Richard Kirsch Holds Massive Lead as the $10,000 PLO Reaches Final Table
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The final table of the 2018 US Poker Open #02 $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha is set. Just six players remain after a 17 level Day 1 which saw 64 entries piled up. Leading the pack is American Richard Kirsch but an elite field stands in his way.
Final Table Line-Up:
| Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mike Gorodinsky | United States | 1,275,000 |
| 2 | Cary Katz | United States | 770,000 |
| 3 | Anthony Zinno | United States | 580,000 |
| 4 | Andjelko Andrejevic | Serbia | 1,405,000 |
| 5 | Richard Kirsch | United States | 2,530,000 |
| 6 | Rainer Kempe | Germany | 1,440,000 |
Kirsch held the chip lead for the latter part of Day 1 but saw a huge spike in his stack on the final hand of the night. Kirsch collided with Dan Shak and the two found themselves in a ridiculous cooler spot. Kirsch called a big three-bet preflop from Shak with kings to Shak's aces. After a dry flop fell, Kirsch immediately bet pot and Shak inst-shoved getting a snap-call from Kirsch. A more than 2 million chip pot was formed, over 25% of the chips in play, and Kirsch spiked a straight on the turn to eliminate Shak on the official final table bubble.
Day 1 kicked off at 2 PM local time inside the Aria Resort & Casino. The likes of Daniel Negreanu, Bryn Kenney, Justin Bonomo, Stephen Chidwick, Brian Rast, and Erik Seidel all tested their luck but didn't have the right ingredients to make a deep run.
Just the top 10 spots made the money and after leading the field for most of the day, a cruel cooler left Sam Soverel in the danger zone and the man that iced him, Mike Gorodinsky, returned for the rest of Soverel's stack moments later.
Ben Yu (10th - $19,200), Joshua Ladines (9th - $19,200), and Benjamin Pollak (8th - $25,600) were the only players other than Shak to leave with some consolation, though with the re-entries, none of them would feel much better than the rest.
Here's what the finalists have left to fight for:
| Place | Prize |
|---|---|
| 1 | $179,200 |
| 2 | $128,000 |
| 3 | $83,200 |
| 4 | $64,000 |
| 5 | $51,200 |
| 6 | $38,400 |
The final table is set to kick off around noon local time on Saturday afternoon and the stream will begin on PokerGo at 1 PM (4 PM EST). Follow along with the action here on the blog as it plays out on stream all the way down until a champion is crowned.
PokerNews will be here throughout the festival, bringing you all the news and live updates. Follow @pokernews on Twitter, on Facebook, and Instagram.