Steve O'Dwyer and Mike McDonald Win Big In EPT Malta High Rollers

The 2015 European Poker Tour Malta festival kicked off last week. The centerpiece of the series is the €5,300 no-limit hold’em main event, which drew 651 entries and is ongoing. In addition to that huge tournament the festival also played host to two huge high roller events that drew big fields and awarded sizable paydays. Here is a look at those two tournaments:

EPT Malta €25,750 No-Limit Hold’em High Roller

The €25,750 no-limit hold’em high roller drew 74 total entries to create a total prize pool of €1,813,000.

The top 11 finishers made the money and as you might expect there were plenty of recognizable faces in the mix. 2015 Card Player Player of the Year contenders Byron Kaverman (5th – €141,415) and Nick Petrangelo (3rd – €232,065) made their 13th and 11th final tables of the year, respectively.

In the end Mike McDonald emerged victorious, defeating Juha Helppi heads-up to capture his 10th career live tournament title and the €498,575 first-place prize.

The 26-year-old Canadian now has more than $12.4 million in lifetime live earnings. Here is a look at the payouts and Player of the Year points awarded at this final table:

EPT Malta €10,200 No-Limit Hold’em High Roller

With 99 entries and 35 re-entries the €10,200 “single-day” no-limit hold’em event built a total prize of €1,299,800. The turbo event was designed to last only one day, but the first running of such an event at the EPT Barcelona ended up stretching to two days.

This time around the event finished in it’s allotted time frame, with a fast paced structure driving the exciting action. When the dust settled high roller extraordinaire Steve O’Dwyer was the last player standing.

For the win he earned his 13th career live tournament title and the €327,030 first-place prize.

This was his seventh final table finish of 2015 and his third POY-qualified title win of the year, having taken down the $100,000 high roller at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure and a prelim at the APPT Macau Poker Cup.

O’Dwyer topped a stacked final table that included the likes of Isaac Haxton (4th – €118,930), Jason Wheeler (3rd – €143,630) and Ilari Sahamies (2nd – €220,970). Here is a look at the complete payouts and POY points awarded in this event:

Photos courtesy of PokerStars / Neil Stoddart.

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