Stephen Chidwick Wins Second Career World Series of Poker Bracelet

Stephen Chidwick’s poker tournament resume is truly one of the most impressive in the history of the game. At just 35 years of age, the poker pro from Deal, England has already accumulated nearly $63.6 million in career earnings, which is good for third place on poker’s all-time money list.

The two-time Card Player Player of the Year award winner’s latest success on the circuit saw him defeat a field of 122 entries in the 2024 World Series of Poker Paradise $50,000 buy-in pot-limit Omaha event. For the win Chidwick earned $1,357,080 and his second career WSOP bracelet. He became the 10th English player to have captured multiple bracelets.

This was the 13th seven-figure cash of Chidwick’s career. It lands in sixth place in terms of his top scores, with his best payday remaining the nearly $5.4 million he earned for a fourth-place showing in the 2019 Triton Millions Charity Invitational that remains the largest buy-in tournament ever held. More than $5.4 million of Chidwick’s career earnings have now come from pot-limit Omaha tournaments, which is good for second on the PLO all-time money list.

With five titles and 20 final-table finishes so far this year, Chidwick now sits in 10th place in the 2024 POY standings presented by Global Poker. He is still in with a shot at adding another victory in the prestigious points race, which he came out on top of in both 2019 and 2022.

This event took three days to play down to a champion. The strong turnout at the Atlantis Paradise Island Bahamas resulted in a prize pool of $6,100,000 which was split amongst the top 18 finishers. Plenty of legends of the game ran deep, including two-time bracelet winner Joao Simao (15th), all-time bracelet leader Phil Hellmuth (14th), bracelet winner Ronald Keijzer (13th), seven-time bracelet winner Scott Seiver (11th), two-time bracelet winner Artur Martirosian (10th), Triple Crown winner Mike Watson (9th), and bracelet winner Sam Greenwood (8th).

Event No. 8 – PLO Championship – Final 7

Here are your final 7! They’ll be playing for the coveted WSOP #Bracelet and a $1,357,080 Cash Prize!

Benjamin Tollerene leads by a large margin with 14,465,000 (120.5BBs) pic.twitter.com/TpolD2UtEp

— WSOP – World Series of Poker (@WSOP) December 13, 2024

The final day began with seven players remaining and recent WSOP Paradise $100,000 PLO event runner-up Ben Tollerene in the lead. Chidwick was sixth in chips, but only four big blinds separated the short stack from the player in the middle of the pack.

Tollerene eliminated bracelet winner Lefrancois (7th – $226,160) to add to his stack in the early going. Five-time bracelet winner Benny Glaser soon followed. The UK poker pro was left on fumes after Tollerene won a big pot at showdown with fours full of threes. China’s Yang Wang captured Glaser’s final 5,000 chip, sending him home with $304,870 for his efforts. Glaser now has nearly $8.4 million in lifetime earnings.

Chidwick doubled through Tollerene during five-handed play. He then grew his stack even more when his A-K-5-5 king high diamonds bested the Q-Q-J-7 with queen-high spades of two-time bracelet winner Dylan Weisman (5th – $410,970). This was the 15th final-table finish of the year for Weisman, who now sits in 11th in the POY standings heading into the final few weeks of the year.

Five-time bracelet winner Nick Schulman was hot on Weisman’s heels. Schulman got all-in with KKQ10 facing the AQQ6 of Chidwick. The board came down 977A6 and Chidwick’s aces and sevens sent Schulman packing in fourth place ($553,990). This score increased his total tournament earnings to more than $21.5 million.

Tollerene ultimately bowed out in third place. He got the last of his stack in with QQ95 facing the AJ108 of Wang. The A5424 board gave Wang aces and fours with a jack kicker to win the pot. Tollerene earned $746,790 for his second PLO podium finish of the week, bringing his haul for the series to more than $2.3 million.

Wang took the lead into head-sup play, but an early double-up for Chidwick all but evened the playing field. The key pot of the match began with Chidwick raising to 1,800,000 on the button with KQJ10. Wang three-bet to 5,400,000 holding AK83 from the big blind and Chidwick called. The flop came down J102 and both players checked. The 8 on the turn also drew a couple of checks. The 2 completed the board and Wang fired out a bet of 5,000,000. Chidwick thought it over for a while before making the call with jacks and tens to pick off Wang’s bluff.

That hero call gave Chidwick more than a 4:1 chip lead. Wang managed a few double-ups to keep his hopes alive, but was eventually all-in with AQ43 trailing AA72 for Chidwick. The board came down K10867 to eliminate Wang as the runner-up. He earned a career-best payday of $1,006,680 for his strong showing.

Breaking!

Stephen Chidwick is your 2024 PLO Championship Bracelet Winner! Congratulations on your SECOND WSOP Bracelet and a $1,357,080 cash prize! #wsopPARADISE pic.twitter.com/pPzlwqKQsc

— WSOP – World Series of Poker (@WSOP) December 14, 2024

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

Photo credit: World Series of Poker.