Isaac Kempton Wins U.S. Poker Open $15,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Event

Isaac Kempton – Photo credit: PokerGO / Enrique Malfavon.

Issac Kempton has won the $15,700 buy-in pot-limit Omaha event at the U.S. Poker Open inside the PokerGo Studio at Aria Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. The tournament professional took his career earnings up to $3,093,306 thanks to the $279,000 he was awarded for the victory, and he also claimed his first USPO golden eagle trophy.

Kempton has had a lot of success on the PokerGo Tour, including a third-place finish in this event one year ago. He has cashed four times this month at PGT events, including three cashes during the PGT pot-limit Omaha series that recently concluded.

This was also his third tournament victory out of two-dozen recorded total cashes. He won a World Series of Poker Circuit gold ring back in 2020 at the Seminole Hard Rock Tampa stop, and he won a preliminary event at the Word Poker Tour Five Diamond tournament series at the Bellagio just last year. His largest tournament score is still the $1,093,314 he won as the runner-up in the 2022 Wynn Millions main event.

The $15,700 buy-in no-limit hold’em tournament had a prize pool worth $930,000 thanks to a field of 62 entries. The top nine players all cashed for at least $27,900 in prize money. Just the final four players returned for the final day of play.

The players that busted at the final table before the final four was set was quite the lineup of poker talent that one might expect to see inside the PokerGO Studio. Michael Wang (ninth), Chris Brewer (eighth), Jim Collopy (seventh), Erik Seidel (sixth), and Roussos Koliakoudakis (fifth) were all lost along the way during the final stages of penulitmate day of play.

Kempton held the chip lead among the final four when play began, but Gregory Shuda took out both Ben Lamb (fourth) and Martin Zamani (third) to present a strong challenge for the heads-up final. Kempton went on the aggressive during the final match to regain the chip lead before setting the stage for the final hand in the tournament.

In that hand, Kempton raised to 180,000 preflop from the big blind, and Shuda repotted for 540,000 after originally limping. Kempton called before the flop was dealt QJ6, and then Kempton moved all in. Shuda called all in so the two players flipped over their cards.

Kempton: Q1098
Shuda: K762

Turn and River: 4K

Kempton made a straight, and that was good enough to win the pot and the tournament. Shuda took home $186,000 as the runner-up, and his career earnings are now at $338,091. Each of his two tournament cashes on record are six-figure scores.

Here is a look at the payouts awarded at the final table:

The next U.S. Poker Open event ($15,700 buy-in no-limit hold’em) is already running at the PokerGo Studio. You can see the full schedule for the tournament series right here.