The Week in Poker: O'Dwyer, Babakhani, Clinkscales Big Winners

Steve O'Dwyer (left), Amir Babakhani (center), and Rex Clinkscales (right) each scored big wins in advance of the upcoming WSOP

The poker world is as busy as ever these days, with various tours starting to wind down in advance of the start of the 2013 World Series of Poker which kicks off in less than two weeks. The European Poker Tour has completed its ninth season, with the Grand Final in Monte Carlo highlighted by Steve O'Dwyer's Main Event victory. The World Poker Tour is nearing the end of its Season XI, with Amir Babakhani claiming the latest title in Quebec. And the next-to-last stop of the 2012-13 WSOP Circuit saw Rex Clinkscales win the Main Event in Philadelphia. 

O'Dwyer triumphs at EPT Grand Final 

Much attention was directed toward the Monte-Carlo Casino for this week's EPT Grand Final, highlighted by the €10,000 Main Event where Steve O'Dwyer topped a field of 531 to earn the trophy and €1,224,000 first prize. Born in the U.S. and now residing in Dublin, O'Dwyer has dual nationality although was designated as from Ireland for this event, thereby making his victory the first ever EPT championship for an Irish player.

After nearly a week's worth of poker, O'Dwyer carried the chip lead to the especially stacked eight-handed final table with more than 4.45 million. Only Andrew Pantling was close with 4.18 million, with no one else having more than 1.65 million to start the final day of play.

Of course, with Jake Cody, Daniel Negreanu, Johnny Lodden, Noah Schwartz, Jason Mercier, and Grant Levy occupying the other six seats, there was no assurance the chip leaders would be making it to heads-up without difficulty. But O'Dwyer and Pantling did manage to do just that, and when Pantling eliminated Lodden in third he held a slight chip advantage over O'Dwyer to start heads-up play.

The pair battled for a couple of hours, exchanging the lead a couple of times before O'Dwyer finally pushed out to a nearly 3-to-1 advantage. That's when the two got the last of Pantling's chips in the middle on fourth street following a 8d-8s-Js flop and 4s turn.

O'Dwyer had flopped trips with his 10c-8h, but Pantling had turned the flush with his Ks-5s and was a card away from evening the match. But the 8c dramatically fell on the river to improve O'Dwyer to quads, giving him the title.

EPT Grand Final Monte-Carlo Main Event final table results:
1st:  Steve O'Dwyer (Ireland) -- €1,224,000
2nd:  Andrew Pantling (Canada) -- €842,000
3rd:  Johnny Lodden (Norway) -- €467,000
4th:  Daniel Negreanu (Canada) -- €321,000
5th:  Jake Cody (United Kingdom) -- €251,000
6th:  Noah Schwartz (United States) -- €189,000
7th:  Jason Mercier (United States) -- €137,000
8th:  Grant Levy (Australia) -- €103,000

Among the other goings-on in Monaco this week was the €25,000 High Roller event which saw 121 entries (including 37 rebuys). Steven Silverman of the U.S. came away with the victory and €775,000 first prize, outlasting Anthony Gregg heads-up with Vanessa Selbst (4th) and Toby Lewis (5th) highlighting another tough final table.

Finally the €100,000 Super High Roller also earned considerable notice, with the German Max Altergott beating Jason Mercier heads-up to grab the win and €1,746,400 first prize, the largest of the series.

Babakhani binks WPT Canadian Spring Championship

The World Poker Tour made one last stop in Kahnawake, Quebec this week as it readies for its season-ending WPT World Championship at the Bellagio which gets underway tomorrow. Canada's own Amir Babakhani ended up on top of a field comprised of 735 entries for the C$3,000 tournament, earning a first prize of C$442,248 (worth about $430,000 USD).

It was an all-Canadian final table, in fact, at the Playground Poker Club as the last surviving American players, Christian Harder and Bryan Piccioli, were eliminated in seventh and eighth, respectively.

Babakhani enjoyed a big chip lead early on at the six-handed final table after eliminating both Jonathan Bardier in sixth and Martin Leblanc in fifth. Jason Duval then knocked out Bobby Liang in fourth, but Duval was himself soon eliminated by Babakhani in third, giving the latter a large chip lead to start heads-up play versus Barry Kruger.

Kruger battled for a while, though ultimately found himself all in on a 5c-5d-3d-2c board holding 5h-4h for trip fives and a straight draw. Alas for Kruger, Babakhani had 8c-5s for the same trips with a better kicker, and after fifth street brought the Qc, Babakhani had won.

WPT PartyPoker WPT Canadian Spring Championship final table results:
1st:  Amir Babakhani -- C$442,248
2nd:  Barry Kruger -- C$272,555 
3rd:  Jason Duval -- C$199,029
4th:  Tao Liang -- C$136,700
5th:  Martin Leblanc -- C$102,251
6th:  Jonathan Bardier -- C$81,767

The victory marks the biggest cash by far for Babakhani, as the Toronto resident hadn't even earned a five-figure score prior to his big win at the Playground.

Clinkscales climbs to the top at WSOP-C Philly

The 2012-13 edition of the WSOP Circuit is approaching its finale as well, with the 19th of 20 stops having just completed at Harrah's Philadelphia. Rex Clinkscales of Las Vegas emerged as the big winner there to earn his first ever WSOP-C ring and a $121,097 first prize in the $1,675 buy-in Main Event.

It was an all-American final table at the ME in Philadelphia, with Clinkscales surviving a long Day 3 that saw them play down from 14 to a winner. After several hours they finally reached the nine-handed final table, where Michael Assante began as the chip leader with Clinkscales all of the way down in eighth position.

Clinkscales soon began to improve his status, however, by knocking out the table's short stack and last woman standing Beverly Cheney in ninth. He then watched others fall including former leader Assante in fifth as Ken Silberstein took a commanding lead with four left.

Silberstein then knocked out Andrew Rudnik in fourth and had more than two-thirds of the chips while both Clinkscales and Mike Jukich sat with relative short stacks. However both Clinkscales and Jukich managed to double through the leader, then Jukich doubled again through Silberstein to take the lead himself.

Silberstein slid some more, then Clinkscales knocked him out in third to set up heads-up play with he and Jukich being nearly dead-even to start their duel.  

Clinkscales soon edged out in front, however, then Jukich was all in before the flop with Kc-Qc against the 7h-7d of Clinkscales. The board ran out 10h-3s-10s-9c-Ah, and Clinkscales had won.

2012-13 WSOP-C Harrah's Philadelphia final table results:
1st:  Rex Clinkscales -- $121,097
2nd:  Mike Jukich -- $74,863
3rd:  Ken Silberstein -- $54,614
4th:  Andrew Rudnik -- $40,509
5th:  Michael Assante -- $30,516
6th:  Leonardo Palermo -- $23,340
7th:  Tony Natale -- $18,112
8th:  Jonas Wexler -- $14,258
9th:  Beverly Cheney -- $11,383

Also of note at the Harrah's Philadelphia stop was the performance of Chris Reslock who won two events, both in no-limit hold'em. That gives Reslock seven WSOP-C rings altogether, earning him the all-time lead at the moment, one better than Alex Masek.

The WSOP-C now moves to Harrah's New Orleans for its 20th and last stop of the season, to be followed immediately by the WSOP National Championship, also in New Orleans.

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