Shannon Shorr Wins U.S. Poker Open Event #1 for $213K

The first event of the 2022 U.S. Poker Open is in the books and American player Shannon Shorr is the event series’ first winner, taking down Event #1 for a top prize of $213,900 after beating Ren Lin heads-up.

With the event taking place at the PokerGO Studio in Las Vegas, all the stars were in attendance, with players such as Daniel Negreanu and Erik Seidel making the money but missing out on the trophy. Let’s find out exactly how the tournament went down.

Negreanu Busts Holst to End the Day

With 93 entries overall in the $10,000-entry event, the prize pool of $930,000 would see just six players make the money. Day 1 saw Shannon Shorr knock out Vikenty Shegal late in the day to leap up the leaderboard but after a rough run, Shorr needed to double through Ren Lin to survive, a feat he managed when his pocket aces held up against Lin’s ace-nine.

Those two would clash again a lot later on in the event, but there was the money bubble to take care of first, which eventually saw Alex Foxen lose his stack for nothing before 14 players were paid. Some of those to make profit but miss out on the final day were Phil Hellmuth (13^th for $18,600), Dan Shak (12^th for $18,600),Sean Perry (10^th for $27,900) and Nick Schulman (8^th for $37,200).

Daniel Negreanu took out Kristina Holst in seventh place to end play for Day 1. Holst was all in with a pair of threes pre-flop, but Kid Poker called with ace-king and hit an ace on the flop and turn to eventually win with aces over jacks and end the day’s play.

Cheong First to Fall on Final Day

Former WSOP bracelet winner Joseph Cheong was the first to fall of the final six, busting with his jack-queen couldn’t overcome the Japanese player Masashi Oya’s ace-nine of clubs and held. Cheong cashed for $55,800 in sixth place as the race for the title grew into an exciting climax.

Oya would claim his next victim soon after, Erik Seidel unable to hold with pocket sevens as Oya, who called with ace-king, flopped an ace and held through 4^th and 5^th street to reduce the field to four and send Seidel home in fifth for a result worth $74,400.

With Seidel gone, Daniel Negreanu would have been hoping to emulate his performance in last year’s PokerGO Cup, but the opposite happened when Kid Poker was next to depart. Negreanu, Canada’s most successful poker player of all-time by some distance, was all-in with king-queen but couldn’t improve past Ren Li’s ace-six and crashed out for a fourth-place cash worth $93,000.

Shorr Scores the Win

Oya was the next player to go, losing out when Shorr made a heroic river call to end his event. With ten-six on a board showing A-Q-6-T-4, Shorr called it off as Oya shoved holding queen-three and it cost the Japanese his tournament life, busting in third place for $111,600.

Shorr was a very big chip leader going into the final duel, having 9.5 million chips to Lin’s 2.1m and eventually, that advantage told. Lin worked his way into a surprising lead early on in the battle, but Shorr, perhaps emboldened by the knowledge that he’d started with a strong lead by playing attacking poker, redoubled his efforts and moved ahead.

Across an epic battle, both men held the lead numerous times, but Shorr was ahead when his ace-king dominated Lin’s king-jack pre-flop, and an ace on the flop gave Shorr victory for $213,900, the American beating his countryman Lin and consigning the latter to the $148,800 runner-up prize.

The first of 12 U.S. Poker Open events, Shannon Shorr’s performance more than kicked off the tournament series in style in Las Vegas.

The @BuffaloHanks walk-in CAREFUL WITH THE TROPHY pic.twitter.com/gY273TWQLe

— Jeff Platt (@jeffplatt) March 17, 2022

The Champion in His Own Words

“I’m compelled to play quite a few of these now and to go after the $50,000 bonus.”

After winning, Shorr told the PokerGO presenting team of Jeff Platt and Brent Hanks (seen above with the trophy) of his delight.

“It was a blast,” he said. “All of these events inside the PokerGO Studio are so much fun, and the names at the final table – Joseph Cheong, Erik Seidel, Daniel Negreanu – they speak for themselves. I’m glad I could come out on top. I think I’m going to be compelled to play quite a few of these now and to go after the $50,000 bonus.

Shorr credited his wife and family for a bunch of support ahead of and during the event and the family man is determined to put himself in the best place to achieve his goals.

“Generally going into a big series like this, I’ll try and push myself extra hard in the gym and with meditation,” he declared. “I try to be really ready to play poker for when a long grind comes in. I did a bit of that and maybe there’s something to it.”