The tenth and final event of the PokerGO Tour’s U.S. Poker Open will run to its conclusion on Tuesday as six players square off at the final table. With just 37 entries in the $50,000 No-Limit Hold’em tournament, the payout structure pays to just six places, which works out perfectly. Each player is guaranteed at least $92,500 at this point, with a first prize of $666,000 (will the winner need holy water?).
Naturally, with such as a high buy-in and small field, just about every player is very good and the final table reflects that. Justin Bonomo, who holds the top spot on the all-time live tournament money list, also holds the largest chip stack, with 2.192 million chips. After him is Martin Zamani with 1.840 million and Jeremy Ausmus with 1.258 million. Nobody else has over a million. The bottom half of the table is Nick Petrangelo with 781,000, Chris Brewer with 678,000, and Dan Smith with 651,000.
Also at stake today is the Golden Eagle Trophy and an extra $50,000, the awards for winning the U.S. Poker Open leaderboard. Ren Lin is currently in the pole position with 465 points, thanks to four cashes and one win. He can’t be caught by any of the next three players, as none of them are still alive in the tournament and therefore cannot win any more points.
But there are enough points available that Smith (353 points going into Tuesday), Brewer (305 points), Zamani (170 points), and Ausmus (150 points) all have a shot at the U.S. Poker Open overall championship should things go their way.
If either Smith or Brewer win today’s tournament, they would earn enough points to overtake Lin and would build enough of a gap where they couldn’t be caught by any of the other players at the final table. So Smith or Brewer win, they are the champ, simple as that.
A second place finish would also do it for either of them, provided the other one does not finish first.
As for Zamani and Ausmus, they would take home the Golden Eagle Trophy and the $50,000 bonus if they win the final table, but only if neither Smith nor Brewer are the runner-up.
Basically, everybody is rooting heavily against Dan Smith and Chris Brewer. And seeing as those two men are the bottom two chip stacks, Zamani, Ausmus, and Lin are all in decent spots today. Ren Lin is rooting heavily for Bonomo and Petrangelo.
The final table of the 2023 U.S. Poker Open gets underway at 5:00pm ET/2:00pm PT and is being streamed at PokerGO.com with an hour delay.
Image credit: PokerGO.com