Brek Schutten wasn’t supposed to win the World Series of Poker Circuit main event at Horseshoe Hammond in Indiana. It’s not that he didn’t have the necessary skills. In fact, he was perhaps overqualified, given his success in high roller events with buy-ins as high as $50,000. But not only was the Michigan father of five splashing around at lower stakes than he is used to, but he also had to contend with a family emergency that almost forced him to abandon his stack in the tournament.
Schutten raced home to tend to his wife, who had been checked into a hospital. She was able to recover, however, and family insisted he go back to play out the tournament. The decision proved to be a wise one as he ended up winning, banking $185,594, the gold ring, and a WSOP Paradise prize package.
It was yet another tournament accolade for the part-time poker pro who also spent much of his working life in the intensive care unit as a registered nurse. The devout Christian has two WSOP Circuit rings, as well as two WSOP bracelets, and a World Poker Tour championship. His biggest scores remain the $1,405,641 he picked up in the 2024 WSOP $25,000 high roller, and the $1,261,095 he banked in the 2021 WPT Hard Rock Poker Showdown. His career earnings now sit at nearly $6.6 million.
Card Player caught up with Schutten to talk about his latest victory.
Craig Tapscott: You’re a very successful poker player and a registered nurse, as is your wife. Can you share a bit about this as one of your career choices?
Brek Schutten: I became a realtor after I graduated from college in 2010 and sold houses for several years before some family members had some major health concerns. I felt called to go back to school to become a nurse in 2016.
Around that same time, I discovered poker and began to realize I could earn money playing a game I loved. I continued as an ICU nurse until November of 2024, when it became too difficult to find time to schedule shifts at the hospital while maintaining a full poker schedule. I now work as a registered nurse and administrator for Impact Medical Weight Loss Partners, a weight loss clinic that my wife and I co-founded to help people live healthier lives and lose weight.
CT: Have you ever had to use your nursing skills at a poker table?
BS: One of the most important skills a nurse can have is assessing people and observation skills. When caring for patients in the ICU, you must constantly pay attention to every detail about a patient and understand what they’re going through. This translates well to reading people at a poker table, especially in smaller buy-in events where players aren’t as disciplined in hiding their tells.
Nursing in the ICU can also be a high-stress environment. Over the years, I’ve received compliments from people who are amazed at how calm I appear at the poker table in high-stakes situations. I’ve attributed this to years of taking care of ICU patients in life-or-death situations, which can be much more stressful than poker situations that only have financial implications.
Event: WSOP Circuit – Horseshoe Hammond
Buy-In: $1,700
Entrants : 622
Prize Pool: $1,000,000
First-Place Prize: $185,594
Hand No. 1
Stacks: Brek Schutten – 120,000 (80 BB) Villain – 111,000 (74 BB)
Blinds: 1,000-1,500 with a 1,500 big blind ante
Players: 9
BS: The first interesting hand I played wasn’t deep in the tournament, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t important.
More than halfway through day 1b, I had built a decent stack of about 120,000 from the 40,000 starting stack. I did this with aggressive play and a fair amount of three-betting preflop.
Schutten raised to 3,000 from UTG holding A♠K♣. Villain in the hijack three-bet to 11,000.
CT: Did you have any kind of read on the Villain at this point, early in the event?
BS: He was a 50- to 55-year-old male who seemed fed up with my aggressive play. A few hands earlier, I had four-bet A-3 suited after he three-bet my open and he begrudgingly folded.
CT: What did you think was your best play holding A-K?
BS: I usually would four-bet in this spot, but I was concerned that this particular player may just jam 75 big blinds with a lot of his three-betting range because he felt I was four-betting too much. Because of this, I decided just to call to see a flop and re-evaluate.
Schutten called.
FLOP: A♣A♦Q♣
BS: The flop was a good one for me. So I…
Schutten checked, and Villain checked behind.
BS: I checked to play in flow, and he checked back relatively quickly. The quick check from this particular player felt more like strength than weakness to me, however.
TURN: 6♥
Schutten checked.
CT: What’s the plan?
BS: Well, I felt that my hand was deceptively strong, but I didn’t think I was going to be able to get two streets of value unless he had an ace, which he would bet on this street anyway.
Villain bet 6,000.
BS: This sizing was really small for the turn. I felt like he was trying to squeeze value out of me, but he didn’t want to scare me off. Between the feeling I got on the flop from his quick check back and the feeling I got on the turn after he bet small, I decided to just call the bet.
Schutten called.
RIVER: 3♦
BS: On this card, I decided to lead out.
Schutten bet 22,000.
CT: What are you trying to accomplish with the donk bet into the Villain?
BS: I did not think my hand was strong enough to check-raise comfortably. Additionally, I was concerned that he would bet small again with his A-x combos or check back pocket pairs. So, I wanted to get value from his marginal value hands.
Villain moved all-in.
CT: That can’t be good.
BS: Not at all. I felt pretty comfortable with my hand until he went all-in relatively quickly. At this point, I went into the tank to think about his actions on every street to see if there were any bluffs or any value hands I could actually beat.
I decided to go with my read of his flop and turn actions and…
Schutten folded. Villain won the pot of 60,000.
BS: I ended up folding my A-K, realizing his hand felt much more like a full house. I don’t think he would take that line with any worse aces. After a little prodding, he eventually showed me A-Q offsuit, so that fold saved my tournament.
After a few more hours of play, I spun my stack up to 1,100,000 before bagging a modest 407,000, moving forward to day 2.
CT: Nice fold!
BS: Thanks. Between hand no. 1 and hand no. 2 came one of my most crucial decisions, however. On Saturday before day 2, my wife went into the hospital with a medical emergency and was placed on a ventilator and sedated.
CT: Is she okay?
BS: Thanks for asking. She is now. But at that point, she was transferred to the ICU, where I used to work as a nurse less than a year ago, and was cared for by my former coworkers.
Poker was the last thing on my mind at that time. I spent Saturday night at the hospital with very little sleep, trying to make sure she was comfortable and stable. Sunday morning came, and after talking with family, we decided that she was stable enough for me to make the 2.5-hour drive back to Hammond for day 2 of the tournament. I struggled to maintain focus, and I was emotionally and physically drained throughout both day 2 and the final table.
Hand No. 2
Stacks: Brek Schutten – 9,500,000 (95 BB) Villain – 4,700,000 (47 BB)
Blinds: 50,000-100,000, with a 100,000 big blind ante
Players: 6
BS: This hand took place at the final table on day 3. I came into day 3 with the chip lead with 9,500,000 chips. The villain from this hand started the day second in chips. He was also a 50- to 55-year-old male. I had played with him quite a bit on day 2 and recognized a few things about him. First, he did not like to fold preflop to three-bets. Second, he tended to use abnormally large sizings when he was the aggressor. And third, he liked to slow play his monster hands.
CT: Had you formulated your strategy for the final table?
BS: At this point in the tournament, as any good chip leader should, I had been the aggressor in the majority of pots. I was putting ICM pressure on the other players throughout the late stages of day 2 and the early stages of day 3.
Villain raised to 250,000 from the lojack.
BS: I looked down at pocket threes in the cutoff and decided to call.
Schutten called from the cutoff with 3♥3♦, and everyone else folded.
FLOP: 7♠5♦2♣
Villain bet 400,000.
BS: The villain bet his typical larger sizing. He has a lot of hands that bricked this flop, so I decided to…
Schutten called.
TURN: 2♠
Villain bet 800,000.
CT: What did you make of this second barrel from him?
BS: This card shouldn’t mean anything to either of us unless it gave him a backdoor flush draw. I had seen him play overpairs much more passively in similar spots, so it didn’t seem very credible.
Schutten called.
RIVER: 7♣
BS: The Villain reached for chips to count out relatively quickly and eventually settled on a bet sizing.
Villain bet 1,100,000.
BS: The seven on the river is a really bad card for him if he has an overpair, so I would expect his overpairs, or even 5-5, to check-call that river.
That bet made me think he was only betting a seven or a bluff. And he shouldn’t have too many sevens in his UTG opening range if he has any concerns for ICM.
Schutten called, and Villain revealed K♣Q♣. Schutten won the pot of 5,350,000.
BS: I decided to make the hero call, and he turned over K♣Q♣. This hand vaulted me even further into the chip lead, and I never looked back from there.
CT: Congrats on the huge win. Can you share your wife’s recovery progress?
BS: After I finished taking the winner’s photos, I finally had a chance to look down at my phone and found a text from my father-in-law. He said that Jackie was getting her breathing tube out earlier than expected.
She’s continuing her recovery at home, but is in much better condition now. God is good. He has continuously blessed me and my family throughout my poker career and, more importantly, every other aspect of my life.
Follow Schutten on Twitter/X @BSchutten.
- Photos by WSOP/Poker.org and PokerGO