David Peters Goes Back-To-Back As U.S. Poker Open ChampionPeters Defended His 2019 USPO Win With An Incredible Run In 2021, With Three Titles Won and More Than $830,000 In Earnings |
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David Peters pulled out his 2019 U.S. Poker Open Championship victory with a come-from-behind victory, winning the final tournament of the series to unseat points leader Sean Winter with a buzzer-beating title run.
The USPO wasn’t held during the live poker shutdown of 2020, which made Peters the defending champion when the high-stakes tournament series returned with a 12-event high roller festival in June of 2021.
The 34-year-old Las Vegas-based poker pro went on a tear during the second half of the series, winning three titles and making four final tables in a five-day span to give himself the lead with one event remaining. This time around, Peters was the player hoping to hold onto a lead while a player at the final table of the closing event looked to unseat him. Sam Soverel needed a win to overcome Peters, but ultimately finished fifth to see Peters lock up the back-to-back USPO championship victories. For the win, he was awarded $50,000 in added prize money and the Golden Eagle Trophy.
“It feels great. Especially going back-to-back after winning last time. It feels great to do well versus so many great players and it was a very exciting week,” said Peters not long after securing the win. “It’s something that’ll be really cool to look back on someday, to remember that I had back-to-back trophies like this. It’s pretty exciting.”
We did it Kobe pic.twitter.com/oaHxPdINIn
— David Peters (@dpeterspoker17) June 16, 2021
Peters cashed for $832,950 across his four in-the-money finishes of the series, and managed to win a quarter of the events that were played in the 12-event series that ran from June 3-15.
Peters didn’t play every single event on the schedule, instead opting to skip the mixed games and one of the two pot-limit Omaha offerings. He didn’t cash in any of the first six events of the series, but emerged victorious from a field of 99 entries to win event no. 7, a $10,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em tournament. He earned $217,800 and 218 USPO points for his victory in that event, which was the largest ever field in a USPO tournament. The day after that win, he finished eighth in the $10,000 pot-limit Omaha event for another $25,200 and 25 USPO points.
The many winner's poses of David Peters throughout the 2021 USPO
Peters did not cash in event no. 9 on the following day, but got back in the winners circle just a day later by emerging victorious from a field of 27 entries in the $10,000 short deck tournament. He added $124,200 and 124 USPO points for his second title of the series and hopped straight into late registration for the lone $25,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em tournament of the series. Peters went on to defeat the field of 69 entries to earn $465,750 and 279 USPO points. This win catapulted him ahead of then-leader Ali Imsirovic, who had five final-table finishes and one title during the series.
“It’s been a crazy week. I actually ran pretty well. I haven’t played live poker in over a year and a half, but it feels good to be back. It was good to jump back in there, playing against all these great players that I’ve battled with all these years. It was a very fun week and obviously things went well and I’m happy to win.”
After an extended break from live poker, Peters was happy to get back to the high-stakes live events that have helped him establish himself as one of the most consistent players in the game.
“I definitely missed it. I hadn’t gone that long without playing live poker since I was 18 or whatever,” said Peters. “So it was definitely fun and exciting to get back in there and see all these familiar faces.”
Peters now has more than $35.4 million in career tournament earnings, good for sixth place on poker’s all-time money list. The two-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner finished inside the top 50 in the Card Player Player of the Year race seven times from 2010 to 2020, with a win in 2016 and four other finishes of 13th or higher. When asked about how important awards and titles are to him, Peters said, “Probably not nearly as important as [that kind of thing] is to someone like Hellmuth or maybe a lot of people, but it’s nice having those accolades or kind of securing your legacy or just having those memories to look back on when I’m 70. I can look back and think about how cool that was [to achieve]. It means something to me, for sure.”
When asked how he has been able to be a top tournament player, year-in and year-out for the last decade, Peters noted his hunger for greatness.
David Peters at the final table of USPO event no. 7
Peters’ success at the USPO has put him in contention in the PokerGO Tour standings, with his 646 rankings points good for sixth place in the standings. Peters got a later start than some of the competition, but is planning on trying to make up for lost time.
“I think I’m going to play a lot. I missed a good chunk of the PokerGO Tour the last couple of months, but I’m ready to get back in there and grind a lot of these and hopefully I can accumulate some points and catch Ali [Imsirovic]. He has a huge lead right now in that but we’ll see what happens.”
While waiting to see if Soverel could surpass him in the final event of the USPO, Peters registered for a $25,000 buy-in event that was not part of the series schedule, but was thrown together due to sufficient demand. Even after a grueling week of high-stakes battling, Peters was more than ready to hop in for another round.
“Yeah, I’m still hungry. I still enjoy competing and I still enjoy the battle and I have a very hard time not coming in and jumping in on $25k when it’s down the street,” said Peters when asked about the non-stop action of this series. “I still enjoy it. I still love the game.”
David Peters 2021 U.S. Poker Open Scores:
Event | Place | USPO Points | Earnings |
Event No. 7 – $10,000 no-limit hold’em | 1 | 218 | $217,800 |
Event No. 8 – $10,000 pot-limit Omaha | 8 | 25 | $25,200 |
Event No. 10 – $10,000 short deck | 1 | 124 | $124,200 |
Event No. 11 – $25,000 no-limit hold’em | 1 | 279 | $465,750 |
Here is a look at the top ten in the final USPO points standings:
Place | Player | Points | Wins | Cashes | Earnings |
1 | David Peters | 646 | 3 | 4 | $832,950 |
2 | Sean Winter | 484 | 1 | 2 | $785,700 |
3 | Ali Imsirovic | 483 | 1 | 5 | $482,000 |
4 | Stephen Chidwick | 427 | 0 | 3 | $628,700 |
5 | Dan Shak | 371 | 0 | 4 | $459,750 |
6 | Jake Daniels | 323 | 1 | 2 | $391,000 |
7 | Sam Soverel | 316 | 1 | 4 | $382,300 |
8 | Andrew Lichtenberger | 308 | 0 | 3 | $308,000 |
9 | Joe McKeehen | 302 | 1 | 2 | $302,200 |
10 | Steve Zolotow | 289 | 0 | 3 | $289,000 |