The UK pro has a commanding lead on the USPO money list, winning almost as much as the rest of the field combined.
After winning the $25k NLHE event, Stephen didn’t sit on his laurels, he jumped into the Mixed event and repeated his performance there as well. Many professional praised the organizers of the series, for including a mixed game tournament on the schedule as well, since these tourneys are rare to see, especially with buy-ins of this category.
45 players showed up to play the most skilful form of the game. Since the event was rake-free all of the buy-ins went directly into the prize pool, generating a $1.125 million total. The eventual winner would take home a nice $382,500 prize and the added respect by the community.
High-profile players with the likes of USPO champions, Justin Bonomo and Mike Gorodinsky, living legend Lyle Berman or mixed-game specialists Nick Schulman and Brian Rast. The field was as strong as it gets, with all of the participants bringing their "A-game" to the table, hoping to become the first ever USPO Mixed Game event champion.
Scott Seiver drew first blood when he put a bad beat on Brandon Adams in a Limit Hold’em hand. Adams’ short stack was already in the middle before the flop.
Adams: :Jd :Js
Seiver: :6d :6h
Board: :3c :8h :Ks :Qc :6s
The lucky two outer helped out Scott and sent Brandon to the rail. Winner of the PLO event, Mike "gordo16" Gorodinsky busted shortly after in a PLO hand. He was busted by Chris Vitch. The two put the money into the middle on the flop.
Flop: :4h :6d :5h
Mike: :Ah :As :Ad :Jd
Chris: :8h :7h :6h :4c
Vitch flopped the whole world, holding the nut straight, two pairs and a flush-draw and Gorodinsky was already drawing dead on the 3 turn, so the 2 on the river was pretty unexciting. The field reduced to only 6 players by the end of day 1. The last player to leave the table was Daniel Negreanu, who made $56,250 for finishing 7th.
The dream machine in action
Stephen, who was already the biggest winner of the series, with $428,400 in cashes had the third biggest stack on the final table, to start with. The chip lead belonged to Isaac Haxton who had almost a 1 million lead against Chris Vitch in the second place. The first player to leave the final table was Phil Hellmuth. The great Hellmuth made $67,500 for his efforts.
After this, Chris Vitch got the momentum, he built a sizeable chip lead, while others got pretty short. Finally, Dan Shak left the table, losing his last chips against Haxton. He walked to the cage for a $90,000 payday. He was followed by Frenchman, Benjamin Pollak not long after. Ben’s nemesis was also Ike Haxton. He banked $112,500 for finishing 4th.
Chips were running back and forth for a while in the three-handed period. But eventually, Vitch managed to take more than half of the chips in play. At this point, Chidwick got pretty short but managed to double up again against Chris and was able to even claim the chip lead. Long gone his commanding lead, Vitch became the short stack after losing a couple of sizeable pots. However, he didn’t give up and built up a big lead again, while Isaac got extremely short. He finally busted in a Stud8 hand, losing his last remaining chips against Chidwick. Isaac walked away, only to pick up his well-earned $168,750.
In the heads-up period, Stephen was dominating and didn’t let his opponent climb back. In a 2-7 Triple Draw hand, he finished off Vitch and claimed his second US Poker Open title. Chris earned $247,500 for his second place finish, while Chidwick added another $382,500 to his USPO winnings – increasing the total to $810,900.
Final results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
| 1 |
Stephen Chidwick | United Kingdom | $382,500 |
| 2 | Chris Vitch | United States | $247,500 |
| 3 | Isaac Haxton | United States | $168,750 |
| 4 | Benjamin Pollak | France | $112,500 |
| 5 | Dan Shak | United States | $90,000 |
| 6 | Phil Hellmuth | United States | $67,500 |
| 7 | Daniel Negreanu | Canada | $56,250 |
(photo credit: pokergo)
