Steve O’Dwyer Claims Latest Major Title as He Wins by Late Knockout

When nine players remained in the EPT Barcelona Cuatro Knockout event, Steve O’Dwyer was fifth in chips, middle of the road and no threat to the leader, Ottomar Ladva from Estonia. A few hours later, O’Dwyer was once again king of the felt in the Catalan former city of culture and had his latest major title and over $235,000 in winnings.

Busy Tournament Sees British Player Bubble

There were a whopping 62 entries in the Cuatro Knockout event out in Barcelona, as big names signed up. With each entry costing €12,300 ($13,660) to play, over $780,000 made it into the prizepool by the time the final table of nine played until one more of their number bust and the bubble burst.

When the nine were reached, Bryon Kaverman was the shortest stacked player in his seat, sitting behind just 10 big blinds. His resurgence was one of the headlines for the tournament, as he rallied and would eventually make it very deep in the event. Nine-handed play signified the direct bubble and it was the British poker professional Ian Bradley who bought a ticket in ninth to leave with nothing.

All-in with pocket fours, Bradley couldn’t double his four big blinds as he was called by chip leader Ottomar Ladva and the Estonian – a regular in tournaments such as the $10,300-entry weekly GG MILLION$ event series – hit when calling with king-queen. The flop and turn were blank, but a king on the river sent Bradley back to his hotel room to prepare for the Main Event.

Out in eighth for no bounties and a prize of $23,878 was the American player Martin Zamani. If you recall, Zamani was at the center of a controversial backing scenario where he accused Bryn Kenney of suggesting Zamani consume frog poison as part of his recovery at one point of their working relationship. Zamani and Kenney now move in the same high roller circles again, playing for six-figure sums, but Zamani missed out on this occasion. All-in when short with ace-queen, Zamani lost to the Indian player Santosh Suvarna’s pocket sevens when unable to hit post-flop.

The Leader Leaves the Action

Out in seventh place was the only Brazilian player at the final table, Fabiano Kovalksi. All-in with king-jack on a flop of T-9-7, Kovalski couldn’t hit his overcards, or backdoor flush or gutshot straight cards on turn or river and lost out to Suvarna, whose ace-seven held, in part due to both cards blocking the suit his Brazilian opponent was chasing. Suvarna soon had another scalp and Kovalski had to leave the felt, albeit to collect a whopping $43,202 including bounties.

Next to go was the Swedish player Joakim Andersson. All-in with a suited five-three, he was up against not only Byron Kaverman’s ace-ten but Suvarna’s seven-six too, and when the board came Q-J-8-2-9, Kaverman almost tripled up, while Andersson went home with $52,087.

Ottomar Ladva came into the final table with the lead but left in fifth place for $77,410 as Ladva when he followed a damaging defeat in a hand against O’Dwyer by losing the remainder of his chips to Santosh Suvarna, whose king-jack rivered a jack against the Estonian’s ace-three.

O’Dwyer Stars in late, Late Show  

With four players left, Suvarna had the lead but no-one was shorter than a million in chips. David Coleman moved all-in with king-six but ran into Steve O’Dwyer’s dominating king-nine and no luck across the final board sent the American Coleman home with a result worth $78,964 in including bounties.

Three-handed, Suvarna went from chip leader to out for $139,827. Shoving with pocket nines, he was unlucky to bust to O’Dwyer when ten-eight proved enough, a ten arriving on the flop to put the eventual winner into the heads-up clash with a lead of 5:1 in chips.

At 5am, he had them all. Byron Kaverman moved all his chips forward with ace-deuce but had the misfortune of running into O’Dwyer’s ace-nine and when a flop paired both of O’Dwyer’s cards, Kaverman needed to go runner-runner. That didn’t happen, with the runner-up drawing dead to the river and shaking O’Dwyer’s hand as Kaverman collected $132,608 in second place.

Steve O’Dwyer took home $235,411 in total as the four bounties he booked during the tournament banked him almost a quarter of that top score. Now amassing over $43.6 million in lifetime earnings in his career at the live felt, O’Dwyer sits in 13^th place on the All-Time Money List.