Steve O'Dwyer Leads the Unofficial Final Table at the End of Day 3
After another 10 levels of action in the $25,500 MILLIONS World, the final nine players have been solidified for the unofficial final table. It's a final table that features some of the best high rollers in the game but that's to be expected with the quality of the field.
A familiar face will be at the top of the leaderboard again as Steve O'Dwyer bagged the chip lead for the second day in a row. O'Dwyer racked up a stack of 81,275,000 coming on the back of massive pot with Leon Tsoukernik. It was blind vs blind and Tsoukernik ran a triple barrel bluff for all of his chips. O'Dwyer called him down with just a pair of eights which vaulted the Irish poker pro into the chip lead for the remainder of the day.
Notably, O'Dwyer will surpass the $25,000,000 career earnings mark with the money he is already guaranteed from this event. Should he go on to win this event, he could move past Phil Ivey for eighth place on the all-time money list. O'Dwyer recently won the partypoker $25,000 MILLIONS high roller in Nottingham for over $590,000 but this event will top the rest.
Not far behind O'Dwyer is Ben Tollerene with 74,750,000, coming off the heels of a big pot with Tsoukernik also. Tollerene turned a straight against Tsoukernik's two pair and scooped a pot of over 40 million chips to take the chip lead at the time. Tollerene also eliminated the last partypoker pro, Isaac Haxton, and put it in cruise control when just two tables were left.
The rest of the final table will be made up of some regular high rollers and some players new to the big stage. Joao Vieira, Andras Nemeth, Niall Farrell, Rainer Kempe, Roger Teska, Charles La Boissonniere, and Paul Tedeschi complete the remainder of the final table.
The action got underway with just 59 players returning from Day 3 and things got started with a bang within the first ten minutes. In a massive chip leading pot, three players were all in on the flop with Tsoukernik holding bottom set, Jason Koon having middle set, and Christopher Kruk with the nut flush draw. Kruk turned a flush but Tsoukernik made quads on the river to eliminate both of his opponents.
That set the stage for what would be a bumpy ride for the King's Casino owner throughout the rest of the day. He held the chip lead on multiple occasions, tripling up more than once, but also splashed some chips around to his opponents at the table. "I don't care about the money, I just want the title," Tsoukernik was caught saying at one point. Unfortunately for him, he bowed out in 14th place when his bluff was picked off.
The field quickly dwindled down to just 41 players in the matter of a couple levels but as the money bubble approached, the action grinded to a halt. When hand-for-hand play began, Cary Katz was on the short stack. Although he doubled up once, it wasn't meant to be as he ran his pocket fives into the pocket kings of Chance Kornuth. Katz was eliminated on the money bubble and the remaining 39 players were all guaranteed $60,000.
From there, the short stacks were eliminated at a rapid pace. Some players noteworthy of a min-cash include Timothy Adams, partypoker pro Joni Jouhkimainen, Benjamin Pollak, Ben Yu, and Joseph Cheong. Chipleaders from earlier in the tournament, Geraldo Cesar, Nick Petrangelo, Matt Berkey, and Chance Kornuth all hit the rail before the final two tables were assembled.
The final nine players will get the action rolling again at 12 p.m. EST tomorrow. The blinds will resume at level 29 at 350,000/700,000 with a big blind ante of 700,000. Continue to follow along with the PokerNews live reporting team for more coverage until a winner is crowned.