Stephen Chidwick Crushes Poker Masters $25,000 Final Table

Stephen Chidwick absolutely dominated the final day of the latest $25,000 buy-in event at the 2023 Poker Masters. The 34-year-old British poker pro came into the final day with 60 percent of the chips in play and leveraged that advantage to great effect. It took him just over an hour and a half to convert his start-of-day lead into the title, scoring four of five knockouts down the stretch to secure the trophy and the top prize of $400,000.

This was Chidwick’s 41st recorded tournament title. He has now earned more than $52.4 million across 395 lifetime cashes, the third-highest total of any poker player in the world. Only Bryn Kenny ($65,284,256) and Justin Bonomo ($64,106,800) sit ahead of Chidwick on poker’s all-time money list.

Chidwick has won the Card Player Player of the Year award twice, in 2019 and 2022. He is among the top contenders yet again this year, with 19 final tables and five titles won so far in 2023. The 420 POY points he earned in this event increased his total to 7,370 on the year, good for sixth place on the 2023 POY leaderboard presented by Global Poker.

This victory also moved Chidwick inside the top 25 in the 2023 PokerGO Tour points race. With 297 PGT points earned in this series, he has joined the top five in the race for the Poker Masters Purple Jacket.

Day 1 of this event saw the field of 50 entries that turned out to the PokerGO Studio at ARIA Resort & Casino in Las Vegas narrowed down to just six contenders. Chidwick had roughly 4.8 times as many chips as the next-largest stack, which belonged to two-time bracelet winner Sam Soverel.

Chidwick soon busted event no. 4 winner Chino Rheem (6th – $75,000) and event no. 2 champion Darren Elias (5th – $100,000) to further expand his chip advantage.

Two-time bracelet winner Chris Brewer was the next to fall. Brewer was the only player knocked out by somebody other than Chidwick on day 2. His K-Q suited was unable to come from behind against the A-J of the same suit that had been dealt to bracelet winner Alex Foxen. Brewer cashed for $125,000 as the fourth-place finisher. This was his 22nd final-table showing of the year, with five titles won and nearly $11.2 million in POY earnings accrued along the way. He now sits in third place in the POY race.

Chidwick lost two all-ins during three-handed play, but picked up pocket aces against the A-K suited of Foxen and held to set up the heads-up showdown for the title. Foxen was awarded $175,000 and 280 POY points for his 19 final table of the year. He moved into seventh place on the POY leaderboard after this result, with three titles and nearly $2.7 million in POY earnings so far in 2023.

Soverel had 825,000 to Chidwick’s 6,675,000 when heads-up action got underway. The final hand saw all of the chips go in on a Q993 board with Chidwick holding 62 for a flush and Soverel having QJ for queens and nines. Soverel needed a queen or nine on the river to double up, but the K appeared on the river instead to lock up the pot and the title for Chidwick.

Soverel cashed for $262,500, increasing his lifetime earnings to nearly $22.4 million. He now sits in 22nd place in the POY standings with 13 final tables and two titles won this year.

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

Photo credits: PokerGO / Antonio Abrego.

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