Stephen Chidwick won his first live tournament of 2021 on Tuesday, taking the crown in the Poker Masters Event #7: $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em. For outlasting 67 opponents, Chidwick added $183,600 to his more than $36 million in lifetime earnings.
Chidwick entered the second day of the tournament in the chip lead with just five players remaining. He used pocket Kings to eliminate Dan Smith in fourth place and then used that same hand to clinch the title. Going into heads-up play against Dylan DeStefano, Chidwick held a substantial lead, 5.68 million chips to 2.82 million, a lead which only grew.
On the final hand, DeStefano raised to 180,000 with Q-T, Chidwick re-raised to 550,000 with his Kings, and DeStefano made the call to bring on a flop of Q-9-5. Normally a great heads-up flop for DeStefano, but having top pair in this situation was deadly. Chidwick bet 350,000 and DeStefano once again called. The turn was an innocuous 3 and it was another bet/call situation, this time for 525,000. The river produced an 8; Chidwick put DeStefano all-in, who obliged with a call, only to see the terrible result.
This was Stephen Chidwick’s second straight cash at the Poker Masters, catapulting him to fifth on the leaderboard with five events remaining. The Poker Masters has quickly become a prestigious poker festival, with the winner claiming the coveted purple jacket.
Afterward, Chidwick told PokerGO how excited he was to get results and have a chance to claim the leaderboard title.
“I always feel like when I’m coming into a series like this that I’m one of the favorites to string together some big results and win the jacket,” he said. “To get off the mark the past couple of days and put myself in contention, I guess it’s a bit of a relief heading into the higher stakes portion of the series to be able to be within striking distance.”
Still atop the leaderboard is Daniel Negreanu, fresh off of his win in Event #5, plus one additional cash. With 281 points, he is just a single point ahead of Sean Perry, who has one Poker Masters victory this year and three total cashes. In third place is Brock Wilson with 272 points, followed by DeStefano with 260 and Chidwick with 232. Of the top seven in the standings, DeStefano is the only one without a tournament win. He is tied with Perry, however, with the most cashes.
2021 Poker Masters Event #7 – Final In the Money Standings
- Stephen Chidwick – $183,600
- Dylan DeStefano – $136,000
- AP Louis Garza – $88,400
- Brekstyn Schutten – $68,000
- Dan Smith – $54,400
- Sean Perry – $40,800
- Shawn Daniels – $34,000
- Jeffrey Trudeau – $27,200
- Matthew Wantman – $27,200
- Ben Yu – $20,400
Image credit: PokerGO.com
