And then there were seven! That’s how many hopefuls will return today to battle it out for the PokerStars NAPT Las Vegas $1,650 Main Event title, with Nick Schulman among the contenders.
The pro and commentator was among 34 players who had made it to Day 3, in the money but still well short of a significant payday.
It didn’t take long to whittle the five tables down to just two, with Aaron Massey helping things along by cracking aces with a blind-on-blind shove.
David Jackson: A♠A♦️
Aaron Massey: 7♠7♦️
The flop delivered the killer seven for Jackson, who couldn’t find an ace on the turn or river.
Magnificent seven
The next stop was the final table, but that would be a step too far for Matthew Wantman, who last month broke through the $5 million earnings milestone with a big PGT win. He won’t be adding an NAPT title to his haul, with another blind-on-blind battle seeing him lose his stack to Sergio Aido.
Massey would also fall short, losing with jacks against ace-king to Sami Bechahed, giving us a final table redraw and the payouts now well into five-figures.
Ryan Leng bowed out in ninth after running into Schulman. Three-time WSOP bracelet winner Leng three-bet an Aido hijack open and four-time bracelet winner Schulman called in the big blind, with Aido getting out of the way.
The Q♦️10♠5♠ flop saw Schulman jam and Leng call off his remaining few chips.
Schulman was ahead with pocket eights, but Leng had outs with A❤️J♠. None of them came as the board ran out 5♣Q♣.
That meant ninth place and $24,885 for Leng, and he was soon followed to the rail by day two chip leader Anthony Dianaty, who ran jacks into aces and had to settle for $32,355.
That left a ‘magnificent seven’ bagging for the night, with Bechahed out front and David Coleman the short stack, but with plenty of play left. Final table action will kick off at 12:30 p.m. Vegas time on Level 30 with blinds of 50,000/100,000/100,000. PokerStars is streaming the rest of the action on a thirty-minute delay, so be sure to follow along on the PokerOrg Instant feed.
2023 NAPT Las Vegas final table
| Seat | Player | Chips | Big Blinds |
| 1 | Sami Bechahed | 10,570,000 | 105 |
| 2 | Nick Schulman | 4,390,000 | 44 |
| 3 | Ping Liu | 3,095,000 | 31 |
| 4 | David Coleman | 1,610,000 | 16 |
| 5 | Sandeep Pallampati | 4,300,000 | 43 |
| 6 | Sergio Aido | 6,670,000 | 67 |
| 7 | Jonathan Borenstein | 2,200,000 | 22 |
