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Home / Uncategorized / PokerStars Championship Panama: O’Dwyer leads the High Roller final five

A total of 52 players started Day 2 of the PokerStars Championship Panama High Roller and we managed to make it down to just five after 10 more levels of play.

Steve O’Dwyer started the day near the middle of the pack, but he consistently scored eliminations throughout the day to keep rising. Towards the end of play it was starting to look like Francois Billard would secure the lead, but O’Dwyer scored the last elimination of the day to finish on top.

Anthony Zinno got all his chips in with overcards against O’Dwyer’s pocket sevens late in the day and Zinno couldn’t improve. Zinno was eliminated in 6th place while O’Dwyer took the lead and finished the day with 1,849,000. It’s a common position for O’Dwyer to be in. The Colorado pro is a High Roller veteran with more than $16 million in live tournament earnings and multiple High Roller and Super High Roller titles.

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Steve O’Dwyer

Billard on the other hand will be chasing his first High Roller title. Billard burst the money bubble right after dinner break and had a commanding lead during the latter part of the day. But as O’Dwyer rose, Billard slipped into second with 1,494,000.

Our start-of-day chip leader, Sam Greenwood, rounds off the top three with 1,273,000. Like O’Dwyer, Greenwood has multiple High Roller titles and is now looking to add a PSC High Roller title to his list of accomplishments. Greenwood nearly made the final table at the PokerStars Championship Bahamas High Roller, but he was eliminated in 10th place by his twin brother, Luc Greenwood. Luc went on to win that event and now Sam is looking to keep the PSC High Roller trophy with the Greenwood family.

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Sam Greenwood

Chris Hunichen also made it through the day and will return with 746,000. The last remaining player is none other than Team PokerStars Pro Felipe Ramos. Ramos will return a bit short-stacked with 273,000, but the Brazilian pro is used to putting up a good fight. Ramos helped coach Tito Ortiz during his impressive Main Event run, and now he’s hoping to follow that up with a victory of his own in the High Roller.

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Team Pokerstars Pro Felipe Ramos

While the dream is still alive for these five, it’s gone for everyone else. Players like Eric Seidel, David Peters, JC Alvarado, Mike Watson and Ryan Riess all took a seat today, but none of them were able to make it to the final table.

There were also a fair number of Argentinians in the field, including Damian Salas and Team PokerStars Pro Leo Fernandez. Fernandez busted early in the day, but Salas managed to make it to the final table and was eliminated in 7th place.

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Damian Salas

A total of fifteen players cashed this event for a minimum of $18,140. We hit the money bubble right before dinner break and it burst immediately after it. Players steadily dropped and now the final five are guaranteed $80,560.

They’re all professionals though and they have their eyes set on the title and the $274,740 payday that comes with it. Join us tomorrow at 2pm as we play Day 3 and find out which one of these five players that will be.


For live updates from the $10K High Roller, visit PokerNews.

Take a look at the official website of PokerStars LIVE, with tournament schedule, news, results and accommodation details for the PokerStars Championship Panama and all other Festival and Championship events.

Also all the information is on the PokerStars LIVE App, which is available on both Android or IOS.

Alexander Villegas is a freelance contributor to the PokerStars Blog.

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