Japan’s Kazuomi Furuse secured his maiden PGT title, winning the 2025 U.S. Poker Open Event #2: $10,100 NLH for a life-changing $ 275,400 top prize. Furuse has been active in American poker over the past two years. With the victory, he has now crossed the $500k mark in lifetime earnings.
In addition to his victory, Furuse earned 275 PGT points, leading the 2025 USPO Leaderboard with 285 points, following his 16th-place finish in Event #1. The $10,100 buy-in no-limit hold ’em saw a turnout of 108 entries, creating a total prize pool of $1,080,000, paid to the top 16 finishers. Daniel Negreanu (15th), Sam Soverel (13th), and Patrick Leonard (10th) made it to the money but failed to run deep. Day 1 of the event ended with 6 players forming the final table. Here is a quick recap of the 2025 USPO Event #2 Final Table.
2025 U.S. Poker Open Event #2: $10k NLH Final Table Recap
Eric Blair entered the final table as the chip leader, followed by Erik Seidel and Kazuomi Furuse. Short-stack David Peters was the first to fall at the final table, as he put his tournament life in danger with Kd-8h. Furuse called holding As-5c and spiked an ace on the flop to send out Peters in 6th place for a $54,000 paycheck.
Nick Schulman soon followed Peters in 5th place, after his pocket fours met the sixes of Blair. Schulman needed a fourth to stay alive, which never came, picking up $70,200 for his deep run. Soon after, Furuse moved all-in with pocket fours and was called by Erik Seidel’s ace-jack. The flop brought a four, sending out the poker legend in 4th place for a payday of $97,200.
The final table chip leader, Eric Blair, fell on the podium after running into the nut straight of Nacho Barbero. Blair, for his impressive run, pocketed a six-figure score of $124,200. His elimination formed the heads-up battle with Barbero leading with a two-to-one chip advantage, which didn’t last long, as the Japanese player fought back and took a commanding lead after picking up pocket jacks. Furuse moved all-in with pocket jacks against Barbero’s ace-deuce.
Furuse’s hand held up to take a massive chip lead. The final hand saw Barbero move all-in with king-jack, and Furuse snapped with ace-king. The board ran 7h-3h-2c-6s-As, sealing the first PGT title for Furuse. Meanwhile, Nacho Barbero banked $172,800 for his runner-up finish.
2025 U.S. Poker Open Event #2: $10,100 NLH Final Table Payouts
| Rank | Player | Payout |
| 1st | Kazuomi Furuse | $275,400 |
| 2nd | Nacho Barbero | $172,800 |
| 3rd | Eric Blair | $124,200 |
| 4th | Erik Seidel | $97,200 |
| 5th | Nick Schulman | $70,200 |
| 6th | David Peters | $54,000 |
Source – PGT Blog
Keep following PokerProNews for the latest updates and results from the ongoing USPO 2025!
