Tournament staff called it an early night on Sunday, wrapping up Day 3 of the NAPT Las Vegas Main Event with 40 players left. They will all return on Monday to continue their fight for a spot at the final table on Day 4.
The final group bagged up their chips in the early evening at Resorts World in Las Vegas with Kai Nicholls at the top of a leaderboard of familiar faces. The Australian-American stacked up 1.3 million chips, one of five players above the seven-figure mark. He's followed by Richard Green in second and Thomas Boivin in third, while Jesse Lonis and Phillip Latimer set the rest of the top five. PokerStars Ambassador Jen Shahade, who survived a flip in the late stages of the evening, also finished in the top ten with a seventh-best 928K.
Jen Shahade found a spot in the top ten. Lonis lurks
Lonis, who sports over $26 million in career earnings, already cashed once at NAPT Las Vegas, finishing fourth in the $20K Super High Roller Warmup for $111K. It has been a bumper 2025 for Lonis with 17 six-figure scores and three more over $1 million, topped by a $3.4 million win in the $100K at Triton Montenegro.
Day 3 started out with 84 players left after 738 entries went through the window for the $5,300 Main Event. Early exits included Martin Zamani and Kristen Foxen, along with Jeremy Becker, Cherish Andrews, and Chino Rheem.
Meanwhile, Nicholls holds the lead thanks in part to a pair of big hands, the first coming when the chip leader out-kicked Chance Kornuth to send him to the rail in 63rd place. Later on in the last level, Clemen Deng went for a big bluff on the river and Nicholls called to take one last leap toward the top stack.
Aussie Kai Nicholls will return on Day 4 with the lead. Other Day 4 hopefuls among the big stacks include Michael Berk, Shannon Shorr, and Evan Sandberg, who won the World Series of Poker Circuit stop in Lake Tahoe earlier this week. Jesse Yaginuma is lurking outside the top stacks, while Matthew Salsburg, Ryan Riess, and Jeremy Ausmus will be looking to spin it up on Monday's Day 4.
Players will return to Resorts World to play Day 4 on Monday at 12 pm local time. There are around 45 minutes left in Level 19 and blinds are at 5K/10K/10K. They're all chasing the top prize of $653,050 and they've each won at least $12,700 for a 40th-place finish.
Images courtesy of Danny Maxwell/Rational Intellectual Holdings, Ltd.
