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David Peters wins 2019 USPO ME; bags Championship race

The 2^nd edition of one of the big poker series on the American soil, US Poker Open, is in the books. The last event of the series was the highlight too, the $100k Main Event and saw top worldwide pros contending for glory.

The tournament attracted a total of 33 players to the felt, all well-established high-stakes pros. The turnout was same as 2018, but the buy-in was increased this time by two-fold and was hence a good turnout.

Shipping the first-place cash prize of $1,320,000 (~INR 9.35 Crores) was the one and only David Peters. He also won the USPO Championship race and won additional $100k for that, having come all the way from the bottom.

The Final Table was played out on 23^rd February and saw top 8 emerge from there with Chris Hunichen leading the pack. At the start of the gameplay on the day, Sean Winter was the favourite to win the USPO ME, but he fell short of the money and subsequently enabled Peters to take home the Championship race.

Only top 5 players were paid and Bonomo became the bubble boy, exiting at 6^th for nada. Ryan Riess was the first to get busted in the money with his Nines against Keith Tilston’s Jacks. Martin Zamani was the next to fall, again courtesy of Tilston.

When the heads-up battle of the tournament approached, Hunichen was pitted against Peters with less than 1:2 chip deficit. The final hand of the tournament saw Hunichen limp with Ace-eight and shoved pre-flop after Peters raised with Nines. Peters’ pocket pair held and Hunichen had to settle for $858k as second place cash prize.

Peters said after his win, “This feels amazing. This is obviously a very prestigious tournament, a great series, and to come from behind and to pass Sean by 10 points at the very end, that’s a pretty-pretty crazy feeling. I’m just always trying to get better. I put in an endless amount of hours away from the table and it feels great to see all the hard work pay off. I’m always very hungry, always wanting to get better and better and better and better and that’s not going to stop. I hope to keep that keep that going.”

Peters has won a lot in his lifetime and still counting. He won the $25k HR in 2019 PCA Bahamas recently. Before that, he won for the 2^nd time at Seminole. Last year, among his biggest cashes, was the Poker Masters Main Event win for $1.1 million. He is now sitting with $31+ million in total live cashes and ranks 5^th in All Time Money List, behind Bonomo, Negreanu, Seidel and Holz.

Apart from the Main Event, the series also had something called as the Championship race, where leaderboard points are awarded and the topper at the end gets $100k as extra cash. Here too, Peters finished 1^st with 550 points and $1,584,000 in total prize money in the series.

Final Pay-outs in Main Event –

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

Keep reading GutshotMagazine.com for more upcoming tournament updates, results and for general poker news from around the world.

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