Stephen Chidwick Leads Event #3; Sean Winter Reaches Third Final Table

Day 3 of the U.S. Poker Open kicked off with Event #3 – $10,000 No Limit Hold’em event inside the PokerGO Studio. The event saw the biggest field so far with 91 entrants generating a $910,000 prize pool. The final table is a star-studded event lead by Event #1 winner and defending U.S. Poker Open Champion Stephen Chidwick who leads the field with 2,450,000 chips and is in prime position to capture the $218,400 first place prize.

The final table is quickly becoming a second home to the British born poker pro as this is his seventh final table in eleven events at the USPO.     

“Feeling great, obviously, it’s nice to have a rush of cards at the end to get to the big stack,” Chidwick said. “I always feel pretty comfortable here at ARIA, I spend so much time here and know all the staff so it feels very comfortable.”

Chidwick will see an all too familiar face when he looks across the final table at as Event #1 runner-up Sean Winter is sitting second in chips with 2,250,000. Winter continues his impressive run thus far in the U.S. Poker Open as has reached his third final table in as many days after finishing runner-up in Event #1 and a sixth-place finish in Event #2.

“Very sleep deprived at the moment but I keep getting second winds, get some hands, getting some momentum so that keeps you awake,” Winter said.

Here’s the final table line-up with action getting underway at 5:00 pm ET on PokerGO.

It took a late double up off of Wong but Roberts becomes the second female poker pro to make a final table in the brief history of the USPO joining Kristina Holst, who finished 5th in last year’s USPO Event #5 – $10,000 No Limit Hold’em.

Hand-for-hand play lasted about 20 minutes before the money bubble burst when David Peters got it all in well ahead holding against the of Alex Foxen. The flop landed to flip the hand in Foxen’s favor. The turn saw to give Peters outs to the flush but when the river landed the Peters hit the rail.

With the bubble burst play started to loosen up and two players were quickly sent to the payout cage as Manig Loeser followed up his second place finish in Event #2 with a 13th place finish good for $18,500 and Sean Perry exited the tournament in 12th place, also for $18,500 a few hands later. 

After those eliminations, the players combined to the final two tables of the day and it didn’t take long for fireworks to ignite and send the players to the final table. In back-to-back hands, Erik Seidel finished in 11th place for $27,300 after running into Winter’s and Seth Davies finished in 10th place for also for $27,300 after running into the of Aldemir.

Following the eliminations of Seidel and Davies Tournament Director Paul Campbell announced to the players that if eight-handed play was reached during level 19, then the remainder of the level would be completed. If play ticked into the next level, play would end for the night unless all eight players agreed to continue playing.

Shortly after the announcement Alex Foxen moved all for his last 350,000 chips and Aldemir made the call. Foxen got the bad news as his pocket tens were well behind the pocket jacks of Aldemir. The flop came out jack-high giving Aldemir top set and Foxen could not find runner-runner as he was eliminated in 9th place for $27,300.

The final eight players will return on Saturday at 4 p.m. (EST) to play down to the winner. Each player is currently guaranteed $36,400, with the winner taking home $218,400 and the trophy.

Catch all of the Day 2 action on PokerGO starting at 5 p.m. (EST), the cards will be in the air starting at 4 p.m. (EST) with the blinds beginning at level 20 at 25,000/50,000 with a 50,000 big blind ante. Stay tuned to PokerCentral.com for the continued Live Updates of Event #3, along with Live Updates of Day 1 of Event #4 – $10,000 Short Deck Poker.

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