
1,300
7
IL 
$37,207
1,200
8
NV 
$28,348
1,100
9
Newton 
NC 
$23,919
1,000
10
CA 
$23,919
1,000
11
MN 
$20,375
900
12
MN 
$20,375
900
13
LA 
$17,186
800
14
CA 
$17,186
800
15
MA 
$14,351
700
16
CO 
$14,351
700
17
NJ 
$11,871
600
18
AZ 
$11,871
600
19
Tuscan 
CA 
$11,871
600
20
IL 
$11,871
600
21
MN 
$11,871
600
22
MI 
$11,871
600
23
 
 
$11,871
600
24
CA 
$11,871
600
25
IL 
$9,390
550
26
NV 
$9,390
550
27
Omaha 
NE 
$9,390
550
28
GA 
$9,390
550
29
NY 
$9,390
550
30
WI 
$9,390
550
31
IL 
$9,390
550
32
CA 
$9,390
550
33
AZ 
$7,796
500
34
MN 
$7,796
500
35
 
$7,796
500
36
NY 
$7,796
500
37
Denver 
CO 
$7,796
500
38
NV 
$7,796
500
39
CA 
$7,796
500
40
NJ 
$7,796
500
41
TX 
$6,556
450
42
NV 
$6,556
450
43
Novi 
MI 
$6,556
450
44
CA 
$6,556
450
45
Dallas 
TX 
$6,556
450
46
NV 
$6,556
450
47
CA 
$6,556
450
48
IL 
$6,556
450
49
CA 
$6,024
400
50
CA 
$6,024
400
51
NE 
$6,024
400
52
CA 
$6,024
400
53
NV 
$6,024
400
54
CA 
$6,024
400
55
IL 
$6,024
400
56
CA 
$6,024
400
57
MD 
$5,670
350
58
OH 
$5,670
350
59
SC 
$5,670
350
60
WA 
$5,670
350
61
NV 
$5,670
350
62
FL 
$5,670
350
63
ME 
$5,670
350
64
SD 
$5,670
350
65
NV 
$5,315
300
66
Canton 
OH 
$5,315
300
67
CA 
$5,315
300
68
FL 
$5,315
300
69
Cary 
IL 
$5,315
300
70
NV 
$5,315
300
71
NV 
$5,315
300
72
CA 
$5,315
300
73
CA 
$4,961
250
74
CA 
$4,961
250
75
SD 
$4,961
250
76
Fargo 
ND 
$4,961
250
77
MI 
$4,961
250
78
AZ 
$4,961
250
79
CO 
$4,961
250
80
CA 
$4,961
250
81
MN 
$4,607
200
82
AZ 
$4,607
200
83
NJ 
$4,607
200
84
NV 
$4,607
200
85
Denver 
CO 
$4,607
200
86
GA 
$4,607
200
87
 
 
$4,607
200
88
 
$4,607
200
89
MI 
$4,252
150
90
NV 
$4,252
150
91
GA 
$4,252
150
92
FL 
$4,252
150
93
CA 
$4,252
150
94
Renton 
WA 
$4,252
150
95
CA 
$4,252
150
96
CA 
$4,252
150
97
NY 
$3,898
100
98
ND 
$3,898
100
99
CA 
$3,898
100
100
TX 
$3,898
100
101
 
 
$3,898
100
102
NV 
$3,898
100
103
MN 
$3,898
100
104
CA 
$3,898
100
105
TX 
$3,544
75
106
TX 
$3,544
75
107
Dallas 
TX 
$3,544
75
108
AZ 
$3,544
75
109
TX 
$3,544
75
110
CA 
$3,544
75
111
TX 
$3,544
75
112
Lehi 
VT 
$3,544
75
113
HI 
$3,189
50
114
 
 
$3,189
50
115
NV 
$3,189
50
116
CA 
$3,189
50
117
NV 
$3,189
50
118
IL 
$3,189
50
119
FL 
$3,189
50
120
CA 
$3,189
50
121
Mobile 
AL 
$3,189
50
122
 
 
$3,189
50
123
Miami 
FL 
$3,189
50
124
NV 
$3,189
50
125
Malden 
MA 
$3,189
50
126
Omaha 
NE 
$3,189
50
128
NY 
$3,189
50