Daniel Negreanu in Contention for Event #3: $25,000 No Limit Hold'em
Another action-packed day has come to an end at the US Poker Open as just six players remain in Event 3: $25,000 No Limit Hold'em. When the action resumes on Monday, February 5th, Daniel Negreanu will headline the final table that includes five other high-stakes pros.
The day seemed to fly by at a rapid pace as Negreanu and chip leader, Keith Tilston, eliminated players left, right, and center. Tilston started off the day on a high, holding the chip leading in the opening levels and never looking back. He managed to win a couple of important races and became the first player to reach the seven-figure chip mark.
Negreanu, on the other hand, was the first player eliminated and found himself at the registration desk re-entering before he knew it. At least this time, Negreanu had time to re-enter and spin up a stack, unlike that previous two events where he busted shortly after late registration closed. Negreanu won a couple hands here and there, but really shot up the leaderboard when he clashed in a big pot with Lauren Roberts. From there, it was smooth sailing for the Canadian poker pro who is now calling Las Vegas home.
Although Negreanu and Tilston are the only two players with over 1,000,000 chips, they will have four highly-skilled players chasing them. Jake Schindler proved he won't be intimidated as he continued to clash with Tilston throughout the ladder half of the day. After losing a key race and leaving himself with a short stack, Schindler battled back to finish the day in third place.
Final Table Seating
| Seat | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Brent Hanks | 213,000 |
| 2 | Daniel Negreanu | 1,700,000 |
| 3 | Jake Schindler | 999,000 |
| 4 | Seth Davies | 335,000 |
| 5 | Keith Tilston | 1,734,000 |
| 6 | Stephen Chidwick | 519,000 |
The day started out with 22 players taking to their seats for this first of four $25,000 buy-in event. It took awhile for players to start moving chips but when they did, the re-entries came fast and furiuos. By the time late registration was closed, there were a total of 44 entries making up a prizepool of $1,100,000. It was finalized that seven places would get paid with a min-cash worth $55,000 and the winner taking home a cool $374,000.
Justin Bonomo came into the day as the leader in the race for the overall US Poker Open Championship but he saw his hopes to increase his earnings diminish after falling to a red-hot Tilston. That leaves the door open for one of the final six players to take over the lead, should they win on Monday.
Some other notables to fall short of the money today include Ryan Riess, Brian Rast, Isaac Haxton, Adrian Mateos, David Peters, Bryn Kenney and Cary Katz. When the money bubble was reached with eight players remaining, there were a couple of short stacks remaining with Dan Shak being one of them. Playing four-handed on each table opened up the hand-ranges and it wouldn't take long for someone to bust. Unfortuantely for Shak, it happened to be him when he got all of his money in the middle with 
against Negreanu's 
. The flop gave Negreanu a set and Shak was sent packing with nothing to show for.
That set up the unofficial final table of seven and it was in quick order that the next elimination occurred. Nick Schulman got all of his chips in the middle holding 
but ran into the 
of Tilston. The board couldn't help Schulman come from behind and that left the remaining six players to bag up their chips for the day.
Final Table Payouts
| Place | Player | Prize (USD) |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | $374,000 | |
| 2nd | $242,000 | |
| 3rd | $165,000 | |
| 4th | $110,000 | |
| 5th | $88,000 | |
| 6th | $66,000 | |
| 7th | Nick Schulman | $55,000 |
The players will have day off on Sunday to enjoy some American football with their friends and families before returning to the felt on Monday, February 5 at 12:00 P.M. PST. The final table will be streamed with hole cards on a 30-minute delay on PokerGO.
You can follow all of the action right here as the PokerNews live reporting team will be bringing you all of the hand-for-hand updates until a winner is crowned.