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James Carroll rang in the new year in style, defeating a field of 1,009 total entries to win the 2021 Mid-States Poker Tour Venetian $1,100 buy-in no-limit hold’em main event. The two-time World Poker Tour main event champion earned $180,850 for the win.
This was Carroll’s 29th recorded tournament title, and it brought him within striking distance of $5 million in career earnings. This was the fifth-largest score on Carroll’s resume, with his two largest being for his WPT main event wins earned in the 2014 Bay 101 Shooting Star (a $1,256,550 top prize) and the 2019 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown (a $715,175 top prize).
DeepStack Championship Poker Series is the largest high stakes poker tournament series at The Venetian. Named by USA Today as one of the best Vegas poker tournament series, it kicks off the beginning of summer, running from May to July. The latest tweets from @VenetianPoker.
Carroll has a chance to become a three-time WPT champion in the near future, as he is among the final six players at the 2020 WPT L.A. Poker Classic final table which has been delayed since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak. Carroll will enter the final table in third chip position when it is ultimately rescheduled this year.
The final day of this event began with 133 players remaining from the 1,009 entries made. The $978,730 prize pool that was built as a result of the big turnout was paid out among the top 104 finishers. Plenty of big names made the money but fell short of the official final table, including Michael Rocco (103rd – $2,251), Lexi Gavin (93rd – $2,447), World Series of Poker bracelet winner Benjamin Keeline (91st – $2,447), Ricardo Eyzaguirre (74th – $2,838), recent Benny Binion Shootout winner William Firebaugh (68th – $3,034), and 2020 MSPT Venetian champion Landon Tice (20th – $7,047), who topped a field of 1,123 at this same venue in November of last year to win $201,529.
The World Poker Tour’s stop at The Venetian in Las Vegas has drawn the poker world out in droves. After setting a $500,000 guaranteed prize pool for the WPT DeepStacks Venetian, the players. The latest tweets from @VenetianTD. The latest tweets from @VenetianVegas.
Carroll had come into the final day in 36th chip position among the final 133 players, but he managed to battle his way into the chip lead by the time the eight-handed final table was set.
He scored his first elimination of the final table when his K-Q held up against the Q-J of Veselin Dimitrov (6th – $28,383. After that Carroll went on an absolute tear, busting each and every one of the remaining competitors on his way to the title. He started this final spree by busting Bill Lewis (5th – $38,170) with top set against Lewis’ top and bottom pair. He then knocked out Daniel Sammarco (4th – $57,745) and Daniel Jones (3rd – $84,171) to take a sizable lead into heads-up play against William Chao.
In the final hand of the event Carroll raised to 400,000 on the button with A9 and Chao three-bet to 1,360,000 from the big blind with A6. Carroll four-bet all-in and Chao called to put himself at risk. The board ran out 874A8 and Carroll’s superior kicker played to earn him the pot and the title. Chao took home $135,277 as the runner-up finisher.
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Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded at the final table:
| Place | Player | Earnings |
| 1 | James Carroll | $180,850 |
| 2 | William Chao | $135,277 |
| 3 | Daniel Jones | $84,171 |
| 4 | Daniel Sammarco | $57,745 |
| 5 | Bill Lewis | $38,170 |
| 6 | Veselin Dimitrov | $28,383 |
| 7 | Justin Ligeri | $21,532 |
| 8 | Monty Ford | $15,660 |
Winner photo credits: MSPT / Venetian Poker Room Twitter accounts.
The Mid-States Poker Tour (MSPT) will hold its 12th season in 2021, and they’re not wasting any time holding their first $1,100 buy-in Main Event on New Year’s Day. From Jan. 1-3, the Venetian Las Vegas will play host to a $250,000 GTD Main Event, the 170th in tour history.
The tournament will be live reported by PokerNews and start players with 25,000 in chips. Levels will be 40 minutes with late registration open until 6:25 p.m. PST during both starting flights. Day 1a will begin at 11:10 a.m. PST on Friday, January 1 with Day 1b taking place at the same time on Saturday, January 2. The surviving players from both flights will then return at 11 a.m. PST on Sunday, January 3 to play down to a winner.
During the latest Venetian DeepStack Extravaganza, players must wear a mask and sanitize their hands before sitting down. Action is 8-handed at tables featuring Plexiglass dividers, which are wiped down each time a new player comes in. Additionally, dealers are required to sanitize their hands each time they enter and exit a table, and fresh decks of cards are circulated every two hours.
MSPT Looks to Continue Momentum
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Due to the pandemic, Season 11 of the MSPT was interrupted at the beginning of March. After a six-month hiatus, the tour returned August 28-30 at Grand Falls Casino, which is situated just outside Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The stop proved to be a tremendous hit asthe $1,100 buy-in, $100K GTD Main Event attracted 518 entries, well ahead of the venue’s previous record of 238 runners from 2015.
In January of 2019, the MSPT hosted the annual $1,100 buy-in, $1 million GTD Poker Bowl, a tournament that attracted 1,093 entries. The night before the Kansas City Chiefs dispatched the San Francisco 49ers to win Super Bowl LIV, Bob Whalen claimed $100,682 in prize money after a five-way deal was struck.
Season 11 then wrapped up with two November stops at Venetian. The first was a $1,100 buy-in tournament that attracted 1,123 runners and saw 21-year-old Landon Tice come out on top to win $201,529. The following weekend, Korey Payne bested a 1,239-entry field to win the $1,600 buy-in version for an even bigger payday of $327,773.
The upcoming MSPT Venetian is expected to once again attract a big field, and PokerNews will be on-site to capture all the action.
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