A round-up from the PokerStars Championship Barcelona, including, Sander van Wesemael winning his third PokerStars Cup of the season, Stephen Chidwick winning his second €25k Single Day High Roller of the season, and news of another huge PokerStars Championship Main Event first prize.
Fedor ‘freak’ Holz aside, predicting the winner of a poker tournament is like a meteorologist trying to predict the weather in Rotherham. But there was always one sure thing we could predict, Stephen Chidwick, would drop the baton in the home straight.
And now we can’t even get that right.
Chidwick, whom many in the know, refer to as one of the best players in the world, has a bionic sense of intuition and game theory, and now it seems the British pro has finally convinced luck that it isn’t all that bad on his side of the fence.
The €25,500 Single Day High Roller title, at the PokerStars Championship in Barcelona, is sitting in Chidwick’s suitcase, after he defeated 112 entrants to take down the €690,400 first prize.
As you would imagine the final table was home to a glut of talented pros, including Isaac Haxton, Adrian Mateos, and the PokerStars Championship Sochi Player of the Tournament, Vladimir Troyanovskiy. But it was Bryn Kenney and Chidwick who started throwing handbags at each other from ten paces to determine the winner.
Kenney got it in holding pocket threes, and Chidwick called holding pocket eights.
The heads-up didn’t take long, but the entire tournament ran for 14hours. It’s a good job these guys and gals don’t have a trade union.
Chidwick also won this event in Panama, defeating 44 entrants to capture the $366,500 first prize. His latest victory is the largest prize of his career that now peaks over the $8m in live tournament mark. Only Sam Trickett has earned more in UK poker circles.
Here are the final results:
1. Stephen Chidwick – €690,400
2. Bryn Kenney – €466,500
3. Igor Yaroshevskyy – €303,200
4. Isaac Haxton – €251,100
5. Quan Zhou – €202,500
6. Jan Eric Schwippert – €159,700
7. Adrian Mateos – €122,100
8. Vladimir Troyanovskiy – €91,940
The second €25,500 Single Day High Roller takes place August 24.
Thrice is Right For Sander van Wesemael
If there is a PokerStars Cup on the schedule, then all bets are off.
Sander van Wesemael will win it.
In June, the man from the Netherlands topp
ed a field of 788 entrants to win the €330 buy-in PokerStars Cup at the PokerStars Festival Marbella, earning €36,450.
Last month, he did it again, winning the €330 buy-in PokerStars Cup at the PokerStars Festival Lille, defeating 558 entrants to secure the €28,704 prize.
Winning two PokerStars Cups in a single season is a fantastic achievement. To win three is downright ridiculous, but that’s what’s just happened, when van Wesemael beat 2,648 entrants to bank a lifetime best of €127,000, after agreeing on a four-way deal.
A year ago, PokerStars Team Pro, Lex Veldhuis, made the final table of a $22 buy-in Pot-Limit Omaha (PLO) Six-Max Turbo event, playing online at PokerStars, so they renamed the game The Lex Veldhuis Open. Stars even promised to rename the game in someone else’s honour should they repeat RaSZi’s feat.
So, come on, PokerStars.
Let’s rename this bad boy the Sander van Wesemael Open.
PokerStars Championship Winner to Bank €1.4m
For the first time in six-years, attendance for the PokerStars Championship (formerly European Poker Tour Main Event), has seen a dip in numbers, but it still represents one of the largest fields outside of the Las Vegas scene at this high a buy-in level.
1,682 players entered the €5,300 buy-in Main Event, and 247 players will finish ITM. Here are the final table payouts:
1. €1,410,000
2. €790,500
3. €554,000
4. €402,000
5. €317,960
6. €252,000
7. €193,000
8.€136,000
9. €104,000
Although the field size failed to better the 1,785 players who entered the last term, 1,682 still represents the third largest Barcelona Main Event field in history, a far cry from the 229 players who began in 2004, when Alex Stevic from Sweden won the €80,000 first prize.
