The North American Poker Tour (NAPT) returned to Mohegan Sun over the weekend for its $5,000 Main Event. Defending champion Vanessa Selbst joined several PokerStars Team Pros in attendance, including Daniel Negreanu, Vanessa Rousso, Victor Ramdin, David Williams, Eugene Katchalov, and Barry Greenstein. But the story on Day 1 was the significant drop in entrants from a year ago.
Only 387 players turned out for this year’s Main Event compared to last year’s 719, most likely due to a handful of other events the same weekend. A prize pool of $1,764,330 was up for grabs at Mohegan, with the top 56 getting paid and the winner receiving $450,000.
The small field allowed for a short Day 1, as the tournament staff slashed the levels from 10 to eight, and 230 of the original 387 advanced to Day 2. Chris Tryba held the chip lead when play concluded, while Selbst, Ramdin, Adam Junglen, and Eric Buchman each bagged top 10 stacks at the end of the day. Among the casualties on Day 1 were Negreanu, Williams, Greenstein, Katchalov, Nick Schulman, Scott Seiver, Full Tilt Poker’s Erick Lindgren, Chau Giang, and Chris Moneymaker.
Day 2 saw the field trimmed down to 74 and it was Selbst again positioning herself for a title run. She finished the day with 339,200 chips, good for fifth on the leaderboard, and won her biggest pot in the waning minutes of the day by five-bet shoving 8d-4d into an opponent’s pocket aces and coming out on top. The board ran out Jd-6d-5s-5c-7s to give Selbst a straight on the river and boost her into the top 10.
The chip leader going into Day 3 is Aaron Overton, who has a massive stack of 598,700; the next closest is Aaron Mermelstein with 382,500. Many of Overton’s chips came from Rousso, who handed her entire stack over near the end of the day. Overton bet 37,700 into a pot of 40,000 on a board of 7c-4c-2h-9h-7s and Rousso moved all-in for 90,000. Overton called instantly and revealed 9c-9d for a full house, which prompted Rousso to muck her hand and exit the tournament area.
Several other big names were eliminated on Day 2, including PokerStars Team Pros Jason Mercier, Jonathan Duhamel, and Joe Cada, as well as Carlos Mortensen, Erica Schoenberg, Matt Glantz, and Amnon Filippi. Todd Terry barely escaped elimination and enters Monday as the shortest stack with 26,600.
Other notables making it through the day were World Poker Tour champs Olivier Busquet and Joe Tehan, World Series of Poker bracelet winners Jeff Papola, Nenad Medic, Matt Matros, and Eric Froelich, and online superstars Joe Ebanks, Greg Dyer, Kevin Eyster, and Adam Geyer. Also advancing was last year’s NAPT Mohegan Sun Main Event runner-up Mike Beasley, who appears primed for another run at the final table.
Play will resume at Noon ET on Monday as the players prepare the burst the money bubble and shave the field down the 24. Here’s a look at the top 10 stacks heading into the day:
1. Aaron Overton – 598,700
2. Aaron Mermelstein – 382,500
3. Corey Hochman – 363,500
4. Ruben Costa – 356,900
5. Vanessa Selbst – 339,200
6. Chris Kirkwood – 330,200
7. Dave Whalen – 329,100
8. Olivier Busquet – 306,400
9. Victor Ramdin – 296,100
10. Taylor von Kriegenbergh – 287,000
Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for continuing coverage of the NAPT Mohegan Sun Main Event.
watch out, people…A. Overton is a BEAST!