Brooklyn native Anthony "Tony" Lundy is a postal worker by day and has spent the last four years playing poker in the New York Free Poker League and cites his mother, Ola Alexander, as his biggest poker inspiration.
When not playing poker, he likes to spend his time working out and shopping, and has his wife and best friend cheering him on.
Lundy has 24 big blinds to play with on the final table and has already exceeded his largest-ever live cash.
Dawna Blyleven is a retired World Series of Poker dealer and hails from Lompoc, California. A relatively new face on the Bar Poker Open scene having only joined her local league, Sunshine Poker League, last year.
Blyleven, like many others that have made the trip, successfully qualified for a package through the league and is not sat with the $100,000 prize in her grasp.
Last year Kourtney Sims finished in 2nd place in the event and Blyleven, who has her boyfriend and the whole Sunshine Poker League behind her, is looking to become the first-ever female champion.
Saverio, or Sal to his friends, hails from Garner, North Carolina and represents Kontenders Poker League. An avid poker hobbyist since 2017, Sav qualified for this event via his local league and is looking to manoeuvre his 13 big blind stack and has already locked up his biggest poker cash to date.
When not playing poker, Sal works as IT Architect and spends time walking his "fur babies" and is being railed by his friends and family back home.
The third, and final day, of the Bar Poker Open Championship, hosted at the Golden Nugget Casino, is almost underway and will commence at 2 p.m local time, although coverage will start thirty minutes later to keep the integrity of the game, due to the live stream.
After two days of exciting poker action, 1,053 hopefuls have been whittled down to the final eight players, all of which have their eyes on the $100,000 first prize.
Qualification for the Bar Poker Open Championship started early in 2023, with over one million players from all walks of life turning up to their local bars to play and earn the opportunity to qualify for this event, hosted at the Golden Nugget Casino, Las Vegas.
Brian Lerner leads the final table with 53 big blinds and is closely followed by Ryan Surdi who has 39 big blinds and Edward Holt, with 39 big blinds. The short stack John Carr navigated a sub 10 big blind stack for most of Day 2 and impressively made the final table with 4 big blinds to try and spin up.
| Seat | Player | League | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Saverio Biancardi | Kontenders | 1,585,000 | 13 |
| 2 | Dawna Blyleven | Sunshine PL | 3,965,000 | 33 |
| 3 | Anthony Lundy | New York FP | 2,820,000 | 24 |
| 4 | Brian Lerner | Deepstacks | 6,310,000 | 53 |
| 6 | Edward Holt | EPT | 4,755,000 | 39 |
| 7 | Jeffrey Bowden | EPT | 1,875,000 | 16 |
| 8 | Ryan Surdi | No Limit NY | 5,925,000 | 49 |
| 9 | John Carr | No Limit PPT | 470,000 | 4 |
Play resumes at Level 25 with twenty-seven minutes left on the clock. The blinds are 60,000/120,000 with a 120,000 big blind ante, and all final tablists have locked up $5,788 for their efforts, with the top prize of $100,000, the trophy and the title of Bar Poker Open Champion still to be decided.
| Rank | Prize |
|---|---|
| 1st | $100,000 |
| 2nd | $50,000 |
| 3rd | $25,000 |
| 4th | $15,000 |
| 5th | $11,555 |
| 6th | $10,008 |
| 7th | $7,307 |
| 8th | $5,788 |
Make sure to follow along here on PokerNews for all the updates in this Championship event until a winner is crowned!
