ICU Nurse Brek Schutten dazzled the crowd at the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas as he defeated a star-studded field in the 2024 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Event #21: $25,000 High Roller Six Handed No-Limit Hold’em for $1,405,641 for the biggest live cash in his poker career.
Schutten now has his first bracelet, which complements two other epic titles this decade, including winning the 2021 WPT $3,500 SHRPO Championship for $1,261,095 and the 2022 PokerGO Tour $15,300 Wynn High Roller for $219,300. The American, who is focusing mostly on poker but squeezes in shifts as an ICU nurse, now has more than $5 million in total live poker tournament earnings, according to The Hendon Mob.
While most players would be concerned about ICM, especially when coming into the final table with one of the shorter stacks, Schutten wasn’t, as he had his mind set on winning the bracelet.
“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 said to WSOP after claiming his first piece of WSOP hardware.
The $25,000 High Roller attracted a banner field of 272 entries for a $6,392,000 prize pool with the top 41 players taking home at least a min-cash of $50,936. This represents a significant increase over the 207 entries this event attracted during its inaugural introduction during 2023.
Event #21: $25,000 High Roller Six Handed Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Brek Schutten | United States | $1,405,641 |
| 2 | Tyler Stafman | United States | $938,775 |
| 3 | Michael Rocco | United States | $639,620 |
| 4 | Taylor von Kriegenbergh | United States | $444,766 |
| 5 | Brandon Wilson | United States | $315,771 |
| 6 |  Masashi Oya | Japan | $229,002 |
| 7 |  Ognyan Dimov | Bulgaria | $169,719 |
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Event #16: $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em Final Table Recap
The unofficial seven-max final table began with eventual runner-up Tyler Stafman as the table captain after Chongxian Yang ran his tens into the jacks held by Taylor von Kriegenbergh.
Shortly after, the live stream began at PokerGO, and before long, third-place finisher Michael Rocco took the lead by default after Stafman lost a flip against Brandon Wilson when his sixes were no good against big slick.
While Wilson was able to stave off elimination, the same wasn’t true for Bulgaria’s Ognyan Dimov, who was the first player hit the rail at the final table in seventh place for $169,719 when his king-nine failed to hold against Schutten’s queen-jack.
Wilson snagged the chip lead with tens after getting Rocco to fold big slick with an ace on the board.
“What did I just witness,” said PokerGO commentator Brent Hanks after the hand.
Shortly after, the final table became an all-American affair after Japan’s Masashi Oya was unable to win a flip with king-jack suited against von Kreigenbergh’s nines to exit in sixth place for $229,002.
Rocco then hit a flush against Schutten to regain the lead before Schutten began gaining some momentum himself. Wilson ran his king-queen into Schutten’s cowboys to exit in fifth place for $315,771. Schutten earned the chip lead after the hand, which he held onto until heads-up action against Stafman.
Time was then up for von Kreigenbergh. He jammed his 14 big blind stack with queen-ten suited and was eliminated in fourth place for $444,766 after not improving against Rocco’s ace-queen suited.
Rocco then made an untimely 17 big blind shove with seven-four suited from the small blind to end his impressive run in third place for $639,620 after Stafman’s ace-seven held from the big blind.
Schutten held a commanding 2:1 chip advantage over Stafman to kick off the heads-up action. However, it wasn’t all smooth sailing for Schutten en route to the bracelet as Stafman took the lead after his jacks held against ace-ten and shortly after had triple the stack of Schutten.
However, Schutten battled back and eventually regained control. He was back in the lead after improving to a flush with kings-six suited with Stafman paying him off with the top pair holding ace-seven.
Eventually, it came down to a heads-up cooler with Stafman three-bet jamming his ace-nine only to fall one player shy of the bracelet after he was called by Schutten with ace-queen. Stafman didn’t walk away empty-handed as he secured his largest live poker tournament haul of $938,775 after coming one player shy of his first taste of WSOP hardware.
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