A total of 100 entries were made on day 1B of the $300,000 guaranteed Card Player Poker Tour event at The Venetian® Resort Las Vegas.
This $1,100 buy-in tournament features three starting flights, with 12.5% of the field making the money each day. Day 1A ended with 8 players advancing to Day 2, each being guaranteed at least a min-cash. The second flight saw 13 more contenders move on to Sunday, which means that 21 of the 160 entries made so far have bagged and tagged.
This tournament features a starting stack of 40,000 in chips, with 40-minute blind levels. Late registration and re-entry were available through the start of level 10 on each of the completed flights so far, and it will be the same case for Saturday’s day 1C.
More than 12 hours after cards got in the air, the day concluded when 2023 Wynn Millions main event winner Michael Rossito ran pocket tens into the pocket kings of Aaron Massey. Rossito, who finished third in the 2024 CPPT Venetian main event back in January, was sent to the rail empty handed to bring day 1B to a close.
Massey, who has more than $5.7 million in career tournament earnings, is one of the shorter stacks that survived day 1B, with 178,000.
The chip leader at the end of the night was Jeremy Becker with 649,000. Becker, pictured atop the article, is just over a week removed from the largest score of his career. The rising tournament star, who first caught the attention of the poker world with a streak of wins in daily tournaments around Las Vegas, took down a $10,100 buy-in event at the Poker Masters to earn $255,000. This was his first six-figure score. His second came just five days later, when he finished third in a $15,100 buy-in for another $163,800. Becker now has more than $2 million in career earnings, and can add to that total in a major way with a deep run in this event.
Becker finished sixth in the CPPT Venetian February main event earlier this year. He has now made 23 final tables in 2024, the most of any player on the circuit. As a result, he is now ranked 16th in this year’s Card Player Player of the Year race.
The second-largest stack belongs to Ivan Ruban, who finished ninth in the CPPT Venetian main event back in January of this year.
There were 87 knockouts recorded during day 1B. Among those who were eliminated were Card Player publisher and two-time bracelet winner Barry Shulman, 2024 CPPT Venetian February main event champion Andrew Rodgers, four-time bracelet winner and three-time World Poker Tour champion Anthony Zinno, recent Poker Masters kickoff event winner Spencer Champlin, two-time bracelet winner Mark Seif, and 2022 WSOP $3,000 no-limit hold’em event runner-up Toby Boas.
There was 35:32 remaining in Level 17 (4,000-8,000 with a big blind ante of 8,000) when play concluded on day 1B.
Day 1C will start on Saturday, Sept. 21 at 11:10 AM. Registration will once again be open, with re-entries available, until the start of Level 10. Those who move on will join the day 1A and day 1B survivors for day 2, which will get underway on Sunday, Sept. 22 at 11:00 AM. The remaining field will play down to the next CPPT champion.
Here are the chip counts from the end of play on Day 1B:
| Rank | Player | Chip Count |
| 1 | Jeremy Becker | 649,000 |
| 2 | Ivan Ruban | 453,000 |
| 3 | Ammar Alobaidy | 402,000 |
| 4 | Virab Zakaryan | 402,000 |
| 5 | Rolands Norietis | 383,000 |
| 6 | Matthew Schulte | 316,000 |
| 7 | Tyler Mitchell | 264,000 |
| 8 | Garen Zobian | 242,000 |
| 9 | Mario Colavita | 211,000 |
| 10 | Martin Schroeder | 203,000 |
| 11 | Christopher McNulty | 193,000 |
| 12 | Aaron Massey | 178,000 |
| 13 | Timothy Pai | 106,000 |