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Card Player Poker Tour Venetian Main Event: James Anderson Leads Final 27 Players

The $2,500 Buy-In Event Drew 652 Entries To Build A $1,467,000 Prize Pool, With The Winner Set To Earn $315,396

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Chip leader James Anderson

A total of 652 entries were made in the 2021 Card Player Poker Tour Venetian $2,500 buy-in no-limit hold’em main event, nearly tripling the tournament’s $500,000 guarantee to create a final prize pool of $1,467,000. After two starting flights and day 2, that field has been narrowed down to just 27 players remaining with a shot at the title and the top prize of $315,396.

Day 2 of the event began with 196 players remaining from the 559 entries made across the two starting flights. An additional 93 entries were made during the early levels of day 2 before registration officially closed at the start of level 15.

The huge turnout for this event resulted in the top 72 finishers making the money. Plenty of big names fell short of cashing in this event, hitting the rail in the first half of day 2 action, including former CPPT Venetian champion, three-time World Poker Tour winner, and two-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner Anthony Zinno, Ben Palmer, Marle Cordeiro, bracelet winner Jeremy Ausmus, WPT champion Lee Markholt, Matt Stout, bracelet winner Ryan Laplante, 2013 WSOP main event champion Ryan Riess, two-time WPT champion James Carroll and bracelet winner Jack Duong.

The money bubble officially burst when TK Miles cracked the pockets queens of an opponent with A-J. With that, the remaining 72 players all ensured themselves at least a $5,135 payday in this event. The final few levels of the night saw a flurry of bustouts, with plenty of highly accomplished players hitting the rail as the field was narrowed down to just 27 players. Notables who were eliminated after making the money include 2020 WSOP $10,000 main event ‘Domestic Tournament’ champion Joseph Hebert (69th – $5,135), bracelet winner Erik Cajelais (64th – $5,575), Shannon Shorr (55th – $6,015), start-of-day chip leader Ali Imsirovic (48th – $6,748), bracelet winner Joseph Cheong (42nd – $6,748), Tim Reilly (36th – $8,069), and Mid-States Poker Tour Venetian champion Korey Payne (33rd – $8,069).

When the dust settled, WSOP bracelet winner James Anderson held the chip lead among the final 27. The 2019 Little One For One Drop event champion bagged up a massive stack of 3,256,000, having added to his already sizable stack during the final few hands of the night by winning a massive preflop race with pocket queens against the A-K of 32nd-place finisher Manuel Labandeira.

Alex Foxen and Kristen Bicknell

Other big stacks include Anselmo Villarreal (1,643,000), Timothy Capretta (1,374,000), WPT champion Alex Foxen (1,338,000), and three-time WSOP bracelet winner Kristen Bicknell (1,317,000). Foxen and Bicknell, who are a couple, finished in first and second place in a $5,000 buy-in MSPT event here at the Venetian, earning $239,000 and $200,000 respectively. They have a shot at sharing yet another final table at this venue and adding considerably to their combined tournament earnings of more than $23 million.

Other notables still in contention include TK Miles (1,154,000), WSOP Circuit Season Finale Online main event winner Frank Marasco (1,094,000), WPT champion Jordan Cristos (1,055,000), Stanley Lee (812,000), 2013 CPPT Venetian runner-up Alex Condon (798,000), Scott Stewart (770,000), and WPT Championship winner Asher Conniff (552,000).

The final 27 will return for day 3 at noon local time on Monday, Feb. 22. Play will continue until a champion is decided.

Here is a look at the chip counts and seat assignments heading into the final day:

Rank Player Chip Count Table Seat
1 James Anderson 3,256,000 27 8
2 Anselmo Villarreal 1,643,000 28 3
3 Timothy Capretta 1,374,000 29 6
4 Alex Foxen 1,338,000 29 1
5 Kristen Bicknell 1,317,000 27 5
6 Derek Gregory 1,248,000 32 6
7 Timothy Miles 1,154,000 28 6
8 Frank Marasco 1,094,000 28 5
9 Jordan Cristos 1,055,000 27 7
10 Seungmook Jung 1,048,000 32 2
11 Anthony Grappo 1,037,000 29 3
12 Raman Afanasenka 906,000 29 2
13 Qing Liu 892,000 32 1
14 Justin Lapka 872,000 28 2
15 Stanley Lee 812,000 29 8
16 Alexander Condon 798,000 28 1
17 Scott Stewart 770,000 27 6
18 Ankush Mandavia 714,000 32 3
19 Brent Hart 707,000 28 8
20 Karapet Galstyan 663,000 29 7
21 Yosif Nawabi 652,000 32 5
22 Asher Conniff 552,000 28 7
23 Brandon Eisen 552,000 27 3
24 Douglas Holland 526,000 32 7
25 Harlen Miller 500,000 27 1
26 Mehdi Saleh 318,000 29 5
27 Robert Peacock 183,000 32 8

Here is a look at the remaining payouts:

1st. $315,396
2nd. $198,045
3rd. $132,030
4th. $90,954
5th. $60,147
6th. $45,477
7th. $35,208
8th. $24,939
9th-10th. $22,005
11th-12th. $19,071
13th-14th. $16,137
15th-16th. $13,937
17th-24th. $11,589
25th-27th. $9,682