Stephen Chidwick has won his second WSOP bracelet after a six-year wait following a dominating performance in the WSOP Paradise $50,000 PLO Championship.
The Englishman is one of the true elite players in the game right now with devastatingly consistent results against the top players in the live tournament game.
Event #8: $50,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Championship pulled in 122 entries, more than respectable considering the size of the buy-in.
The $6,100,000 prize pool was shared between the top 18 finishers with a cool $1,357,080 up top for the winner.
Talking to reporters after his win, Chidwick said:
“Winning anytime it feels great. Bracelets are something that used to be a huge goal of mine in the earlier part of my career. As time has gone on, my focus has kind of shifted a bit more to some other tours and some of the higher stakes tournaments.
“I stopped playing as many tournaments over the summer, I used to play like every single one. It feels nice only playing the high buy-ins now to still snag one.
“If I have some skills in PLO tournaments, it’s probably mostly applying my tournament knowledge across to PLO since the majority of the very strongest PLO players are primary cash players so there aren’t a whole lot of tournaments.
“Having an okay foundation in the theory of PLO, and then very strong tournament fundamentals, hopefully I’m able to combine those two.”
Action Recap
Stephen Chidwick began his final table charge in sixth place with only 12 big blinds. Clearly a lot of work to do, especially given the commanding lead that PLO ninja Ben Tollerene was sat with.
As quick as a flash, Tollerene ended the runs of Pascal Lefrancois and Benny Glaser, the latter left with only crumbs and busting minutes later.
But Chidwick made a move of his own, doubling up through the runaway chip leader. He was now third and making headway.
Tollerene then started to hemorrhage chips, losing a chunk to China’s Yang Wang before he doubled up Chidwick again.
Dylan Weisman was next to fall, exiting in fifth place with a prize of $410,970. Minutes later, Chidwick knocked out Nick Schulman by cracking his pocket kings when the turn came an ace.
Ben Tollerene must be wondering what he has to do to win a WSOP bracelet. He’s one of the best PLO cash game players ever and has come close on plenty of occasions in the past.
Getting pocket queens in with a short stack is usually a cause to feel optimistic but here, a flopped ace for Wang was all it took to send Tollerene to the rail.
Wang led by two-to-one when heads-up play started. Chidwick came out firing and soon found his first double-up.
There then followed a cagey period where only small pots were being won by both players before Chidwick made a great hero call that gave him a four-to-one advantage.
Wang wasn’t done, however, putting together a pair of double-ups that closed the gap significantly.
But then the inevitable happened: seeking a third double-up that would have given him a nice lead, Wang got all his chips in against Chidwick’s pocket aces and he was out.
This win puts Chidwick right behind Justin Bonomo for second place in the all-time winners money list.
WSOP Paradise $50,000 PLO Championship Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize (USD) |
| 1 | Stephen Chidwick | United Kingdom | $1,357,080 |
| 2 | Yang Wang | China | $1,006,680 |
| 3 | Ben Tollerene | United States | $746,790 |
| 4 | Nick Schulman | United States | $553,990 |
| 5 | Dylan Weisman | United States | $410,970 |
| 6 | Benny Glaser | United Kingdom | $304,870 |
| 7 | Pascal Lefrancois | Canada | $226,160 |
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