The 2023 Poker Masters wrapped up more than a week’s worth of high-roller action on Tuesday evening with Jonathan Jaffee winning the series finale, Event #10 ($50,000 NLHE) for $756,000. However, it was also a celebration for Stephen Chidwick, who walked away as the Poker Masters series champion, finishing Event 10 as the runner-up for $504,000 while securing enough points to overtake Vladas Tamasauskas, who started the last day atop the Poker Masters leaderboard.
“I love playing these events,” Chidwick said to PokerGO immediately after his win. “I like playing the small player pools and I think I do a pretty good job of bringing a high level of play for an extended stretch of time – and I think that’s what helps me do well in these longer series.”
Chidwick, the reigning PokerGO Tour Player of the Year, proved once again that he’s one of the best inside the PokerGO Studio. He notched four cashes in the final five events of the series, including a victory in Event #8 ($25,000 NLHE) for $400,000, and a third-place finish in Event #9 ($25,000 NLHE) for $148,000 to go along with his second-place score in the finale.
In total, Chidwick earned just over $1.1 million in under a week to send his career live earnings north of $52.8 million, third on poker’s All-Time Money List. He also picked up an additional $50,000 for topping the leaderboard.
It’s Chidwick’s second career PokerGO series title; his first came at the inaugural U.S. Open back in 2018.
There was plenty of Purple Jacket drama surrounding the final table with a number of players having a path to the overall win. One of those players was Chino Rheem, who started the day tied with Chidwick for second on the leaderboard, which gave him an equal shot at the championship. Rheem, however, finished in fifth place, for his fifth cash of the series, and wrapped the week with more than $600,000 in earnings.
Another player who made a run at it was Alex Foxen. Although Foxen sat just outside the leaderboard Top 10 to start the day, a win would have been enough to lock up the Purple Jacket. He finished in third place for $336,000, also his fifth cash of the series, which was good for fourth place on the leaderboard.
Despite winning the finale, Jonathan Jaffee didn’t earn enough prelim points to make himself a threat to win the Purple Jacket. Jaffee, the longtime pro, did secure the third-largest score of his nearly two-decade-long career.