It was all smiles for newly-minted World Series of Poker bracelet winners Brek Schutten and Stephen Winters. While WSOP regulars like Robert Mizrachi and Scott Seiver are stacking bracelets, these two grabbed their hardware in two vastly different events.
Nurse baller
In between putting a shift or two in as an ICU nurse at Butterworth Hospital in Grand Rapids, Mich., Brek Schutten battles the best high-stakes tournament players in the world on the nose-bleed trail. This week, Schutten scored his career-best by taking down the $25,000 Six-handed No-limit High Roller event at the WSOP for $1,405,641.
Schutten outlasted a field of 272 who built a prize pool of $6,392,000. Runner-up Tyler Stafman beat his tourney-best by nearly $871,000 ($938,775). Schutten finished fifth in this event last year.
Schutten, 36, is a talented tournament player who now has more than $5 million in cashes. His biggest win before this came by taking down the World Poker Tour’s $3,500 event at the 2021 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open for $1,261,095.
He also came as close as possible to winning his first WSOP bracelet last year in the $50,000 high roller event. He lost to Jake Schindler heads-up.
“I love these fields. I love playing against the best in the world. It’s just a great experience and it’s good to know that I can win a tournament with this field,” he told. WSOP reporter after locking up his bracelet, which he desperately wanted. “I was more concerned about winning the bracelet than the ICM for pay jumps and stuff, so I think that helped to be able to put my chips in when I felt like I had the best hand and hope for the best.”
Schutten says he still puts in a few shift a month as a nurse, but is taking time off to focus on poker, which is bad news for the rest of the high stakes tournament pros.
‘Gladiator’ attracts massive crowd
The hordes of poker players are showing up in Las Vegas, and many of them took their shot in the $300 “Gladiators of Poker” for a chance at a chunk of its $3 million guaranteed prize pool. Fed by five flights where players could re-enter twice, the WSOP collected a whopping 20,647 entries — good for fifth largest in WSOP history.
Stephen Winters hit gold and was the last player standing to win his first WSOP bracelet and $410,210, the lion’s share of the $5,079,162 prize pool.
Winters, of Lyon, Colo., is a recreational player who fires at a few tournaments a year. He’s cashed in WSOP Circuit events before, but never made a final table. This is his first cash in a bracelet event.
“I guess this is for the little guys,” Winters told a WSOP reporter afterwards. “I just play a few small tournaments each year, so it was exciting just to be relevant for once.”
The top 2,763 finishers min-cashed for $600.
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