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Terry Fleischer Wins MSPT Venetian Poker Bowl Main Event

Las Vegas Resident Bests 360-Entry Field In $1,600 Buy-In Tournament To Earn $98,101

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Terry Fleischer was the last player standing in the 2024 Mid-Stakes Poker Tour Venetian Poker Bowl $1,600 buy-in no-limit hold’em main event. The Las Vegas resident defeated a field of 360 entries to capture his first MSPT title and the top prize of $98,101.

This was the seventh-largest recorded payday for the longtime tournament player. It grew his lifetime earnings to more than $2.5 million, with 247 total cashes and 28 titles won along the way.

“It feels really good”, Fleischer told MSPT reporters. “You know, I’m getting old and only have a limited time left to do this, so I have to keep making the best of it… and I like beating up on these young guys.”

Fleischer earned 600 Card Player Player of the Year points as the champion. He now sits inside the top 100 in the 2024 POY race standings presented by Global Poker.

This event ran over the course of three days at Venetian® Resort Las Vegas. Just 41 players moved on from the two starting flights to day 2. Those players, who all made the money, took a seat on Sunday and played until just Fleischer was left with chips.

Fleischer was knocked down to an extremely short stack at one point on day 2, but was able to quickly get back on track.

“It was a crazy day. I was down to just two big blinds with two tables left but was able to spin that up to 900k in 30 minutes,” said Fleischer.

Andrew MorenoBy the time the final table was set, Fleischer sat in sixth chip position among the remaining nine contenders. 2021 Wynn Millions main event champion Andrew Moreno was in the lead at that point.

Bracelet winner and World Poker Tour champion Dylan Linde scored the first knockout, winning a classic race against Brian Kay (9th) to narrow the field to eight. 2022 MSPT South Dakota State Poker Championship winner Gerald Cunniff picked up pocket aces against the pocket jacks of Evan Sandberg (8th) to score the next knockout.

Linde’s run came to an end when his pocket queens ran into the flopped trip tens Mopreno, who held Q-10. Moreno then improved to a flush on the river to win the pot and send Linde packing in seventh place ($17,759). He now has nearly $8.1 million in recorded tournament earnings to his name, and is ranked 82nd in the 2024 POY rankings thanks to the six final-table finishes he has already made this year.

Cunniff picked up two big aces (A-K and A-Q) against lower A-X combos to eliminate Jack Corrigan (6th – $22,789) and Jeremy Becker (5th – $29,669). This was already Becker’s fourth POY-qualified score. With 918 total points, he is now ranked 34th in the overall standings.

Cunniff went on to finish fourth, running QHeart SuitJHeart Suit into Stanley Weng’s JDiamond Suit10Heart Suit after a QSpade Suit10Diamond Suit10Club Suit flop. Cunniff failed to improve on the turn or river and settled for $39,181.

Moreno got all-in on a 7Heart Suit6Diamond Suit2Diamond Suit8Diamond Suit board with 10Spade Suit7Diamond Suit up against the 10Heart Suit9Club Suit of Fleischer. The 8Spade Suit on the river saw Moreno eliminated in third place ($52,475). He now has more than $4.2 million in lifetime tournament earnings after this latest strong showing.

Fleischer took greater than a 4:1 chip lead into heads-up play with Weng. On the final hand, Weng shoved with ASpade Suit4Heart Suit and Fleischer called with AHeart SuitKClub Suit. The board ran out KSpade Suit9Heart Suit2Heart Suit8Diamond Suit3Heart Suit and Fleischer made top pair, top kicker to win the pot and the title. Weng took home $71,260 as the runner-up.

Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded at the final table:

Place Player Earnings POY Points
1 Terry Fleischer $98,101 600
2 Stanley Weng $71,260 500
3 Andrew Moreno $52,475 400
4 Gerald Cunniff $39,181 300
5 Jeremy Becker $29,669 250
6 Jack Corrigan $22,789 200
7 Dylan Linde $17,759 150
8 Evan Sandberg $14,044 100
9 Brian Kay $11,273 50

Photo credits: MSPT.