Someone beat a final table with Ben Pollak, Erik Seidel, and Byron Kaverman for his third PCA $50,000 High Roller title. Find out who that player is in this post!
The winner of the PCA $50,000 High Roller 2018 is Steve O’Dwyer! As the winner of the first-place prize, at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure 2018, he netted $769,500 after beating Byron Kaverman heads up. The latter was the start-of-day chipleader. This win is the ninth major score throughout his career. The feat brought O’Dwyer’s lifetime earnings up to a whopping $21,121,735! This win has also catapulted him to 10th place, on the all-time money list. Although he is just short of a $1,000,000 away from Phil Hellmuth, he had surpassed Sam Trickett, Brian Rast, and Bryn Kenney.
The Top Winners of the PCA $50,000 High Roller
1 Steve O’Dwyer $769,500
2 Byron Kaverman $531,860
3 Jean-Noel Thorel $339,480
4 Erik Seidel $260,260
5 Benjamin Pollak $203,680
6 Orpen Kisacikoglu $158,420
Orpen Kisacikoglu vs. Byron Kaverman
The event started off with one extreme short stack and Kaverman was the all chip leader in the first level. He managed to effortlessly lean on everyone at the table. Orpen Kisacikoglu was looking for a spot to get it in, but he had only 7 big blinds. Until he did get it in, the middle stacks could not do much. He did so with a six-three suited and acquired some equity against Byron Kaverman, who showed up with a jack-deuce. Kaverman, on the other hand, was jack-high and held strong throughout the river, turn, and flop.
Benjamin Pollak and Erik Seidel’s Exit
At this time, Kisacikoglu was already out of the way. Play got slightly more free for the remaining players. Benjamin Pollak then decided to get it in with an ace-queen. However, it was a six on the river and it caused Pollak to get out of business. He exited in 5th place with $203,680 as prize money.
The next player to hit the rail was Erik Seidel. He got it in with ace-four against O’Dwyer’s ace-five. To make things worse, his opponent hit a five on the flop. Seidel didn’t manage to recover on the river and turn, and had to settle for 4th place with $260,260 as prize money.
Before we proceed to the final stages of the event, we would like to give credit to Jean-Noel Thorel for executing his patented unconventional style. It worked out well for him, but eventually bow out in third place. He lost due to a jack-seven to king-ten.
O’Dwyer vs. Kaverman
Now the focus was on two longtime high roller regulars. O’Dwyer and Kaverman were involved in a pure, heads-up fight. The results would soon be decided in O’Dwyer’s favor. O’Dwyer began with a chip disadvantage to Kaverman, but managed to turn the table when a string of good cards and boards boosted him to having a 3-to-1 lead. Next, he managed to bluff Kaverman off top pair, which won him a big hand. As Kaverman lacked time bank cards during that hand, he saw his time run out. Note that at this time, he was facing the all-in decision. O’Dwyer knew about that and that’s why he mentioned that he might have checked behind his six-high. He basically banked on the possibility that Kaverman’s time was running out.