James Romero Wins Mid-States Poker Tour $1,600 Main Event At The Venetian ResortRomero Takes Home $171,167 In Prize Money And His First MSPT Title In Las Vegas |
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James Romero – Photo Credit: MSPT / The Venetian Resort
James Romero won the second Mid-States Poker Tour main event that took place at The Venetian Resort in Las Vegas, Nevada this week. The tournament professional originally from Portland was awarded the top prize worth $171,167 along with his first MSPT title late on Saturday, Feb. 11. Romero also has a World Poker Tour title on his resume that now boasts over a half-dozen tournament titles, and his total career earnings now stand at $5,834,079.
The $1,600 buy-in no-limit hold’em tournament had a prize pool worth more than $1.1 million thanks to two starting flights that attracted a total of 721 entries. The top 80 players all cashed for at least $2,877 in prize money, and that’s exactly how many players returned for the second and final day of the tournament.
The field played down to the final table of nine players around 6 pm, and it took just under five hours from there to crown a champion. Romero came into the final table in the middle of the pack on chips, but he pulled into the chip lead by the time things got four handed by consistently chipping up without a double or eliminating another opponent up to that point.
Romero scored his first big double when three players remained, and then he eliminated Mark Fink in third place to take a commanding chip lead of 16.5 million into the final match against the 4.1 million of Zach Donovan. Donovan was able to double up on the first hand of heads-up play, and it was shortly thereafter that the final two players decided on a chop. Donovan took home $150,000 as the runner-up in that decision, and the two-time World Series of Poker Circuit ring winner’s career earnings are now up to $2,228,049.
“It feels great man, I finally have a lion trophy,” said Romero to the MSPT reporters after the win. He continued, “I’ve been a poker pro for 15 years, a live pro for about five of those years. I now have a trophy from every hotel and it feels good man.”
A few other notables that cashed in this star-studded field included Camille Brown (10th), Gerald Cunniff (11th), Tracey Hill (18th), Bryan Piccioli (25th), Ankush Mandavia (26th), Brian Hastings (27th), Alex Foxen (32nd), Doug Lee (36th), Danny Gonzales (39th), Dave Ouellette (40th), Shannon Shorr (46th), Richard Alsup (47th), Patrick Eskandar (53rd), Ryan Riess (61st), Andrew Ostapchenko (66th), Daniel Sepiol (69th), Dylan Linde (70th), Erick Lindgren (71st), Anthony Spinella (72nd), Amir Lehavot (74th), Joseph Cheong (77th), and Ryan Laplante (79th).
Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded to the final table:
| Place | Player | Earnings | POY Points |
| 1 | James Romero | $171,167 | 912 |
| 2 | Zach Donovan | $150,000 | 760 |
| 3 | Mark Fink | $95,537 | 608 |
| 4 | Ha Duong | $68,110 | 456 |
| 5 | Rob WazWaz | $51,777 | 380 |
| 6 | Matthew McEwen | $38,347 | 304 |
| 7 | Reg Powell | $27,946 | 228 |
| 8 | Spiro Lempesis | $21,787 | 152 |
| 9 | Matthew Stone | $17,261 | 76 |
The next stop on the Mid-States Poker Tour will be hosted at the Jack Cleveland Casino in Cleveland, Ohio, and the tournament series will run from Feb. 15-20. The $1,110 buy-in main event will serve double duty as the Ohio State Poker Championship, and that four-day tournament begins on Feb. 16.
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