The lesser known American player beat Steve O’Dwyer heads-up.
"I definitely wasn’t expecting to win coming into this"
Only 9 players returned to the unofficial final table of the event, with high-roller crusher, Steve O’Dwyer holding the chip lead. He was followed by one of the most feared players in the game, Ben Tollerene. Online high-stakes specialist, András "probirs" Németh, German high-roller regular, Rainer Kempe and seasoned UK pro, Niall Farrell were also at the table.
After 13 hours of high-level poker, it was Roger Teska who could raise the trophy and take home the $2,000,000 coming with it. The high-stakes cash game regular admittedly was an underdog on the star-studded final table but managed to beat all of the top-notch competition. "I definitely wasn’t expecting to win coming into this," said Teska after his victory. "These guys know when to shove, what hands to shove with, and I don’t. Steve is a better player than I am so I wanted to play bigger pots." Indeed, the Bloomington native only had 17 listed result before the event, with his biggest score coming from a WPT event, where he finished 4th for $371,665.
The final table kicked off with Paul Tedeschi as the shortest stack, but he climbed the ladder and quickly found himself with the most chips. Partypoker pro, Joao Vieira was the first player to hit the rail. Vieira put his last 7 big blinds with pocket jacks, but unfortunately for him, ran into the aces of Tedeschi. Joao walked away with $250,000.
Niall Farrell exited in a similar fashion, shoving with a pocket pair against a bigger one in a blind on blind confrontation against Teska. "Firaldo" added $300,000 to his bankroll.
Niall was followed by Rainer Kempe, who moved in with king-jack against the ace-jack of O’Dwyer’s and couldn’t manage to hit any of his out, he was drawing dead by the turn. Rainer’s performance worthed $350,000 this time.
Despite holding the lead at one point, Ben Tollerene eventually had to settle for 6th place, when he pushed his remaining stack into the middle after losing a huge flip to Teska. The US pro walked away with a $450,000 prize.
András Németh managed to build up a decent stack from five big blinds, but he lost a pot for the chip lead against Steve in a preflop flip, holding nines against ace-king. An ace on the flop put him in a tough spot and he was unable to hit a two outer. "Probirs" earned $550,000.
In the four-handed period, O’Dwyer had a comfortable lead, and the shorter stacks started battling against each other, which lead to the elimination of Paul Tedeschi. The Frenchman walked away with a $700,000 score.
The stacks leveled out in the three-handed play, but Steve was able to build up a massive 300-million strong stack. Teska also had a comfortable stack, he shoved from the small blind against the short stack, Charles La Boissonniere and his queen-seven managed to outdraw the pocket nines of the Canadian. Charles won a cool $1 million for finishing 3rd.
The heads-up started with O’Dwyer holding a 3-1 lead over Teska, but lucky hand helped Teska. He was all-in with queens against kings preflop and spiked a set on the river to come even the stacks. He scored another double up when picked off a bluff and closed the tournament out shortly after. With this win, he now has $2,818,135 in total live earnings, while high-roller sicko, O’Dwyer has over $26 million.
Final results
| Position | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Roger Teska | United States | $2,000,000 |
| 2 | Steve O’Dwyer | Ireland | $1,300,000 |
| 3 | Charles La Boissoniere | Canada | $1,000,000 |
| 4 | Paul Tedeschi | France | $700,000 |
| 5 | Andras Nemeth | Hungary | $550,000 |
| 6 | Ben Tollerene | United States | $450,000 |
| 7 | Ranier Kempe | Germany | $350,000 |
| 8 | Niall Farrell | United Kingdom | $300,000 |
| 9 | Joao Vieira | Portugal | $250,000 |
