David Coleman into the 2024 Card Player Poker Tour Venetian $1,600 no-limit hold’em main event with more than $3.6 million in recorded tournament earnings to his name across 152 scores. The one thing the 30-year-old former online grinder didn’t have, though, was a live tournament title. That all changed when he overcame a field of 457 entries to take down the CPPT Venetian for $115,989.

“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 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 run in live high-roller events. Before that, he was more commonly found in the online streets in his home state of New Jersey playing in tournaments ranging from $200-$500 buy-ins.

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.

This CPPT main event played out over the course of four days at The Venetian® Resort Las Vegas. The three starting flights drew the 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 with that money contenders remaining. Day 2 began with Esther Kim in the lead and Coleman in 44th chip position.

Plenty of big names fell as the field was narrowed down to a final table, including two-time bracelet winner Shannon Shorr (58th), bracelet winner Ryan Laplante (55th), 2022 CPPT Venetian champion John Riordan (45th), WPT champion James Romero (37th), two-time bracelet winner Jesse Yaginuma (29th), 2013 WSOP main event champion Ryan Riess (22nd), World Poker Tour Venetianchampion Ben Palmer (20th), MSPT Venetian champion Landon Tice (18th), Darren Rabinowitz (15th), bracelet winner Nicholas Pupillo (13th), bracelet winner 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 3 million in chips. By the time the field was down to nine, he had climbed to third on the leaderboard.

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 the flopped set of tens held by Coleman. 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 short 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 outran 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 a surging Louis 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 KQ against Ho’s QJ 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.

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 AAJ flop saw Cheffy fire 700,000. Coleman called and the turn brought the K.

Cheffy bet 1,000,000 and Coleman came along. The 2 river saw Cheffy check. Coleman slid out enough chips to put his opponent at risk and Cheffy called with QQ. Coleman rolled over A7 for tip 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 World Series of Poker Circuit Palm Beach Kennel Club maijn event winner from Florida.

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

David Coleman – 12,380,000
Louis Cheffy – 5,900,000

Eugene Tung was all in for 3.95 million with A4 in the hole from the big blind, and David Coleman had him covered holding K4 on the small blind.

The final board read K947Q, and Tung was eliminated in fourth place, good for $43,880. Coleman stacked up 10.7 million after collecting the pot.

David Coleman – 10,700,000 (42 bb)
Eugene Tung – Eliminated in Fourth Place ($43,800)

Blinds are up to 125,000-250,000 with a big blind ante of 250,000 for level 32.

David Coleman raised to 1,100,000 from under the gun. Vinh Ho moved all-in from the small blind and Coleman made the call with AJ for 2,125,000 total.

Ho had QQ. The board came down A952A and Coleman made trip aces to double to 4,600,000. Ho fell to 1,700,000 after the hand.