Eli Elezra Wins US Poker Open 8-Game Mix, Negreanu Out in Third

Daniel Negreanu came up just short of a US Poker Open title on Wednesday, but Eli Elezra didn’t, as he won the $10,000 8-Game Mixed event for $183,600.
 
Negreanu hasn’t exactly been on a hot streak over the past couple of years. He lost $1.2 million to Doug Polk in a highly-publicized heads-up match earlier this year, hasn’t won a WSOP bracelet since 2013, and has struggled in high rollers for quite some time.
 
But the Poker Hall of Famer just might be back on the right track. In Event #5, he finished 10th for $25,500. On Thursday, he reached the final table of the 8-Game event, but was eliminated in third place, good for $88,400. Once again, bad luck was a contributing factor in his departure from the tournament.

https://twitter.com/RealKidPoker/status/1402812849525641231

The $10,000 buy-in, two-day event attracted 68 entrants, creating a $680,000 prize pool. After Negreanu busted, Steve Zolotow and Eli Elezra went heads-up for the US Poker Open 8-Game title with $47,600 separating first and second place.
 
Zolotow already had a fourth and fifth-place finish at the 2021 US Poker Open, so he was looking to finally get over the last obstacle and win one. Had he done so, he would have surpassed Joe McKeehen as the USPO series leader. Instead, it was the Israeli poker legend, Elezra, who took down the mixed-game tournament for $183,600. Zolotow received $136,000 for second.

Despite coming up just short in his quest for a tournament title, Zolotow received 136 USPO series points, bringing him to 289 for the series, good for second place. McKeehen, the 2015 WSOP Main Event champion, leads with 302, thanks in large part to his win in Event #3.
 
The 2021 US Poker Open still has five more events on the schedule, including Event #7, which began Thursday at the PokerGO Studio in Las Vegas. Out of 99 entrants in the $10,000 tourney, Andrew “Lucky Chewy” Lichtenberger held the chip lead following Day 1 with eight players remaining.

U.S. Poker Open Event #6: $10,000 8-Game

Place	Name	Championship Points	Payout
1st	Eli Elezra	184	$183,600
2nd	Steve Zolotow	136	$136,000
3rd	Daniel Negreanu	88	$88,400
4th	Richard Sklar	68	$68,000
5th	Erik Sagstrom	54	$54,400
6th	Nick Guagenti	41	$40,800
7th	David “ODB” Baker	34	$34,000
8th	Mike Gorodinsky	27	$27,200
9th	Mike Wattel	27	$27,200
10th	Alan Richardson	20	$20,400

U.S. Poker Open Leaderboard

Rank	Player	Points	Wins	Cashes	Earnings
1	Joe McKeehen	302	1	2	$302,200
2	Steve Zolotow	289	0	3	$289,000
3	Jake Daniels	219	1	1	$218,500
4	Joey Weissman	204	1	1	$204,000
5	Sam Soverel	195	1	2	$194,500
6	Dan Shak	186	0	2	$186,000
7	Eli Elezra	184	1	1	$183,600
8	John Riordan	182	1	2	$182,200
9	Barry Hutter	153	0	2	$152,500
10	Jordan Cristos	147	0	2	$147,000

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