21-year-old poker prodigy earns $201,529 for the win in Las Vegas live event
Landon Tice's rise through the poker ranks now includes a major tournament win. The cash game specialist took down the 2020 Mid States Poker Tour Venetian Main Event, finishing the deal in the early hours of Monday morning for a $201,529 payday.
Tice secured the win after prevailing in the final heads-up battle against Brandon Lombardo ($135,074). Other top finishers included Jesse Vilchez (3rd - $91,502), Sara Stohler (4th - $62,091), and Abraham Hichman ($40,304).
Rounding out the eight-handed final table were Byung Shin (6th - $30,501), David Larson (7th - $22,876), and Andrew Rodgers (8th - $17,429).
All of the top eight finishers earned five-figure paydays. A total of 1,123 entries registered for the $1,100 buy-in event, pushing the final prize pool to $1,089,310.
Marathon final day
The final day of the two-day MSPT Venetian Main Event began Sunday and went on into the early hours of Monday morning. The day took nearly 16 hours to complete before Tice came away with the win.
A total of 146 players survived from the Day 1a and Day 1b flights of the tournament. The money bubble burst shortly after the start of Day 2, with 128 players paid.
Notable finishers in the money included former WSOP bracelet winner Ryan Hughes (121st - $1,961), Aaron Massey (120th - $1,961), Joon Kim (104th - $2,396), Matt Stout (73rd - $3,050), Lee Markholt (49th - $3,704), Shawn Daniels (41st - $4,030), and Sean Yu (17th - $7,298).
Yu finished just outside of the final two tables in the eight-handed format tournament. The final 16 included names like Nick Pupillo (13th - $10,566), and Mike Shin (9th - 14,706).
Final table action
Shin's bustout set the scene for a final table that took around four hours to complete. Vilchez (just under 83 big blinds) went into the final table as the chip leader, with Tice (44 big blinds) and Stohler (40 big blinds) at second and third in chips respectively.
By the time the tournament went five-handed however, Tice was in command, with all other players looking up at Tice's 75 big blind stack. Tice and Lombardo each took turns as the chip leader throughout four-handed play.
When the tournament went heads-up, Tice held a three-to-one chip lead over Lombardo. The two final players went back-and-forth in a heads-up match that finished out in just under two hours, with Tice eventually emerging with the win.
Big 2020 continues for Tice
Tice has emerged as one of poker's biggest rising stars in 2020, regularly posting winning cash game graphs on Twitter and Twitch-streaming mid-stakes online cash games. The Flordia resident Tice has spent a good portion of his year on the Las Vegas cash game scene, spending time with the likes of poker pros Matt Berkey and Joey Ingram.
Tice posted various winning results from the online tournament scene throughout the summer, but the MSPT Venetian Main Event marked the first live tournament win for the 21-year-old.
The MSPT Venetian series continues this weekend, with a $1,600 Main Event commencing from the Las Vegas Strip poker room Nov. 19-23. The Venetian stands as one of the biggest hubs for live tournament action in 2020, as the poker room hosted the DeepStack Showdown in September and October.
Featured image source: Twitter
