The U.S. Poker Open is yet another stalwart of the poker calendar which, nixed in 2020, is finally ready to put its head back out and try to spot its shadow.
PokerGO are behind the effort to bring the USPO back. It was the streaming service that first announced the finalized schedule for the 2021 USPO series. With twelve events on the schedule, the whole series will run from June 3 to June 14.
The events will all be double entry $10ks. There are two exceptions. Event #11 will be a $25k double-entry no-limit hold 'em tourney. Meanwhile, event #12 will be an enormous $50k single-entry freezeout.
The other events will include one short-deck, two PLO, and two mixed-game events. One of the mixed games is an 8-game tourney, the other is a big-bet mix (i.e. alternating PLO and NLH). You can see the full list of events in the table at the bottom of this article.
PokerGO-ing, GO-ing, GO-ne
All twelve tournaments will be part of the new PokerGO tour, and so will contribute to PokerCentral's 2021 leaderboard. That more or less guarantees that Daniel Negreanu will be playing. The poker pro has vowed to beat the leaderboard in question. He is currently thirty-ninth after a 3rd place cash in the Aria High Roller series.
The USPO will be held in the Aria in the PokerGO studio which is part of the Aria's integrated resort complex. The events will be live-streamed on the PokerGO streaming platform from 4 PM Eastern, each day of the series.
"I'm a nerd when it comes to leaderboards," Negreanu tweeted. "So I'm going to try and climb the rankings in the @PokerGo Tour (link below.) With a 3rd the other day, I sit at 39th place with 65 points All $10k+ buy-ins will count, WSOP mixed games too!"
With their smaller fields, the high roller leaderboard is likely to have some much tighter competition for the top spots. This is because the same group players are likely to cash regularly. Large fields massively increase the variance in leagues like this.
It should make for some exciting play, and top notch poker.
Full schedule
| Date | Event | Starting stack |
| June 3, 2021 | #1: $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em | 125,000 (double entry) |
| June 4, 2021 | #2: $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha | 125,000 (double entry) |
| June 5, 2021 | #3: $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em | 125,000 (double entry) |
| June 6, 2021 | #4: $10,000 Big Bet Mix | 125,000 (double entry) |
| June 7, 2021 | #5: $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em | 125,000 (double entry) |
| June 8, 2021 | #6: $10,000 8-Game | 125,000 (double entry) |
| June 9, 2021 | #7: $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em | 125,000 (double entry) |
| June 10, 2021 | #8: $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha | 125,000 (double entry) |
| June 11, 2021 | #9: $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em | 125,000 (double entry) |
| June 12, 2021 | #10: $10,000 Short Deck | 300,000 (double entry) |
| June 13, 2021 | #11: $25,000 No-Limit Hold’em | 150,000 (double entry) |
| June 14, 2021 | #12: $50,000 No-Limit Hold’em | 200,000 (single entry) |
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