Stephen Chidwick Wins Triton Poker Event for Massive Seven Figure Score

The $200,000-entry Triton Poker Series Short Deck event in Jeju saw Stephen Chidwick beat Wai Kiat Lee to the top prize of $3.45m, the second largest score of the British player’s stellar career at the live felt. A tough final table including legends of the modern game of poker Dan Dvoress and Elton Tsang, all fell away as Chidwick used his stack to bully his talented opponents into submission.

One of Triton’s Biggest Events

With a total of 61 entries and $12.2 million in the prize pool, Chidwick’s win is no less remarkable given the opposition he cut through. Frequently modest in his post-match interview Chidwick highlighted his fortune more than his skills in the format, yet his consistent results and impressive display in this latest event counter that argument.

Wai Kin Yong bubbled the event after losing to Rene Van Krevelen’s pocket aces and running short. Yong, out soon after in 11^th when his two pair were crushed by Chidwick’s straight, cashed for nothing.  Out in 10^th for $313,000, Isaac Haxton min-cashed before Danny Tang left in ninth. The eight-handed final table saw Richard Yong (Wai Kin’s father) bust first, as he cashed for $465,000 and at that stage, Chidwick’s stack of 171 antes was almost double that of his nearest challenger, Elton Tsang, with 86 antes.

Winfred Yu became the first of two Hong Kongese players to bust in quick succession at the start of seven-handed play. Losing with ace-ten to Daniel Dvoress’ ace-queen, Yu cashed for $590,000 after the Canadian hit two queens on the board while already ahead. Soon, Yu was joined on the rail by his compatriot Elton Tsang. This time, pocket queens were no good, as Tsang’s ladies ran into the brick wall of Rene Van Krevelen’s pocket aces. Nothing came to help Tsang across the board, and he busted for a score of $754,000 in fifth place.

Krevelen Won’t Be King

Although his journey at the final table had been relatively trouble-free, the Canadian player Daniel Dvoress soon found out just how punishing Short Deck poker can be. On a board showing Q-9-6-K, Dvoress fired out a big bet with ace-jack. Stephen Chidwick was his caller and on the river of an ace, Dvoress checked. Chidwick committed enough chips to set the Canadian all-in and he called it off, only to see that the British player had jack-ten, meaning Broadway and the nuts. Dvoress cashed for a massive $971,000 but left before the final four.

Chinese player Esti Wang was the next to depart, cashing for $1,234,000 in fourth place. The high stakes cash game player excels in big buy-in tournaments too, as evidenced by this latest result, but after moving all-in for 15 antes with king-ten, he was in horrible shape against the king-queen of Chidwick and it stayed that way across the community cards as the podium places were set.

Chidwick had been dominant at the final table but never more so than at that time, holding around 78.5% of the chips in play. Soon, he had a big lead heads-up, as Wai Kiat Lee’s ace-king of hearts prevailed against Rene Van Krevelen’s pocket tens. The Dutchman was ahead pre-flop but Lee hit an ace to damage his opponent, with Chidwick mopping up the scraps in the next hand to take out his opponent, the Netherlands player cashing for a score of $1,591,000.

Luckless Lee Loses His Wai

“When the chip lead is so large, and the pay-jumps are so big, they can’t really do very much against it.”

With just two players remaining, the Malaysian Wai Kiat Lee hoped that his late momentum would fire him back into contention. At almost an 8:1 chip deficit, however, it was always going to prove tough against one of the best to ever do it. In the final hand, Chidwick’s ten-nine did the trick as he landed a straight by the turn on a board that came K-Q-7-J-7. Wait Kiat Lee lost heads-up for $2,465,000, while the British player banked a whopping $3,455,000 as the winner.

Deferring all the credit, Chidwick said that it was all about his good fortune, whilst admitting that the victory ‘takes off a bit of pressure [and] stress’.

“Obviously, tournament poker is so much variance, short deck especially, and I assume it’s mostly that that is the reason I’ve mostly been winning short deck tournaments and not No Limit [Hold’em] or PLO.”

For someone who has traditionally succeeded playing No Limit Hold’em or Pot Limit Omaha, it is a strange quirk that the Kent-born star has now won three Triton Poker trophies in Short Deck.

“It’s nice to have some momentum going into the big no limits,” he said. “In short deck especially, the chip leader has a big leverage to just play a lot of hands. The pot limit aspect does negate that a little bit, but when the chip lead is so large, and the pay-jumps are so big, it doesn’t really matter. They can’t really do very much against it.”

Having a massive stack took off the pressure according to the latest Triton champion and he said that it was ‘hard to make much of a mistake’.

“I didn’t have too many difficult decisions. It’s pretty funny; I didn’t really prepare for Short Deck this trip. There was only one $50,000 [event] on the schedule, so I just came in pretty rusty. When they kept adding tournaments I was scrambling a bit to try and look up my notes and remember what I used to know.”

What Stephen Chidwick had forgotten about poker would be most players’ entire bank of knowledge on the game. His ascension to becoming the G.O.A.T. (Greatest of All Time) seems only to be a matter of time.