It’s hard to find an unluckier man in poker than Chris Brewer. Despite being a regular in the high-stakes tournament scene with over $10 million in live cashes before today, Brewer had garnered a reputation as someone who always seemed to run bad when it mattered most. He’s had a string of high-profile eliminations after getting it in with the best of it, most recently when he ran his KK into the QQ of Doug Polk to all but bust the semi-finals of the $25K Heads-Up event.
However, Chris must have been stocking up on his lucky charms, as he managed to put the run-bad curse behind him to take down the $250K Super High Roller after coming from way behind in the final hand against Artur Martirosyan.
Finally Getting Lucky
Things got off to a characteristically unlucky start for Brewer, as he was continually chipped down from the start of the event until he busted with TT vs the AQ of Chance Cornuth, even after flopping a set! Chris didn’t let that get him down, and he jumped back on the horse and bought in for another $250,000. This bullet went much better from the start, and Chris ended the day with just over 2 million in chips - 500,000 more than his starting stack.
On Day 2, things continued to go well for Chris, navigating his way through a tough field that included the likes of Phil Ivey, Main Event winner Koray Aldemir, and Isaac Haxton. He ended the Day on roughly 8.5 million chips, putting him square in the middle of the pack for the final table. Chris would have likely been hoping to ladder up and secure a 4th or 3rd place finish, but not even he could imagine the run he was about to go on.
Everything seemed to click into place for the final table. He grinded when he needed to grind, he got lucky when he needed to get lucky and was making all the right moves at all the right times. After picking his way through a final table with the likes of Dan Smith, Chance Kornuth, David Peters, and Martin Kabrhel, Chris found himself heads-up against Artur Martirosian, where he would exorcise his run-bad demons in the most cathartic way possible. Chris shoved with A7o only to get called by the AK of Artur; the flop came king-high, but running cards gave Chris the straight and his maiden bracelet.
Relief and Elation
You could tell just how much winning this bracelet meant to Chris; after enduring so many bad beats in huge spots, it was finally his turn to suck out on arguably the biggest stage possible. During his post-game interview, you could see the elation on his face as he could barely keep the smile from his face as he was talking.
Speaking on his final table performance, Chris said, “I feel like I got so lucky,” “Everything today just felt like it was going to go my way.” “It all just felt really good.” When asked what winning his first WSOP bracelet, specifically the $250K Super High Roller event meant to him, Chris said, “This is the one I want to win more than any other,” “Money, prestige, everything about it, it means so much. I’ve had so many tough ones – it feels really good.”
Chris Brewer is by no means the first extremely talented player to go on an extended bad run playing live MTTs, but hopefully, now that he’s gotten the proverbial monkey off his back, he can push on and show the poker world just how good he really is.
Event #40 $250,000 Super High Roller Final Table Results
| Rank | Player | Country | Prize (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Christopher Brewer | United States | $5,293,556 |
| 2nd | Artur Martirosian | Russia | $3,271,666 |
| 3rd | Martin Kabrhel | Czech Republic | $2,279,038 |
| 4th | Alex Kulev | Hungary | $1,632,005 |
| 5th | Chance Kornuth | United States | $1,202,318 |
| 6th | Dan Smith | United States | $912,022 |
| 7th | David Peters | United States | $712,953 |
| 8th | Brandon Steven | United States | $574,899 |
| 9th | Steven Veneziano | United States | $478,663 |
Can Chris push on from his maiden WSOP win and claim another bracelet before the end of the series? Stay tuned for all the latest WSOP news and events.
Image Source: @WSOP Twitter
