Jeremy Ausmus Wins U.S. Poker Open Event #5 For $178,200

Jeremy Ausmus came into the day 5/6 in chips, but the Las Vegas Pro maneuvered the minefield that was the final table and eventually came away with all the chips defeating Chris Brewer heads-up to take home the $178,200 first-place prize and the Event #5 title.

Ausmus now finds himself in first place in the race for the Golden Eagle Trophy and the added $50,000 in prize money on the overall 2022 U.S. Poker Open Leaderboard, just three points ahead of Event #1 Champion Shannon Shorr.

“It would be really cool to win back-to-back majors,” Ausmus said. “I know D. Peters won this twice (U.S. Poker Open), but I don’t think anyone has won back-to-back. The older I get, the more important it is to me. My kids think it’s cool. If I win trophies, they can see me way up in the standings.”

Ausmus’ Road To Victory

Late in Level 9, Ausmus found in prime position to cross the one million chip mark when his pocket jacks bested the ace-queen of Kristina Holst to take a sizable side pot and bust the ace-jack of Jake Daniels in the main pot.

Shortly thereafter, Ausmus eliminated Vikenty Shegal and Dan Shak in consecutive hands to cross the one million chip mark, but his spot at the top of the leaderboard was short-lived as David Peters, and Chris Brewer jumped over 1.5 million when they eliminated Masashi Oya and Alex Foxen respectively to set the stage for the Event #5 money bubble.

Joey Weissman would fall on the money bubble when his pocket eights were bested by the pocket aces of Nick Petrangelo, setting the stage for the final 10, of which Ausmus sat in second with 1.3 million chips.

Peter Placey and Alex Livingston would quickly fall in tenth place and ninth place, respectively, setting the stage for Ausmus to take the chip lead with eight to go after catching an ace on the river to take from David Peters and cross the 1.7 million chip mark.

Ren Lin would send the players home for the evening when he eliminated Umang Dattani in 8th place and Tamon Nakamura in 9th place to send the players home for the evening.

When the final table began, Ausmus watched as short stack Ali Imsirovic moved into the chip lead just 14 minutes into the day as he scored a massive double up through the start of day chip leader Nick Petrangelo, holding pocket kings against the ace-queen of Petrangelo.

Peters would be the first to fall, finishing in sixth place after running his ace-jack into the ace-queen of Imsirovic in a blind vs. blind battle. Imsirovic opened to 110,000 and Peters three-bet to 250,000. Imsirovic four-bet to 390,000 and Peters five-bet all-in for 1.015 million. The board ran out king-high, and the 2021 U.S. Poker Open Champion took home $39,600 for the sixth-place finish.

Petrangelo would be the next to fall when pocket sevens ran into the pocket queens of Imsirovic. The board ran out queen-high, and Imsirovic rivered a full house to eliminate Petrangelo and send him to the rail with $52,800 for the fifth-place finish.

Imsirovic would find himself with over 50% of the chips in play after the elimination, but after finding himself in the right end of three coolers, a fourth sent the 2021 PGT Champion into a spiral.

In another blind-on-blind battle, Ausmus found himself all-in and at risk from the big blind holding king-queen for just over a million chips against the pocket sixes of Imsirovic. Three diamonds on the flop gave Ausmus outs to a flush, and when the turn queen of clubs hit, the felt Imsirovc was down to just the six of hearts for the elimination. The river bricked, and Ausmus jumped to second in chips with just over 2.3 million.

Imsirovic still held the chip lead, but shortly after that, another blind on blind cooler would take Imsirovic down to the short stack in the tournament. Chris Brewer limped shoved ace-five from the small blind, and Imsirovic woke up with pocket sevens in the big blind in over a three million chip pot. An ace on the river gave Brewer the chip lead and dropped Imsirovic to the short stack in the room.

The free fall would end when Imsirovic got it all-in with ace-queen against the pocket eights of Brewer. The board ran out jack-high, and Imsirovic lost back-to-back coin flips to Brewer and was out the door in fourth place $66,000.

Ren Lin would then get his short stack into the middle holding queen-nine against Brewers ace-nine. Both players flopped a pair of nines, but Brewer held the higher kicker to eliminate Lin in third place for $85,800.

With the elimination, Brewer held over 76% of the chips in play to start the heads-up battle against Ausmus, but it would be another cooler that quickly turned the tides of the battle.

Brewer opened the button to 210,000 holding and Ausmus three-bet the big blind to 660,000 holding . Brewer called. The flop fell , and Ausmus continued for 400,000, and Brewer called.

The turn hit the felt, and Ausmus bet one million with 530,000 behind. Brewer moved all-in, and Ausmus snap-called. The river completed the board, and Ausmus took the chip lead in one fell swoop.

Brewer hung around but couldn’t get anything going after the cooler and would eventually get his last 2.7 million
into the middle holding against the of Ausmus. The board ran out , and Ausmus rivered a straight to eliminate Brewer in second place for $132,000.

2022 U.S. Poker Open Event #5 Results

Lin jumped from ninth to third in the race for the Golden Eagle Trophy with the third-place finish, while Ausmus jumped from 11th to first with the tournament victory, and Brewer moved just outside the top 10 and into 12th place with the second-place finish.

The winner of the leaderboard will be crowned 2022 U.S. Poker Open Champion and take home the $50,000 Championship Bonus.

2022 U.S. Poker Open Leaderboard Top 10

In the 2022 PGT Trophy race, there was minimal movement at the top of the leaderboard as Petrangelo, Imsirovic, and Ausmus all gained points but remained in 4th, 5th, and 6th place, respectively. Lin jumped from 21st to 16th with the third-place finish.

“I live here, I play a lot of these events, the 10K through 50Ks,” Ausmus said, “I love these series here, rake-free on-time, the extra money given away. I am a huge fan of what PokerGO is doing with everything. I’m lucky to be a part of it. It is something that, having started off hot, I’ll try to stay up there.”

At the end of the season, the top 21 point earners on the PGT leaderboard will compete in a winner-take-all freeroll for $500,000 in prize money. Click here to view the complete PGT leaderboard.

2022 PGT Leaderboard Top 10