Steve O'Dwyer has won poker tournaments all over the world, but a victory on Spanish soil was on his to-do list. Was is the operative word because O'Dwyer chalked that off when he came out on top in the partypoker LIVE MILLIONS Europe Main Event in Barcelona.
With this latest victory, which came with a €250,000 prize, O'Dwyer's lifetime live poker tournament earnings swelled to $31,580,066, enough for 14th place in poker's all-time money list. O'Dwyer's win comes just days after being the runner-up inthe €10,300 High Roller event, in which Teun Mulder triumphed.
MILLIONS Europe Main Event Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize EUR) | Prize (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Steve O'Dwyer | Ireland | €250,000 | $267,772 |
| 2 | Luuk Gieles | Netherlands | €168,000 | $179,943 |
| 3 | Gergely Bartos | Hungary | €122,000 | $130,673 |
| 4 | Taras Khilko | Ukraine | €84,000 | $89,971 |
| 5 | Daniel Smyth | Ireland | €65,000 | $69,621 |
| 6 | Igor Picone | Germany | €50,000 | $53,554 |
| 7 | Duc Haven | Netherlands | €38,500 | $41,237 |
| 8 | Pawel Brzeski | Poland | €29,000 | $31,062 |
| 9 | Jelle Moene | Netherlands | €29,000 | $31,062 |
The €3,300 buy-in MILLIONS Europe Main Event, the first live MILLIONS stop since before the COVID-19 pandemic, saw 450 players buy-in and create a €1,310,300 ($1,403,447) prize pool. Those finishing in the top 68 places walked away with some prize money to show for their efforts.
Steven van Zadelhoff was one of the first players to cash in this event. Others, including Yucel Eminoglu, Will Kassouf, and Ramon Colillas were among the first swathe of in the money bustouts.Colillas won the €1,100 MILLIONS Open a few days prior to the Main Event.
Chess grandmaster Ottomar Ladva, former professional soccer player Anthony Gardner, Arthur Conan, partpoker's Team Online Jeffrey "MaximusBlack" Johnson, Alex Lynskey, Mathias Siljander, and Matthias Lipp all fell by the wayside before the nine-handed final table. Matt Staples of partypoker Team Online fame fell in tenth place.
Three Dutch players were among the final nine but two busted out early into the action. Jelle Moene was the first player out of the door, the Dutchman defended his big blind with king-deuce and check-called on the flop, turn, and all-in on the river with top pair only to discover O'Dwyer's ace-king had him out-kicked.
Poland's Pawel Brzeski hit the rail in eighth when his three-bet shove with deuces was called by Luuk Gieles holding ace-queen. A queen on the flop was enough to reduce the player count by one.
Seventh-place went to another Dutch star in Duc ten Haven. Gergely Bartos min-raised to 3,200,000, ten Haven looked down at a pair of red kings and three-bet all-in for 24,600,000. Bartos called with ace-king and proceeded to flop an ace to end the MILLIONS Europe Main Event dreams of ten Haven.
Bartos claimed another scalp when his pocket fives held against a 12 big blind shove from Igor Picone made with ace-trey. A seven-high board failed to come to Picone's assistance.
Irishman Daniel Smyth, who you may recall turned a $33 satellite entry into the WPT World Online Championship Main Event title at partypoker, defended his big blind to a shove with jack-ten and found himself against the suited ace-five of Ukrainian Tara Khilko. The man from Ukraine flopped trip aces, and although Smyth had outs to a straight, they failed to materialize on the turn and river.
Khilko was the next player heading for the cashier's desk. Gieles set Khilko all in and Khilko called off his last eight big blinds with king-queen. Gieles flipped over ace-eight, and an eight on the flop meant the final table was down to three players.
Those three became two when Gieles busted Bartos. Gieles min-raised to 10,000,000 and instantly called when Bartos three-bet all-in for 122,000,000. The reason for Gieles' quick actions soon became evident; he held pocket aces. Bartos showed ace-five, and failed to connect with the five community cards.
O'Dwyer trailed Gieles by 142,000,000 to 304,000,000 chips going into heads-up, but managed to fight his way level and then into a commanding lead. The final hand of the MILLIONS Europe Main Event saw O'Dwyer open-shove with ace-ten, and Gieles call off the last of his nine big blinds with king-four. Gieles flopped two pair and a double-up looked likely. However, and ace on the turn followed by the board pairing on the river counterfeited that two pair, resigned Gieles to a runner-up finish, and gave O'Dwyer his long-awaited first outright victory in Spain.
