Peter Placey Claims First PGT Title at 2026 U.S. Poker Open Event #5
California businessman Peter Placey defeated an 80-entry field of high-stakes regulars to win Event #5: $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em at the 2026 U.S. Poker Open (USPO) for $224,000 at the PokerGO Studio in Las Vegas.
Background on the U.S. Poker Open
The U.S. Poker Open is a PokerGO Tour (PGT) series held annually at the PokerGO Studio inside the ARIA Resort & Casino in Las Vegas. Now in its seventh edition, the ten-event series runs buy-ins from $5,000 up to $25,000.
The overall series points leader earns the Golden Eagle trophy and a $25,000 PGT Passport — making it one of the most coveted prizes on the domestic high-roller calendar. Recreational players rarely make noise here.
Placey Leads Wire to Wire
Placey held the chip lead through stretches of Day 1 and ran over the table early. He personally sealed the money bubble, eliminating Neil Warren to bring the field to the final 12.
Day 2 opened with six players returning to the studio. Cherish Andrews — Event #3 winner and short stack — was the first to go in sixth, her king-jack unable to improve against Placey’s ace-ten.
Justin Zaki fell next in fifth, losing a race with king-jack against Placey’s pocket sixes. Day 1 chip leader Brandon Wilson then ran his pocket fours into Anil Jivani’s ace-jack, which flopped an ace to send Wilson to the rail in fourth.
Jivani’s time in the tournament came to an end when his ace-eight suited could not outdraw Placey’s pocket nines, leaving just Placey and Qinghai Pan — a doctor with two wins already on the 2026 PGT season — to play for the title.
Closing Out with Quads
Heads-up play began with Placey holding a commanding 7.7 million to 2.3 million chip lead. Pan clawed back into it, finding a double-up when his jack-eight flopped top pair against Placey’s king-five and held through the runout.
Pan briefly took the lead before the decisive hand arrived. On a flop of 3♣-3♥-8♣, Placey checked his Q♦-3♦ for trips while Pan bet 350,000 with K♣-8♦ for top pair. Placey check-raised to 1,000,000, Pan moved all-in for 4,175,000, and was called.
The 3♠ on the turn gave Placey quads, leaving Pan drawing dead before the A♦ river. Pan collected $144,000 for second. Placey had won his first major title, fittingly, in a room he has long called his favorite.
Forty Years in the Making
Placey runs an information company in California and has played poker recreationally for four decades, according to a PGT press release. His previous career-best score was a 35th-place finish at the 2014 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event for $230,487.
That result came at the expense of eventual champion Martin Jacobson. According to The Hendon Mob, Placey’s total live tournament earnings now exceed $687,000.
It is a pattern the USPO has produced before. Cherish Andrews’ Event #3 victory earlier in the same series came after she had nearly withdrawn from the event entirely amid a difficult run of results — proof that the series occasionally deals stories that go beyond the expected.
The Leaderboard Race Heats Up
Placey’s win pushed him to fourth on the USPO series leaderboard. Andrews’ sixth-place finish in the same event moved her into the overall series lead, with five events remaining.
| Rank | Player | Points | Cashes |
| 1 | Cherish Andrews | 282 | 3 |
| 2 | Brock Wilson | 271 | 3 |
| 3 | Jeremy Ausmus | 262 | 3 |
| 4 | Peter Placey | 224 | 1 |
| 5 | Kristen Foxen | 219 | 2 |
Buy-ins escalate from here, reaching $15,000 and ultimately $25,000 in the series finale. Brock Wilson — Event #1 winner and current PGT season leaderboard leader — has the points and the momentum to chase her down.
Wilson, Schulman, and Three Others Await in Event #6
Event #6 is already in its second day at the PokerGO Studio, with Wilson among the final five. With the buy-ins stepping up and the leaderboard tightening, the back half of the 2026 U.S. Poker Open has plenty left to settle.
Image: Courtesy of pgt.com