Stephen Winters Defeats 20,647 Players to Win $300 Gladiators of Poker ($401,210)

In the end, there was one Gladiator left standing.

After four starting flights and three days of play, Stephen Winters topped a 20,647-player field to win Event #20: Gladiators of Poker No-Limit Hold’em.

Winters outlasted the enormous field and defeated Simon Britton in the first hand of heads-up play to secure a first-place prize of $401,210 and his first WSOP gold bracelet. Britton takes home $253,300 for his second-place finish.

“I guess this is for the little guys,” Winters said. “I just play a few small tournaments each year, so it was exciting just to be relevant for once.”

Event #20: $300 Gladiators of Poker No-Limit Hold’em Final Table Results

Winner’s Reaction

Winters survived the zaniness of the tournament by staying grounded. While he didn’t have a rail of supporters present to cheer him on at the final table, Winters stayed in constant touch with his family throughout the tournament.

“I don’t know if I’ll ever repeat this again, but I might play the Main “

He received all the encouragement he needed from his wife and children. In fact, Winters called his family before his post-match photography shoot and allowed them to participate in his moment via FaceTime.

“It was fun to have my kids kind of railing me from home,” Winters said with a wide smile. “Like, every time I would report on how I was doing, they’d be like, ‘Oh, daddy, try to get a thousand, try to get in top 900, and then they kept setting bars and bars and bars, and it’s just the whole thing (is) surreal to be at this point.”

In the meantime, Winters pointed out he was supposed to fly home Wednesday, a day after winning the Gladiators event.

But the plans could be subject to change for the WSOP newest bracelet winner.

“I don’t know if I’ll ever repeat this again, but I might play the Main (Event) now,” Winters said. “We’ll see.”

Final Day Recap

A total of 14 players, all of whom were vying for their first WSOP bracelet, advanced to Day 3, with Britton and Winters the top two chip counts.

By the time the final table was reached, Winters was in the lead, and that lead grew with the elimination of Caleb Levesque in ninth place. However, doubles for Quang Vu and Sung Pil Kim would eat into that lead, before Britton eliminated Jordan Johnson in eighth.

Brendon Herrick would find himself in the chip lead, and eliminated Steve Foutty next, before Winters would double back through Kim before eliminating the same opponent in sixth place to regain the chip lead.

The action was fast-paced with the chip lead exchanging hands regularly, as James Morgan hit the rail.

But Winters would open up a commanding position with the back-to-back eliminations of Herrick and Vu to the rail, and with the overwhelming chip lead, Winters needed just one hand to best Britton in heads-up play to leave him as the last Gladiator standing in the arena.

This concludes the live coverage from Event #20, be sure to stay tuned to PokerNews for all of the action from rest of the 2024 World Series of Poker.