The $1,100 buy-in, $3,000,000 Guaranteed MSPT Mid-Season Championship at The Venetian brought 4,345 runners over four flights, which made it the second-largest poker tournament in both MSPT and Venetian history, narrowly missing last year’s 4,411 entrants in the same event.

On Friday, 500 players returned for Day 2 action, but after 15 levels of play, the field was whittled down to the final 21. Matthew Sesso, a $5/$10 cash game grinder in his first MSPT Main Event, comes back to Day 3 with the overall chip lead, bagging 8,460,000. “I feel great,” Sesso said about his day. “I was trying to win as many pots as possible with no showdown, it worked out perfectly. It was a long day, but it ended going about as smoothly as it could.”

Sesso was succinct when it came to his prospects tomorrow. ”Hopefully tomorrow, we ship it. That’s a lot of cheddar.”

Five players, along with Sasso, managed to bag over five million, including Thuan Lam (7,625,000), Brandon Sinawi (6,920,000), David Shaw (6,555,000), and Sean Davidson (6,450,000). Others coming back tomorrow include Aaron Dalnoot (4,705,000), Erik Glenister (4,015,000), Scott Hall (3,200,000), Julien Loire (2,335,000), and Sheddy Siddiqui (1,085,000).

With only 450 slated to get paid, 50 players came back and failed to find a cash, including Christopher Waters, Chih Liang, and Avneesh Munjal. Three players chopped up 450th place money; Clayton Fletcher, Axel Halley, and Felipe De Beltrane, and we reached the money before a single hand of bubble play could occur.

Among the hundreds to cash include Reg Powell (24th - $21,182), Season 7 MSPT Canterbury Park champ Jonathan Kim (29th - $14,404), last year’s runner-up Felipe Davila (36th - $14,404), WSOP bracelet winner Jessica Dawley (50th - $10,591), Jeff Fielder (55th - $9,320), former MSPT champ Josh Reichard (63rd - $9,320), Joe Serock (65th - $8,261), Season 9 MSPT Venetian champ Sam Vizza (125th - $5,423), former MSPT champ Rodger Johnson (189th - $4,787), Season 6 MSPT POY Mark Hodge (200th - $4,152), Season 8 MSPT Potawatomi Regional champ Craig Trost (212th - $4,152), Season 9 MSPT Michigan State Poker champ Matthew Stammen (361st - $2,711), MSPT Hall of Famer Rich Alsup (366th - $2,711), former WSOP November Niners Bryan Piccioli (391st - $2,372) and Jeremy Ausmus (392nd - $2,372), and Melanie Weisner (413th - $2,372).

Day 3 will kick off at 11 a.m. local time on Saturday and play down to a winner, with the remaining field already guaranteed to walk away with $25,418. There’s no live stream for this final table, but all of the action will be updated right here on the MSPT live blog, so stay tuned to find out who will walk away with the $540,116 top prize!