The Venetian

Johnson Nguyen Secures the Top After a Final 26 Players Advance After Day 1C

Day 1c of the MSPT $1,100 Main Event Season 16 Opener at the Venetian Resort attracted 235 runners, which along with 1a's 70 and 1b’s 126 brought the total field up to 431 entries, blasting past the $300k guarantee.

The total field generated a $415,915 prize pool, and the top 48 players will get paid a minimum of $2,356, while the eventual winner will walk away with a $76,054 first-place prize, along with the MSPT Season 16 Venetian Opener Main Event title!

At the end of the third and final flight, just 26 players bagged and tagged with Johnson Nguyen bagging the top stack with 787,000, good enough for second overall for Day 2.

Another player to catch steam throughout the day was four-time WSOP champ Jeff Madsen who ended the night with the final elimination of Landon Brown to put an impressive 609,00 stack into his bag.

Others to bag big stacks where Jeffrey Yarchiever (373,000), Joseph Marcantano (362,000), and Taylor Black (357,000) who rounded out the top five.

They were joined by Shawn Libersky (322,000), Jamie Kerstetter (177,000), WSOP bracelet winner Darren Rabinowitz (137,000), and MSPT champ Jeff Platt (114,000).

Among those not as lucky at the felt included MSPT champ Kfir Nahum, three-time MSPT champ Eric Baldwin, 2025 ICON Kyna England, WSOP bracelet winner Cole Ferraro, Brian Battistone, and Hayley Hanna.

The surviving players from all three flights – of which there are 48 (8 from Day 1a, 14 from 1b, and 26 from 1c) – will return at 11:00 a.m. local time on Sunday, January 5th to play down to a winner.

The MSPT live reporting crew will be on the floor throughout the remainder of the tournament to provide updates, so keep it here to catch the action!

MSPT Venetian Season 16 Opener Remaining Schedule

End of Day 1C Chip Counts

Player Name	Chip Count	Previous	Progress
Johnson Nguyen	787,000	701,000
Jeff Madsen	609,000	477,000
Jeffrey Yarchiever	373,000	342,000
Joseph Marcantano	362,000	370,000
Taylor Black	357,000	353,000
Shawn Libersky	322,000	334,000
Nam Nguyen	308,000	293,000
Stephen Lockwood	247,000	253,000
Josh Remitio	244,000	259,000
John Lewis	240,000	240,000
Meaghan Wells	204,000	204,000
Tyler Montoya	202,000	202,000
Jamie Kerstetter	177,000	197,000
Brent Vaalburg	166,000	151,000
Quang Pham	161,000	164,000
Jesse Kertland	147,000	171,000
Darren Rabinowitz	137,000	113,000
Adrian Chan	135,000	140,000
Thomas Zanot	128,000	180,000
Nikolai Tulin	116,000	64,000
Jeff Platt	114,000	126,000
Aditya Prasetyo	93,000	93,000
Jared Jaffee	92,000	104,000
Corey Bierria	65,000	56,000
Valeriy Gurin	45,000	48,000
Timothy Thorp	43,000	172,000

Jeff Madsen Rivers Lucky Lady to Eliminate Landon Brown on the Bubble

Action on the table folded to four-time bracelet winner Jeff Madsen who raised all in from the button and Landon Brown called off his shorter stack from the small blind.

Landon Brown:
Jeff Madsen:

Brown was ahead holding a suited ace and the flop gave both players a couple of draws.

The paired the board on the keeping Brown in the lead and he was looking good to score a double until the dealer peeled the on the river giving Madsen top pair to burst the bubble.

Jeff Madsen - 609,000
Landon Brown - Eliminated

Day 2 Line Up

So far, 22 players have punched their ticket into Day 2, and the final group of 26 hopefuls will look to add their names to that list tonight.

All who make it through until the end of play will return tomorrow, Sunday, January 5^th at 11:00 a.m. for Day 2, where the remaining players from all starting flights will combine and play until a winner is declared.

Late Night Counts & Bust Outs

Player Name	Chip Count	Previous	Progress
Johnson Nguyen	701,000	518,000
Jeff Madsen	477,000	485,000
Joseph Marcantano	370,000	336,000
Taylor Black	353,000	170,000
Jeffrey Yarchiever	342,000	302,000
Shawn Libersky	334,000	280,000
Nam Nguyen	293,000	100,000
Josh Remitio	259,000	201,000
Stephen Lockwood	253,000	100,000
John Lewis	240,000	135,000
Meaghan Wells	204,000	240,000
Tyler Montoya	202,000	100,000
Jamie Kerstetter	197,000	187,000
Thomas Zanot	180,000	110,000
Timothy Thorp	172,000	210,000
Jesse Kertland	171,000	190,000
Quang Pham	164,000	156,000
Brent Vaalburg	151,000	85,000
Adrian Chan	140,000	100,000
Jeff Platt	126,000	140,000
Landon Brown	117,000	78,000
Darren Rabinowitz	113,000	159,000
Jared Jaffee	104,000	205,000
Aditya Prasetyo	93,000	142,000
Nikolai Tulin	64,000	120,000
Corey Bierria	56,000	42,000
Valeriy Gurin	48,000	154,000
Patrick Eskandar	0	110,000
William Gray	0	220,000
Robert Natividad	0	30,000
Cheang Yoo	0	181,000

Black Cools Off Natividad for a Double

A series of preflop raises led to Taylor Black getting his 132,000 stack in the middle and he was caled by Robert Natividad from the button.

Taylor Black:
Robert Natividad:

Black rolled over the best made hand and improved after the flop gave him top set.

With Natividad holding a Broadway draw, Black was able to fade the turn and river to collect a double-up.

Taylor Black - 170,000
Robert Natividad - 30,000

Jaffee Runs Toogood

There was all in action preflop between WSOP bracelet winner Jared Jaffee from the cutoff and Randy Toogood from the big blind.

Randy Toogood:
Jared Jaffee:

Jaffee rolled over a dominated hand but saw a pretty lady in the flop to take the lead.

The then paired the board on the turn leaving Toogood needing either an ace or jack on the river to stay alive, but the completed the board and ended his night.

Jared Jaffee - 205,000
Randy Toogood - Eliminated

Counts & Bust Outs

Player Name	Chip Count	Previous	Progress
Johnson Nguyen	518,000	388,000
Jeff Madsen	485,000	278,000
Joseph Marcantano	336,000	94,000
Shawn Libersky	280,000	91,000
Jared Jaffee	205,000	382,000
Taylor Black	170,000	104,000
Jeff Platt	140,000	223,000
Lila West	0	29,000
David Goodman	0	42,000

Sevens Are Good for Black

Taylor Black raised from middle position only to call a 26,000 three-bet MSPT champ Tim Thorp made from the cutoff.

There wasn’t much action as the runout was checked to showdown.

Thorp rolled over but it was no good as Black showed to win the pot.

Tim Thorp - 210,000
Taylor Black - 143,000

Natividad Races to a Double

Action on the table folded to MSPT champ Tim Thorp who raised to 8,000 from the small blind only to call Robert Natividad’s 75,000 three-bet jam from the big blind.

Robert Natividad:
Tim Thorp:

It was a race with Natividad finding a queen in the window on the flop to take the lead.

The turn kept Natividad out in front and the river secured his double-up.

Tim Thorp - 225,000
Robert Natividad - 150,000