The past 10 days in Las Vegas attracted the attention of a large part of the poker public, which was captivated by the 8th annual high stakes PokerMasters series. The battles for the purple jacket this year also brought ten events with buy-ins of $10k/$25k/$50k, which, as expected, attracted the most famous names of world poker to the game. We carefully mapped this event from the beginning, and after the rocket start of Vladas Tamasauskas, we also informed you about the successes of Chino Rheem and Orpen Kisacikoglu.
Champions of $25k tournaments
Before the main tournament of the entire series, which was the final $50,000 Main Event, three more titles were handed out, which also ended up in the hands of old and new champions. The seventh event already with a price tag of $25,200 produced 44 entries, of which Nick Schulman became the best. He dealt with Nick Petrangelo in heads-up and, in addition to the trophy, he also took home $374,000 and 224 points in the overall score. Nick thus brilliantly followed up his successful summer, which, in addition to numerous ITM placements, also gave him his fourth WSOP bracelet ($1,500 seven card stud event).
After an exemplary one-man show, the trophy from the 8th event landed in the hands of Stephen Chidwick, who once again confirmed his reputation as one of the most feared NLH tournament players in the world. Chidwick entered the final table of this event with more than 60% of all chips in play, and gradually cleared the entire table with his extremely active and aggressive play. Even names like Chino Rheem, Alex Foxen and Chris Brewer had no chance, but Stephen happily took home the trophy and $400,000.
The 9th event was a great appetizer before the Main Event, which welcomed four champions at the final table out of six players. Justin Bonomo settled at the head of the peloton with a big lead, but he had to fend off attacks from the aforementioned Chidwick, Rheem, Lichtenberger and Kisacikoglu. He did that successfully, and in the end it was his first Poker Masters title and a reward of $333,000.
Grand finale
This year, too, the tension was brought to the end, as several players were still in the game for the purple jacket before the Main Event. The two-time champion Vladas Tamasauskas continued to hold the lead, but theoretically up to six of the eight participants of the ME final table could dethrone him. The closest to that was Chino Rheem, who entered this final table from the position of chip leader.
Rheem finished his journey in the tournament in 5th place (168,000), which meant that he was only narrowly ahead of Tamasauskas in the overall ranking. Alex Foxen and Stephen Chidwick could still dethrone him, and one of them managed to do it in the end. Although Jonathan Jaffe eventually became the champion of the Main Event for a record $756,000, the purple jacket went to runner-up Stephen Chidwick.
Chidwick took home one title and four cashouts totaling $1,109,000 from this year's Poker Masters thanks to his second-place finish in the Main Event. Thanks to ME, he finally grabbed the purple jacket for himself and once again confirmed why many consider him the most demanding opponent in the world.
Source: PGT, CardPlayer, HendonMob
