Chris Brewer is back! Returning American lands €1m and Paris SHR title
Having only just returned to the game after an emotional departure, Chris Brewer secured a second major title of the EPT Paris tournament series
It wasn’t that long ago that a sorrowful Chris Brewer decided to give up poker.
After a rough few stops in the super high roller world, Brewer said, “I took some time off for a while, quit it, moved to New York and got a proper job, did the whole gig.”
He described that six-month period tonight, standing in Paris beside a massive gold trophy awarded to the winner of the €50K buy-in Super High Roller event at the European Poker Tour (EPT).
It was his, together with a €959,520 payday, and there was a huge smile on his face.
“Six months in I decided I hated it,” he said of that time in the real world. “Playing poker is more fun now because I know I want to do this.”
That “fun” has now earned him two huge titles during this stop in Paris. In addition to his first Super High Roller success, he earlier won a €25K Single Day high roller, playing the game we have always known he was capable of, but landing on the right side of variance.
“I just kept having good hands,” he said. “I just kept having it. It’s been awesome.”
Brewer defeated the EPT SHR debutant Jules Dickerson heads up to claim the title, tonight, ending Dickerson’s own sensational run.
Jules Dickerson took second on his SHR debut
Dickerson is only very rarely seen at the tournament tables, but carved through this tournament over the first couple of days, only coming a cropper when Brewer “had it” for the last time.
An enormous heads-up pot went Brewer’s way when he flopped trip eights and rivered quads, beating Dickerson’s full house. “That’s it,” Dickerson said, walking away with €623,800 of his own. It was his biggest career tournament score.
HUGE NUMBERS
The huge numbers here at the EPT’s first trip to Paris brought renewed vigour to even the Super High Roller event. So often regarded as a closed shop, there were numerous unfamiliar faces among the 68 entries in the €50,000 buy-in tournament.
It built a prize pool of €3,198,720 and promised that near million-euro top prize to the winner.
And Dickerson was joined on the final day by Gregoire Auzoux, another new face taking to the highest stakes with great comfort.
BIG-NAME BUSTS BURST BUBBLE
The bumper field meant that nine players were due to be paid, but 11 still remained coming back for the final day. And the bubble burst by sweeping aside two stalwarts of the Super High Roller scene: Sam Greenwood and Timothy Adams.
Greenwood, with 14 big blinds, got them in with A♠ 7♠ . Dickerson called with A♣ Q♠ and there was no help for the dominated ace.
If that was a standard spot, the same also applies to the hand that accounted for Adams — although this was more dramatic. Adams had only 15 big blinds, but found pocket kings. It was plenty good enough to risk it all.
A disconsolate Adams bubbles with kings
However, Thomas Muehloecker woke up with A♣ A♥ and the result was inevitable. He three-bet called Adams’ shove, and the bigger pair held up. Adams thus hit the rail on the stone bubble, taking them down to a last table and guaranteeing a minimum €92,800 payout.
THE QUIET CORNER
The EPT tournament room was a hive of activity throughout Tuesday, but the Super High Roller final took place in the room’s furthest corner, tightly tucked away from the hustle and bustle.
There wasn’t much table talk, and the absence of passing traffic meant the whole thing played out remarkably quietly. Despite a near €3.2 million prize pool, nobody was shouting about it.
FINAL TABLE STACKS
Jules Dickerson (UK) – 4,490,000
Juan Pardo (Spain) – 2,435,000
Gregoire Auzoux (France) – 2,410,000
Thomas Muehloecker (Austria) – 1,815,000
Chris Brewer (USA) – 1,640,000
Steve O’Dwyer (Ireland) – 1,410,000
Dimitar Danchev (Bulgaria) – 1,135,000
Nick Petrangelo (USA) – 1,000,000
Pedro Marques (Portugal) – 640,000
Dickerson retained the chip lead with which he had entered the final day, but some of the early jostling brought the shorter stacks closer together. Pedro Marques, fresh from the PSPC final table, moved up the leader board thanks to a double through Juan Pardo. And then Steve O’Dwyer also doubled to survive, this time through Dickerson. And with quad tens.
When Dimitar Danchev also then doubled through Pardo, the Spanish high stakes reg had tumbled down from second on the counts to be in trouble. He was out soon after, with Marques’ pocket sixes bettering Pardo’s A♣ 5♣ . Pardo took €92,800 for ninth.
DICKERSON DWINDLES, REBUILDS
The next two double-ups both took chunks from Dickerson. Gregoire Auzoux, formerly a poker reporter but now sitting in a €50K, did it once. And then Nick Petrangelo made an amazing all-in call with third pair to catch Dickerson bluffing.
After Auzoux doubled again through Dickerson, the latter found himself in the unfamiliar position of not being chip leader any more.
By that point, Muehloecker was on the rail. He was knocked out in eighth, for €120K, after Marques hit a ten with his K♣ 10♠ , beating Muehloecker’s A♠ K♥ .
Marques also took a major chunk from O’Dwyer’s stack, flopping a full house with pocket queens and getting O’Dwyer to call a near shove on the river. O’Dwyer mucked but left himself with crumbs, soon to be added back to Dickerson’s stack.
O’Dwyer lost a race for his two big blinds with pocket sixes and was knocked out in seventh. He won €155,100.
DANCHEV AND AUZOUX LEAVE FOUR FOR THE TITLE
Chris Brewer had already won one €25K buy-in event in Paris this week, and was clearly in the right kind of form for him to shed his “nearly man” tag. (It should be noted that Brewer himself rejects that idea, after Patrick Leonard had suggested he was one of the unluckiest men in poker.)
He had avoided many of the earliest skirmishes, but now started his move up the counts. Brewer knocked out Danchev, with aces to Danchev’s A♦ Q♠ . Danchev took €201,500 for sixth.
And then Marques knocked out Auzoux, flopping an eight with A♣ 8♠ to beat Auzoux’s A♠ Q♦ . Auzoux won €262,300 for a fifth-place finish on his first PokerStars-sponsored €50K event.
Pedro Marques followed up PSPC final table with another deep run
PETRANGELO’S RISE AND FALL
With four left, Petrangelo was the short stack. But his incredibly shrewd decision-making kept him moving up through the ranks, and then allowed him to knock out Marques next and vault back into the lead.
This was a kind of short-handed cooler, with Petrangelo opening the small blind and Marques shoving the big. Marques had K♠ 10♦ but Petrangelo had A♥ K♦ and nother changed this time. Marques’s 2023 heater continued with a €340,700 pick-up.
The tournament director told the players that levels would now last only 30 minutes, and Petrangelo responded to the news by open-shoving his first button with a covering stack.
“Gamble, huh?” Dickerson said. He added: “It’s better for me that the blinds go up,” hinting at his relative inexperience in this kind of tournament field.
The gamble did indeed now work in his favour as he got it in bad and won. Petrangelo made a standard button open and Dickerson shoved for 24 big blinds. Dickerson had pocket deuces against Petrangelo’s pocket nines, when a deuce fell on the river, he took down the huge 9.8 million pot.
Nick Petrangelo: Bad beat into third
Petrangelo was left with 5.4 million (blinds were 80K/160K), but he took another hit when Brewer was next to double through him. Brewer’s A♣ 4♥ beat Petrangelo’s Q♣ 9♠ and suddenly the dominant force was on fumes.
Brewer found another double, with pocket eights against Dickerson’s pocket fours. And he then completed the job on Petrangelo, with pocket kings to Petrangelo’s A♣ 2♣ .
Petrangelo’s run ended in third and a €443,000 payday.
The stacks now were pretty even. Dickerson had 9.975 million to Brewer’s 7.025 million. Deals are prohibited here in France, so they took a short bathroom break but played on — now with the Super High Roller trophy looming over the table too.
BREWER SNAGS IT IN HUGE COOLER
Not long after they went heads-up, Brewer won the first couple of small pots and edged his stack right up close to Dickerson’s. He then won an absolute monster, which effectively decided the title.
This was a real sick one.
They got to a flop after Brewer raised to 500,000 (blinds were now 100K/200K) and Dickerson three-bet to 1.5 million. Brewer called and they saw a flop of 8♦ 9♥ 8♣ .
Dickerson bet 800,000, Brewer called and they then saw the 5♠ on the turn.
Dickerson now check-called Brewer’s bet of 1.2 million, which brought the 8♠ on the river. Dickerson checked and Brewer moved all-in.
“How much?” Dickerson asked. It was 4.825 million, which was almost exactly the same as he had left.
Dickerson spread his three time-bank cards on the table in front of him, and went into the tank to think it through. Eventually he found the call and saw Brewer’s A♠ 8♥ .
“Do I have to show?” Dickerson asked. Brewer said no, but the tournament director insisted. He tabled Dickerson’s pocket sixes, which were now beaten.
Dickerson had less than a blind, and joked that he might need the solitary time bank card he had left, which the dealer pushed in his direction. But his 9♣ 5♠ was not good enough to beat Brewer’s J♠ 8♠ and that was that.
It seems safe to say that Chris Brewer is back. And one suspects he’ll not be heading back to the office any time soon.
Brewer’s girlfriend brought his first trophy along as well
RESULTS
Event 13 – €50,000 EPT Super High Roller
Dates: February 19-21
Entries: 68 (inc. 18 re-entries)
Prize pool: €3,198,720
