Stephen Chidwick Wins PokerStars European Poker Tour Prague Super High Roller for €725,710
Stephen Chidwick defeated a battling Bertrand Grospellier heads-up to win the PokerStars European Poker Tour Prague €50,000 Super High Roller for €725,710.
The Frenchman came into heads-up with a huge deficit to make up, but two double-ups saw him put up a fight. However, the day was Chidwick's who walked away with his 16th six-figure or more cash of the year.
Grospellier meanwhile secured his biggest cash in two and a half years, taking his lifetime earnings above $14.5m.
Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize (EUR) | Prize (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Stephen Chidwick | United Kingdom | €725,710 | $804,123 |
| 2nd | Bertrand Grospellier | France | €501,590 | $555,787 |
| 3rd | Adrian Mateos | Spain | €320,170 | $354,764 |
| 4th | Steve O'Dwyer | Ireland | €245,460 | $271,982 |
| 5th | Jean-Noel Thorel | France | €192,100 | $212,856 |
| 6th | Ben Heath | United Kingdom | €149,410 | $165,554 |
Winner's Reaction
Coming into the final table third in chips, Chidwick said that the final table is a "fun kind of balancing act."
"You have to change every single hand depending on the stacks," Chidwick told PokerNews. "It depends on how people are playing and it's all about trying to get away with as much as you can. It's about getting in a good chip lead position and that's where you want to be at the final table without risking too many chips."
Chidwick admitted that he had one eye on the Global Poker Index Player of the Year race.
"It's close at the top, so I hope this will help," he said. "I've not had a good record in the big buy-in events at PokerStars festivals. I think this is my first win over 25k at a PokerStars event.
Now over $13m in cashes this year, Chidwick admitted that the cashes will continue to rack up because of the size of the buyins in modern poker.
"I'm always looking to get better year by year, but the biggest difference in recent years is just the size of the buyins."
Final Day Recap
It didn't take long for the first elimination of the day, with Ben Heath sent packing on just the third hand of the day. Jean-Noel Thorel was the beneficiary, with his sevens holding against Heath's ace-queen to not only eliminate the Brit but also move into the chip lead.
Thorel seemed in command for large portions of the early going, chipping up to within touching distance of five million in chips before the pivotal hand came against Stephen Chidwick.
Chidwick had turned a full house while Thorel had turned a straight. The pair got it in on the river and Chidwick doubled into the lead to sit with almost six of the eleven million in play.
Thorel in Reverse
Yesterday, Bertrand Grospellier scored successive doubles through Thorel, and it seemed that streak of luck for him in the battles between the Frenchmen would continue. Getting it in dominated with king-queen against Thorel's ace-queen, Grospellier spiked a king on the flop to double up.
A further double from Steve O'Dwyer would push Thorel closer to the exit before O'Dwyer delivered the coup de grace to send the Frenchman packing in fifth.
Chidwick in Command
O'Dwyer and Grospellier would both trim the lead of Chidwick, but he still led the way at the first break of the day. When the four players resumed, it was Chidwick who padded his chip lead by sending O'Dwyer to the rail. After Chidwick opened with aces, he called a three-bet shove from O'Dwyer who held eights and held to move further ahead.
Adrian Mateos came into the final day as chip leader and had a pretty easy time of it up until now. However, he was next to go. Again it was Chidwick who finished him off, holding queen-jack and turning a jack to best the ace-ten of Mateos.
Heads-up Action
Coming into heads-up, Grospellier held 1.6m to Chidwick's 9.4m in the chips. Grospellier battled away, but that didn't stop Chidwick soon opening an even bigger gap. However, two doubles from Grospellier extended the contest including one where Chidwick rivered the nut flush only for his opponent to turn over a straight flush.
However, with the mounting blinds eventually, the chips had to get in, and all it took was a ten on the turn to seal the victory for Chidwick and for him to add another victory to an already illustrious list of poker achievements.
That concludes PokerNews coverage of the largest buy-in event of the PokerStars EPT Prague festival, but there's still plenty of poker going on, including the EPT Prague Main Event which kicked off earlier today.
