The 2024 edition of the US Poker Open wrapped its nine-day run on Wednesday at the PokerGO Studio in Las Vegas, with England's Stephen Chidwick and the US's Aram Zobian emerging as the festival's biggest winners. Chidwick continued to cement his status as one of poker's all-time greats by winning the final tourney on the slate, Event #8, $25,200 No-Limit Hold'em, while Event #6 winner Aram Zobian clinched the 2024 US Poker Open Champion honor part way through the event's streamed final table.
For the second day in a row, Chidwick powered through a USPO event's Day 1 action to move to Day 2 with the chip lead. Unlike Tuesday's finale in Event #7, however, when he finished third behind Eric Afriat and Joey Weissman, Chidwick held serve and earned the festival's single largest payday of $429,000. Chidwick began Day 2 with more than 40 percent of the chips in play, and only Andrew Lichtenberger began with even half as many chips.
Series champion honor decided early on
That left the other five finalists with relatively short stacks, but within that array, there was still plenty of waiting drama. The two shortest stacks in play belonged to Zobian and Jesse Lonis, the only player remaining who could've managed to overtake Zobian for the series champion honor. Lonis's chances were thin, though; he needed to come back all the way to the win while hoping Zobian was also one of the day's first two bustouts.
Lonis needed an early double and then some, but he instead was the first player sent to the rail, finishing seventh when his all-in with J-8 went nowhere against Chidwick's K-J in one of the first hands of Day 2. Lonis's bustout secured the overall series title for Zobian, who departed in sixth position just a short while later. Zobian's exit didn't matter in the leaderboard race, however; along with the champion's trophy, he also collected a $25,000 PGT Passport.
Zobian joins an impressive list of US Poker Open champions, including Chidwick (2018), David Peters (2019 and 2021), Sean Winter (2022), and Martin Zamani last year. The series was not held during the 2020 pandemic shutdown.
Chidwick closes out Lichtenberger for win
Meanwhile, Chidwick continued his dominant performance, though it wasn't quite a wire-to-wire to rout. Chidwick reached heads-up play against Lichtenberger with nearly three quarters of the chips on the table, only to see Lichtenberger claw back to take a tiny lead.
At that point, though, the momentum flipped back to Chidwick. The event's biggest hand found almost all the chips in the middle before the flop, with Lichtenberger having pocket tens to Chidwick's A-K. A nine-high flop kept Lichtenberger ahead, but Chidwick spiked an ace on the turn and hauled in the pot when the river blanked. Lichtenberger turned out to have just a few chips remaining, but Chidwick claimed those chips in the next hand to finish off the win.
Chidwick's tenth PGT title also marked his 61st final table in a PGT event and his 81st cash, which are both PGT records. He also became the first player to top the $14 million mark in career PGT earnings, while his total lifetime recorded-tourney earnings are just shy of $57 million, pushing him to third on the all-time list, just ahead of Jason Koon.
2024 US Poker Open Event #8 results
| Place | Player | Payout |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Stephen Chidwick | $429,000 |
| 2nd | Andrew Lichtenberger | $273,000 |
| 3rd | Brandon Wittmeyer | $182,000 |
| 4th | Dan Smith | $130,000 |
| 5th | Cary Katz | $104,000 |
| 6th | Aram Zobian | $78,000 |
| 7th | Jesse Lonis | $52,000 |
Featured image courtesy PokerGO (Antonio Abrego)
