Jared Bleznick Wins U.S. Poker Open $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Event

Jared Bleznick has focused largely on high-stakes cash games throughout his professional poker career. The vast majority of the New York native’s 34 tournament cashes have come in either pot-limit Omaha or mixed-game variants, with both of his two live tournament titles taking place in those disciplines. Bleznick earned the most recent of those titles on Friday, June 11, 2021 by taking down the U.S. Poker Open $10,000 buy-in pot-limit Omaha event. He overcame a field of 63 entries to secure a $189,000 payday, increasing his lifetime tournament earnings to more than $1.8 million in the process.

Bleznick’s lone prior tournament victory also came in a PokerGO event: the 2019 Poker Masters $10,000 eight-game mix event.

In addition to the title and the money, Bleznick also earned plenty of rankings points as the champion of this event. He was awarded 360 Card Player Player of the Year points for his first live tournament cash of 2021. He also earned 189 rankings points for both the USPO series leaderboard and the PokerGO Tour standings. Bleznick now sits in 10th place in the USPO points race, which will award $50,000 in added prize money and the Golden Eagle Trophy to the eventual winner.

The final day of this event began with Bleznick leading the remaining six players, with Maxx Coleman hot on his heels. Frank Crivello was the first player eliminated when his pocket aces lost a crucial all-in against the pocket kings of Christopher Usude, the Los-Angeles based owner of a private jet company. Usude made a flush on the turn to leave Crivello’s stack decimated. Crivello was sent to the rail just moments later, earning $37,800 as the sixth-place finisher.

Maxx Coleman had overtaken the lead during the early action, and he used his chip advantage to continue to accumulate during five-handed action. He scored his first knockout of the day when he called the all-in of Joseph Sander on a 852 flop with AK76. Sanders held the KK75 for an overpair, but Coleman added the nut flush draw to go with his straight and ace outs when the 10 hit the turn. The 9 on the river gave Coleman the winning flush to send Sanders home with $50,400.

Coleman sat with more than 60 percent of the chips in play after that hand. Four-handed action continued for a while before the next key pot arose. With blinds of 40,000-80,000, Coleman raised to 175,000 from the button with KK73 and Ali Imsirovic three-bet to 605,000 holding AJJ5. Coleman four bet all-in and Imsirovic called for 435,000 more. The J84 flop gave Imsirovic top set and Coleman a spade flush draw. The 9 improved neither player, but the 6 came on the river to give Coleman the winning flush.

Imsirovic cashed for $63,000 as the fourth-place finisher. This was his 13th Card Player Player of the Year qualified final-table finish of 2021, with five titles and nearly $2.1 million in POY earnings secured along the way. As a result of the 180 POY points he earned with this score, Imsirovic has climbed into second place in the POY race sponsored by Global Poker.

While Imsirovic is ranked second in that race, he is now the runaway leader in the PokerGO Tour standings. He added 63 points to his tally, bringing his total to 1,605 after 15 qualified cashes for the high-stakes tournament points race. His nearest competitor, Sean Perry, currently sits with 1,256 points. He now sits just outside the top 10 in the USPO points race.

Christopher Usude’s run in this event came to an end when his top pair or aces failed to beat out the flush draw of Coleman for his last seven big blinds. Coleman made his flush on the turn to take nearly a 3:1 chip lead into heads-up play with Bleznick, while Usude cashed for $88,200.

It took only around 90 minutes for the final showdown to play out. Bleznick had closed the gap considerably after the first half-hour, and then managed to build a sizable lead of his own after doubling up with pocket aces against the pocket kings with a suited ace of Coleman. In the final hand, Coleman got all-in with 9762 on a 1074 flop. Bleznick called with A887 to put him at risk. The turn was the Q to give Coleman a flush draw to go along with his other outs, but the 5 on the end secured the pot and the title for Bleznick. Coleman earned $126,000 and 126 USPO points for his runner-up finish. This was his third final table of the series. He now sits in fifth place on that leaderboard, with 231 points and $230,800 in earnings across those three scores.

Here is a look at the payouts and rankings points awarded at the final table:

Winner photo credit: PokerGO.

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