A total of 152 entries jumped into the mix on the first day of the guaranteed $400,000 Card player poker round Main event at The Venetian® Resort Las Vegas, bringing the total field size to 241 with a prize pool of $342,220. The $1,600 tournament includes three starting flights, with 12.5% of the field making money. At the end of the night, 19 players had advanced to join the 12 players who had already made it to Day 2’s Day 1A Contenders, all of whom were guaranteed a minimum cashout on Sunday.
Each player started with 40,000 chips to play with, with 40-minute blind levels played throughout the 12-hour journey. Late registration and re-entry were available during the start of level 13. The final hand saw the money bubble and the end-of-day bubble burst simultaneously when Aaron Massey took out Hal Rothholz to end play for the night.
The player with the highest counts to end the play was earlier CPPT Venice Runner-up is Anselmo Villarreal, who received 669,000 at the end of play. This stack makes him the overall chip leader heading into Day 2 at this stage of the tournament. He had a previous runner-up finish here at Venetian Poker Room in 2021 when he earned a fantastic payday of $253,441.
Other large piles near the top at the end of play include two World Series of Poker Gold bracelet winner Scott Paul with 632,000, and Yaron Maleki rounds out the top three with 506,000. There are only four players in the tournament who have advanced above the half-million mark in chips now along with today’s 1A leader Evan Sandberg (571,000).
Jeremy Becker, who was the talk of poker on social media today due to a cross-booking bet made by Daniel Negreanu that pitted Becker against Landon Tice, had the fourth-largest stack on Day 1B with 493,000. Becker is currently ranked in the top 25 players in the rankings Card player The Player of the Year race thanks to a strong start runs to 2024, by one Boy– A qualifying title and five finals on the table.
The bet has been booked
Jbex2417</a> vs <a href="https://twitter.com/LandonTice?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">
LandonTiceMinimum of 25 alternately played events this summer
100% cross book up to $250,000 for events valued at $10,000 or less.
Good luck boys!
Which side do you like?
– Daniel Negreanu (@RealKidPoker) February 17, 2024
Notable figures who took a seat on Day 1B, but were unable to carry the bag, include all-time gun money leader Eric Baldwin, Shannon Schorr, Dylan Linde, Matt Affleck, and WPT Hero Qing Liu.
There was 13:45 remaining in level 17 (4000-8000 with a big blind of 8000) when play ended.
Tournament play continues with Day 1 beginning on Saturday, February 17 at 11:10 a.m. local time. Day 2 will start on Sunday at 11:00 AM.
Rank | player | Chips |
1 | Anselmo Villarreal | 669,000 |
2 | Scott Paul | 632,000 |
3 | Yaron Al-Maliki | 506,000 |
4 | Jeremy Baker | 493,000 |
5 | Harvey Alegado | 449,000 |
6 | Patrick Truong | 431,000 |
7 | Rommel Lescano | 410,000 |
8 | Charlie Tang | 386,000 |
9 | Peter Hengsakul | 319,000 |
10 | Tim Riley | 242,000 |
11 | Michael Khan | 227000 |
12 | Chance Walker | 215000 |
13 | Graham Matthews | 212000 |
14 | Brian Battiston | 197,000 |
15 | Lee Markholt | 188,000 |
16 | Aaron Massey | 176,000 |
17 | Esther Kim | 145,000 |
18 | James Romero | 120,000 |
19 | Farah Gelfond | 115000 |