The $3,500 buy-in, $3.5 million guarantee MSPT Venetian Main Event attracted 1,096 runners (74 on 1A, 132 1B, 771 1C and 121 on Day 2), over three flights and twelve levels of registration, fueling a $640,062 top prize and a $3,507,200 prize pool.
On Thursday, 323 players (28 from 1A, 43 1B, 252 1C) and the 121 Day 2 entries returned for Day 2 action. After ten levels of play the field was whittled down to the final 54. Out in front with 1,500,000 is Spain’s Jonathan Concepcion, who doubled on the very last hand of the night to earn his chip leading stack.
As reported to us by The Venetian’s Social Media Consultant Matt Clark, Concepcion opened to 20,000 from the cutoff, and was called by Kazuhiko Yotsushika in the big blind. The 
flop was checked by Yotsushika, and Concepcion bet 20,000. Yotsushika check-raised to 45,000, and Concepcion called. The 
fell on the turn, and Yotsushika bet 65,000. Concepcion raised to 230,000, then called a three-bet shove for 650,000 holding 
, which had Yotsushika’s 
drawing dead.
Rounding out the top five in chips are two-time WSOP Bracelet winner Upeshka De Silva (1,422,000), Jack O’Neill (1,274,000), 2018 WSOP $1,500 Shootout Bracelet winner Preston Lee (1,163,000), and Season 7 MSPT Venetian champ Thomas Boivin (1,020,000)
Others that found a bag include 2018 WSOP $100,000 High Roller champ Nick Petrangelo (850,000), 2018 Super High Roller Bowl champ Justin Bonomo (850,000), Thomas Peebles (602,000), 2010 PCA champ Harrison Gimbel (533,000), 2015 WSOP Main Event champ Joe McKeehen (383,000), 2014 WSOP Mixed-Max Bracelet winner Jared Jaffee (321,000), CSOP founder Matt Stout, and PokerStars Pro and Twitch streamer Jeff Gross (146,000).
With only 117 players taking home a cash, over 300 entrants left Hall G of the Sands Expo with no cash to show, including MSPT $1,600 Venetian Main Event champ Michael Soyza, MSPT $5,000 Venetian Main Event champ Alex Foxen, two-time MSPT champs Blake Bohn and Greg Himmelbrand, Parker “tonkaaaap” Talbot, Kahle Burns, Stephen Chidwick, and Jewook Oh.
Once the bubble burst via 2010 WSOP November Niner John Dolan’s jacks running into the aces of Petrangelo, a host of recognizable names hit the payout desk, including 2014 WSOP Main Event champ Martin Jacobson (63rd - $9,469), 2017 WSOP Main Event champ Scott Blumstein (71st - $9,119), 2012 WSOP November Niner Jeremy Ausmus (76th - $8,768), 2018 WSOP $10,000 Dealer’s Choice champ Adam Friedman (86th - $8,417), 2018 Aussie Millions Main Event champ Toby Lewis (99th - $7,716), Chris “Moorman1” Moorman (109th - $6,664), 2005 WSOP Main Event champ Joe Hachem (112th - $6,664).
Day 3 will kick off at 2 P.M. local time on Friday and play ten levels or to the final table of ten, whichever comes first. Not only will we capture the action here in the live updates, we will be live streaming the action on our RFID table complete with hole cards and commentary.