Chad Eveslage Wins First Bracelet In 2022 World Series of Poker $25,000 High Roller

You can follow the 2022 World Series of Poker on Card Player’s series landing page, sponsored by Global Poker, the fastest growing online poker room in the world. Check out the series schedule, as well as event recaps, news, and player interviews.

Chad Eveslage has been around the live poker tournament circuit for more than a decade now, with 190 recorded cashes totaling over $5.6 million in earnings. More than $4 million of that money has been won since the start of 2021, with a number of marquee victories recorded in the past year and a half. Eveslage secured the largest payday yet by taking down the 2022 World Series of Poker $25,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em eight-max event for his first gold bracelet and the top prize of $1,415,610.

“It feels good,” said Eveslage with a smile when asked about adding a WSOP title to his rapidly growing list of accomplishments. “It’s a lot of money and it’s a bracelet.”

Eveslage was also awarded plenty of rankings points for what was his second qualifying score of the year, having previously finished seventh in a $2,200 buy-in WSOP Circuit event at Isle Casino Pompano Park. The 1,428 Card Player Player of the Year points he was awarded as the champion of this event moved him into 66th place in the 2022 POY race, which is sponsored by Global Poker. He also locked up 700 PokerGO Tour points, enough to move him into 28th place on that leaderboard.

Eveslage is now both a WSOP and World Poker Tour champion, having won the WPT Venetian last summer for $910,370. Seven of his top ten largest scores have come since the start of 2021. Prior to his breakout in larger buy-in events last year, Eveslage’s success had come primarily in tournaments with buy-ins between $1,600 and $3,500. When asked about how he made the transition to the higher stakes events, he attributed it to improvements made during the live shutdown during the pandemic.

“I basically just played online poker every day during quarantine and worked very hard,” said Eveslage. “I think that’s when I went from, you know, an average professional to whatever I am now; a slightly above average or above-average pro.”

Eveslage was one of 251 entries made in this event. The large turnout resulted in a $5,929,875 prize pool that was paid out among the top 38 finishers. Given the stakes, it should come as no surprise that plenty of the biggest names in the game made deep runs, including 10-time bracelet winner Phil Ivey (34th – $40,648), four-time bracelet winner and recent $100,000 bounty champion David Peters (27th – $50,810), five-time bracelet winner Brian Rast (19th – $57,009), 2015 main event champion Joseph McKeehen (18th – $57,009), and World Poker Tour champion Alex Foxen (17th – $57,009).

Just 15 players made it through to the third and final day of this event. WPT champion Justin Young (15th – $65,511), WPT champion Taylor von Kriegenbergh (13th – $77,056), 2021 breakout POY contender Jesse Lonis (12th – $77,056), bracelet winner Byron Kaverman (11th – $92,725), and Daniel Colpoys (9th – $114,094) were among the players to fall as the field was narrowed to at the official final table of eight.

Ognyan Dimov was the next to hit the rail. The bracelet winner and 2015 European Poker Tour Deauville main event champion ran pocket nines into the pocket jacks of Eveslage. The board improved neither player and Dimov was eliminated in eighth place ($143,480). He now has more than $3 million in career cashes to his name.

Antonio Lievano’s run in this event concluded when his pocket sixes clashed with the pocket tens of Eveslage. The larger pair held up again and Lievano was sent home with a career-best tournament score of $184,324.

Eveslage took a huge chunk out of fellow big stack Chris Brewer when he flopped a set of fives against Brewer’s top pair of kings. After getting a healthy value bet paid off on the river, Eveslage took a sizable lead on the rest of the field.

Eveslage soon expanded that advantage even further by earning a double knockout. With two of the short stacks in the blinds, he open-shoved from the button with K8. Reigning WSOP main event champion Koray Aldemir called all-in for around six blig blinds with KQ from the small blind. Then, 2021 WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showown winner Brek Schutten came along for his last 17 big blidns with AJ from the big blind. The flop came down A75 to give Schutten top pair but Eveslage the nut flush draw. The 4 on the turn left Aldemir drawing dead, but gave Eveslage a gutshot straight draw to go with his flush draw. The 6 on the river completed Eveslage’s straight to send the massive pot his way. Check out a replay of the hand from PokerGO’s exclusive streaming coverage below.

WHAT JUST HAPPENED?!?!

A massive pot goes the way of chadeveslage</a> after he finds a straight on the river to send <a href="https://twitter.com/kooraay90?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">kooraay90 and @BSchutten home.

– Stream is live: https://t.co/pdvq5CmtUC pic.twitter.com/IaiWdRlOCq

— PokerGO (@PokerGO) June 7, 2022

Aldemir earned $241,791 for his second final-table finish of the series, having placed fifth in the $100,000 bounty event just a few days earlier for $249,693. The German high-stakes pro now has more than $21 million in lifetime earnings. Schutten was awarded $323,730 as the fifth-place finisher. This was his second-largest score behind the $1.2 million he secured in his WPT victory last year.

Eveslage surged to nearly 24 million in chips after that hand, with Chris Brewer’s 6.5 million as the next-largest stack among the final four contenders. Brewer slipped to the bottom of the chip counts before the next key pot arose. He open-shoved K10 from the button for 18 big blinds. Four-time bracelet winner Josh Arieh, who had him covered by just a couple big blinds, called with 66 from the big blind. The board ran out A422Q and Brewer was knocked out in fourth place ($442,213). This was his 14th final table of the year, with three titles won and more than $2.2 million in year-to-date POY earnings accrued along the way. He now sits in fifth place in the POY standings.

Arieh was second in chips when three-handed play began, while Jake Schindler was at the bottom of the counts. Schindler doubled up through Eveslage, with his A-8 improving to trips to best the chip leader’s pocket kings. He then earned a second double up, this time getting the last of his chips in on a double paired board after the river. He had fives full, and received a call from Arieh’s fours full.

Arieh was left short after that hand. He earned one double up, and was well situated to score second, but his pocket jacks were outflopped by Schindler’s pocket deuces. Arieh, the reigning WSOP Player of the Year, was awarded $616,047 for his third-place showing. This was his first cash of 2022 as he looks to defend his POY title.

Heads-up play began with Eveslage sitting on 19,650,000, while Schindler had climbed to 18,025,000. Eveslage jumped out to a 2:1 lead thanks to a river nut flush besting the flopped top pair of Schindler. He was able to extend that lead to more than an 8:1 advantage before Schindler earned a double up, with A-J holding against Eveslage’s A-5.

In the final hand of the tournament, Schindler limped in with 106 from the button with 12 big blinds. Eveslage checked his option with K3 and the flop came down K96. Eveslage checked with top pair and Schindler checked behind. The 3 on the turn gave Eveslage kings up, while Schindler added a flush draw to go with his pair of sixes. The 10 river gave Schindler tens up. Eveslage moved all-in, an overbet of more than 3.8 million into the pot of 2.8 million. Schindler thought it over for a while before making the call with two pair, only to be shown the better two pair. The 2022 Super High Roller Bowl Europe main event champion earned $874,915 for his runner-up finish, increasing his career earnings to more than $34.7 million. He also secured 1,190 POY points, enough to see him soar to seventh in the POY standings. With 2,017 PGT points, he is now fourth in that race as well.

Here is a look at the payouts and rankings points awarded at the final table:

You can follow the 2022 World Series of Poker on Card Player’s series landing page, sponsored by Global Poker, the fastest growing online poker room in the world. Check out the series schedule, as well as event recaps, news, and player interviews.

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