The opening event of the PokerStars North American Poker Tour, the NAPT Venetian is down to the final 9 players at the prestigious Las Vegas casino. Sam Stein has the lead while the challengers include high stakes cash game player Tom "kingsofcards" Marchese and the veteran pro "Miami" John Cernuto.


The event was a great success as 872 players entered the field. It was speculated whether Full Tilt Poker indeed would ban their players from entering the PokerStars' sponsored tournament. Apparently it was only a request or the ban doesn't include all players, for some Full Tilt Pros like Gavin Smith were in the field. However, none of the Team Full Tilt members were present.

Despite this the field was very tough; the players who made it to the Top 30 include Steve Billirakis, Blair Hinkle, Vanessa Rousso and Michael Binger. The winner will take home a very nice $872,648.

Sam Stein -- 6,145,000 (pictured)
Thomas Fuller -- 4,735,000
David Paredes -- 4,700,000
Yunus Jamal -- 3,940,000
Tom Marchese -- 2,370,000
Eric Blair -- 1,690,000
Daniel Clemente -- 1,345,000
"Miami" John Cernuto -- 1,300,000

Source: PokerStars Blog.