Stephen Chidwick Wins Event #7: $10,000 NL Hold’em at the 2021 Poker Masters for $183,600

Event #7: $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em at the 2021 Poker Masters is in the books, and the winner is Stephen Chidwick. Chidwick topped a field of 68 entries to win the tournament’s $183,600 first-place prize.

Through the first five events of the 2021 Poker Masters, Chidwick had whiffed on making the money, but he’s now put together two consecutive results that have moved him into fifth place on the overall series leaderboard. Chidwick placed third in Event #6: $10,000 8-Game right before he went on to win this event.

“It feels great,” Chidwick said of moving into the top five of the 2021 Poker Masters leaderboard. “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. 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.”

Known as one of the top minds in the game and for having a high work ethic, Chidwick also spoke about how much it takes to perform at such a high level, with a lot of the work coming off the felt in preparation for events like these at the Poker Masters.

“For me, very,” Chidwick said of how important preparation is off the felt. “I spend a lot of time in between days and in the run-up to series like this trying to prepare as best as I can. Especially for this kind of series when there’s a tournament every single day for 10-plus days and if you’re doing well you’re playing 10, 11, or 12 hours in a day. I still try and find the time when I’m done to review spots or look at streams or other things to prepare for the next day.”

Chidwick, who is currently seventh on poker’s all-time money list with more than $36 million in live tournament earnings, consistently competes in the highest stakes around the world against some of the game’s best players. Wherever you look, especially on the PokerGO Tour presented by Guaranteed Rate, Chidwick is there and it appears safe to say that will continue for quite some time.

“If I stop enjoying it, then I’ll probably stop playing as much,” Chidwick said. “But right now, I love it as much as I ever have, my motivation is very high, and I just really, really enjoy it. I don’t have any plans to slow down anytime soon.”

If you’d like to relive all of the action from the final table, you can find the replay on PokerGO.com.

Day 2 of Event #7 began with five players remaining and Chidwick in the lead. First to bust was Dan Smith, hitting the rail when his pocket eights ran into the pocket kings of Chidwick. Smith picked up $54,400 in prize money.

Next to go was Brek Schutten, busting in fourth place when his ace-king lost to AP Louis Garza’s ace-seven. The money went in preflop and Garza flopped two pair. Schutten earned $68,000.

Garza was next to go. He once again for the money in preflop with ace-seven, only this time he wasn’t able to come from behind against Dylan DeStefano’s . DeStefano had raised on the button, Garza moved all in from the small blind, and DeStefano made the call. The board ran out to eliminate Garza.

Heads-up play began with Chidwick still in the chip lead. He had 5.68 million in chips to DeStefano’s 2.82 million. Chidwick worked to increase his lead from there and then finished things off in the same way he got the final table eliminations started, by holding pocket kings.

With the blinds at 40,000/80,000 with an 80,000 big blind ante, DeStefano raised to 180,000 on the button with the . Chidwick looked down to find the in the big blind and three-bet to 550,000. DeStefano made the call and the flop came . Chidwick bet 350,000 and DeStefano made the call. The turn was the and Chidwick bet 525,000. DeStefano made the call and the river was the . With 2.93 million in the pot, Chidwick put DeStefano all in. DeStefano had 885,000 left in his stack and made the call. DeStefano saw the bad news and was eliminated in second place for $136,000.

While Chidwick improved to fifth place on the Poker Masters leaderboard, Daniel Negreanu remains at the top. Sean Perry finished in sixth place in this event and moved to within one point of Negreanu. DeStefano jumped up to fourth place, directly ahead of Chidwick.

You can see the top 10 of the 2021 Poker Masters leaderboard below.

The only change within the top 10 of the PokerGO Tour presented by Guaranteed Rate leaderboard is to Perry’s point total, and he increased to 2,301 points to narrow the gap some with leader Ali Imsirovic.

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