Bob Whalen Wins MSPT Venetian Poker Bowl IV for $140,152
The fourth edition of the Mid-States Poker Bowl (MSPT) $1,100 buy-in Poker Bowl at The Venetian in Las Vegas featured a $1 million guarantee, and a massive turnout of 1,093 entries over three starting flights resulted in a $1,060,210 prize pool.
On Saturday night, the day before the NFL Super Bowl LIV between the San Francisco 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs, a winner was crowned in the MSPT Poker Bowl IV after Bob Whalen began as the Day 2 chip leader and rode it to victory after a five-way deal was struck.
Whalen took $140,152 as a part of that deal, which was a new career-high surpassing the $129,967 he previously won back in 2009 after taking down a Heartland Poker Tour (HPT) Main Event. In 2008, he also finished 79th in the World Series of Poker Main Event for $77,200.
Whalen, formerly from Wisconsin, has lived in Vegas for the past three and a half years playing about town nearly every day of the week. However, it wasn’t his first taste of victory at Venetian as ten years ago he won three DeepStack tournaments within a two-week span.
Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bob Whalen | $140,152* |
| 2 | Grachia Minasian | $100,682* |
| 3 | George Brady | $96,839* |
| 4 | Thomas Lust | $94,376* |
| 5 | Oluwashola Akindele | $85,004* |
| 6 | John Dennehey | $38,168 |
| 7 | Justin Young | $29,686 |
| 8 | Vadim Shlez | $23,325 |
| 9 | Eyal Al Revah | $19,084 |
| 10 | Kou Yang | $14,843 |
*Denotes five-way deal.
Among those to make the money at the top 150 were Terry Fleischer (14th - $11,662), Marko Pantelic (20th - $8,588), Poker Bowl II champ Kfir Nahum (22nd - $7,209), Kathy Liebert (23rd - $7,209), Sorel Mizzi (31st - $4,559), Brett Halan (41st - $3,499), Ashley Sleeth (47th - $3,181), Kenna James (60th - $2,863), Chipp Jett (66th - $2,757), Eric Wasylenko (70th - $2,757), and MSPT Season 1 Running Aces champ Joe Matheson (77th - $2,651).
Final Table Action
MSPT regular Kou Yang was the first final table casualty after running pocket fours into Justin Young’s sixes, and Eyal Al Revah followed him out the door after committing his short stack with king-ten suited only to see Grachia Minasian roll over pocket aces. Revah flopped a flush draw but bricked the turn and river to fall in ninth place.
The short-stacked Vadim Shlez was next to go after losing king-ten to Young’s ace-queen all in preflop, while Young himself bowed out in seventh running pocket tens into George Brady’s two black jacks.
Next on the chopping block was John Dennehey, who lost holding jacks to Minasian’s ace-nine after the latter made a straight on the river. At that point, the final five players paused the clock to discuss a deal. They came to terms, and as the chip leader, Whalen was crowned the Poker Bowl IV MVP taking down his first MSPT title.
| Dates | Edition | Entries | Prize Pool | Winner | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| February 2-4, 2017 | Poker Bowl I | 695 | $681,100 | Jordan Young | $117,381 |
| February 1-3, 2018 | Poker Bowl II | 827 | $806,325 | Kfir Nahum | $108,410 |
| January 31-February 2, 2019 | Poker Bowl III | 1,022 | $996,450 | Brian Wilson | $143,929 |
| January 29-February 1, 2019 | Poker Bowl IV | 1,093 | $1,060,210 | Bob Whalen | $140,152 |
Season 11 of the MSPT continues February 21-23 with a $1,100 buy-in, $300K GTD Main Event at Minnesota’s Canterbury Park. Once again PokerNews will be on hand to capture all the action. For more information visit msptpoker.com.
improving Minasian to top pair; however, the turn was the 
and Dennehey shot out of his seat to celebrate after making a set.
and gave Minasian a winning straight to win the pot.
improving Young to top pair and giving him the pot.
improving neither Revah or Minasian.
but he was never ahead of Young's 
, Liebert looked like her time at Venetian Las Vegas may have come to an end. However, the turn 
river sealed the deal.