Stephen Chidwick is an English poker player with over $38 million in total live earnings, putting him sixth in the All Time Money List, and the highest Englishman.
A former GPI World Number One, Widely considered one of the toughest High Roller opponents of the modern age, Chidwick is also a WSOP bracelet winner having won the $25,000 Pot-Limit Omaha High Roller in 2019 for $1,618,417.
Biography
Born in 1989, Chidwick's first recorded cash came in 2008 at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. Two years later, he notched what would be the first of many WSOP cashes, with a fourth place finish in the $10,000 Pot-Limit Hold'em Championship for $198,927 his best result.
He would notch up numerous cashes during the early 2010s, including at the WSOP Europe in both London and France, as well as on the European Poker Tour, but the majority of his cashes would come in Las Vegas at the WSOP.
In 2012 and 2013, Chidwick would achieve five top 10 finishes in bracelet events, the largest cash of which came in the $25,000 No-Limit Hold'em 6-Max event at the 2013 WSOP. He also finished sixth in the 2012 $50,000 Poker Players Championship.
Season 10 of the European Poker Tour would see him cash in four Main Events: Prague, Vienna, San Remo and Monte Carlo, with six-figure scores following in Prague, Australia, Malta and Macau.
In 2015, he finished second in the $10,000 Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship for $180,529, the closest he'd come to a bracelet.
"You always want, as a poker player, to be devoid of emotion and just kind of calculate, think about hands, and play the best you can," he told PokerNews that year. "But definitely the closer you get to the bracelet the harder it gets to kind of keep what you're going to say in the winner interview, and all those things, out of your mind. I just try and focus on the cards and each hand as it comes until I've got all the chips."
Chidwick and the High Rollers
Away from the WSOP, Chidwick was starting to emerge as a force within the High Roller community. Cashes in Bellagio and Aria High Rollers were accompanied by yet more six-figure scores in WPT Five Diamond, EPT and PokerStars Championship $25,000 and $50,000 High Rollers.
His largest score to date came in 2017, winning a €25,500 High Roller at the PokerStars Championship Barcelona for $813,144. But that was pocket change compared with what was to come.
Chidwick finished sixth in the inaugural Super High Roller Bowl China for $1,298,521. He then followed that up with two seven-figure scores the following month at the partypoker MILLIONS Barcelona. finishing second in the €100,000 Super High Roller and third in the Main Event for combined cashes of €2.1 million.
In 2018 he also became the world's #1 ranked poker player for the first time. Over the next year he would engage in a running battle with American Alex Foxen at the top of the rankings.
The High Roller and Super High Roller cashes kept on coming, cashing in the two Super High Roller Bowls held in 2018 and final-tabling the WSOP $100,000 High Roller the same year.
His First Bracelet
By now, Chidwick had become a shoo-in for any "best without a bracelet" articles released in the run-up to the World Series of Poker. And in 2019, he changed all that. Coming off the back of two titles and four cashes at the 2019 US Poker Open, and a seven-figure cash at Triton Poker Jeju, Chidwick defeated a 278-player field to win the $25,000 Pot Limit Omaha High Roller for $1,618,417, defeating James Chen heads-up.
Moment of the Week: Stephen Chidwick Ends Bracelet Drought (2019)
It was yet another seven-figure cash for Chidwick, but it meant the world to him.
“I try really hard to detach the bracelet and everything around it. I have been here many times and I had a lot of heartbreak over the years, too," said Chidwick. "So I am just trying to put that as much out of my mind as possible.
Covid and the Remergence of Live Poker
Chidwick's last cashes before the coronavirus pandemic halted live poker around the world were at the Australian Poker Open, and the partypoker MILLIONS Sochi in early 2020.
By the time live poker emerged, Chidwick picked up where he left off. He is a regular on the PokerGO Tour, cashing in the US Poker Open, PokerGO Cup, Poker Masters and Super High Roller Bowl Series Europe in mid-2021.
He would narrowly miss out on another bracelet, finishing third in the $10,000 Super Turbo Bounty for $200,598, and making final tables in four of his six WSOP cashes in 2021.