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Chidwick, Engel, and Schwartz All Win First Career WSOP Bracelets

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Stephen Chidwick POY

One of the titles a pro player doesn’t like to have is “one of the best players to have never won a World Series of Poker bracelet.” Over the weekend, three well-known pros have managed to shed that moniker from their resume.

The first was Stephen Chidwick. On Saturday, he won the $25,000 PLO High Roller for his first career bracelet. On the same day, two other big names managed to also add a WSOP bracelet to their resume. Ari Engel won the $2,500 NL Hold’em Event while Luke Schwartz won the $10k Limit 2-7 Lowball Triple Draw Championship.

Stephen Chidwick Wins $25k PLO High Roller for First Bracelet

Stephen Chidwick had amassed an impressive resume prior to the 2019 World Series of Poker, but one thing that eluded him was a WSOP bracelet. After 13 final tables without a win, he finally broke through on Saturday after winning the $25k PLO High Roller.

Chidwick is known to be a high rolling superstar, so it seemed appropriate that it would be this event that he’d finally break through in. As you can expect, the final table was a stacked one with Alex Epstein, Matthew Gonzales, James Chen, Robert Mizrachi, and Poker Hall of Famer Erik Seidel all making the final.

Heads-up play in the event was between Chidwick and James Chen, and Chidwick started with just nearly a 9 million chip lead. He soon took a massive 12 to 1 chip lead prior to the final hand. In that hand, Chen was all-in with a pair of eights and a backdoor flush draw against two pair for Chidwick. The board failed to hit Chen and Chidwick was the winner.

In his fourteenth final table appearance, Stephen Chidwick finally took down his first WSOP bracelet. He shed the title of “best player to have never won a bracelet” in a big way, also winning $1.61 million in prize money in the process.

Ari Engel Wins $2,500 NL Hold’em

Ari Engel is a well-known name in the poker world and has 15 years experience at the World Series of Poker. However, it wasn’t until Saturday that he finally won his first WSOP bracelet. He won Event #48, the $2,500 NL Hold’em Event, defeating a field of 996 players.

The final table was not a table full of pushovers either. Josh Arieh, David “Bakes” Baker, and James Hughes were all among the players at the final table. However, by the time Engel reached heads-up, he looked destined to take second place.

Pablo Melogno had a 3 to 1 chip lead at the start of heads-up play and looked to be in good shape to win his first bracelet. However, Engel fought hard and after nearly getting stacks to even, he rivered his way to a massive double.

Engel was all-in with a gutshot straight draw against top pair for Melogno. Engel managed to hit his four outer on the river to double to 14 million. Melogno was left with just 770k and it was all but over. Engel would get lucky again in the final hand when his 7-6 outdrew Melogno’s J-6.

Engel admitted after winning the event that he was very lucky in multiple spots throughout the tournament, but that is just a part of the game. In the end, he was able to “luckbox” his way to his first career WSOP bracelet and $427,399 in prize money.

Luke Schwartz Wins $10k Limit 2-7 Lowball Triple Draw Championship

Luke Schwartz was known for being an incredibly volatile player when he was in his twenties. However, in recent years he has begun to show maturity and that wisdom has now resulted in him securing his first WSOP bracelet.

On Saturday, Schwartz won the $10k Limit 2-7 Lowball Triple Draw Championship after outlasting a final table that included Mark Gregorich, Calvin Anderson, Yueqi Zhu, Johannes Becker, and George Wolff.

Schwartz took the chip lead with about five players left and never looked back. He ultimately battled George Wolff heads-up for the bracelet, taking a 3 to 1 chip lead into heads-up play. Wolff tried to make it a close game but never made a serious run to the chip lead.

In the final hand, both players made an eight, but Wolff announced that he made the worst eight and Schwartz showed an 8-7-6-4-2 to win the hand and the bracelet.

Schwartz showed incredible patience in winning this bracelet, something that he said he would not have been able to do in his twenties. His newfound maturity resulted in his winning his first carer bracelet and $273,336 in prize money.

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