David Coleman Takes Down Card Player Poker Tour Venetian Main Event

Tournament players were excited to ring in the new year with The Venetian® DeepStack Extravaganza, which kicked off on Christmas day and wrapped up on Jan. 7. The series had 19 events in total with nearly $1 million in total guarantees, highlighted by the $400,000 guaranteed $1,600 no-limit hold’em Card Player Poker Tour main event.

David Coleman came into the CPPT Venetian main event with more than $3.6 million in recorded tournament earnings to his name across 152 scores. But the one thing the 30-year-old former online grinder didn’t have was a live tournament title. That all changed when he took down the main event to bank $115,989 and the trophy.

“I’ve been a pro for nine years and I’ve been playing for fun for 18 years or so,” said Coleman when asked about his background in poker. “This is my first live tournament win ever, so it’s a big monkey off my back that I’ve really been trying to get off and it feels great to get it done.”

This was the fifth-largest score for the new Las Vegas resident who made a big splash in 2021 when he managed several deep runs in live high-roller events. Before that, he was more commonly found online playing in his home state of New Jersey.

In addition to the six-figure payday and the coveted title, this win also saw Coleman earn 720 Card Player Player of the Year points. As a result, he is currently ranked second in the early 2024 POY standings presented by Global Poker.

The main event played out over the course of four days. The three starting flights drew 457 entries to blow away the $400,000 guarantee, ending with a final prize pool of $648,940 that was paid out among the top 59 finishers.

The three starting flights each played down to 12.5 percent of the field, resulting in day 2 starting in the money. Esther Kim was in the lead and Coleman had some work to do in 44th chip position.

Plenty of big names fell as the field was narrowed down to a final table, including Shannon Shorr (58th), Ryan Laplante (55th), 2022 CPPT Venetian champion John Riordan (45th), James Romero (37th), Jesse Yaginuma (29th), Ryan Riess (22nd), WPT Venetian winner Ben Palmer (20th), MSPT Venetian champion Landon Tice (18th), Darren Rabinowitz (15th), Nicholas Pupillo (13th), Alexandre Reard (12th), and Joe Kuether (10th).

Coleman won a big pot just before the final table began, forcing Ivan Ruban out of the hand to approach the top of the leaderboard. By the time the field was down to nine, he had climbed to third.

Ruban (9th – $11,764) was the first to fall, running pocket eights into the pocket jacks of Vinh Ho. The Russian poker pro now has more than $882,000 in lifetime cashes.
Qing Liu soon followed. The 2021 WPT Venetian main event winner ran K-Q suited into the A-J suited of Bob Buckenmayer to hit the rail in eighth place ($14,833).

Liu now has $2,980,540 in career earnings. More than $1.6 million of that has come at The Venetian, putting him second on the venue’s all-time earnings list behind only Eric Baldwin.

Despite eliminating Liu, Buckenmayer was ultimately the next to be knocked out. He got involved in a big pot against Coleman, betting the early streets and then checking the river. Coleman shoved and Buckenmayer called, but could not beat a flopped set of tens. He earned $19,004 as the seventh-place finisher to bring his career total to more than $1.5 million.

Coleman looked like he might begin to pull away from the pack after that hand, but soon doubled up Louis Cheffy to lose some of that momentum.

Later, he commented, “Yeah, that’s always tough switching gears, thinking you can kind of have control of the table and then lose the big pots and then you’re stuck being short. It definitely takes experience to be able to switch gears. I know I struggled with that when I first started playing tournaments… the emotion of going from chip leader to short in a quick period of time. But now I think that just my experience really comes in handy in those situations.”

Coleman’s bounce back began when his A-J was fortunate to outrun the pocket queens of Ho in a preflop all-in showdown. Coleman made trip aces by the river to double up.

Esther Kim’s run in this event came to an end in sixth place when her K-10 clashed with the K-Q of the surging Cheffy. Both players paired their kings, but the kickers played in the end and Kim was sent to the rail with $24,734.

Cheffy went on to knock out Ho, picking up K Q against Ho’s Q J and holding to narrow the field to four. Ho earned a career-best $32,694 for his efforts.

Coleman added to his stack in a big way when his K-4 suited outran the A-4 of Eugene Tung in a battle of the blinds. Coleman hit kings up on the flop and held from there to eliminate Tung in fourth place ($43,880).

2023 Wynn Millions main event winner Michael Rossitto ran pocket deuces into the pocket aces of Cheffy to finish third for $59,784. The score grew his career earnings to more than $3.5 million and capped off a six-week stretch at the tables that included a prelim event win at the WPT World Championship for $340,000 and a deep run in the main event for another $94,000.

With that, Coleman took just over a 2:1 chip lead into heads-up play with Cheffy. It didn’t take long for him to convert that advantage into the title. In the final hand, a A A J flop saw Cheffy fire in a bet. Coleman called and the turn brought the K.

Cheffy bet again and Coleman came along. The 2 on the river saw Cheffy check. Coleman slid out enough chips to put his opponent at risk and Cheffy couldn’t find a fold with pocket queens. Coleman rolled over A 7 for trip aces, securing the pot and the title.

Cheffy earned $82,666 thanks to a deep run in the tournament. This was the third-largest score yet for the WSOP Circuit Palm Beach Kennel Club main event winner from Florida.

Final Table Results

Eric Baldwin Wins His Third Career MSPT Venetian Title

Eric Baldwin is a force to be reckoned with at The Venetian Resort Las Vegas.

The two-time bracelet winner based out of Sin City has more than $1.6 million in career poker tournament earnings at the venue, placing him in a virtual tie with Qing Liu for the most of any player. Of his 38 career wins, 15 have come at The Venetian.

Baldwin’s latest big score saw him defeat a field of 550 entries in the Mid-States Poker Tour Venetian event to earn his second MSPT title of the year. Baldwin pocketed $90,692 as the last player standing in the $1,100 buy-in no-limit hold’em tournament.

Just over a month before this win, Baldwin had taken down another $1,100 MSPT Venetian tournament, outlasting 274 entries for $55,261. He is now a three-time MSPT champion, with all three victories taking place at The Venetian® Resort Las Vegas. His first came back in 2019, which saw him take home $80,872 after overcoming a 377-entry field.

The top 61 finishers earned a share of the $530,750 prize pool in this event. After two starting flights, the 550-entry field had been narrowed to the 61 contenders that cashed. With the elimination of Shannon Shorr in 10th place ($8,823), the final table was set. Baldwin held the lead, with Bogdan Chornyy hot on his heels.

WPT champion Ky Nguyen was the first to fall (9th – $10,933), running pocket sixes into the pocket tens of bracelet winner and CPPT Venetian winner Ankush Mandavia. Despite scoring that knockout and a couple of others in the early going, Mandavia was ultimately eliminated in fifth place when his A-8 was unable to outrun the pocket sixes of Baldwin. He earned $28,688 for his efforts.

Chornyy busted Victorino Torres in fourth place ($37,604) to take a healthy lead into three-handed play. He then won a flip against bracelet winner Darren Rabinowitz (3rd – $49,861) to set up a heads-up showdown with Baldwin.

Chornyy held more than a 2:1 lead to start, but Baldwin was able to battle his way into the lead. Chornyy shoved with A 2 and Baldwin called with K 8. The board ran out 8 6 3 10 Q to give Baldwin a winning pair of eights, and Chornyy took home $66,870 as the runner-up.

Other notable winners during the series included Abhisek Banerjee, Sterling Lopez, Vinh Ho, and Richard Kerman in $600 EpicStack events.♠