Chris Hunichen Leads $100K Main Event Final Table; U.S. Poker Open Champion Still Undecided

After 10 days of intense, high-stakes poker action inside the PokerGO Studio in Las Vegas, we are now officially down to the final day of the second annual U.S. Poker Open. Chris Hunichen holds the chip lead with nine players left in Event #10 – $100,000 No Limit Hold’em Main Event.

More was at stake in this high roller tournament than just the $1.3 million first place prize. For certain players, a shot at being crowned 2019 U.S. Poker Open Champion was still in play. Stephen Chidwick and Sean Winter entered the tournament deadlocked at 540 points, while Nick Schulman (410), Brandon Adams (365), Koray Aldemir (340), and Cary Katz (340), still had a puncher’s chance, but they would need to win the Main Event and get some help.

As the day progressed, David Peters (200) also remained in the ballgame if he could win the Main Event and Sean Winter were to fail to cash. The winner of this tournament will earn 350 points.

Katz, Aldemir, and Adams were unable to run deep, thus, eliminating the trio from contention.

The Main Event attracted 33 entrants, and five places will be paid. Saturday’s champion will take home $1,320,000. A min-cash is worth $264,000.

Poker fans can watch the final table live on PokerGO beginning at 5 pm ET. The final table includes poker’s all-time winningest tournament player (Justin Bonomo), a former WSOP Main Event champion (Ryan Riess), and seven of the best players in the world.

The action on Friday picked up early on in the session when Super High Roller Bowl V champion Isaac Haxton was caught bluffing. We caught the action in the hand on the turn with the board showing . “Hollywood Haxton” bet 72,000 and David Peters called.

After the river appeared, Ike moved all-in on a stone-cold bluff. Peters, with , refused to fold and Haxton was eliminated.

Justin Bonomo was also the beneficiary of a bluff gone wrong early in the session. Brandon Adams, with on a board that read , over-bet the pot all-in with third-pair and an open-ended straight draw.

Adams had Bonomo covered but only by about 40,000. The 2018 Super High Roller Bowl champion made the call with . Adams didn’t get any help on the river, which was the .

Bonomo had quite a roller coaster day. Not long after that hand with Adams, he bluffed off a large portion of his stack to David Peters. A few moments later, Keith Tilston, who was holding , caught a lucky river card against Bonomo on a board of and won a huge pot.

Later in the day, Peters won a nice pot against Bryn Kenney, who didn’t enter until a few minutes before registration closed. Just two days removed from a title in Event #7, Kenney tried to make a move with pre-flop for his entire 295,000-chip stack. Unfortunately, for him, Peters had and wasn’t about to lay that monster down. The board ran out and his tournament was over in 11th place.

With 10 players remaining, Stephen Chidwick raised to 22,000 and was re-raised by Martin Zamani to 88,000. The defending U.S. Poker Open champion then four-bet all-in for 430,000 with and was snap-called by his opponent who was holding .

The board ran out . Zamani doubled up and Chidwick, due to having lower earnings this series ($747,900 versus $705,950) than Sean Winter, was officially eliminated from contention despite being tied in the points standings.

Day 1 concluded at 2 am PT with nine players remaining following Level 14. When play resumes on Saturday, the blinds will start at 10,000/15,000 with a 15,000 big blind ante. Chris Hunichen is the only player at the final table with over 100 big blinds.

You can watch the final table of the final event live and exclusively on PokerGO starting at 5 p.m. EST or follow along with the coverage on PokerCentral.com. The final table chip counts and seating is as follows.

Cards will be in the air for the final day of the 2019 U.S. Poker Open at 4 p.m. (EST) with the PokerGO providing live coverage until the Event #10 champion is crowned.

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.