Boris Kolev Takes Chip Lead After Final Flight of MSPT Venetian $1,100 Main Event

Anthony Thompson

Level 15 : 3,000/5,000, 5,000 ante

The field has been set for Day 2 of the Mid-States Poker Tour (MSPT) Venetian $1,100 Main Event after Day 1c pulled together a staggering 951 total entries, bringing the overall total up to 1,741.

The final starting flight drew more entries than the first two flights combined and when all was said and done for the night, Boris Kolev (775,000) was atop the counts, beating out Day 1b leader Jason Bral's count of 757,000.

Kolev was seen throughout the day stacking chips and was over the 400,000 at the beginning of the final level of the night, and he ascended from there, winning the final two hands of the evening to take the top stack into Friday’s Day 2.

Day 1c was the largest field of the three starting flights and with it came even more big stacks. Ran Jiani (664,000), Cord Garcia (642,000), Robert Clark (609,000), Jesse Lonis (562,000), and Matt Affleck (561,000) round out the top stacks.

Just below them are two more formidable opponents in Taylor Howard (345,000) and Michael Mizrach (297,000), both of which also saw their stacks multiply through the final three levels of the night.

Others were not as fortunate. Andrew Ostapchenko, Mukul Pahuja, MSPT Hall of Famer Jason Seitz, Donnie Phan, and Asi Moshe were just a few players who came short.

In total, 199 players will be returning Friday's for Day 2’s 11 a.m. start time, but only 189 of them will make it into the money and earn a first-level payout of $2,184, though players are sure to have their eyes set on the first-place prize of $260,008.