The 2021 US Poker Open is in the books, with 12 events held over the first half of June and Sean Winter taking down the $50,000 No Limit Hold’em Main Event for $756,000.
But despite Winter claiming the top prize, it was David Peters who was the star of the show during the US Poker Open, winning three tournaments over a ozen events: the $10,000 No Limit Hold’em (Event #7), the $10,000 Short Deck (Event #10) and the $25,000 No Limit Hold’em (Event #11). Peters cashed in four events to win a total prize of $832,950.
We did it Kobe pic.twitter.com/oaHxPdINIn
— David Peters (@dpeterspoker17) June 16, 2021
Also winning events over the past two weeks were Sean Winter, Ali Imisovic, Jake Daniels, Sam Soverel and Joe McKeehen. Below is a breakdown of all the winners of each of the 12 events.
| Event | Tournament | Buy-in | Number of Entrants | Winner | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | No Limit Hold'em | $10,000 | 95 | Jake Daniels | $218,500 |
| 2 | Pot Limit Omaha | $10,000 | 65 | Sam Soverel | $175,500 |
| 3 | No Limit Hold'em | $10,000 | 77 | Joe McKeehen | $200,200 |
| 4 | Big Bet Mix | $10,000 | 48 | John Riordan | $163,200 |
| 5 | No Limit Hold'em | $10,000 | 85 | Joey Weissman | $204,000 |
| 6 | 8-Game Mix | $10,000 | 68 | Eli Elezra | $183,600 |
| 7 | No Limit Hold'em | $10,000 | 99 | David Peters | $217,800 |
| 8 | Pot Limit Omaha | $10,000 | 63 | Jared Bleznick | $189,000 |
| 9 | No Limit Hold'em | $10,000 | 99 | Ali Imsirovic | $217,800 |
| 10 | Short Deck | $10,000 | 27 | David Peters | $124,200 |
| 11 | No Limit Hold'em | $25,000 | 69 | David Peters | $465,750 |
| 12 | No Limit Hold'em | $50,000 | 42 | Sean Winter | $756,000 |
The US Poker Open standings are determined largely by the total prize money won during the event. Winners of US Poker Opens tended to fare well in the 2021 US Poker Open Leaderboard, but some players were able to climb the leaderboard by stringing a few cashes together.
| Rank | Player | Points | Wins | Cashes | Earnings |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | David Peters | 646 | 3 | 4 | $832,950 |
| 2 | Sean Winter | 484 | 1 | 2 | $785,700 |
| 3 | Ali Imsirovic | 483 | 1 | 5 | $482,000 |
| 4 | Stephen Chidwick | 427 | 0 | 3 | $628,700 |
| 5 | Dan Shak | 371 | 0 | 4 | $459,750 |
| 6 | Jake Daniels | 323 | 1 | 2 | $391,000 |
| 7 | Sam Soverel | 316 | 1 | 4 | $382,300 |
| 8 | Andrew Lichtenberger | 308 | 0 | 3 | $308,000 |
| 9 | Joe McKeehen | 302 | 1 | 2 | $302,200 |
| 10 | Steve Zolotow | 289 | 0 | 3 | $289,000 |
A history of the US Poker Open
The US Poker Open began in 2018 as a festival that pits the game’s best high-stakes poker players against each other. Each year, the event is held at the Aria Resort and Casino in Las Vegas with final tables streamed on PokerGO from the PokerGo studios.
During its debut year, eight events were held. In 2019, ten events were played. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the series had to be canceled in 2020. For this year’s series, live poker returned along with another two events, to bring the total number of tournaments to 12.
US Poker Open “Series champions” are determined by the best performance over all the events in the series. The UK’s Stephen Chidwick earned the inaugural US Poker Open trophy. David Peters was the second champion in 2019 but defending his crown again this year. In addition to claiming two trophies, Peters also holds the honor of the most event wins in his career.
