Who Will Walk Away with the $193,477 First Place Prize?
The MSPT Venetian Poker Bowl IV Main Event attracted a record 1,093 entrants (Day 1a: 141, Day 1b: 361, and Day 1c: 591) to the felt, besting last year’s 1,022-entry field. The $1,000,000 guarantee was smashed, with a total prize pool of $1,060,210 up for grabs. 150 players return for Day 2 action, but only 117 will make the money, with a min-cash worth $2,014 and first-place taking home $193,477.
Starting Day 2 as our chip leader is Bob Whalen (pictured), who bagged 721,000. Whalen is far ahead of the Day 1a chip leaders, Matthew Waldt and Jeff Heiberg, who ended their flight tied with 441,000. Whalen also has a good distance between himself and Day 1c chip leader David Froyalde with 557,500. Whalen made a run for the record books here at Venetian Las Vegas in 2010 when he won 3 Deep Stack events within 2 weeks. Whalen hopes to capture that energy again and hopefully score his largest live cash ever!
Other big stacks include MSPT Poker Bowl II winner, Kfir Nahum (466,500), MSPT Hall of Fame Member: Kou Yang (365,500), Patrick Truong (626,500), and Sorel Mizzi (316,500)
Other players in action today include Robert Borick (180,000), William Hung (150,000), Kathy Liebert (183,500), Scott Epstein (126,500), J.C. Alvarado (127,500), Justin Young (119,500), Chip Jett (111,500), Ryan Laplante (96,000),Tony Dunst (87,500), and Kenna James (66,000)
Cards will be in the air in under an hour, so stay tuned for all the action straight from the tournament floor!