Baurzhan Akimov Captures Card Player Poker Tour Venetian Title

Baurzhan Akimov triumphed over a field of 343 entries to take down the September Card Player Poker Tour $1,100 main event at The Venetian Resort Las Vegas. The local resident earned $63,943 as the last player standing, the second-largest tournament score yet for the native of Kazakhstan. He now has over $500,000 in lifetime earnings on the poker circuit.

“It’s very good, I’m so excited,” Akimov told Card Player after coming out on top. Of his journey through the field he offered, “I’m just lucky. I played up to a good stack, and then I increased my stack step-by-step.”

The largest payday on Akimov’s résumé remains the $74,000 he earned as the fifth-place finisher in the 2023 Merit Poker Gangster Series $3,300 buy-in main event.

Akimov received 480 POY points for his victory in this tournament, which was the 15th CPPT event at Venetian. This was his second title and ninth final-table finish of the year. With 1,626 total points, he now sits inside the top 250 on the POY leaderboard.

This was the first CPPT event in the new Venetian Poker Room, which opened in August. The solid turnout saw the event’s $300,000 guarantee surpassed, with $329,280 in prize money ultimately paid out across the top 44 finishers. This event featured three starting flights from Sept. 19-21, with the top 12.5 percent of the field advancing from each flight to day 2, which began at 11:00 am on Sunday, Sept. 22.

The final day began with the 44 players who made the money all taking a seat. Plenty of big names were knocked out over the roughly seven-hour period it took to narrow the field to nine, including two-time bracelet winner Dan Heimiller (40th), start-of-day chip leader Anthony An (30th), 2021 WPT Venetian third-place finisher Kyna England (28th), bracelet winner Nick Jivkov (26th), 2021 WPT Venetian champion Qing Liu (24th), bracelet winner Francis Anderson (22nd), bracelet winner and WPT champion Dylan Linde (19th), recent Poker Masters winner Jeremy Becker (17th), five-time bracelet winner Brian Yoon (13th), 2010 WSOP main event 15th-place finisher Matt Affleck (12th), and 2021 WSOP main event sixth-place finisher Hye Park (11th).

Lam Nguyen held the chip lead when the official final table was set. Xiang Lin was the first to fall, with his A-K unable to win a three-way all-in facing the pocket queens of Akimov and the J-9 suited of Martin Schroeder. The board gave Schroeder a jack-high straight and the pot, eliminating Lin in ninth place ($6,519). This score pushed his career earnings to nearly $600,000.

Sebastian Crema soon followed, with his A-K losing a preflop race against the pocket nines of Jeffrey Chen. Crema didn’t connect with the double paired board and was sent home with $8,214 for his eighth-place showing. The Canadian surpassed a quarter million in total tournament cashes with this deep run.

Schroeder’s run in this event came to an end when his K J failed to best the pocket tens of Aaron Massey. Schroeder earned $10,517 for his efforts, the second-largest score on his stats sheet.

Chen got the last of his stack in with A 10 trailing the pocket kings of Manuel Labandeira. A king-high runout gave Labandeira top set and the pot. Chen settled for $13,697 as the sixth-place finisher.

Nguyen seemed poised for a double-up when he got all-in with pocket tens leading the pocket deuces of Terry Fleischer, but a deuce on the turn turned the tables. The river was no help to Nguyen and he was eliminated in fifth place ($18,069). This was the largest live tournament payday yet for Nguyen.

Fleischer chipped up early in five-handed play when he made a straight flush after going all-in with 10-9 suited against the A-Q of Akimov. Fleischer further added to his stack when his A-J held versus the K-J of Labandeira in a preflop all-in showdown. Ace high was good by the river and Labandeira headed to the payout desk to collect $24,235.

The next big clash saw the K-Q of Massey face the pocket nines of Akimov. Massey found no help by the river and was eliminated in third place, earning $32,998. He now has more than $5.8 million in career earnings to his name.

With that Akimov took just over a 2:1 chip lead into heads-up play with Fleischer. The final hand of the tournament pitted Akimov’s pocket nines against the A 5 of Fleischer. The board came down K 2 2 5 K and Akimov’s kings and nines earned him the pot and the title.

Fleischer was awarded $45,598 as the runner-up. He fell just one spot short of earning his second major title at Venetian this year, having taken down the Mid-States Poker Tour Venetian Poker Bowl back in February. Fleischer’s career tournament earnings now sit at over $2.7 million.

This was Fleischer’s fifth final-table finish of the year, with his one title run so far being the aforementioned victory here at Venetian. The 400 POY points he earned with this second-place showing moved him inside the top 200 in the 2024 rankings.

Player Payout (POY)
1 Baurzhan Akimov $63,943 (480)
2 Terry Fleischer $45,598 (400)
3 Aaron Massey $32,998 (320)
4 Manuel Labandeira $24,235 (240)
5 Lam Nguyen $18,069 (200)
6 Jeff Chen $13,697 (160)
7 Martin Schroeder $10,517 (120)
8 Sebastian Crema $8,214 (80)
9 Xiang Lin $6,519 (40)