Earlier this evening while the Main Event Day 1b was happening on one side of the poker room, Event #16: $400 Black Chip Bounty got underway at the other side. PokerNews will be recapping that tournament once it reaches its conclusion later tonight.
2024 Maryland State Poker Championship
Maryland LIVE! Highlights
Day: all
In the 851st episode of the PokerNews Podcast, which is sponsored by PokerStars, Chad Holloway and Kyna England are joined by "Loose Cannon" Lily Newhouse at Level 9 Studio in Las Vegas to talk about GGPoker purchasing the World Series of Poker (WSOP) brand for $500 million. What will it mean for the future of poker? It's too early to tell, but that doesn't stop the crew from offering their thoughts.
From there, Newhouse talked about her experience as the Loose Cannon on the PokerStars Big Game, which included playing a big pot early against Sam Grafton and battling against Dave Krosky, who proved to be a different sort of loose cannon! Oh, and did we mention the PokerStars Big Game is confirmed to return this Fall during the NAPT for a second season? Well, it is and you can get all the details here.
Kyna then talks about attending the grand opening of the brand-new Venetian Poker Room, now the largest room on the Strip, and you get to hear from other attendees including Joey Ingram, Maria Konnikova, and 2017 WSOP Main Event champ Scott Blumstein. Plus, rapper Nelly was in the house to play the room's first hand, but you'll have to watch to see how he did.
Additionally, hear about poker reporter Terrance "TJ" Reid winning the Destination: RunGood $2,500 Million Dollar Main Event for $192,755, Nick Kocman capturing a career-best score at Maryland State Poker Championship, and Daniel Bellis winning a NAPT Gold Pass in last longer contest. Speaking of which, you'll have a chance to qualify for NAPT Las Vegas at the upcoming Pennsylvania State Poker Championship.
Finally, learn about one Texas poker room's quest to appeal to the female demographic with a women-first concept, hear about Chad's experience competing on Survivor Angelica: Medieval Mayhem, and get a sneak peek at the new Life Outside Poker featuring Brazilian Vlogger Romulo "Poker Profit" Dorea.
Day 2 of the Maryland State Poker Championship Main Event is underway with 22 players currently left in the running from a starting field of 245. For the second year in a row, the tournament has failed to meet its guarantee, which this year was set at $500,000. That means there is some extra value for anyone who did choose to enter.
Nicholas Banyas is the chipleader at the moment with a stack of 1,100,000, the only player so far to have made it into seven figure territory. Pokerstars ambassador Parker Talbot is also in contention with 448,000, good for a roughly tournament average stack.
Everyone who is left is guaranteed at least $4,511 with $110,578 and a NAPT Gold Pass up top for the winner. Check out our live updates here to stay abreast of the action.
Looking ahead to the rest of the day, Event #17: $1,100 Live! Stacks Championship kicks off at 2:15 p.m. local time. That tournament comes with a healthy $50,000 guarantee and is set to play down to a winner today.
Event #16: $400 Black Chip Turbo Bounty played down to a winner late last night. There were 66 total entries, generating a prizepool of $22,700. Roland Varblow came out on top after a four way chop to claim $4,100 to go along with any bounties collected along the way. This is Varblow's biggest tournament cash to date and adds a decent chunk to his $23,004 total live earnings.
There will be plenty of more action throughout the day as two more events are in play. Be sure to check back in on this feed to get all the latest highlights from the Maryland State Poker Championship.
The Maryland State Poker Championship has now reached the final table of nine. Nicholas Verderamo currently leads the way on 1,725,000 but is not far ahead of Ben Gazzola in second (1,575,000) or Michael Bills in third (1,525,000).
Parker Talbot is also still in the mix, though with a short stack of 225,000 he does have his work cut out for him.
As a reminder, coverage of that event can be found here.
After the successful 2023 return of the North American Poker Tour (NAPT) in Las Vegas, PokerStars announced that the NAPT will be back at Resorts World Las Vegas this year for ten days of tournament poker action.
The 2024 NAPT Las Vegas festival will take place Nov. 1-10, culminating with a $5,300 buy-in NAPT Main Event — an increase from last year's $1,650 price tag — after a successful event with a strong turnout in 2023.
“Last year, the NAPT smashed all expectations, so this year, we’re going even bigger," PokerStars North America Vice President Steve Preiss said in a press release. "With a premier partner like Resorts World Las Vegas, we’re stepping up our game: bigger tournaments, buy-ins, and player-focused events.”
The Main Event at the Maryland State Poker Championship was scheduled to play down to six players on the second day but, after agreeing to finish out the level when at that point, Michael Bills was eliminated to leave the tournament five handed heading into the third and final day,
Xiaoqiong Liu emerged with the biggest stack, bagging an impressive 2,600,000 to put her in pole position to scoop the title. Pokerstars ambassador Parker Talbot came into the final table as the short stack but found a couple of doubles to finish the day second in chips with 2,365,000. Start of day chipleader Nicholas Verderamo rounds out the top three on 2,165,000.
A full recap of the day's play can be found here and the live reporting team will be on hand tomorrow to provide coverage through to the conclusion of the event.