Shannon Shorr Wins U.S. Poker Open $25K Finale for $530K

Shannon Shorr came into the final table of Event #8: $25,200 No-Limit Hold 'em third in chips and needed a win to secure the Golden Eagle trophy and be crowned the 2025 U.S. Poker Open champion. After a roller coaster of a final table, he defeated Nacho Barbero heads-up to deny the Argentinian the trophy while collecting the $529,250 first-place prize and 318 PGT points for the series crown. 

Shorr started his rise to the Golden Eagle trophy when he sent fellow Poker Coaching instructor Justin Saliba in fifth place when he three-bet shoved from the big blind with pocket fours for 600,000 effective. Saliba called and tabled ace-ten of hearts and caught an ace in the window on the flop, only for a four to be right behind, leaving him to collect his $127,750 prize and the 77 PGT points. 

After a five-bet shove into the chip lead against Landon Tice, Shorr solidified himself at the top of the counts moments later when he rivered a flush to send Nick Petrangelo and his flopped pair of nines home in fourth place for $173,375 plus 104 PGT points. However, despite the chip lead for Shorr, Barbero and Tice proved more than game three-handed. 

Barbero was the first to take the chip lead away from Shorr as a cooler sent him tumbling to the bottom of the counts. On a final board reading , Shorr put out a pot-sized bet of 1,600,000 only for Barbero to snap call with pocket jacks. Shorr had pocket fours for a worse set, and all of a sudden, he was halfway out the door.

Barbero didn't have the chip lead for long, however, as another cooler three-handed would see Tice open to 100,000 with pocket tens, Barbero three-bet to 425,000 with pocket jacks from the small blind, and Shorr cold four-bet to 850,000 from the big blind with pocket queens. Tice's tens quickly hit the muck, Barbaro moved all in for just under 2,500,000 effective, and Shorr snapped him off.

The board ran out seven-high, and Shorr was right back in front, but he too would not stay at the top of the counts long as Tice took a pair of pots off Shorr to send him back to the bottom of the counts before a miraculous turn saved his tournament life. 

With just under two million left in his stack, Shorr four-bet shoved from the button with pocket fives, only for Tice to have pocket aces in the big blind. The flop was a safe one for aces as it came jack-high, but when the turn fell, the five of hearts, Shorr found a two outer to double and left all three players near dead even in chips. 

Once he spiked the two outer, all the momentum moved in Shorr's favor. The Alabama native won back-to-back pots to take the chip lead before Barbero and Tice went to war for their tournament lives. The hand started with an open on the button from Barbero, and Tice calling from the big blind. The board ran out , and Barbero bet every street before moving all in for 1,550,000 effective on the river. 

Tice didn't give it much thought before calling tabling for a pair of tens, and when Barbero tabled for kings up, Tice was sent home in third place for $246,375 plus 148 PGT points and the heads-up match was set between Barbero and Shorr for the Golden Eagle trophy but it was anyone's game as both players sat even in chips. 

The two would trade body blows and flip-flop the chip lead multiple times before Barbero found himself with ace-high and three million chips on the river of a board reading . Shorr moved all in with and once Barbero tossed in the call, the tournament was over in the blink of an eye as Barbero headed to the payout desk in second place for $346,750 plus 208 PGT points. 

Long before Shorr and Barbero battled it out for the chip lead, it was the short stacks that did all the work early, as Saliba sent Clemen Deng home in seventh place for $73,000 plus 44 PGT points when his ace-queen outkicked Deng's ace-eight. Petrangelo sent Sam Laskowitz home in sixth place for $91,250 plus 55 PGT points when his king-ten out flopped Laskowitz's pocket queens. 

Event #8: $25,200 No-Limit Hold 'em Final Table Payouts

Shorr Crowned 2025 U.S. Poker Open Champion

With Event #8 drawing 73 entrants and creating the second-largest prize pool for a $25,000 buy-in in PGT history. $1,825,000 was divided among the top eleven players, and after walking away with the top prize of $529,250 with 318 PGT points, Shorr edged out Matthew Wantman for the 2025 Golden Eagle. 

You can read more about Shorr's run to the trophy here. PGT commissioner and PokerGO Live Events Manager Tim Duckworth caught up with him immediately following the victory. 

2025 U.S. Poker Open Final Standings 

Eric Blair and Alex Foxen Re-Shape The 2025 PGT Season Leaderboard

With eight mini golden eagle trophies and over $9,000,000 in prize money given out throughout the U.S. Poker Open, the top ten on the 2025 PGT season leaderboard looks markedly different at the end of the series than it did coming into the series. 

Coming out of the 2025 PGT PLO Series, Chino Rheem sat atop the season leaderboard with 928 PGT points, but despite adding 98 points to his yearly total, he fell from the top spot to third in the standings. Kristen Foxen picked up a win in Event #1 to become the first player to cross 1,000 points on the season, but after coming up empty in the other seven events, dropped from third to fourth. 

However, one of the biggest risers of the series was her husband, Alex Foxen, who moved from ninth to second on the leaderboard thanks to a pair of cashes, including a win in Event #7 that gave him a shot at the Golden Eagle before coming up short in Event #8 but he could not match record setting pace of Eric Blair. 

Blair started the series with 793 points, but after picking up cashes in the first five events, he matched Rodger Johnson's record for consecutive cashes in PGT history to soar up the leaderboard, adding 364 points to move the benchmark for the year to 1,124 PGT points. Blair added a sixth cash in Event #8 to close out the series and now sits with 1,157 at the top, 126 points ahead of Alex for the season lead. 

Joey Weissman and Nick Schulman both added cash to their season resumes and currently sit in fifth and sixth place, respectively. Daniel Negrenau also added another cash to bring his season total to 811 points, just over one hundred points behind Schulman. 

Jesse Lonis dropped from seventh to eighth after being unable to find a cash at the series, while 2025 U.S. Poker Champion Shorr added a staggering 538 to his season total to move into ninth place on the leaderboard with 740 points. Nine points behind Shorr is Jim Collopy, who also moves into the top ten on the season after picking up four cashes to add 244 points to his total. 

A complete list of how the top forty shakes out after the U.S. Poker Open can be found here. 

2025 PGT Season Leaderboard - Top Ten

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