Day 1A of the MSPT Venetian $1,100 buy-in, $2.5 million guarantee Main Event was a big one. Last summer, when the field eventually reached 2,887 total entries, the first of three starting flights drew 499 runners. On Monday, that number was blown out of the water as 839 entrants tried their luck in what is shaping up to be one of the summer’s premiere no-limit hold’em events.
After 15 levels of play, the field was whittled down to 93 players with France’s Ludovic Riehl and his stack of 370,000 leading the way. Others who bagged big stacks were Matthew Leecy (361,000), Nicolas Morris (345,500), Adrei Shatilov (303,000), and Garrett Patrick (302,000).
They will be joined by the likes of Jack Salter (227,000), Craig Varnell (215,500), Casey Carroll (212,500), Kenny Hallaert (128,000), Max Havlish (123,000), Rob Wazwaz (73,500), Sam Panzica (73,000), Joe Serock (73,000), Kelly Minkin (55,000), and Dutch Boyd (51,500).
Also making it through was Chicago’s Drake Bronk (70,500), who is pictured above. If you recall, the MSPT first visited the Venetian back in 2014, and that is when Bronk topped a field of 854 entries to capture a $163,870 first-place prize. The inaugural MSPT Venetian champ will look to do it again on Thursday when he returns for Day 2 action.
Of course, not everyone was lucky enough to survive. Among those to fall on Day 1A were WSOP bracelet winners Chris Tryba, Kathy Liebert, Michael Gagliano and Allen Cunningham; 2001 WSOP Main Event champ Carlos Mortensen; the boisterous William Kassouf; MSPT Players of the Year Mark Hodge (Season 6) and Rich Alsup (Season 7); and former MSPT champs Jason Ramos, Andy Rubinberg, Dan “DQ” Hendrickson, Fred Garcia, Rodger Johnson, and Jeremy Dresch.
The good news is all of those players will have the opportunity to try again on Day 1B, which will kick off at Noon local time on Tuesday. In addition, any player that bagged can give it another go to try and improve as this is a best-stack-forward tournament.
Be sure to check back tomorrow for all the latest and greatest straight from the floor of the MSPT Venetian.