The 2021 Venetian DeepStack Championship Poker Series in Las Vegas wrapped up earlier this week having awarded more than $31.5 million in prize money to its players.
In total, the poker festival, which ran from May 3 to Aug. 1, attracted nearly 38,000 entries over 121 events. The series began with the $500 No-Limit Hold’em Survivor where seven players out of the 68 entries chopped the $29,580 prize pool.
The series wrapped up Sunday with Mehdi Anoosahr from Los Angeles winning the $400 Closer event for $66,000. The finale attracted 1,399 players, which was a fitting way to finish off the massive poker series.
Familiar faces crowned champions
There were a number of big-name pros who competed in the various DeepStack events, including Chance Kornuth, who took down the 2,011-player, $1,600 buy-in MSPT Main Event for $412,086. Ali Imsirovic, who already has eight high-roller titles in 2021, shipped a $10,000 High Roller for $200,200.
Andrew Moreno, who won the $10 million guaranteed Wynn Millions last month, won his first event of the summer at Venetian — an $1,100 No-Limit Hold’em event for $127,740. Moreno vowed in May that he was going to start focusing on his tournament game and, after cashing for more than $1.5 million in events at both the Wynn and the Venetian, it’s clear he wasn’t messing around.
Mark Seif, who was a tournament crusher earlier this century, came out of nowhere in June to win consecutive events at Venetian good for more than $235K in extra pocket cash.
But the biggest winner of all was Chad Eveslage, who won the $5,000 WPT Venetian event for $910,370. The tournament guaranteed at least $3 million in the prize pool and, with 1,199 players, the guarantee was smashed and exceeded $5.5 million. The World Poker Tour also hosted one of its WPTDeepStacks events at Venetian. Albert Knafo from Los Angeles beat out 1,512 players in the $2,400 buy-in tournament to receive a $532,395 first-place prize, the second-biggest payout of the series.
Sean Perry, Matthew Wantman, Matt Vaughan, Shawn Daniels, and Ari Engel were also among those who took down Venetian DeepStack Championship Poker Series events this summer.
