13:30
07 Feb

Stephen Chidwick has strong dominance in the field of high-rollers and already has a $23 million offline prize. However, he has not won the championship at the WSOP, but this situation has been changed, and he finally won the 13th final table at the WSOP Championship. The 30-year-old is from the United Kingdom. Stephen ‘stevie444’ Chidwick Chidwick is an exceptionally talented tournament player that occasionally dabbles in the odd high-stakes mixed game. Appropriately hailing from a small English town called Deal, Chidwick is an exceptionally talented tournament player that occasionally dabbles in the odd high-stakes mixed game. Stephen Chidwick Wins 2019 Card Player Player of the Year Award The 30-Year-Old Poker Pro Improved On His Second-Place Finish In 2018 To Become The First-Ever British POY Winner by Erik Fast.

(Photo: WSOP.com)

England’s Stephen Chidwick stakes his claim for the overall US Poker Open title after taking down his second consecutive event, adding $382,500 for taking down the $25,000 Mixed Event yesterday to the $374,000 he won on Monday in the $25K No Limit event – with a $54,400 5th place in the opening $10K NLHE thrown in for good measure.

Chidwick’s great run saw him enter the mixed event late and he found himself facing the likes of Phil Hellmuth, Daniel Negreanu and Isaac ‘Ike’ Haxton who were among the 45 entries for the High Roller 8-Game tournament, with a delighted Chidwick stating at the end of a long event:

“I really enjoyed the atmosphere, it was a very fun experience.”

Daniel Negreanu has been much in the news, as always, with his sights set on the overall title at the US Poker Open – the Canadian’s hopes looking up after his 3rd place behind Chidwick on Monday and hitting the money again yesterday…

…but he would be first to hit the rail, and on the final table bubble, at the hands of one-time PokerStars colleague Ike Haxton.

He would be followed by erstwhile legend Phil Hellmuth, coming into the final table short-stacked and losing out to high stakes limit and triple draw expert Chris ‘DeathDonkey’ Vitch after his stud flush failed to hit on the river. Hellmuth stated afterwards:

'I'm playing so good right now, it's a pleasure to be at this level.”

When Dan Shak and Benjamin Pollak fell shortly afterwards, the high-class field was down to three; Haxton, Vitch and Chidwick set to battle it out for over 3 hours with the best part of $800,000 at stake.

Haxton’s tilt at the title came up short when he took one hit too many, a Stud 8 hand going Chidwick’s way to leave him on the verge of back-to-back victories, and although Vitch manages a couple of double-ups when in trouble, he couldn’t stave off the inevitable and Chidwick was the winner once again, telling reporters:

Stephen Chidwick Twitter

'I'm just running on caffeine and adrenaline right now”, before adding, “I'm pretty happy how I played today.'

Final table results:

More Stephen Chidwick Videos

Chidwick’s second big win leaves him way out in front in the overall leaderboard race…

Current 2018 US Poker Open standings

Stephen Chidwick Poker Twitter

In anticipation of the British Poker Open on PokerGO, enjoy this throwback podcast featuring Stephen Chidwick, the No. 1 player from the UK. This podcast was originally published in March of 2018.

One of the few players who proved himself to be one of the elite at this summer’s World Series of Poker was Stephen Chidwick. The man from Kent in England won his first-ever bracelet, confirming his reputation among many of the world’s best players that Britain’s most successful tournament player might just be one of the greatest live poker players in history.

BEHIND THE DOMINANT TABLE IMAGE

While it would be easy to analyze Stephen Chidwick and assume much of his greatness comes from his mastery of the live arena, much of the theory behind his phenomenal success has actually happened in the past four years.

As Chidwick explains to Remko Rinkema is this archive edition of ‘Heads Up with Remko’, the precursor to today’s now-on-screen Poker Central Podcast, he started studying GTO or Game Theory Optimal play, back in 2015.

“The introduction of PO solver was a game-changer,” says Chidwick. “I started working with it in 2015. Before that, it was Cardrunner EV which was time-consuming and hard to use. PO solver is a much more powerful piece of software than anything we’ve seen before.”

DEFINING STUDY AS SUCCESS

Some in the game will point to those who have enjoyed success without it, much as everyone knows an aged relative of a friend-of-a-friend who drinks three whiskeys a day and smokes like an industrial chimney. Chidwick is a confirmed fan of the software and sees how it has impacted his results as incredibly positive.

Stephen Chidwick Birthplace

“I spend quite a bit of time studying the theory behind different spots. I see that the computer wants to check-raise or slow play certain hands a percentage of the time and from there you can use that as your baseline for some exploitative play. Without knowing where the line is in the first place it’s harder to know which side of line people are on.”

ARE SOLVERS CRUCIAL?

Stephen Chidwick Net Worth

While there will always be players who point out that Viktor Blom was an online boss without a HUD or that the Main Event champion of a certain year believes GTO to be an abbreviation for Game of Thrones, for the Deal-based super high roller, the value is simply too good to turn down at the level he plays at.

“I think you’re doing yourself a disservice if you ignore them.” He says. “There are players who don’t use them and are good players. If you’re smart, you can pick up what players are doing and figure it out backward. You can get very good without using solvers.”

Chidwick was not happy with simply being ‘good’ at the game. In the 18 months since this was recorded, he’s banked over $19.5 million, more than half of his incredible $31 million haul for live tournament poker. GTO is working for one of the GOATs of this poker era.

Insane Call By Stephen Chidwick - Triton Million London 2019 ...

If you’re looking forward to the British Poker Open as much as Stephen Chidwick, the greatest tournament poker player in British history, or if you’re simply excited about watching the latest installment of the Super high roller bowl, check out the Live Events schedule for the festival on PokerGO right now.