Brian Kim Leads 2023 U.S. Poker Open Event #9 Final Table

The 2023 U.S. Poker Open continued from the PokerGO Studio at ARIA Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, and only six players remain in the penultimate tournament of the series, Event #9: $25,000 No-Limit Hold'em.

Brian Kim holds the overnight lead with 2,085,000 in chips. He sits ahead of Dan Smith, Ren Lin, Punnat Punsri, Cary Katz, and Nick Schulman who will all return on Monday at 12 p.m. PT to play out Event #9 on the PokerGO live stream that will air at 1 p.m. PT.

The 47-entrant field created a prize pool of $1,175,000 and the top seven players would finish in the money. Kristen Foxen and Carlos Chadha were eliminated as the bubble neared and David Peters would be eliminated in ninth place when his rivered flush was no good against Kim's rivered boat. Eight players combined at a single table, and it would be Johan Schultz-Pedersen eliminated on the money bubble when he ran ace-queen into Katz's eights and failed to improve.

Nick Schulman appeared likely to exit next when he got ace-four in against Daniel Negreanu's ace-ten, but a four spiked the turn to give Schulman the double. Negreanu became the short stack and got ace-jack in against Smith's king-ten. Although Negreanu got the chips in as a favorite, Smith turned a straight to eliminate Negreanu in seventh place for a min-cash, before the six remaining players bagged and tagged to return for the streamed final table.

Ren Lin currently sits fifth on the U.S. Poker Open series leaderboard with 310 points and he will soon have an opportunity to overtake Sam Soverel atop the standings. Soverel has 457 points and Lin will need a win or runner-up finish in Event #9 to be in pole position in the race for the Golden Eagle and $50,000 championship bonus with only one more event in the series. 

Smith will be making his second consecutive streamed final table appearance and will be looking to improve upon his third-place finish in Event #8. Katz also picked up his second cash of the series, while Kim, Punsri, and Schulman each notched their first of the series.

The final six players have all locked up $70,500 in prize money, but all eyes remain on the grand prize of $399,500 in prize money, 240 PGT points, and the mini Golden Eagle trophy.

U.S. Poker Open Event #9: $25,000 No-Limit Hold'em Final Table

Seat	Player	Country	Chip Count
1	Cary Katz	United States	660,000
2	Ren Lin	United States	1,070,000
3	Brian Kim	United States	2,085,000
4	Punnat Punsri	Thailand	980,000
5	Dan Smith	United States	1,605,000
6	Nick Schulman	United States	655,000

When play resumes, the button will be on Nick Schulman. There is 37:38 remaining in Level 15 with blinds at 20,000 / 40,000 and a 40,000 big blind ante.

Players will have a day off before play resumes at 12 p.m. PT on Monday, April 3 for the Event #9: $25,000 No-Limit Hold’em final table from the 2023 U.S. Poker Open. The entire final table will be streamed exclusively on PokerGO.com starting at 1 p.m. PT with the penultimate champion of the series to be crowned.

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