The starting flights are done and dusted and it's time to play for the money at Mid-States Poker Tour Poker Bowl V at Venetian.
How much money?
Well, all of the payout details haven't been released just yet, but the venue tournament staff did tweet that 96 of the remaining 116 runners will be paid, with a min-cash being worth $2,202 and the eventual winner receiving $176,142. That is, if no deal is struck as has been the case in the past four MSPT Poker Bowls.
Across the two starting days, nobody managed to gather near as many chips as Day 1a leader Jesse Vilchez. Vilchez, who has been on a tear of late at MSPTs here at Venetian, raked in a humongous stack of over 1.1 million that dwarfs anyone else's count.
Other big stacks coming into the day include those of former Poker Bowl champ Kfir Nahum (353,000), Blake Whittington (349,000), Ryan Riess (322,500) and Aaron Massey (295,500). Some others still with a pulse include Jordan Cristos, Tim Reilly, Mike Shin, Ralph Massey, Javier Zarco and recent WSOP runner-up Joseph Hebert.
Play resumes at 11 a.m. local time at 2,500/5,000/5,000 and 40-minute levels will be played until a winner has emerged. Stay tuned to PokerNews to find out whom that will be.