One of the highlights of the annual high stakes poker calendar is already behind us, and this year too there was something to see in the battles for the golden eagle. U.S. Poker Open festival brought a total of 10 events with buy-ins ranging from $10,500 to $52,000, which crowned their champions day after day. As you probably know, the most famous name became the iconic Phil Hellmuth in the fifth event, who closed his first triumph from this series in style with a straight flush.
Another world-famous name appeared at the top of the 8th event ($25k NLH), where Isaac Haxton took the trophy and $432,000 out of 54 entries. With this bonus, Ike became the first player to cross the $5 million mark in live tournament winnings in 2023 (currently $5,154,740). This year, Ike managed to cash 12 times, of which he won four times - apart from this event, it was a triumph in the $50k PokerGO Cup and along with it two titles from the 100,000 Super High Rollers at the Bahamian PCA. He thus increased his total lifetime winnings to 35 million dollars, thanks to which he ranks 15th in the world ranking.
The penultimate event, which was the #9 $25k NLH, was dominated by Dan Smith for a change, who only two days before finished third in the 8th event for $189,000. This time, however, he dealt with all his opponents and took home the first USPO trophy and $399,500 with it. Thanks to this win, Smith also gained additional points, thanks to which he still had a chance to win the USPO overall title, which is valued with a large golden eagle and an extra $50,000, before the Main Event. “Winning the overall title would definitely be amazing! That trophy is incredible, it weighs 25 kilos! I would like to win it, but we'll see how it turns out - the competition here is really tough!".
The entire leaderboard was decided in the full final of the $50k Main Event, to which the six best players advanced. They were led by Justin Bonomo, followed by Martin Zamani, Jeremy Ausmus, Nick Petrangelo, Chris Brewer and Dan Smith. Each player entered the finals assured of a share of the $1,850,000 prize pool produced by a field of 37 entries. But the most interesting thing was that as many as four of these players were still hoping for an overall triumph.
Before the final table, Ren Lin was leading the overall points, but Smith, Brewer, Zamani and Ausmus were still hoping for a triumph. Each needed specific conditions for the eventual title, but the one who finally succeeded was Martin Zamani. He had to win and at the same time he could not meet either Smith or Brewer in heads-up. That worked out for him, as Brewer and Smith left the table first in sixth and fifth place. Subsequently, Zamani already sailed through all his opponents, but when he also defeated Nick Petrangelo in heads-up, the decision was made - for winning the Main Event, he collected $666,000 and a statuette of a small eagle, to which he also took home a large eagle and an extra bonus of $50,000 as the overall winner. He thus entered history among the previous USPO champions, who were Stephen Chidwick, David Peters and Sean Winter.
Source: PGT, PokerNews, YouTube
