The 2024 U. S. Poker Open has reached the halfway mark following the conclusion of Event #4 on Friday night. On Thursday, Dan Smith made rapid work of the final table as he stormed to the title. Friday brought another championship on the PokerGO Tour for David Coleman, who is looking to get back to the pole position he held on the PGT Leaderboard before the start of this series.
Smith Quietly Stalks to Title
At the start of the Event #3 final table, Dan Smith sat in the middle of the pack with his 1.73 million in chips. It was a tightly packed bunch, however, as chip leader David Stamm only held 2.315 million in chips and the short stack, Dylan Linde, had “only” 1.06 million in chips. With the seven men on the table this close together, it was anyone’s tournament to grab.
In the beginning, it looked like that person was going to be Jesse Lonis. The winner of Event #2 on Thursday night, Lonis made this Event #3 final table and got hit with the deck early. Lonis knocked out Bill Klein in seventh, Lonis’ pocket Aces reigning over the suited K-J of Klein. This put him into a short-lived lead until Rodger Johnson took down Linde in sixth place after Linde open-pushed with a J-10 off suit and Johnson looked him up with A-Q; the nine-high board ended Linde’s tournament.
Johnson caught a nut flush to take a massive chunk of David Coleman’s stack for his own, waiting a couple of hands before taking the rest after he flopped a Queen and turned trips against Coleman’s pocket tens. While that ended Coleman’s day in fifth place, it put what seemed to be a stranglehold on the lead for Johnson. Holding 5.5 million chips, Johnson had more than Stamm (2.0 million), Lonis (2.0 million) and Smith (1.1 million).
That’s when Smith went to work…
He picked up a double through Johnson first, An A-3 living to fight against Johnson’s 10-7, then did it again through Stamm when he turned a flush to take a double and move into second place. Johnson would win a race against Lonis, pocket sixes against A-Q (Lonis) on a ten-high board, to send Lonis packing in fourth place, and would bring the action to heads-up play after busting Stamm, pocket deuces holding over Stamm’s A-5.
Johnson held two million more chips than Smith at the start of heads-up play, but that disappeared on the first hand. On a Q-J-6-K-4 board, Johnson could not find a call after Smith bet 1.25 million, handing the lead over to his opponent. Smith kept the pressure on, moving all in moments later, and Johnson did not wait to call – unfortunately, the news wasn’t good:
Smith: A-9 off suit
Johnson: A-4 off suit
Nothing shocking occurred on the flop, turn, or river, keeping Smith in the lead with his nine kicker and earning him the checkmark for the hand and the tournament.
1. Dan Smith (USA), $235,200 (235 points)
2. Rodger Johnson (USA), $151,200 (151)
3. David Stamm (USA), $109,200 (109)
4. Jesse Lonis (USA), $79,800 (80)
5. David Coleman (USA), $58,800 (59)
6. Dylan Linde (USA), $42,000 (42)
7. Bill Klein (USA), $33,600 (34)
Coleman Jumps into Event #4, Takes it Down
Coleman was undaunted after finishing in fourth place in Event #3. He pulled out another $10,000 bullet and fired up another table in Event #4, which saw a total of 83 entries come to the fore. It wasn’t a situation of steaming for Coleman, unless you want to count that he is steaming hot right now in the tournament poker world. Coleman would be at “the head of the table” when the final table for that tournament started on Friday evening, but attention for some was drawn elsewhere.
Seventeen-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner (we are contractually obligated to say that) Phil Hellmuth has not made a big splash in the world of “High Roller” poker, but he made one of his rare forays in Event #4. Hellmuth didn’t limp into the final table either, he held the third biggest stack behind only Coleman and Aram Zobian, while John Riordan and Jonathan Little lurked behind them. Adding in Dylan Weisman and a short-stacked Shannon Shorr, it was an exceedingly difficult final table.
As the “shorty” at the table Shorr decided to move quickly and he had the hand for it. Shorr would double up with his Big Slick against Riordan’s Big Chick, which made Riordan the short stack. He would not fare as well as Shorr, committing his final chips with K-Q against Coleman’s “computer hand” (Q-7) which found magic on the 7-3-3 flop. When no King came to help him, Riordan was out in seventh place.
Coleman flopped a Queen and turned trips to end the night for Little’s two pair, Kings and Queens, and sent Little to the rail in sixth while maintaining his lead. A couple of double-ups, to Zobian and Shorr, brought Coleman back to the pack, enough for Shorr to pass him for the lead in eliminating Hellmuth in fifth place (Shorr’s Q-9 against Hellmuth’s pocket sevens on a J-6-J-9-K board). Coleman righted the ship, although he did not retake the lead immediately, when he sent Weisman to the rail in fourth place.
Shorr seemingly took command of the tournament in a bad beat situation with Zobian. The chips went to the center, with Zobian holding pocket Queens to Shorr’s pocket tens, and the A-6-A-3-5 board didn’t seem to hit anyone. There were four diamonds amongst the five cards up, however, and along with Shorr’s 10♦, that gave him the hand and a nearly 3:1 lead over Coleman going to heads-up play.
Strangely enough, both men decided to make a small deal at this point. The difference in the payouts was $83,000, and the two men decided that half of that would be divvied up between them, with Shorr getting $30,100 and Coleman $11,400 per the chip counts. With that bit of business taken care of, they went back to battle for the title (the PGT points were locked in for the finishing positions).
Over the next hour, Shorr and Coleman battled it out for the title, with Coleman earning the edge often. He eliminated his deficit with three consecutive doubles to take a decided advantage, but Shorr would not go quietly into the Las Vegas night. In the end, however, those three doubles were too much to overcome as Shorr walked into a flopped flush by Coleman on the final hand that ended the tournament.
1. David Coleman (USA), $202,300* (232 points)
2. Shannon Shorr (USA), $179,500* (149)
3. Aram Zobian (USA), $107,900 (108)
4. Dylan Weisman (USA), $78,850 (79)
5. Phil Hellmuth (USA), $58,100 (58)
6. Jonathan Little (USA), $41,500 (42)
7. John Riordan (USA), $33,200 (33)
(* – reflects heads up deal)
If Saturday is “moving day” at The Masters, then the next three tournaments of the 2024 U. S. Poker Open schedule could be considered “moving day” in this event. Daniel Negreanu leads the final seven players of Event #5, with Event #1 winner Erik Seidel, former USPO overall champion David Peters, and Victoria Livschitz all a part of the final table action. That will be streaming on PokerGO, as will all the tournaments on the way to the $25,000 Championship Event that begins on Tuesday.
(Photo courtesy of PokerGO.com)