The 2022 US Poker Open is underway at the Aria Casino in Las Vegas for the latest stop on the PokerGo Tour. The first week of action saw five different winners in the first six events including Shannon Shorr, Justin Young, Adam Hendrix, Jeremy Ausmus, and Tamon Nakamura from Japan. Nakamura won Event #4 $10,000 Big Bet Mix and Event #6 $15,000 8-Game to take over first place in the USPO leaderboard.
Ship it to Tamon Nakamura... two times. Any time someone prevents Phil Hellmuth from winning a poker tournament, they instantly become a fan favorite among the slew of Poker Brat haters in the poker world. And believe me, there's no shortage of Hellmuthaters out there after a red-hot Nakamura thwarted a run from Hellmuth on Tuesday night in Sin City.
The PokerGo Tour continued with another series of high rollers at the Aria Casino on the Las Vegas strip with the popular US Poker Open. This year's schedule at the 2022 US Poker Open includes 12 events with buy-ins starting at $10,000 and escalating to $50,000 in various tournaments like NL, PLO, Big Bet Mix, and 8-Game.
Shannon Shorr stepped into the winner's circle of the PokerGo Tour for the first time with a victory in 2022 US Poker Open Event #1 $10,000 NL. The kick-off event attracted 93 runners and a prize pool worth $930,000 with the top 14 places getting a slice of the USPO pie. Notables who cashed in USPO Event #1 included Tamon Nakamura, Phil Hellmuth, Dan Shak, Ivan Zufic, Sean Perry, Rok Gostisa, Nick Shulman, Kristina Holst, Joe Cheong, Erik Seidel, Daniel Negreanu, Masashi Oya, Ren Lin, and Shannon Shorr. For the victory, Shorr banked $213,900 and 214 points on the USPO leaderboard.
USPO Event #2 $10,000 PLO attracted 77 runners and the top 11 places earned a cut of the $770,000 prize pool. The notables who cashed in Event #2 included Adam Hendrix, Joe Wagganer, Phil Long, Sam Soverel, Zak Laikin, Alex Foxen, Dylan Weisman, Damjan Radanov, Dan Shak, Tommy Le, and Justin Young. Shak busted in third place, while Young picked off Le in second place. He won $200,200 plus 200 points on the 2022 USPO leaderboard.
Event #3 $10,000 NL attracted 88 runners and a prize pool worth $880,000. Only the top 13 lucky souls got a cut of the prize pool including Mike Liang, Scott Seiver, Alex Foxen, Ben Miner, Sean Perry, Seth Davies, Rok Gostica, Nitis Udornpim, Erik Seidel, Shannon Shorr, Jeremy Ausmus, Jon Little, and Aaron Hendrix. Little lost a heads-up battle to Hendrix, who won $211K and 211 USPO points. Hendrix held off a tough final table that included Seidel, Shorr, and Ausmus.
Event #4 10,000 Big Bet Mix featured 53 entrants and only the top eight places getting a cut of the $530K prize pool. It was a lot of familiar faces at the cage and the final eight included Jeremy Ausmus, Rok Gostisa, Tamon Nakamura, Daniel Negreanu, Steve Chidwick, Dylan Weisman, John Riordan, and Alex Livingston. Nakamura and Gostisa were heads-up for the Big Bet Mix title, but Gostisa hit the rail in second place. Nakamura banked $169,600 in cash for the victory plus 170 points.
Event #5 $10,000 NL only attracted 66 runners, but the top 10 places paid out with $178,200 set aside to the champ. The top eight places paid out which included Nakamura, Ausmus, Ren Lin, Chris Brewer, Ali Imsirovic, Nick Petrangelo, David Peters, Pete Placey, Umang Dattani, and Alex Livingston. Brewer busted in second place, and Ausmus rallied from behind to emerge as the victory with a first-place payout worth $178,200 and 178 USPO leaderboard points.
Nakamura continued his run good with his second victory inside of a 48-hour period. Event #6 $15,000 8-Game attracted 47 entrants and a $705K prize pool. Just the final seven places were paid out of this first #15K event, which also happened to test everyone's high-balla mixed-games skills.
The final seven included Nakmura, Jeremy Ausmus, Phil Hellmuth, Scott Seiver, Bryan Micon, Ben Yu, and Damjan Radanov. Micon made a rare cameo and saw his epic run end in fourth place for $77,500. Ben Yu's elimination in third place set up the heads-up joust between Phil Hellmuth and Nakamura. However, in the battle of good vs evil, Nakamura prevailed and set the Poker Brat home in second place. Hellmuth earned $155K for a runner-up finish, but you know the Poker Brat wanted the victory badly.
Nakamura won $239,700 in Event #6 and secured 240 more leaderboard points. He's leading the pack after the first six events at the USPO and holds nearly a 130-point edge over Jeremy Ausmus in second place in the race for the golden eagle trophy and a $50K cash bonus as the USPO champ. Nakamura added $410K in cash with his two victories since Sunday.
2022 US Poker Open Leaderboard
1. Tamon Nakamura (Japan) 462
2. Jeremy Ausmus (USA) 333
3. Shannon Shorr (USA) 302
4. Ren Lin (USA) 235
5. Adam Hendrix (USA) 234
6. Justin Young (USA) 200
7. Rok Gostisa (Slovenia) 192
8. Phil Hellmuth (USA) 174
9. Daniel Negreanu (Canada) 167
10. Jonathan Little (USA) 150
** Thru 6 events
