Steve O'Dwyer Wins 2018 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure $50,000 High Roller

It only took Steve O’Dwyer nine days to capture his first live tournament title of 2018. On Jan. 9 the 35-year-old poker pro defeated a field of 46 entries to win the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure $50,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em super high roller event, earning $769,500 and 510 Card Player Player of the Year points. This was the second time O’Dwyer has won this event in its three-year history, having won the inaugural running in 2016. He also came out on top in the 2015 PCA $100,000 super high roller.

“I had a few good years here in The Bahamas. No complaints, it’s fun to win,” O’Dwyer told PokerStars reporters.

O’Dwyer has now cashed for more than $21 million throughout his live tournament career, climbing to 11th place on the all-time money list.

Byon Kaverman came into the six-handed final table as the chip leader, with Jean-Noel Thorel and O’Dwyer possessing the next largest stacks. Orpen Kisacikoglu had only ten big blinds to start the day and was the first player eliminated. Kaverman sent Kisacikoglu to the rail in sixth place ($158,420), and then extended his lead by eliminating 2017 World Series of Poker main event third-place finisher Benjamin Pollak in fifth place ($203,680). With that Kaverman acquired more than half of the chips in play with four players remaining.

O’Dwyer was able to close the gap somewhat by taking out Poker Hall of Fame member Erik Seidel in fourth place ($260,260). Kaverman knocked out French entrepreneur Jean-Noel Thorel in third place ($339,480) to take roughly a 3-to-2 lead into heads-up play with O’Dwyer.

Early on in the heads-up match, O’Dwyer strung together five winning hands in a row that saw him overtake the lead. Kaverman was able to fight back to keep himself in the match, but eventually, he was down to just under 11 big blinds. He moved all-in preflop from the button with the Q9 and O’Dwyer made the call with the J10. The board ran out J425K and O’Dwyer paired his jack to win the pot and the title. Kaverman earned $531,860 as the second-place finisher.

Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded at this final table:

Winner photo credit: Thomas Stacha/PokerStars.

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