Steve O'Dwyer Wins EPT Monte Carlo For $1.58m

Steve O’Dwyer has won the 2013 EPT Grand Final Monte Carlo, after defeating a field of 531 players over five days on his way to capturing the title, and collecting the €1,224,000 ($1,588,997) first place prize.
With his latest victory at the €10,600 Main Event at the Monte Carlo Bay Hotel, the 31 year old Las Vegas pro now takes his live tournament earnings to an impressive $4,840,796. Commenting later on his biggest win to date, O’Dwyer confided: “I ran like God…I’m really proud of my Irish heritage and I’m really glad you let me put the tricolour up there on the graphic.”
As the star-studded final table of eight got underway on Sunday, Steve O’Dwyer was the chip leader on a 4.45m stack, followed by Andrew Pantling (4.18m) and Jake Cody (1.633m). Also vying for the lion’s share of the €5.31m ($6,975,747) prize pool was Daniel Negreanu, Johnny Lodden, Noah Schwartz, Jason Mercier and Grant Levy.
After Andrew Pantling eliminated Grant Levy in 8th (€103,000), he did likewise to Jason Mercier in 7th (€137,000), who then tweeted; “jammed QTo over loddens c/o open ran into andrews AQs in the bb. #ontothenextone …busted 10k turbo.”
Daniel Negreau (A-A) then scored a double elimination against Noah Schwartz and Jake Cody, before being dealt 4-4 and being sent to the rail himself in 4th (€467,000) courtesy of  Johnny Lodden A-Q.
However, Lodden’s celebrations were short lived and after Steve O’Dwyer sent the Norweigan to the rail in 3rd (€467,00), the heads-up phase of the competition got underway with Pantling holding a slight chip lead over O’Dwyer.
Eventually, the defining hand was played with Pantling (Ks-5s) and O’Dwyer (10-8) all-in on a Js-8s-8-4s board. Unfortunately for Pantling the river produced an 8 and so he had to content himself with a runner-up finish worth €842,000, while Steve O’Dwyer was crowned the champion.
The final table payouts were as follows:
1. Steve O’Dwyer  €1,224,000
2. Andrew Pantling €842,000
3. Johnny Lodden €467,000
4. Daniel Negreau €321,000
5. Jake Cody €251,000
6. Noah Schwartz €189,000
7. Jason Mercier €137,000
8. Grant Levy €103,000