It seems as if the 2023 U. S. Poker Open needs to be retitled the Nacho Barbero Invitational.
Three events into the 10-tournament series, Barbero has made the 2023 USPO his own personal playground. On Saturday, Barbero made it three-for-three in final tables at this year’s event as he will be at the final table when Event #3 plays on Monday (the USPO decided to take a day off on Sunday). At that final table, Barbero will attempt to extend his lead in the current USPO overall race.
Little Smaller Crowd, Similar Results
The Saturday throng for Event #3, another $10,000 Texas Hold’em event on the 2023 USPO schedule, was a bit smaller than it had been for the first two runnings. In those two outings, 105 entries showed up for each tournament to bring some fresh faces to the festivities. However, only 93 entrants came to the battle for the Saturday tournament.
There were still some familiar faces amongst the competitors, though. Daniel Negreanu would make his deepest run yet at the 2023 USPO, coming up just short of the money when Brandon Wilson utilized his big stack to play a Q♦ 6♦ against Negreanu’s pocket Jacks and turned a Queen to eliminate him. Negreanu had plenty of notable company on the rail that included Cary Katz, Dylan Linde, and Jeremy Ausmus before the bubble even popped.
The first female combatant of the 2023 USPO has come to the felt also, and she made her impact felt throughout the Day One action. Kristen (Bicknell) Foxen would scoop up a nice pot from Barbero when he didn’t believe she had anything on a 2-2-K-K-Q board; Foxen would show down a pocket pair of eights and Barbero would ship his cards to the muck and his chips to Foxen.
Another familiar face would be the unfortunate bubble boy for the money in the tournament. With fifteen players left, Robert Chorlian (who was a part of the Event #2 final table) got his final chips to the cent with his big blind and found himself up against the chip leader in Wilson. Chorlian only showed one card – the 3♠ – to give the streaming audience a little drama as the board ran out 9-6-4-7-K. Wilson turned up his cards – a J♦ 7♦ – so Chorlian was going to need a nine or a King to show up to save his day. Alas, the card Chorlian turned was a ten, failing to pair and he was out of the tournament.
Anyone For Early Morning Poker?
Even though it was 2 AM in Las Vegas, the fourteen remaining players decided to forge on with the tournament (arguably because of the day off on Sunday). Erik Seidel found an opportune moment to double up with a baby Ace against Alex Foxen’s K-Q, then Foxen would be dismissed from the tournament along with Martin Zamani. Sam Soverel was responsible for this twin killing, turning two pair with his A-J against Zamani’s pocket fours and Foxen’s A-9. The double knockout would see Zamani (with fewer chips at the start of the hand) claim fourteenth place and Alex Foxen land the thirteenth place slot.
Phil Hellmuth got into a “High Roller” event, and it has paid off for him. He would leave in twelfth place when his favorite hand – two black nines, the hand he won his World Championship with – couldn’t withstand Calvin Lee’s A-Q on a Queen high flop. Another veteran of the game, Steve Zolotow, would follow soon afterward in eleventh place at the hands of Soverel.
The departures of Event #1 champ Joey Weissman and Event #2 final tablist Seidel in tenth and ninth places, respectively, would bring the final eight players together. The remaining players chose to play one more level before calling it a night, with Lee getting coolered by Barbero (Lee’s pocket Jacks against Barbero’s pocket Queens) to send Lee out in eighth place. The chip leader Wilson would take care of the final elimination of the night, taking out Aram Oganyan in seventh place to set up Monday’s final table.
1. Brandon Wilson, 4.51 million
2. Sam Soverel, 2.205 million
3. Chris Brewer, 2.115 million
4. Daniel Colpoys, 1.54 million
5. Nacho Barbero, 860,000
6. Kristen Foxen, 405,000
The final table will kick off at 1 PM (PDT) at the PokerGO Studios in Las Vegas on Monday afternoon. If you are a subscriber to PokerGO, you’ll be able to view the battle for the Event #3 title on a delayed basis. Can Barbero go all the way to the title? And how many more points will he add to his already USPO overall championship-leading point total? Those questions and others will be answered on Monday!
(Photo courtesy of PokerGO.com)
