The 2024 Card Player Poker Tour Venetian $1,600 buy-in no-limit hold’em main event attracted a field of 458 entries, blowing away the $400,00 guarantee to create a final prize pool of $650,360. After three starting flights and one day of combined-field action, it was Andrew Rodgers who emerged victorious with the title and the top prize of $103,936. He struck a heads-up deal with 2021 CPPT Venetian champion Ankush Mandavia to lock up the win.

“It was a chop, so I didn’t exactly get to close it out, but yeah, it feels good,” said Rodgers after coming out on top.

The 40-year-old poker player based out of Henderson, Nevada moved to the lower 48 from his home state of Alaska to pursue the game. This was his largest live tournament payday, topping the $62,319 he earned for a runner-up showing in a DeepStack Extravaganza $600 buy-in event here at The Venetian® Resort Las Vegas in 2022. He now has $598,000 in career lifetime tournament earnings.

In addition to the title and the money, Rodgers was also awarded 720 Card Player Player of the Year points for the win. This was his first POY-qualified score of the year, but this alone was enough to catapult him into 77th place in the 2024 POY standings presented by Global Poker.

This event played down to the money on each of its three starting flights, which ran from Feb. 15-17. A total of 59 players advanced to day 2, all having locked up at least $3,391. Plenty of big names fell as day 2 marched on, including Farah Galfond (41st), bracelet winner Ryan Laplante (39th), World Poker Tour champion James Romero (35th), bracelet winner Mitch Halverson (31st), 2019 CPPT Venetian champion Valentyn Shabelnyk (29th), WPT champion Lee Markholt (19th), two-time bracelet winner Scott Ball (17th), 2022 CPPT Venetian champion and two-time bracelet winner John Riordan (16th), 2021 CPPT Venetian runner-up Anselmo Villareal (13th), bracelet winner Evan Sandberg (12th), and Aaron Massey (11th).

The final table began with reigning WPT World Championship winner Dan Sepiol in the lead, with Rodgers in seventh chip position when cards got back in the air. Edward Holstein (9th – $11,790) and Dan Ciltan were the first to fall, with Rodgers scoring the knockout against Ciltan to kickstart his climb up the leaderboard.

Rodgers then made a big hero call with pocket eights on a board with two overcards acing a big river bet from Zichuan Huang, who was one of the largest stacks at the time. That hand shot Rodgers up the leaderboard even further, and led to him choosing pocket eights for his winner photo.

Zachary Donovan was the next to hit the rail, with his A-3 suited being unable to hold up against the K-9 of Richard Collins, who began day 2 as the chip leader. Donovan earned $19,046 as the seventh-place finisher.

Jeremy Becker’s run in this event came to an end in sixth place ($24,788). He ran 108 into the pocket jacks of Sepiol and failed to connect with a king-high runout. Becker is now the 12th-ranked player in the 2024 POY standings, with six final-table finishes and one POY-qualified title won already this year. He now has more than $1.1 million in recorded earnings after this latest score.

A classic race spelled the end of Zichuan Huang’s quest for the title in this tournament. He was awarded $32,766 as the fifth-place finisher when his A-10 was unable to outrun the pocket eights of a surging Collins.

Rodgers halted that momentum a bit when he won a big pot off Collins with a rivered set of deuces to overtake the chip lead. Rodgers pulled even further ahead when his KK held up against the AK of Sepiol in a massive preflop clash. The board ran out 106294 and Rodgers’ kings held to see him surpass 10,400,000.

Sepiol was soon all in with A3 facing the pocket queens of Collins. The final board read J6379 and Sepiol was eliminated in third place for a payout worth $43,976. He now has more than $6.9 million in lifetime earnings, with a huge chunk of that coming from his $5,282,954 win in the WPT World Championship in December of 2023.

The next big confrontation saw all the chips get in the middle after an A92 flop. Collins got all in with pocket deuces in the hole and found himself up against the 96 of Rodgers. The 3 gave Rodgers a flush, and the 4 river kept him ahead to send Collins to the rail with a career-best payday of $59,914.

The final two players paused the action to discuss a deal, with Rodgers holding 11,580,000 to Ankush Mandavia’s 6,755,000. They ultimately came to an agreement that saw Rodgers secure the win and the aforementioned payout of $103,936. Mandavia earned $95,149 as the runner-up. The bracelet winner and former champion of this event now has more than $6.6 million in lifetime scores to his name.

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

Here is a look at the chip counts before the start of heads-up play. The final two players appear to be agreeing to a chop at the moment, so the tournament might have reached a conclusion.

Andrew Rodgers – 11,580,000 (96 bb)
Ankush Mandavia – 6,755,000 (56 bb)

The blinds are up to 60,000-120,000 with a 120,000 big blind ante for level 29.

Daniel Sepiol was all in preflop for less than a million with A3 in the hole from the button, and Richard Collins had him covered holding pocket queens on the big blind.

The final board read J6379, and Sepiol was eliminated in third place for a payout worth $43,976. Collins stacked up 4.57 million after collecting the pot.

Richard Collins – 4,570,000 (45 bb)
Daniel Sepiol – Eliminated in Fourth Place ($43,976)

Richard Collins raised to 225,000 preflop from the cutoff with J10 in the hole, Ankush Mandavia reraised all in for 975,000 from the button holding AJ, and Collins called to cover.

The board hit the table A434K, and Mandavia doubled up to survive with 2.2 million. Collins was at 4.23 million after the hand.

Ankush Mandavia – 2,200,000 (22 bb)
Richard Collins – 4,230,000 (42 bb)