It’s snowing this week in Las Vegas and the way the 2019 U.S. Poker Open has gone so far, that shouldn’t be considered a random occurrence. Winter is here.

The tournament started with 23 entries and by the close of registration had reached 41 entries, creating a prize pool of $2,050,000, with six players making the money and everyone chasing the top prize of $738,000.

After having a big chip stack most of the day, Sean Winter is the chip leader at the final table. Ryan Riess, Koray Aldemir, Alex Foxen, Seth Davies, and David Peters round out the remaining five players for what should be a very tough and exciting final table.

Seat	Player	Chip Count
1	Ryan Riess	1,185,000
2	Sean Winter	2,020,000
3	Alex Foxen	1,005,000
4	Koray Aldemir	1,185,000
5	Seth Davies	270,000
6	David Peters	535,000

As expected, 2019 US Poker Open champions Stephen Chidwick, Ali Ismirovic, Bryn Kenney, Nick Shulman were all in today’s field and looking to add more Player of the Year points, but unfortunately, they all fell short.

However, the day had no shortage of action, which included blind versus blind coolers and three preflop all ins, which saw chip stacks rise and fall and players come and go.

After Manig Loeser was eliminated in 10th place, the remaining players combined for the final table and continued play.
Sam Soverel was the first player eliminated in 9th place, followed by Cary Katz in 8th, and when Sam Soverel went out in 7th place, play ended for the day.

Tomorrow’s runner-up will receive $492,000; 3rd place will receive $328,000; 4th place will receive $205,000; fifth place will receive $164,000; and sixth place will get $123,000.

Heading into the tournament, Winter trailed Stephen Chidwick by 100 points in the USPO player standings. His showing in Event #9 has closed the gap and will make for an interesting Main Event as the two players vie for the overall title.

But before that happens, action resumes for Event #9 Friday afternoon at 4 p.m. ET.

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