Dan Smith Emerges Victorious in Event #3: $10,100 No-Limit Hold'em

Dan Smith came into the final table of Event #3: $10,100 No-Limit Hold'em third in chips, and after bobbing and weaving his way through the field, emerged victorious to capture his second career U.S. Poker Open title, his fifth career PGT win and the $235,200 first place prize. 

As Smith maneuvered his way through the minefield, he watched Rodger Johnson and Jesse Lonis do the heavy lifting to whittle down his opponents. 

Lonis was the first to strike when he sent the start-of-day short stack Bill Klein home in seventh place for $33,600 with pocket aces, but the Event #2 winner would also find himself looking up at Johnson as the day played out. 

Johnson would nearly double into the chip lead through start-of-day chip leader David Stamm, and he would cement himself at the top moments later when he sent Dylan Linde to the rail in sixth place for $42,000. 

Continuing the hot streak, Johnson found himself with over 50% of the chips in play four-handed as he sent early-season PGT front-runner David Coleman to the rail in fifth place for $58,800 when his pocket tens were outflopped by Johnson's king-queen. 

Smith finally started to make his move four-handed and scored a pair of doubles through Johnson and Stamm, but Johnson continued his onslaught by denying Lonis his quest for back-to-back U.S. Poker Open titles when his ace-queen could not run down Johnson's pocket sixes. 

Johnson held over 60% of the chips in play to start three-handed play. Despite losing a chunk to Smith, he kept the lead going into heads-up when his pocket deuces held against Stamm's ace-five, sending the businessman home in third place for $109,200. 

Despite the lead, only 50 big blinds were in play, and with the blinds at 100,000/200,000 with a 200,000 big blind ante, three hands into the match, Smith flipped the script and took the chip lead for good. 

Smith would drive the final nail into Johnson's coffin and score his only elimination of the day roughly three hands later when his ace-nine rivered a pair against Johnson's ace-four, leaving the North Dakota native to collect his $151,200 second-place prize. 

Event #3: $10,100 No-Limit Hold'em Final Table Payouts 

Lonis Remains Atop Series Leaderboard 

Event #3 saw 84 hopefuls make their way inside the PokerGO Studio to create a prize pool of $840,000. The top 12 players finished in the money, and Sam Soverel just missed out on his first cash of the series when his pocket jacks ran head-first into Lonis' pocket queens. 

Johnson appeared poised to take the overall series leaderboard thanks to his third cash in as many events, but when he couldn't seal the deal and walk away with the victory, he was left 75 points shy of Lonis, who remains atop the leaderboard in the chase for the added PGT Passport with 332 points. 

Lonis managed to stay atop the leaderboard thanks to his back-to-back final table appearances. He is 97 points ahead of Event #3 winner Smith, who rounds out the top three with 235 points. 

Event #1 winner Erik Seidel fell to 5th on the overall standings and now trials Lonis by 187 points with six events to go. 

Rounding out the top ten are Dylan Linde and Victoria Livschitz, who each picked up their second cashes of the series and sit in 8th and 10th, respectively. 

The 2024 U.S. Poker Open continues with Event #4: $10,100 No-Limit Hold'em, and you can catch all the day-one action here: https://www.pgt.com/live-reporting/us-poker-open-2024/event-4-10100-nolimit-holdem.

The final table of Event #4 gets underway at 12 p.m. PT on April 12th. The live stream will be available on delay on PokerGO starting at 2 p.m. PT, with Jeff Platt and Brent Hanks on the call as the race for the 2024 Golden Eagle trophy starts to take shape. 

2024 U.S. Poker Open Leaderboard 

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