2024 has already been a big year for live poker events, and a big tournament was recently held at the Venetian in Las Vegas. The Card Player Poker Tour made a stop at this location, and the biggest draw was the $1,600 buy-in no-limit hold’em tournament, and Andrew Rodgers emerged victorious.
Some of the top local professional poker players flocked to the Venetian as there was a guaranteed prize pool of $400,000 set for this tournament. That number would ultimately climb all the way up to $650,360 as 458 players decided to sign up and compete.
Rodgers, a Henderson native, might have walked away with the title, but he didn’t get the biggest prize that he could have landed. Instead of playing the entire event out, Rodgers decided to chop the final pot by coming to a deal with Ankush Mandavia, ending some drama on the third day of the event.
It’s never too early to check out the “Card Player” Player of the Year race, and Rodgers was awarded 720 points to go along with his win of nearly $104,000. Mandavia was more than happy to walk away with $95,000 as it looked as if his luck was running out in a major way.
Rodgers Starting to Roll
Alaska is the home state of Rodgers, but he decided to move to Nevada in an effort to pursue his poker career. The 40-year-old nearly doubled up his biggest win of his career, which he earned $62,000 back at the Venetian in 2022.
Rodgers has now won nearly $600,000 throughout his lifetime playing poker, and he is going to have a ton of momentum heading into the rest of the year. Those Player of the Year points are going to allow him to enter some bigger competitions as the year moves along.
He is still sitting in 77th place when looking at the standings, but more wins will continue to push him up the leaderboard. With all of the top nine players earning at least $11,000, just getting to the final table was a big deal.
There were some other big names that took part in this event, and the action was tremendous throughout the three days.
Some Quick Eliminations
With 458 players signing up to compete in this tournament, the Venetian was forced to use flights in order to cut down the field right away. By the time the first day ended there were just 59 players still fighting for the top prize.
Aaron Massey and Evan Sandberg were two of the biggest names to fall on day two of this event as they weren’t able to reach the final table. When it became time for the final table, Rodgers was sitting in 7th place when looking at the chip count.
Dan Sepiol was in first place when the final table action began, and he is the current WPT World Championship winner. Rodgers was able to eliminate two players right away, and he made a fast jump up the leaderboard.
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