Erik Seidel Wins U.S. Poker Open Event #9 for $472,500

Erik Seidel picked another high roller victory in his illustrious career by winning Event #9: $25,000 No-Limit Hold’em at the 2022 U.S. Poker Open. Seidel topped the one and only Phil Hellmuth in heads-up play after the pair was the final two players from the 63-entry field. Seidel took home the lion’s share of the prize pool, winning $472,500.

“It’s pretty wild that the two of us got heads up,” Seidel said. “That’s the third time we’ve been heads up, so it was fun.”

Seidel later added that every time he’s gotten heads up with Hellmuth, he’s been the one to come out on top and is now a perfect 3-0 against him. The first time was in the $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em tournament at the Bicycle Casino in 1988. Then in 1992 at Binion’s, Seidel topped Hellmuth in the WSOP $2,500 Limit Hold’em event to win his first-ever gold bracelet.

“It’s always fun to play a final table,” Seidel said. “I don’t think there’s any extra meaning to it that we were heads up, as I would’ve been happy to win against anybody. It’s just nice when things go your way for a few hours in a critical period like this. It’s great.”

In addition to scooping up $472,500 in prize money, which pushed him to fourth on poker’s all-time money list ahead of David Peters, Seidel improved his standing on the 2022 U.S. Poker Open leaderboard to fifth. Seidel has 428 points and is now right behind Hellmuth, who has 464. Seidel said after that he plans to continue competing at the U.S. Poker Open in hopes of winning the series title.

2022 U.S. Poker Open Event #9 Results

Event #9: $25,000 NL Hold’em attracted a field of 63 entries and created a prize pool of $1,575,000. The top nine spots finished in the money. Zhuang Ruan took ninth and Shannon Shorr placed eighth before the final seven players competed at Friday’s final table. All players to cash earned both U.S. Poker Open and PGT leaderboard points.

How Seidel Won Event #9

Erik Seidel finished Day 1 of Event #9 with 1,110,000 in chips. That put him fourth on the leaderboard with seven players remaining.

When play started at Friday’s final table, it started with a bang and one that resulted very positively in Seidel’s favor. He flopped middle set with pocket nines against Alex Foxen. Foxen flopped bottom set. The money went in on the flop and Seidel’s hand held to give him a big double up.

Alex Livingston was the first player to bust, and he was knocked out by Japanese poker player Tamon Nakamura. Livingston had ace-king of spades and couldn’t win the flip against Nakamura’s pocket queens.

Next out the door was Ren Lin, busting to Sam Soverel and finishing in sixth place. Nakamura busted in fifth place and he was eliminated by Seidel. Seidel had pocket fives against Nakamura’s ace-king and held. The fifth-place finish gave Nakamura 76 points for the U.S. Poker Open leaderboard and put him back on top of the standings with a total of 538 points.

Seidel had built himself a nice chip lead for four-handed play. He then busted Sam Soverel in fourth to extend his lead further.

To get down to heads-up play, Phil Hellmuth eliminated Foxen in third place when his king-queen beat Foxen’s ace-ten.

Heads-up play began with Seidel in the lead. He had 6,825,000 to Hellmuth’s 2,625,000.

Hellmuth scooped a big pot when he rivered a straight against Seidel’s two pair, and that pulled the stacks closer to even. After the hand, Seidel had 5,275,000 in chips to Hellmuth’s 4,175,000. Seidel got right back to work, though, and Hellmuth eventually found himself back down to 2,300,000 in chips. Then, the final hand came up.

At the 75,000-125,000 level, Seidel raised on the button to 275,000 with queen-jack. Hellmuth called with jack-nine and the flop came jack-three-two. Hellmuth checked and Seidel bet 200,000. Hellmuth check-raised to 500,000 and Seidel moved in. Hellmuth called off his stack and saw the bad news that he was dominated. Seidel’s hand held up and he scored the victory.

Nakamura Now First On USPO Leaderboard, Seidel Fifth

Now with two victories and five cashes under his belt, Tamon Nakamura is back on top of the 2022 U.S. Poker Open leaderboard with 538 points. Alex Foxen improved to second place on the leaderboard with his finish in Event #9, knocking Chino Rheem back to third. Then it’s Phil Hellmuth in fourth and Erik Seidel in fifth.

The player with the most leaderboard points at the end of the 2022 U.S. Poker Open will be crowned U.S. Poker Open Champion and take home the $50,000 Championship Bonus.

2022 U.S. Poker Open Leaderboard Top 10

Foxen and Livingston Add More PGT Leaderboard Points

On the 2022 PGT leaderboard, the top 10 remained unchanged other than Alex Foxen and Alex Livingston adding to their point totals. Foxen improved to 986 points and remains in seventh place. Livingston improved to 886 points and remained in eighth place.

The top 21 point earners on the PGT leaderboard will be invited to a winner-take-all freezeout tournament at the end of the season, with the winner taking home $500,000.

Click here to view the complete PGT leaderboard.

2022 PGT Leaderboard Top 10

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