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Steve O'Dwyer Climbs To 12th Place On All-Time Money List

Poker Pro Wins WPT Alpha8 Event In Korea To Increase His Career Earnings To More Than $38.7 Million

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Steve O’Dwyer added another seven-figure score to his extensive tournament resume recently, taking down the 2023 WPT Alpha8 for One Drop at Jeju Shinhwa World KRW 170,000,000 no-limit hold’em high roller for KRW 1,294,256,000, or $1,009,159 when rendered in USD.

“I’m just really happy. I haven’t played much poker this summer and I’ve got to win the ones that I do play. So it’s nice to win,” O’Dwyer said in a video interview with the WPT after coming out on top.

“I’ve always loved WPTs. The first big tournament I ever played was the WPT PokerStars Caribbean Adventure in 2007. Anytime it’s convenient I try to because they’re always great events,” he continued.

The event, which cost approximately $132,000 to enter, drew 18 entries to create a final prize pool equivalent to more than $2.2 million.

This marked the eighth time that O’Dwyer has cashed for more than a million dollars. The victory increased his career tournament earnings to $38,705,943. As a result, he surpassed Cary Katz and claimed the 12th-place spot on poker’s all-time money list. The American-born poker pro, now based out of Ireland, is now officially the highest-earning tournament player on the planet without a World Series of Poker bracelet.

O’Dywer earned 240 Card Player Player of the Year points as the champion of this tournament. This was his ninth final-table finish of the year, with one title won and more than $4.3 million in POY earnings accrued along the way. As a result, he now sits in 31st place in the 2023 POY race standings presented by Global Poker.

This event paid the top four finishers, with the first player busted inside the money opting to remain anonymous. Below is a look at the results for the top three finishers in this high-stakes affair.

Place Player Earnings POY Points
1 Steve O’Dwyer $1,009,159 240
2 Quan Zhou $559,809 200
3 Chenxu Zhang $390,079 160