Day 2 of the inaugural MSPT $1,600 Heart Poker Championship at the Venetian Resort saw 118 players return to action on Sunday in hopes of making the streamed final table of seven and after roughly 11 hours of play, that mark was hit in Level 29 with 22:54 left remaining at 60,000/120,000/120,000.

Leading the charge with a third of the chips in play is Brian Luo who’s 11,320,00 stack is nearly double the stack size of two-time bracelet winner Antonio Galiana’s 5,725,000 stack.

While she is the last lady standing, Jessica Vierling sits third in the chip counts with 3,440,000 with MSPT Hall of Famer Josh Reichard hot on her tail bagging 3,090,000 for a fourth place stack to take into the final day.

Min Sung Lee (2,840,000), Artem Metalidi (2,725,000), and Hugues Girard (2,435,000) rallied into Day 3 but will have an uphill battle when the lights take the stage.

Streamed Final Table Chip Counts

Day 2 Action

The final day came back with 118 players already in the money, so action kicked right into gear with Neel Joshi being eliminated in the first hand of the day while Vinny Pahuja followed him to the payout cage shortly after.

After Pahuja hit the deck, a flurry of “payouts” could be heard throughout the room, as handfuls of players were walking to the payout table which included the likes of MSPT Hall of Famer Aaron Massey (108^th Place – $3,417), MSPT champ Jeff Copeland (94^th Place – $3,638), Season 16 $1,600 Poker Bowl IX champ Anthony Scarborough (76^th Place - $4,264), MSPT champ Brad Gafford (60^th Place - $5,964), and Frank Lagodich (50^th Place - $5,889) all hit the deck before the three table redraw.

The final three tables were stacked with crushers with Joe Kuether (24^th Place - $8,964), Javier Zarco (18^th Place - $12,506), six-time bracelet winner Brian Hastings (13^th Place - $18,180), and Caleb Rife (10^th Place - $22,256) fell before the final table.

Final Table Action

Once the final table was set, short-stack Daniel Smiljkovic was able to find a double-up off-the-bat and then followed that up with the elimination of Timothy Pai to climb the chip counts.

Unfortunately for Smiljkovic, his two early hands became irrelevant as he lost with two premium hands in almost back-to-back hands as he was eliminated in eighth place ending play for the evening.

The final seven players are set with action starting tomorrow 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 the first-ever MAJOR Champion will be crowned LIVE in the Venetian Poker Live streaming studio, produced and distributed by PokerGO!