MSPT Venetian $1,600 Main Event | 2020 Mid-States Poker Tour Venetian $1,600 Main Event

11-23-2020 17:53 UTC-7

Admon Extends His Chip Lead As Four Players Fall

HillKerby

Level 25 : 20,000/40,000, 40,000 ante

A series of bets and raises between Salim Admon in the cutoff and Dinh Ba in the big blind led to a pile of chips in the middle on a board of , and Ba check-called off his remaining stack of at least 500,000 after the river.

Dinh Ba:
Salim Admon:

Admon had put Ba to a decision for his tournament life after hitting a pair of sevens on the river and Ba looked him up only to see that his sixes were no good. With the pot, Admon has increased his chip lead and now finds himself with a stack of roughly 7.8 million.

Ba's elimination was one of four that happened in rapid-fire, with Anselmo Villreal, Rick Lee, and Jonathan Lawson also finding themselves with no chips within the first 10 minutes of returning from break.

Player	Chips	Progress
Salim Admon	7,800,000 2,035,000	2,035,000
Jonathan Lawson	Busted
Dinh Ba	Busted
Rick Lee	Busted
Anselmo Villareal	Busted

Tags: Dinh Ba Salim Admon Rick Lee Jonathan Lawson

11-23-2020 16:50 UTC-7

Kusnerak Gets An Elimination

HillKerby

Level 24 : 15,000/30,000, 30,000 ante

Vytautas Atkocaitis was under the gun and shoved all in for 365,000. A few moments later, he found himself with a shot to triple as both Daniel Kusnerak and Steven Stout called on the button and in the big blind, respectively.

With any further action going to a side pot, both players checked the flop , and then Stout check-folded to a bet from Kusnerak on the turn .

Vytautas Atkocaitis:
Daniel Kusnerak:

Atkocaitis was one card away from a triple, but the river was one of the six cards he needed to fade as it gave Kusnerak a straight and sent Atkocaitis to the rail. Atkocaitis finished the tournament in 35th place, as Joey Weissman was eliminated a few hands earlier on an adjacent table.

Player	Chips	Progress
Steven Stout	950,000 -305,000	-305,000
Joey Weissman	Busted

Vytautas Atkocaitis	Busted

Tags: Daniel Kusnerak Joey Weissman Steven Stout

11-23-2020 15:50 UTC-7

Tanaka Takes Out Baker

HillKerby

Level 23 : 12,000/24,000, 24,000 ante

Joel Baker was under the gun and announced he was all in. Action folded to Satoshi Tanaka in the cutoff, who announced a call after getting a count for Baker's total of 442,000. All remaining players folded and the two were off to the races.

Joel Baker:
Satoshi Tanaka:

Baker found no help as the board ran out and he finished in 38th place as a result, becoming the second consecutive elimination in the tournament at the expense of Tanaka, who now has

Player	Chips	Progress
Satoshi Tanaka	1,400,000 380,000	380,000

Joel Baker	Busted

Tags: Joel Baker Satoshi Tanaka

11-23-2020 14:46 UTC-7

Day 1 Chip Leader Sisler Falls

HillKerby

Level 22 : 10,000/20,000, 20,000 ante

All of the chips got into the middle preflop with Scott Sisler at risk for his last 400,000 in the small blind. The under-the-gun Scott Vesilek gave him action.

Scott Sisler:
Scott Vesilek:

Sisler found a possibility for a chop on the turn of a runout , but ultimately was left dry to result in his elimination. Meanwhile, Vesilek now has a stack of 1.11 million.

Also eliminated before Sisler was Derek Gregory, and Jeremy Pekarek hit the rail shortly after Sisler busted. The trio of eliminations brings the field down to 41, just one away from reaching five tables.

Player	Chips	Progress
Scott Vesilek	1,110,000
Scott Sisler	Busted
Derek Gregory	Busted
Jeremy Pekarek	Busted

Tags: Derek Gregory Jeremy Pekarek Scott Sisler Scott Vesilek

11-23-2020 13:48 UTC-7

Sladek Leads Another Round of Eliminations

HillKerby

Level 21 : 8,000/16,000, 16,000 ante

Action folded around to Todd Sladek in the small blind and he jammed for his last handful of big blinds. Ralph Massey called in the big blind.

Todd Sladek:
Ralph Massey:

An ace in the window of the flop left Sladek in bad shape, though he was still alive after pairing his five. No further help came though, as the turn and river completed the runout to spell his elimination.

In the minutes following Sladek's Elimination, Nipun Ajmani, James Vales, Michael Ung, and Phil Mader found themselves dry on chips to bring the number of players left in the field down to 50.

Player	Chips	Progress
Ralph Massey	765,000 107,000	107,000
Todd Sladek	Busted
Phil Mader	Busted
Michael Ung	Busted
James Vales	Busted
Nipun Ajmani	Busted

Tags: James Vales Michael Ung Nipun Ajmani Phil Mader Ralph Massey Todd Sladek

11-23-2020 13:14 UTC-7

Massey Falls To Pekarek

HillKerby

Level 21 : 8,000/16,000, 16,000 ante

Just moments after Austin Peck's elimination, Aaron Massey became the next elimination from the tournament via an all-in preflop situation with Jeremy Pekarek. According to Massey, Pekarek opened in the hijack and action folded around to him in the big blind, where he re-shoved and was called.

Aaron Massey:
Jeremy Pekarek:

Pekarek further improved to a set of queens on the flop, leaving Massey in need of running jacks to stay alive. Instead, another queen came on the turn to give Pekarek quads, earning him the pot to take his stack over 600,000 early in Day 3.

Player	Chips	Progress
Jeremy Pekarek	622,000 293,000	293,000

Aaron Massey	Busted

Tags: Aaron Massey Jeremy Pekarek

11-23-2020 10:45 UTC-7

Who Will Win the 2020 MSPT Venetian $1,600 Main Event?

HillKerby

Sixty-three players are set to return for Day 3 of the 2020 Mid-States Poker Tour (MSPT) Venetian $1,600 Main Event to play down to a winner with $327,773 up top for the last player standing. Three Day 1 starting flights plus late registration that went into Day 2 drew a combined 1,239 entries for an overall prize pool of $1,771,770, and the vast majority of that is still yet to be distributed among those who remain.

Leading the field by a significant margin is John Lytle (3.88 million), who comes into the day with a stack size of more than 200 big blinds. Two other players in Dale Eberle (2.69 million) and Martin Zamani (1.65 million) enter play with stacks of 100-plus big blinds as well.

The group of Rick Lee (981,000), Chet Sickle (578,000), Andy Rogowski (320,000), Aaron Massey (288,000), and Todd Sladek (187,000) are also still in contention. All five of these players made it into the money in last week's $1,100 Main Event and will be looking to improve on their respective finishes from the weekend prior.

Play resumes at noon local time. One-hour levels will remain the norm for the duration of the tournament with blinds resuming at the start of Level 21 (8,000/16,000/16,000). As usual, 15-minute breaks are scheduled for the end of every two levels of play with a 45-minute dinner break after the sixth level of the day. Big-blind ante is in play all tournament long.

Who will be the one to claim victory? PokerNews will be around all the way until the very end when that question is answered. Make sure to stick around.

Tags: Aaron Massey Andy Rogowski Chet Sickle Dale Eberle John Lytle Martin Zamani Rick Lee Todd Sladek