Event #10 – $100,000 NLH Main Event

Chris Hunichen Leads Final Nine in $100,000 Main Event; 3 Players in Contention for U.S. Poker Open Championship

Posted February 23, 2019 at 2:42 pm ET by Tim Duckworth

Welcome to the ARIA Resort & Casino and the PokerGO Studio for the final day of the 2019 U.S. Poker Open with Day 2 of Event #10 – $100,000 No Limit Hold’em Main Event.

On Friday, a total of 33 entrants took a seat in the closing event of the highly successful high roller series that is now in it’s second installment. In 2018, the U.S. Poker Open was a new event added to the string of Poker Central high roller tournaments and the eight events on the schedule saw the likes of Justin Bonomo, Mike Gorodinsky, Stephen Chidwick, Ben Tollerene, Benjamin Pollak, David Peters, and Keith Tilston capture victories over the course of 11 days. On the back of back-to-back victories in Event 3 and Event 4, along with two other final tables, Chidwick would be crowned the U.S. Poker Open Champion after amassing $1,256,650 in earnings.

For 2019, the U.S. Poker Open Championship would be decided based on which player accumulated the most earnings throughout the series, the 2019 Champion will be decided using the High Roller of the Year points system. The player that accumulates the most High Roller of the Year points during the series will be crowned the U.S. Poker Open Champion and be awarded a $100,000 first-place prize.

Only three players are contention to claim the U.S. Poker Open Championship with the points up for grabs being 350, 245, 175, 140, and 105. David Peters has the most work to do as he’ll need to win the Main Event and hope that Sean Winter does not cash and Nick Schulman does no better then fourth-place. For Nick Schulman he has several scenarios working for him. If Schulman finishes in fourth-place he will need no cash from Winter, and no victory from Peters. If Schulman finishes in third-place he needs no cash from Winter. If Schulman finishes in second-place he needs Winter to finish no better then fifth-place, and if Schulman is able to win the Main Event, he needs Winter to finish no better then third-place. For Sean Winter, he will be fading all the above scenarios.

With just nine players remaining in the U.S. Poker Open $100,000 Main Event, it is Chris Hunichen the current chip leader with 1,790,000 in chips. Hunichen was dominant throughout the day eliminating players left and right while also scooping in monster pots on his way to bagging a 120-big blind chip stack. The only player joining Hunichen in the seven-figure club is last year’s Main Event winner in Keith Tilston who doubled through Jason Koon on the penultimate hand of the night with pocket kings. At the other end of the scale is Nick Schulman who sits with 125,000 – a little over eight-big blinds – and has two hands until he is in the big blind. Sitting slightly above Schulman is World Champion Ryan Riess and Sean Winter with 22-big blinds while Koon, Peters, Justin Bonomo, and Martin Zamani sit in the middle of the pack.

The cards are expected to be in the air for the final day of Event #10 from the 2019 U.S. Poker Open at 4 p.m. (EST) with the Poker Central Live Reporting team providing continuous live updates until the $100,000 Main Event has crowned a champion. The remaining nine players are looking to firstly reach the money of the final five where they will be guaranteed $264,000, but it will be the $1,320,000 first-place prize that everyone will be eyeing.

Stay tuned right here to PokerCentral.com for the exclusive live coverage of all the U.S. Poker Open action from the PokerGO studio. New to PokerGO? Subscribe right now to not miss a minute of the action.