Minnesota’s Bill Kachel Bags Big Stack on Day 1a of the MSPT Venetian
The 12th season of the Mid-States Poker Tour (MSPT) got off to a good start on the first day of the New Year as 463 runners competed in Day 1a of the $1,100 buy-in MSPT Venetian Main Event. The first of two starting flights already crushed the $250K guarantee with Saturday’s Day 1b still to come.
After 15 levels of play, 59 players found a bag with Minnesota’s Bill Kachel and his stack of 658,000 leading the way. According to The Hendon Mob, Kachel has $43,748 in lifetime earnings including a career-best $22,156 for winning the 2019 Fall Poker Classic Event #11: $250 NLH at Canterbury Park. As for the MSPT, he has just a single Main Event cash for $2,873.
Others to bag big stacks were Wisconsin poker couple Missy Bartleme (496,500) and Dan Dombrowski (112,500), Nizom Abdukadyrov (448,000), MSPT Venetian champ Landon Tice (286,000), and Lokesh Garg (235,500).
Bartelme got a good chunk of her chips in the penultimate level of the night when she eliminated MSPT Venetian $1,600 Main Event champ Korey Payne.
Other notables to survive the night were Christopher Carey (293,000), Phil Hernz (284,000), Rubin Chappell (219,000), and Mitch Garshofsky (215,500).
Of course, not everyone was fortunate enough to bag the opening flight of the 170th Main Event in MSPT history. Among those to fall were Nick Pupillo, Anthony Zinno, Dan Lowery, Hamid Izadi, Matt Stout, Blake Whittington, Tim Reilly, Sean Yu, Aaron Massey, Louise Francouer, and Denise Pratt.
Day 1b will begin at 11:10 a.m. PST on Saturday. Players will start with 25,000 in chips and levels will be 40 minutes with late registration open until 6:25 p.m. PST. The surviving players from both flights will then return at 11 a.m. PST on Sunday, January 3 to play down to a winner.
It’s expected to be a big turnout, and registration for Day 1b is open now. In the instance of alternates, be sure to follow both @VenetianPoker and @msptpoker on Twitter for updates.
Remember, during the latest Venetian DeepStack Extravaganza, players must wear a mask and sanitize their hands before sitting down. Action is 8-handed at tables featuring Plexiglass dividers, which are wiped down each time a new player comes in. Additionally, dealers are required to sanitize their hands each time they enter and exit a table, and fresh decks of cards are circulated every two hours.
Click here for a look at the current Venetian DeepStack Extravaganza schedule.