Keith Tilston Wins US Poker Open Main Event – Stephen Chidwick Overall Champion

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The inaugural US Poker Open is in officially history. The $50,000 Main Event concluded on Sunday with Keith Tilston defeated a superstar final table to win the top prize. While the win pushed him over $1 million for the series, it was not quite enough to catch Stephen Chidwick.

With combined earnings of $1.25 million over the series, Chidwick became the first ever US Poker Open Champion.

Keith Tilston Outlasts Negranu, Schindler, and Smith to Win Main Event

The $50,000 NL Hold’em Main Event concluded on Sunday with a stacked final table of five elite players. Heading into the final table, Keith Tilston had nearly a 2:1 chip lead over second place Daniel Negreanu.

The final table was rounded out with Jake Schindler, Tom Marchese, and Dan Smith came in as the short stack.

Smith and Marchese fell in the order expected, but Negreanu only managed a third-place finish. He was all-in with pocket nines against the pocket tens of Schindler. The tens held and Schindler faced Tilston for the title.

Tilston held the chip lead starting heads-up plan and never relinquished it. In the final hand, Schindler committed to chasing an open-ended straight draw and missed on the river. He bluff-shoved on the river but, unfortunately for him, Tilston had caught a flush on the river and made the snap-call to take the title.

For his victory, Tilston won $660,000. This brought his total earnings for the US Poker Open to $1.04 million. However, in the end, it was not quite enough to win him the US Poker Open Champion’s Trophy.

Stephen Chidwick Becomes First Ever US Poker Open Champion

After a remarkable run that saw him cash five times and win two events outright, Stephen Chidwick became the US Poker Open Champion. He had combined earnings of $1.25 million and had an insurmountable lead heading into the Main Event.

Chidwick won Event #3, the $25,000 NL Hold’em and Event #4 the $25,000 Mixed Game Championship. He also finished runner-up in Event #7 to David Peters and third in Event #6 won by Ben Pollack.

Tilston’s run was nothing short of remarkable and completely overshadowed Daniel Negreanu’s five cashes in the series.

This event is the latest in a series of major poker events that are being run in partnership between Poker Central and the Aria in Las Vegas. These events were all live streamed on PokerGo and the success of this event means we will continue to see more of these elite-field events in the future.