Season 12 EPT Player of The Year: Timex Beats O’Dwyer by a Single Point Taking Platinum Award

Mike ‘Timex’ McDonald has beaten Steve O’Dwyer by a single point to take the Season 12 European Poker Tour Player of the Year accolades in the Platinum band; Miguel Silva topped the gold charts, likewise Adam Milewski in the silver category.

Mike ‘Timex’ McDonald has won the Season 12 European Poker Tour (EPT) Player of the Year (POY) award in the ‘Platinum’ category after beating Steve O’Dwyer by a single point.

The Global Poker League (GPL) Montreal Nationals star went into the EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo with a hairline lead over the 2015 Global Poker Index (GPI) POY. It was a disappointing festival for both players, but every point proved crucial.

O’Dwyer took the lead on 1 May when he finished ninth in the €50,000 No-Limit Hold’em (NLHE) High Roller for €98,480. Timex clawed a few points back the day after finishing in 10th place in a €550 NLHE Hyper Turbo event for €1,580 but fell further behind on the 4 May when O’Dwyer caught a 31st place finish in the €25,750 High Roller earning €49,800. With time running out Timex entered the final contest of the festival – €10,200 NLHE Turbo 6-Max – and finished in seventh place for a €33,990 cash, earning enough points to overtake O’Dwyer at the top.

It’s the second time that O’Dwyer had finished runner-up in the top-tier EPT POY charts after coming up short against the reigning EPT Grand Final Main Event Champ, Jan Bendik when the Slovakian won the award in Season 9. He also finished sixth in Season 8. Nobody has made more Top 10 finishes than the American.

For Timex, it was his second Top 10 spot after finishing in fifth place back in Season 6 when Max Lykov was eating players for breakfast. The Canadian cashed in 18 Season 12 events, including a victory in the €25,750 High Roller at EPT Malta earning €498,575.

The EPT POY system is three-tiered and GPL players did well in all three. Timex won the Platinum award; Miguel Silva won the Gold award with Rome Emperors Walter Treccarichi finishing second, and Adam Milewski won the Silver award with the Hong Kong Stars Raiden Kan finishing second.

Georgios Zisimopoulos, Ole Schemion, and Joao Vieira featured in the Top 10 of both the Platinum and Gold tiers. Vieira, Fedor Holz, Daniel Dvoress, and Ivan Luca all made the Platinum Top 10 for the second successive year.

EPT Season 12 POY Top 10 (Platinum)

1. Mike McDonald – 3,747.38 pts.

2. Steve O’Dwyer – 3,746.42 pts.

3. Ivan Luca – 3,097.93 pts.

4. Adrian Mateos – 2,901.41 pts.

5. Georgios Zisimopoulos – 2,803.04 pts.

6. Isaac Haxton – 2,712.51 pts.

7. Fedor Holz – 2,552.36 pts.

8. Ole Schemion – 2,528.04 pts.

9. Joao Vieira – 2,485.89 pts.

10. Daniel Dvoress – 2,436.29 pts.

EPT Season 12 POY Top 10 (Gold)

1. Miguel Silva- 1,851.51 pts.

2. Walter Treccarichi – 1,598.59 pts.

3. Atanas Kavrakov – 1,575.25 pts.

4. Georgios Zisimopoulos – 1,535.50 pts.

5. Yann Dion – 1,502.15 pts.

6. Francisco Olivera – 1,362.98 pts.

7. Ole Schemion – 1,280.61 pts.

8. Pascal Hartmann – 1,210.74 pts.

9. Joao Vieira – 1,200.27 pts.

10. Justin Bonomo – 1,120.69 pts.

EPT Season 12 POY Top 10 (Silver)

1. Adam Milewski – 51.77 pts.

2. Raiden Kan – 50.75 pts.

3. Eshed Hadaya – 45.71 pts.

4. Eyal Alksnis – 45.39 pts.

5. Tai Loi Yuen – 42.45 pts.

6. Quentin Dellis – 41.61 pts.

7. Christoph Kohnen – 41.36 pts.

8. Dominique Terzian – 40.50 pts.

9. Roman Skudar – 40.14 pts.

10. Daragh Davey – 36.88 pts.

Previous EPT POY Platinum Winners

Season 11: Dzmitry Urbanovich

Season 10: Ole Schemion

Season 9: Jan Bendik

Season 8: Ondrej Vinklarek

Season 7: Fernando Brito

Season 6: Maxim Lykov