After a ten hour final table battle, the top two chip stacks at the start of the day – Steve O’Dwyer and Andrew Pantling – decided the championship of the European Poker Tour Grand Final in Monte Carlo, with O’Dwyer emerging as the final champion of the EPT’s Season Nine schedule.
O’Dwyer led Pantling by slightly more than 370K in chips, with both men over the four million mark against arguably one of the best final tables in history. Such notables as Jake Cody, Daniel Negreanu, Johnny Lodden, Noah Schwartz, Jason Mercier and Grant Levy took up the other six seats on the table, with the entirety of the final table having career tournament poker earnings of almost $40 million. Suffice it to say, the eventual champion of the event would come through a quality field to earn this title.
With such skilled players on the felt, the early action was predictably measured as the players jostled for position. Pantling was particularly active, taking down a pot with a three bet against Mercier but then turning around and handing some chips to Negreanu to drop under the four million mark. He would again battle against Negreanu in a huge hand that saw Negreanu river a Broadway straight, plummeting Pantling momentarily down the ladder and shooting Negreanu into the second place slot.
It was Pantling who would make the first elimination of the final table, opening up the betting and seeing Levy three bet the action. Pantling called to see a 3♣ J♥ 7♣ flop and, after checking his option, Levy would move all in. Pantling immediately made the call, showing J♣ 10♣ while Levy opened up Big Slick. An Ace would come on the turn, but it wasn’t the one that Levy was looking for; the A♣ gave Pantling an unbeatable flush and, after the ceremonial river card was dealt, Levy was out in eighth place.
While Mercier was able to fight for some time with his short stack, he was never really able to get much going on Sunday afternoon in Monaco. After Lodden opened the betting, Mercier made a move with a three bet all in out of the small blind. Pantling, in the big blind, made the call and, after Lodden got out of the way, the hands were turned up. Mercier’s Q-10 was definitely a move, but Pantling’s A-Q had him heavily dominated. The board would run nine high to eliminate Mercier, looking to win his second EPT championship, in seventh place and push Pantling back up near the five million mark.
At that point, Pantling was in a slight lead over O’Dwyer and he would continue to push the action. He would three-bet a pot (with the worse hand, via the EPT live stream) against Negreanu to approach the six million mark, then crack that barrier in another hand against Lodden. It seemed that Pantling was on his way to the prestigious EPT Grand Final championship while the rest of the pack scrambled behind him.
Negreanu was on a yo-yo through the day, his high point coming in a rare final table double knockout. After Negreanu raised the pot to 115K, Schwartz moved all in from the button and Cody moved all in over the top of Schwartz. Negreanu beat Cody’s chips into the pot with the call, tabling pocket Aces against Cody’s pocket Jacks and Schwartz’ K-10. The Q-8-7-8-10 board brought no threat to Negreanu’s dominance at that time, eliminating Schwartz in sixth and Cody in fifth place, but it would be downhill for him after that.
Negreanu would double up Lodden soon after that huge battle to fall back to around 1.6 million. The two would clash again after Negreanu moved all in with pocket fours and Lodden making the call with A-Q. The K-10-2 flop kept Negreanu in the lead but left Lodden with outs to the straight. A nine didn’t change much on the turn, but the Jack on the river completed Lodden’s straight and eliminated Negreanu in fourth place just as it seemed he was making a run to the title.
Down to three handed play, Pantling was almost two million chips up on Lodden and slightly less than four million ahead of O’Dwyer. Over the next hour, there were few confrontations, but O’Dwyer slowly worked his way back into a stronger position as the short stack (4.48 million) against Lodden (5.8 million) and Pantling (5.645 million). O’Dwyer would first double through Lodden and then eliminate him in third place to set up the heads up battle with Pantling.
At the start of heads up play, Pantling held a 1.4 million chips lead over O’Dwyer and would extend that lead to almost three million over the first few hands of play. O’Dwyer fought back over an array of small pots, however, to take a slight lead before a huge hand essentially decided the tournament.
After the dinner break, Pantling held a slim 700K lead over O’Dwyer that disappeared soon after that break. On an early hand, O’Dwyer made a raise, Pantling three bet the action from his big bling and O’Dwyer made the call. An 8-A-3 flop brought another bet from Pantling and another call from O’Dwyer to see a Queen on the turn. Pantling fired again, this time for over 1.5 million, and O’Dwyer once again made the call. A second Ace came on the river and, this time, Pantling put the brakes on. O’Dwyer checked as well and, once he displayed his A-10 against Pantling’s 6-3, took a huge 6.7 million chip pot to rocket into the lead.
Two hands later, it was all over and in a stunning fashion. O’Dwyer raised off the button again, this time with a 10-8, and Pantling made the call with his K♠ 5♠. The flop hit both players hard, 8♦ 8♠ J♠, and Pantling would check call a bet from O’Dwyer. A 4♠ came on the turn and Pantling check-raised this time, pushing O’Dwyer’s bet up from 600K to 1.425 million. O’Dwyer considered his options before moving all in and O’Dwyer immediately made the call with his flush. Needing to dodge the board pairing or the case eight, Pantling saw that case eight hit on the river, giving O’Dwyer championship quads to eliminate Pantling in second place.
1. Steve O’Dwyer, €1,224,000
2. Andrew Pantling, €842,000
3. Johnny Lodden, €467,000
4. Daniel Negreanu, €321,000
5. Jake Cody, €251,000
6. Noah Schwartz, €189,000
7. Jason Mercier, €137,000
8. Grant Levy, €103,000
The championship is by far the biggest payday for O’Dwyer in his tournament poker career and continues what has been an outstanding 2013 tournament poker year for him. O’Dwyer has four final table finishes among his five cashes in 2013, but the EPT Grand Final championship will push him into contention for many Player of the Year races as well as make him a favorite for the upcoming World Series of Poker.
Congratulations to Steve O’Dwyer for his outstanding performance at one of the strongest final tables in recent tournament poker memory and to the EPT for another outstanding year of action.
