The Venetian

Lukas Hafner Secures the Top Spot After a Final 70 Players Advance from Day 1C of the Inaugural MSPT $1,600 Heart Poker Championship

Day 1c of the inaugural MSPT $1,600 Heart Poker Championship at the Venetian Resort attracted more players than the first two flights combined adding another 628 entries, bringing the total field up to 1,051 entries.

At the end of the third and final flight, just 70 players bagged and tagged with Lukas Hafner bagging the top stack with a whopping 1,471,000, taking the overall chip lead into Day 2.

Another player to catch steam throughout the day was Ryan Rivers who ended the night an impressive 850,000 stack to put into his bag, and he will bring the second overall stack into Day 2.

Others to bag big included six-time bracelet winner Brian Hastings (768,000), Timothy Pai (695,000), and Daniel Smiljkovic (664,000), as the rounded out the top five stacks of this flight.

They were joined by MSPT champ Noel Eicher (557,000), Frank Lagodich (480,000), Andrew Moreno (322,000), MSPT Hall of Famer Josh Reichard (290,000), and fellow Hall of Famer Aaron Massey (213,000).

Among those not as lucky at the felt included Lexy Gavin, Matt Affleck, Asher Conniff, WPT legend Eric Afriat, WSOP bracelet winner David Moses, and defending WSOP Main Event champ Jonathan Tamayo.

The surviving players from all three flights – of which there are 118 (5 from Day 1a, 43 from 1b, and 70 from 1c) – will return for Day 2 at 11:00 a.m. tomorrow Saturday, June 7^th, and will play until seven players remain.

The final seven will then return to action on Sunday, June 8^th at 11:00 a.m. to play down to a winner which will be live streamed in the Venetian Poker Live streaming studio!

MSPT Venetian Remaining Schedule

Congratulations to everyone who made Day 2, we will be back tomorrow for full coverage right here on MSPTPoker.com from the Venetian Las Vegas!

End Day 1C Chip Counts

Player Name	Chip Count	Previous	Progress
Lukas Hafner	1,471,000	860,000
Ryan Rivers	850,000	600,000
Brian Hastings	768,000	411,000
Timothy Pai	695,000	650,000
Daniel Smiljkovic	664,000	664,000
Levy Tzur	579,000	476,000
Joe Kuether	567,000	450,000
Noel Eicher	557,000	420,000
Francesco Morales	505,000	425,000
Frank Lagodich	480,000	610,000
Daniel Revah	472,000	472,000
Kenneth Quattrocchi	452,000	452,000
Hugues Girard	441,000	441,000
James Sileo	413,000	413,000
Michael Mitrione	404,000	404,000
Mike Zulker	394,000	394,000
Martin Stausholm	360,000	360,000
David Dibernardi	339,000	339,000
Andrew Moreno	322,000	352,000
Jacob Long	321,000	198,000
Josh Reichard	290,000	220,000
Vegard Ropstad	290,000	290,000
Nicholas Verderamo	284,000	402,000
Nicholas Lampropoulos	283,000	283,000
Evan Benton	270,000	270,000
Christopher Aiello	269,000	269,000
Daniel Fuhs	266,000	266,000
Joe Spanne	253,000	253,000
Brian Luo	248,000	248,000
Min Sung Lee	242,000	242,000
Nicholas Seward	222,000	125,000
Gabriel Moura	220,000	220,000
Martin Jacobson	220,000	120,000
Paul Martin	216,000	216,000
Aaron Massey	213,000	124,000
Jared Griener	195,000	108,000
Zichuan Huang	193,000	193,000
Jeffrey Copeland	182,000	197,000
Renat Bohdanov	180,000	180,000
Lucas Jumalon	180,000	202,000
David Hewitt	176,000	176,000
Anthony Ibrahim	175,000	175,000
Matthew Ploof	173,000	130,000
Shaurabh Sharma	169,000	169,000
Yu Chang	163,000	163,000
Yuan Yu	160,000	160,000
Paawan Bansal	154,000	275,000
Yizhak Yerushalmi	153,000	153,000
Pavlin Karakikov	147,000	147,000
Artem Metalidi	140,000	140,000
Harrison Gimbel	139,000	155,000
Mihai Manole	135,000	135,000
Mukul Pahuja	133,000	153,000
Baurzhan Akimov	125,000	125,000
Kyle Arora	125,000	125,000
Anthony Scarborough	120,000	55,000
Ryan Hohner	100,000	153,000
Jean Fiasson	95,000	95,000
Juan Hernandez	90,000	90,000
Lachezar Petkov	82,000	200,000
Mathieu Hls	79,000	79,000
Alex Greenblatt	64,000	0
Vineet "Vinny" Pahuja	59,000	115,000
Neel Joshi	52,000	52,000
Joan Crespi	49,000	49,000
Tony Sinishtaj	30,000	162,000
Tetsuma Iashizu	19,000	19,000
Alexandros Kolonais	18,000	300,000
Mario Navarro	18,000	18,000

Play Has Ended

Only one hand was needed in the hand-for-hand process to hit the hard stop of 70 players meaning play has ended for the night.

Day 2 Line Up

So far, 48 players have punched their ticket into Day 2, and the final group of 70 hopefuls will look to add their names to that list tonight.

All who make it through until the end of play will return tomorrow, Saturday, June 7^th, and will play until seven players remain.

The final seven will then return to action on Sunday, June 8^th at 11:00 a.m. to play down to a winner which will be live streamed in the Venetian Poker Live streaming studio!

Make sure to be a part of history at The Venetian Poker Room as they will unveil their brand-new streaming studio produced and distributed by PokerGO!

Benton Finds Some Life

Tetsuma Ishizu raised from the cutoff only to call Evan Benton’s 97,000 three-bet jam from the small blind.

Evan Benton:
Tetsuma Ishizu:

Benton rolled over the better hand and connected on the flop to take a commanding lead.

The then paired the board on the turn sealing the deal for Benton, and the river secured his double-up.

Evan Benton - 200,000
Tetsuma Ishizu - 145,000

Jacobson Spikes Ace on River for Survival

There was all in action preflop between 2014 WSOP Main Event champ Martin Jacobson and his opponent from the hijack, with Jacobson’s 57,000 stack at risk.

Martin Jacobson:
Opponent:

Jacobson rolled over the better hand, but a king appeared in the window on the flop pairing his opponent.

The turn left Jacobson needing help from the river to stay alive and fortunately for him, the that fell was just the card he wanted to see as it kept his tournament rolling.

Martin Jacobson - 120,000

Late Night Movement

Player Name	Chip Count	Previous	Progress
Timothy Pai	650,000	403,000
Frank Lagodich	610,000	365,000
Ryan Rivers	600,000	300,000
Noel Eicher	420,000	187,000
Josh Reichard	220,000	122,000
Matthew Ploof	130,000	211,000
Martin Jacobson	120,000	95,000
Michael Liang	0	183,000

Big Slick Comes Through for Hafner to Take the Chip Lead

There was all in action preflop between Lukas Hafner from middle position and Alexandros Kolonais from the big blind, with Hafner holding 422,000 effective.

Lukas Hafner:
Alexandros Kolonais:

Hafner was ahead holding Big Slick and took a commanding lead after the flop paired his ace.

The dealer then turned the keeping things sweaty, but the completed the board on the river and secured Hafner his double.

Lukas Hafner - 860,000
Alexandros Kolonais - 300,000

Bohdanov Trips Up Bansal for a Double

There was three-way action between Paawan Bansal from the button, Timothy Pai from the small blind and Renat Bohdanov from the big blind with a board showing.

Pai checked his option to Bohdanov who moved his 42,000 stack into the middle, and only Bansal called.

Renat Bohdanov:
Paawan Bansal:

Bohdanov was ahead holding trip fives, and the turn secured his double-up.

Timothy Pai - 570,000
Paawan Bansal - 220,000
Renat Bohdanov - 200,000

Updated Chip Counts & Bust Outs

Player Name	Chip Count	Previous	Progress
Alexandros Kolonais	627,000	501,000
Levy Tzur	476,000	200,000
Joe Kuether	450,000	150,000
Brian Hastings	411,000	310,000
Timothy Pai	403,000	220,000
Nicholas Verderamo	402,000	300,000
Frank Lagodich	365,000	194,000
Andrew Moreno	352,000	210,000
Stephen Dauphinais	293,000	208,000
Paawan Bansal	275,000	372,000
Matthew Ploof	211,000	200,000
Jacob Long	198,000	120,000
Jeffrey Copeland	197,000	172,000
Michel Johannes Molenaar	190,000	139,000
Noel Eicher	187,000	130,000
Nicola DiTrapani	174,000	90,000
Tony Sinishtaj	162,000	80,000
Mukul Pahuja	153,000	55,000
Ryan Hohner	153,000	200,000
Aaron Massey	124,000	184,000
Josh Reichard	122,000	312,000
Jared Griener	108,000	52,500
Martin Jacobson	95,000	118,000
Sriharsha Doddapaneni	93,000	180,000
Alex Greenblatt	72,000	247,000
Anthony Scarborough	55,000	124,000
Timothy Thorp	0	61,400
DJ Buckley	0	61,000
Srivinay Irrinki	0	158,000
Jeff Heiberg	0	128,000
Dylan Linde	0	87,500