It was a big Saturday night for Brock Wilson in the PokerGO Studios. Battling through some new names that had entered the fray, Wilson would defeat Elio Fox to take the championship in Event #4, another $10,000 No Limit Hold’em event on the schedule. With his victory, Wilson would also take over the lead in the race for the Purple Jacket that signifies the overall champion of Poker Masters.
Wilson Starts as the Shorty
The 73-entrtant field had been whittled down to the final six ahead of Saturday’s combat. Leading the way was Brekstyn Schutten with his 2.23 million in chips, but it was a slim edge as Chad Eveslage lurked behind him with 2.065 million chips. Nick Petrangelo (1.965 million) and Sam Soverel (1.54 million) looked to have the best chance to make a climb up the ladder, while Fox (470K) and Wilson (360K) were expected to depart rather quickly from the festivities.
As they say, that’s why they play the games. Fox and Wilson didn’t go quietly into that night, forcing the four larger stacks to contend with them. The first departure was surprisingly Petrangelo, who cruelly saw his pocket Queens vanquished by Eveslage’s pocket deuces when a deuce came on the flop. Through this early fighting, both Wilson and Fox pulled the pack back closer to them until their early short stack issues were no more.
Wilson, in fact, was able to thrust himself to the top of the leaderboard after an opportune moment to pick up pocket Aces. He would open the betting with the best hand in poker (pre-flop, anyway), only to see both Schutten (pocket sevens in the small blind) and Soverel (Q♥ 9♥ in the big blind) decide to look him up. A K-Q-3 flop brought checks from the blinds and a bet out of Wilson, which only Soverel chose to call. A nine on the turn put Soverel into the lead with his two pair, but he checked his option looking to trap.
That trap worked. Wilson announced all in and, in a flash, Soverel made the call. Soverel had to dodge the two remaining Aces in the deck or a counterfeiting King or trey, but he wasn’t able to fade the cards. An Ace came off on the river to earn Wilson the hand and the knockout of Soverel in fifth place.
Fox would get active after this point. He would take out Eveslage in fourth and Schutten in third to work his stack into a dominant edge over Wilson, 6.625 million to 2.5 million. Fox was unable to hold that edge, however, as Wilson took over the lead after an ill-timed bluff from Fox. That was all it would take for Wilson to work his way to the title in Event #4.
1. Brock Wilson, $189,800
2. Elio Fox, $138,700
3. Brekstyn Schutten, $94,900
4. Chad Eveslage, $73,000
5. Sam Soverel, $58,400
6. Nick Petrangelo, $43,800
Wilson Victory Shuffles Poker Masters Overall Leaderboard
Along with his fourth-place finish in Event #1 of the 2021 Poker Masters, Wilson has now been able to slide into the pole position in the race for the Purple Jacket. Between those two finishes, Wilson has picked up 272 points to snatch the lead away from Event #2 champion Sean Perry. The defending champion Soverel has also made his first appearance on the board, slipping into tenth place after four events.
Here’s the overall standings for the 2021 Poker Masters and the race for the Purple Jacket:
1. Brock Wilson, 272 points
2. Sean Perry, 239
3. Shannon Shorr, 205
4. Adam Hendrix, 186
5. David Peters, 148
6. Jeremy Ausmus, 146
7. Jake Schindler, 141
8. Elio Fox, 139
9. Matthew Wantman, 138
10. Sam Soverel, 127
(photos courtesy of PokerGO.com)
