Joey Weissman earns first 2021 title with U.S. Poker Open win
The U.S. Poker Open is in full swing in Las Vegas, with several events already finishing up at the ARIA. Just this week, Event #5 concluded, a No-Limit Hold’em tournament with a $10,000 buy-in. A total of $850,000 was up for grabs with the final 13 players earning a payday. In the end, it was Joey Weissman who took home the first-place finish, the first win for the pro in a live setting for 2021.
Details of the Event
Once the tournament was narrowed down to the final day, Cary Katz would hold the chip lead amongst his six competitors. Weissman had a good chip stack, but so did several other players, including Joe McKeehen and Adam Hendrix.
It wouldn’t take long before players started to push their hands and the first casualty would be Vicent Bosca. He went up against Brock Wilson and was eliminated in 7th place. Bosca held Q-J and was defeated with A-Q.
Despite eliminating Bosca, Wilson would go down in sixth place after going head-to-head with Adam Hendrix. Wilson would have to settle for $51,000 after the elimination. Next to go would be Frank Funaro and then Cary Katz in fifth and fourth place.
Three-Handed Action
Hendrix was able to take out Funaro and Katz to earn a huge stack of chips. He would hold around over 70% when the poker event whittled down to three players. Hendrix, Weissman, and McKeehen would battle at the felt back and forth until McKeehen decided to push his last few big blinds all-in with Q-3 of diamonds. Hendrix called with K-9 off-suit.
The cards didn’t really fall in anyone’s favor, so Hendrix would be able to earn the hand, and knocked out McKeehan in third place. At this time, Hendrix would have a five to one chip lead going into heads-up with Weissman. It didn’t look like Weissman stood a chance.
However, things quickly started to turn in Weissman’s favor. He doubled up a few times and then took over the chip lead after winning a hand with A-K against pocket 8s. In the end, the final hand would see Hendrix all-in with A-J of clubs and Q-2 of hearts.
The board fell 8-5-4-9-3 with three hearts, giving Weissman a flush and the hand win. He would eliminate Hendrix in second place to gain his first 2021 live event win.
Final Results:
| Place | Player | Prize |
| First | Joey Weissman | $204,000 |
| Second | Adam Hendrix | $144,500 |
| Third | Joseph McKeehen | $102,000 |
| Fourth | Cary Katz | $85,000 |
| Fifth | Frank Funaro | $68,000 |
| Sixth | Brock Wilson | $51,000 |
| Seventh | Vicent Bosca | $42,500 |
| Eighth | Nick Schulman | $34,000 |
