If he carries on like this, Stephen Chidwick will be getting cat-calls each time he walks into a poker room. I often wonder whether the people realise amid greatness that they are creating a legacy? I wonder what goes through Chidwick’s mind?
The man from Deal in the UK has won the inaugural Australian Poker Open (APO) just as he also won the first US Poker Open (USO). Only the defiance and resistance of Sam Soverel prevented him from a clean sweep, finishing second to the American in the British Poker Open (BPO).
When it comes to Poker Central’s Open action, everyone is on the periphery of this man’s talents, cashing in half of the 35 Open events played at this point, winning six of them.
It’s no wonder that his peers shortlisted Chidwick for the ‘Toughest Opponent’ award at the forthcoming Global Poker Awards (GPA).
Joining Chidwick on that shortlist are two players who also made the final table of Event #7: AUD 100,000 No-Limit Hold’em (NLHE) Challenge in Michael Addamo and Kahle Burns.
Burns has been a revelation of late, but his luck ran out at the most convenient time for Chidwick. Nursing the short-stack, and odds-on to hit the rail first, handing the APO Championship to Andras Nemeth, Chidwick dug his fingernails in, Burns picked up pocket kings, went for it, and felt crushed when Addamo called with Qs8s and flopped trips, sending Burns home on the bubble. After locking up the title, Chidwick then fell in the fourth-place, losing with AKo versus the QcJc of the in-form Aaron Van Blarcum.
The Global Poker Index (GPI) World #1 fell next when Alex Foxen got it in with KcQc, but lost to the As4s of Van Blarcum.
Van Blarcum had been on a tear of late, finishing third at the AUD 100,000 NLHE Challenge at the Aussie Millions, following a brilliant showing in December’s World Poker Tour (WPT) Five Diamond World Poker Classic at the Bellagio winning a $25k and finishing runner-up in a $50k.
Van Blarcum’s ride in this one stopped in second place with his middle pair unable to stop the tide created by Addamo’s flush draw.
“It was a pretty smooth ride, I was pretty fortunate,” Addamo told Poker Central after his win.
The event attracted 28-entrants.
Addamo has now won more than $1.7m since the turn of the year.
AUD 100k Main Event ITM Finishes
- Michael Addamo – $861,952
- Aaron Van Blarcum – $527,667
- Alex Foxen – $299,810
- Stephen Chidwick – $187,381
On winning the APO, Chidwick said, “Hopefully these style of events continue because I think it’s a bit more of an achievable accolade to win a multiple of or, over time, determine who the best player is rather than looking at a single tournament. Obviously there’s a lot of luck involved in this too, but over the course of seven, eight, or ten events you’re going to see the better players win more often and it would be fun to see who can collect the most titles like this.”
APO Championship Standings
- Stephen Chidwick – 650 points (AUD 949,000)
- Andras Nemeth – 630 (AUD 534,100)
- Michael Addamo – 560 (AUD 1,685,500)
- Mike Watson – 450 (AUD 241,500)
- Luc Greenwood – 360 (AUD 717,700)