Stephen Chidwick leads all British players in all-time money for a reason. The poker savant added $216,000 more to his tournament earnings after he won USPO Event #1 $10,000 NL at the Aria Casino in Las Vegas. Chidwick won his third overall USPO title by outlasting 90 runners in the opening event of the 2019 US Poker Open.
Another day, another tournament win by Stevie Chidwick. Is there anything he can't win? Should everyone else go home right now? Why bother playing the USPO if Chidwick is going to win all the money? The GOAT is in Vegas and everyone else better run for cover.
Last year, Chidwick won Event #3 and Event #4 for back-to-back US Poker Open victories. He walked away with the overall USPO title after cashing in six of eight events. He swooped into Vegas and left with a quick $1.2 million. Baller. Gangsta. Piece of cake.
Back in the day, during the peak Stu Ungar years (before the cocaine sunk its claws into him and sucked away at his soul) whenever he bought into a tournament, everyone else admittedly played for second place. No one thought twice about it. They didn't even bother to look at the first-place payout. Their eyes stopped at the runner-up share. That's what everyone was playing for.
Chidwick is back to his old trick. In the opening event of the 2019 US Poker Open at the Aria Casino in Las Vegas, first-place paid out $216,000 but in reality, it was the second-place payout of $157,500 that everyone else was after. This was Chidwick's event. The rest of the fools got to fight over the scraps. The top three in this event had the biggest scraps.
The $10,000 buy-in Event #1 attracted 90 players and a prize pool of $900K. Only the top 13 places paid out. Among the players who cashed and went deep were Erik Seidel, Jake Schindler, Maxx Coleman, Dan Weinand, Jordan Cristos, Jerry Robinson, and Bryn Kenny, fresh off his Aussie Millions win. Kenney busted in tenth place, but still cashed.
The final six included Stephen Chidwick, Sean Winter, Joe Cheong, Joe Cappello, Lazaro Hernandez, and Joseph Orsino. Yes... three Joes at the final table and not one Joe won. Chidwick outlasted three Joes and a Sean and Lazaro to bink the opening event at the USPO.
Joseph Orsino hit the road first, followed by Lazaro Hernandez in fifth, and Joe Cappello in fourth.
Joe Cheong cashed for low six-figures with a $112K score. His bust out in third, set up a heads-up battle between Sean Winter and Stevie Chidwick. Ah, Winter knew what was up. Second place beckoned the.
Winter earned $157,500 for second place, while Chidwick is $216K richer. He's no banked $21.5 million according to Hendon Mob. No one in the British Kingdom won more in tournaments than Chidwick. And that doesn't count his online scores.
STEVIE GOAT, indeed.
2019 USPO Event #1 $10K NL
Buy-in $10,000
Entrants: 90
Prize Pool: $900,000
Payouts: 13
Final Table Results:
1. Stephen Chidwick (UK) $216,000
2. Sean Winter (USA) $157,500
3. Joe Cheong (USA) $112,500
4. Joseph Cappello (USA) $90,000
5. Lazaro Hernandez (USA) $72,000
6. Joseph Orsino (USA) $54,000
Meanwhile, the USPO declared another champion. Jordan Cristos binked the $10K PLO event for a $179K score. The USPO Event #2 attracted 64 runners. Only ten places paid out in this one.
Brent Roberts bubbled the final table in seventh place. Dan Shak cashed in 8th place, Ben Yu in 9th, and Anthony Alberto in tenth place.
Jordan Cristos outlasted a PLO final table that included Manig Loeser, Martin Zamani, Adam Hendrix, Cary Catz, and Sean Winter. Yeah, Winter is hot early on. He made his second final table in two events at the USPO. He took sixth place in this one.
Jordan Cristos picked off German pro Maning Loeser for the PLO victory. Loeser banked $128K for a runner-up finish. Cristos is now $179,200 richer.
