Prior to Black Friday, American Steve O’Dwyer, won roughly $600,000 playing the live tournament circuit in the States; supplemented by some online poker tournaments and cash games. Life was pretty rosy. Then the poker world had its head lopped off. American poker players started running around like headless chickens. But O’Dwyer had his head screwed on nice and tight. He slung a backpack over his shoulder and headed to Europe to do what he does best – play poker.
Since taking that decision, O’Dwyer, has clocked in an impressive $2.6 million in live tournament earnings, making him one of the most impressive live MTT players on the planet. But with the U.S seemingly on the cusp of a return to online poker, and a potential second boom, would O’Dwyer ever consider going back?
“NO!”
He seriously could not have been more emphatic with his response.
“I think online poker is going to awful, barely beatable even for the best players. I could be wrong but I am not very optimistic.”
Despite his success, the Holy Grail of poker sponsorship has so far eluded him. With news breaking that the former Brazilian footballer Ronaldo is being backed by PokerStars I wondered if it would grate just a little.
“If you are trying to say that Steve O’Dwyer would get upset because they are throwing money at superstars then you would be wrong.”
Steve O’Dwyer made it to Day Two of WPT Barcelona with 30,600 chips.
