Tauan Naves won the Mid-States Poker Tour stop at the Venetian Poker Room on Dec. 4 in Las Vegas, Nevada to claim the top prize worth $60,675 and his first MSPT title. The Brazilian poker player now holds nearly $2.5 million in career tournament earnings after this latest triumph. This was his first win in the United States to go with tournament titles at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure and the Brazilian Series of Poker.
“I feel so good, it’s nice. I’ve never won a tournament at Venetian, this is my first time. I’m so happy. I like to play here so much, it’s another environment, another place, and the energy is so different than playing online and I really like that,” said Naves right after the win to reporters.
He continued, “I like to play live sometimes, and I like to play online at other times. When I change my mood it is better then if I only play online, online, online all the time. If I mix it up it is better. The field is different live, there are such big fields online with over 1,000 players. I think when I play live, I play against the guy, not the tournament.”
When asked about the heads-up final to end the interview, Naves responded, “Every time in my mind I just thought about playing my best, not if I had more chips or less. I just wanted to do my best, and in poker when you’re playing your best you improve EV and it gives you confidence.”
The $1,100 buy-in no-limit hold’em tournament drew a field of 317 entries over three starting flights to set the prize pool at $305,905. The top 36 players all secured a min-cash worth $2,325, and that’s how many players returned for the final day of the tournament. Notables that made the money during the playdown to the final nine included Peter Cross (13th), Zachary Donovan (15th), Matt Salsberg (25th), Andrew Rodgers (30th), and Ankush Mandavia (35th).
Naves was in the bottom third in chips when the final table began, and the first player to fall was Venetian Poker Room legend Eric Baldwin in ninth place. Jeremy Schultz fell next in eighth place, and then Barry Shulman took out Jacques Mayer in seventh place to take things down to the last half-dozen.
WSOP Circuit Commerce Casino main event winner Jessica Vierling came into the final table with the chip lead, but she fell at the hands of Shulman as well in sixth place. Yang Li started his climb to the top when he eliminated Kodey Hammer in fifth place, and the two-time World Series of Poker gold bracelet winner Shulman was out next in fourth place. Tauan Naves took out Shulman, and then he kept that momentum rolling with a knockout punch delivered to Romain Bremond in third place.
The chip counts were about 2:1 in favor of Li when the final match began, and then both players scored key double ups to prolong the final battle for close to two hours. They were pretty close in chips when the final hand took place, and it took a cooler to close out the day. That final hand saw Li get all in with Q
4 in the hole with the board reading Q
8
4A9. Naves woke up with the flush however holding 86, and that gave him the pot and tournament win. Li grabbed $43,980 for his deep run in the tournament, and his career earnings are now just shy of $350,000.
Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded at the final table:
| Place | Player | Earnings | POY Points |
| 1 | Tauan Naves | $60,675 | 480 |
| 2 | Yang Li | $43,980 | 400 |
| 3 | Romain Bremond | $32,237 | 320 |
| 4 | Barry Shulman | $24,100 | 240 |
| 5 | Kodey Hammer | $18,277 | 200 |
| 6 | Jessica Vierling | $13,988 | 160 |
| 7 | Jacques Mayer | $10,895 | 120 |
| 8 | Jeremy Schultz | $8,614 | 80 |
| 9 | Eric Baldwin | $6,915 | 40 |
The next MSPT main event will be hosted at Hollywood Casino in St. Louis, Missouri, and it is taking place from Dec. 5-8.