Erik Seidel Leads U.S. Poker Open Event #1 Final Table

The 2024 U.S. Poker Open kicked off at the PokerGO Studio from ARIA Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada with Event #1: $5,100 No-Limit Hold'em.

Poker legend Erik Seidel bagged the chip lead and holds over 34% of the chips in play as six players remain. Eric Afriat, Justin Zaki, William Lamar-Boone, Dylan Linde, and John Khoury round out the players who will return for the final day as play resumes at 12 p.m. PT on Tuesday, April 9 with the delayed final table stream beginning at 2 p.m. PT on PokerGO.

The 116-entrant field created a prize pool of $580,000 and the top 17 finishers earned a piece of it. Stephen Song and Mitchell Halverson were both eliminated during hand-for-hand play with 19 players left when their opponents flopped sets, and that sent the remaining players into the money. Among those to cash were John Riordan (17th), Brock Wilson (16th), Kristen Foxen (14th), Stephen Chidwick (11th), and Sam Laskowitz (9th).

Later in the night, Stoyan Madanzhiev got ace-deuce in against Seidel's jack-ten suited, and when the flop gave Seidel a straight, Madanzhiev was left drawing dead and eliminated in eighth place as seven players converged on a single table. Seidel would continue to chip up at the final table and left Foxen with a single chip after he raised Foxen's nearly all-in river bet. On the following hand, Seidel took the last chip to eliminate Foxen in seventh place, and the six remaining players bagged to return for the streamed final table.

Each player has locked up $29,000 but all eyes will be on the $145,000 first-place prize, 145 PGT points, and Event #1 mini Golden Eagle trophy.

The eventual winner will also soar to the top of the U.S. Poker Open leaderboard. The player that earns the most PGT points during this series will be crowned the U.S. Poker Open champion and receive the Golden Eagle Trophy and a $25,000 PGT Passport.

2024 U.S. Poker Open Event #1 Final Table

Seat	Player	Country	Chip Count
1	Erik Seidel	United States	5,020,000
2	Justin Zaki	United States	2,325,000
3	John Khoury	United States	845,000
4	Eric Afriat	Canada	3,675,000
5	William Lamar-Boone	United States	1,575,000
6	Dylan Linde	United States	1,070,000

When play resumes, there is 5:00 remaining in Level 19 with blinds at 30,000/60,000 with a 60,000 big blind ante. The button is on Dylan Linde

Play will resume at 12 p.m. PT and the final table will be streamed on delay starting at 2 p.m. PT on PokerGO.com.

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