Chad Norton Wins The First WSOP Event He Plays

Chad Norton is a familiar face at Canterbury Park Card Club. He is a regular in the No-Limit Hold’em tournaments there. Norton was an unknown at the World Series of Poker (WSOP) until recently because he had never played in a WSOP event. The man from Massachusetts has not only played in a WSOP tournament but won the very first event he entered.

Some 2,053 players bought into Event #46: $800 No-Limit Hold’em Deepstack and created a $1,445,312 prize pool. The top 308 finishers shared the seven-figure pot, including some well-known tournament grinders.

Harry Lodge of the United Kingdom, Dan Kelly, JJ Liu, and Eric Baldwin cashed. As did Christian Harder and German star Koray Aldemir, the latter busting in 11th for $15,417.

Norton In Fourth At The Final Table

Marc Masino’s exit in tenth place set the final table. Kevin Wang sat down with 22,000,000 hips, almost eight million more than Ivan Uzunov. Norton found himself armed with 9,700,000 chips, which were enough for fourth place.

Norton won a large pot from Wang before sending Joshua Herman home in ninth. Herman open-shoved for 1,800,000 at the 200,000/400,000/400,000a level with Js-9s. Herman called with Ah-Th, and won when the board ran 5h-7c-Kd-5c-Ks.

William Blais busted soon after Herman. A brief raising war saw Blais all-in with Kd-Kh on the 9s-Jh-3h flop. Unfortunately, Norton held As-Ac and was going nowhere. The 3c turn and 9h sent Blais to the cashier’s desk where he collected $24,982.

Seventh-place and $32,254 went to Jordyn Miller during the 250,000/500,000/500,000a level. Miller raised to 2,000,000 from the button with Th-Tc and called off his last 5,000,000 when Andres Jeckeln three-bet all-in with As-8h from the big blind. Jeckeln caught an eight on the 8d-2h-6s flop. The 2d turn kept Miller in front, but the 8s river sent him to the showers.

Miller’s seat was not yet cold when Wang crashed out of the event. Wang re-raised all-in with Ac-3c after Norton opened with As-Jh. Wang was called and busted courtesy of the 2h-Ks-4d-Jd-Qs board. The busted Wang walked away with $42,031.

First Bracelet Within Touching Distance of WSOP Debutant

A clash of two short stacks resulted in Uzunov bowing out. Uzunov ripped it in for 4.5 big blinds with Js-Ts, and Jeckeln called with the dominating Qc-Jc. Jeckeln’s queen-kicker plated on the 5s-2c-4h-4d-As runout.

Narimaan Ahmadi’s Kd-6c fell foul of Norton’s As-6h to leave only three players in the hunt for the title. Norton held more than 65.4 million with both Steve Lemma and Jeckeln holding less than 18 million between them.

Lemma closed the gap slightly when he eliminated Jeckeln in third place. Jeckeln’s exit was a coinflip with him holding Ks-Ts versus Lemma’s 7h-7d. Jeckeln flopped a flush draw but Lemma improved to a set. The turn and river paired the 3c-7s-2s-5d-5h board, giving Lemma a full house.

Lemma trailed 18,200,000 to 64,000,000 chips and it did not take Norton long to win all the chips in play. The final hand saw Norton raise-called when Lemma shoved with Qc-9s. The champion elect showed As-8d, and won when the dealer fanned the Jh-Ac-3d-5c-3h community cards.

Place	Player	Country	Prize
1	Chad Norton	United States	$214,830
2	Steve Lemma	United States	$132,802
3	Andres Jeckeln	Argentina	$98,269
4	Narimaan Ahmadi	United States	$73,271
5	Ivan Uzunov	Bulgaria	$55,279
6	Kevin Wang	United States	$42,031
7	Jordyn Miller	United States	$32,254
8	William Blais	Canada	$24,982
9	Joshua Herman	Canada	$19,533

Career-Best Score For The Champion

Norton’s previous largest prize tipped the scales at $7,225. He collected this for a cash in the 2021 WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown. The was Norton’s first WPT appearance.

Now he has a 100 percent record in WSOP events, plus a $214,830 score. The newly forged champion called the victory surreal in his post-tournament interview.

Brad Johnson

You name the game, and you can bet your bottom dollar that Brad has either played it or placed a wager on it! Brad calls himself a natural gambler, and someone who gains as much enjoyment from writing about the crazy game of poker as he does playing it.

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