James Carroll started the New Year on a high note after emerging victorious from a field of 1,009 entries in the 2021 MSPT Venetian main event. Without having to share the spotlight like last time, he once again shone in this event. The win earned the two-time World Poker Tour Champion a total of $180,850.
This marked Carroll’s 29th tournament title on record and took him a step closer to reaching five million US dollars in career earnings. The score he achieved on the win was the fifth-largest in his impressive resume. He has had the top two most enormous successes at the WPT main events at the 2014 Bay 101 Shooting Star with a top prize of $1,256 550. The other large score was recorded in the 2019 Seminole Hard Rock Poker showdown with a top prize of $ 715 175.
In February 2019, he won a DeepStack Extravaganza event at Venetian worth $184 000 apiece. In this year’s MSPT Venetian $1,100, a small saver left a considerable part of the first-place money in contention against William Chao. But, Caroll emerged on top to win the trophy and a whopping $180 850 in a group of 1,009.
It was a step in the right direction for him to recapture the momentum from his outstanding 2019. Despite being halted by the coronavirus pandemic, he had cashed some $1.3 million. He disclosed that the Venetian event was his fourth live tournaments since the lockdowns and other containment measures were imposed and halted most live poker events.
The Final Results
The following are the official final table results from the 2021 Mid-State Poker Tour Venetian main event;
Position Player Prize in $
1st James Carroll 180, 850
2nd William Chao 135, 277
3rd Daniel Jones 84, 171
4th Daniel Sammarco 57, 745
5th Bill Lewis 38, 170
6th Veselin Dimitrov 28, 383
7th Justin Ligeri 21, 532
8th Monty Ford 15, 660
From the table, it was evident that Carroll was locked in a showdown with Chao. Even after earning himself the second position, Chao managed to have chips almost double those of Bill Lewis, who was in the third position as the final table closed down. Carroll got an early test from Chao with a four-bet but still managed to collect a couple of knockouts for the win.
The fact that Carroll slipped into secondary momentarily shows how hard he fought for the win. He recovered sufficiently to maintain a good run that he attributed to when he gave Daniel Sammarco a three-out to shove king-three suited queens in a battle of blinds. He later dispatched Daniel Jones, who was having a day of near misses.
A Heads-up Save
Despite all that, Chao showed that he wasn’t going down without a fight when there is a three-street value to play for on a pretty coordinated board. Carroll and Chao quickly agreed to a $10, 000 saver with deep stacks after looking at the numbers to tighten the payouts.
Carroll disclosed that he didn’t mind doing a small saver putting in mind that Chao is a tough player. However, he needed to acquire some heads-up practice to live and ensure that the earnings still meant something.
