With several large poker festivals taking place on the Vegas Strip and in Downtown, Sin City has truly transformed into the poker capital of the world this summer. The 2018 Deepstack Championship Poker Series is currently underway at the Venetian Las Vegas and has already awarded millions of dollars in prizes. One of its biggest events ended this week, with Sergei Nikiforov claiming the title and the first-place prize of $174,708.
Defeating nearly 2,800 players, Russian poker pro Sergei Nikiforov won the $600 buy-in MSPT Venetian event on Wednesday at the luxurious Venetian casino resort in Las Vegas. The tournament is one of several events of the Mid-States Poker Tour, which are now being hosted at the 2018 Deepstack Championship. It started Saturday, June 9, attracting 412 players during Day 1A. Overall, the tournament drew in a massive field of 2,779 entries during its three starting flights and two additional days of play. This impressive attendance helped the total prize pool to extend its $1 million guarantee and reach $1,425,627.
After several days of grinding and over two thousand eliminations, only 17 players returned to the tables for Day 3 of the $600 MPST Venetian. They were led by Longsheng Tan who bagged 5,805,000 during the previous day and had an advantage over the others. Although Tan did make it to the final table, he finished third, taking home a nice cash prize of $102,560. This became possible only after Thomas Ward was eliminated in the fourth position and left the three finalists who struck a deal based on their current stacks. However, they still had to play for the trophy and the rest of the pot, worth $42,200.
Soon after the deal was made, Tan was eliminated by Russian player Sergei Nikiforov. In the heads-up play, Nikoforov and Ken Kao had almost equal stacks of chips but the Russian took the lead and in the final hand, he defeated his rival easily. Although Kao was ahead with Ace-Eight against the Ace-Three of Nikoforov, the board of 5-Jack-2-5-4 gave the Russian a winning Straight. He was crowned champion and took home $174,708, while Kao received $144,734 for his second finish.
$5,000 NLH MSPT $1 Million GTD Events Kicks off Friday
The 2018 Deepstack Championship Poker Series continues with a host of other events taking place at the Venetian Las Vegas. This week, several champs were already awarded great cash prices and one of them was German player Fabian Gumz who banked $79,649 after taking down the $1,185 NLH DoubleStack event on Tuesday. Another poker enthusiast from Russia, Anton Smirnov, won the $655 Pot-limit Omaha 8 or Better tourney for $79,649.
One of the more interesting events during the festival, however, kicks off today and what it uses to attract more players with is, of course, its guarantee of $1 million. The event, called $5,000 NLH MSPT $1 Million Big Blind Ante, starts at 2.00 p.m. local time with 30,000 in chips and 60-minute levels. Players can register and re-enter through Level 12 on the second day of the tournament. Despite a rather high buy-in, the tourney is likely to attract a large field and the guarantee will almost certainly exceed the initial $1 million, offering runners great cash prizes.
