PokerStars Caribbean Adventure: Steve O’Dwyer’s Insights and Tournament Highlights

The PokerStars Caribbean Adventure super high roller tournament with a $100,000 buy-in saw 61 entries this year, making it the second highest in the tournament's history. The highest number of entries, 66, occurred in 2015 when Steve O’Dwyer won the tournament. The prize pool for the tournament was substantial, with the first place taking home $1,775,460, the second $1,284,260, and the third $828,560.

Henrik Heklen and Igor Kurganov were the chip leaders at the end of the first day. Igor Kurganov started the day with 50,000 chips out of the starting 250,000 but increased his stack to 640,000 by the middle of the day. Joe Cada doubled up against Nikita Bodiakovskiy with Ax Kx against Qx Qx, with the dealer laying out four threes on the table.

Steve O’Dwyer finished the starting day with the third-largest stack. In an interview, Steve O’Dwyer shared his thoughts on Las Vegas and his poker career. He has not played in Las Vegas since 2013, citing a dislike for the city and preferring to play elsewhere. O’Dwyer mentioned that he started his professional career by helping a friend with a poker tournament reportage in exchange for food. He played approximately 1,500 tournaments in the past year, which is a significant distance for him. O’Dwyer feels his game improves with practice and that he missed playing online during his time in Las Vegas. He has played in expensive offline tournaments since 2004, feeling comfortable in live poker. O’Dwyer mentioned that he might return to Las Vegas in the future but is not planning to play the entire WSOP series.