David Peters saved his best performance for last. Peters won the final event on the 2019 USPO schedule. Peters faded a field of 33 runners to win Event #10 $100,000 NL. He defeated a final table that included Chris Hunichen, Keith Tilston, Martin Zamani, and Ryan Riess. The win propelled Peters to the top of the USPO leaderboard, where he edged out Sean Winter and Stephen Chidwick, who had won two titles again this year. Peters won $1.32 million for the Main Event to become the overall 2019 US Poker Open Champion.
With a late surge and a win in the Main Event, David Peters locked up the overall title at the 2019 US Poker Open at the Aria Casino in Las Vegas. Peters cashed in three events and won the $100,000 buy-in Main Event. In the last event, he surged ahead of Sean Winter, who looked like he had the entire thing locked up. Winter and Stevie Chidwick were neck and neck with 540 points each. They both won titles, but Winter final tabled five events and won slightly more cash than Chidwick. Alas, Peters slid by both of them on the final day.
Chidwick kicked off the 2019 USPO with a win in Event #1. He won back-to-back events last year and won the 2018 overall title. Chidwick looked like an early favorite to win the 2019 title too. Sean Winter made the final table in each of the first four events and he took down the Short Deck event for his first win this year. That put him out front as the player to beat.
Then it happened again. Chidwick shipped Event #6 for a $351K score. He locked up his second title in six events this year. Winter made a fifth final table to take a slight lead... until they were eclipsed by Peters on the final day.
In other action, Lauren Roberts won her first USPO title with a win in Event #3, Bryn Kenny won Event #7 $25K and Nick Schulman binked Event #8 $25K 8-Game Mixed. German pro Koray Aldemir was the runner-up in Event #3, but he took down the $50K title in Event #9.
In Event #10, the buy-in was $100,000. Only 33 brave souls took a shot at the first-place prize worth $1.3M. David Peters found himself at the final table fending off Ryan Riess, Marty Zamani, Keith Tilston, and Chris Hunichen.
Ryan Riess bowed out first, followed by Zamani. Tilston's run ended in third place, which paid out $528K. Not too shabby, eh? Chris Hunichen got heads up against David Peters, but it was not meant to be. Petes started with a 4/1 edge and he held off Hunichen.
For a runner-up finish, Hunichen banked $858K. Peters took home $1.32 million. Overall, he earned nearly $1.6 million at this year's USPO.
In the final leaderboard, Peters finished with 550 points. Winter and Chidwick had 540 each, but Winter held the tiebreak with earnings ($748K to $706K). Nick Schulman won the Mixed Game title and he was fourth overall with 410 points. Brandon Adams went deep with three final tables and finished fifth overall with 365 points.
2019 USPO Main Event
Buy-in: $100,000
Entrants: 33
Prize Pool: $3.3 million
Payouts: 5
Final Table Results:
1. David Peters $1,320,000
2. Chris Hunichen $858,000
3. Keith Tilston $528,000
4. Martin Zamani $330,000
5. Ryan Riess $264,000
