Roger Teska Wins 2018 Caribbean Poker Party $25,500 MILLIONS World

The 2018 Caribbean Poker Party, put on by partypoker LIVE, drew headlines for its two marquee events: a pair of massive $10,000,000 guaranteed no-limit hold’em tournaments in the $25,500 MILLIONS World no-limit hold’em high roller and the $5,300 CPP main event. The MILLIONS World drew a field of 394 entries, a gigantic turnout for a $25,000 buy-in event. After four days of action American high-stakes cash game player Roger Teska emerged victorious as the champion, capturing his first major live tournament title and the top prize of $2,000,000.

The final day of this tournament saw nine players return to the final table, with Teska sitting in seventh chip position at the start of play. Teska began his rise up the leaderboard by eliminating Niall Farrell in eighth place ($300,000). Farrell got all-in with pocket deuces, only to have Teska shove behind him with pocket eights and fold out the rest of the field. The board came down ASpade Suit10Spade Suit4Spade Suit10Diamond SuitQDiamond Suit and Farrell was sent to the rail.

High roller superstar Steve O’Dwyer began the day as the chip leader, and despite a few early setbacks, he was able to take control of the final table as the night wore on. O’Dwyer knocked out 2016 Super High Roller Bowl champion Rainer Kempe in seventh place ($350,000) to further his lead.

Teska took out Ben Tollerene in sixth place ($450,000) to keep pace with the rest of the table entering five-handed play, while O’Dwyer continued to do his best to pull away from the pack. O’Dwyer won a massive preflop coinflip, with his ASpade SuitKClub Suit beating Andras Nemeth’s 9Spade Suit9Heart Suit. O’Dwyer flopped an ace to eliminate Nemeth in fifth place ($550,000).

While O’Dwyer continued to climb, Teska doubled through France’s Paul Tedeschi to further climb the leaderboard. O’Dwyer collected the last of Tedeschi’s chips to send him home in fourth place ($700,000). With that, the remaining three players all guaranteed themselves seven-figure paydays in this event.

Teska busted Charles La Boissonniere in third place ($1,000,000). Teska made a move with QSpade Suit7Diamond Suit, shoving from the small blind to try to take down La Boissonniere’s big blind. The Canadian woke up with the 9Heart Suit9Club Suit and made the call, only to be eliminated when the flop brought a queen for Teska.

Steve O’Dwyer took more than a 3-to-1 chip lead into heads-up play. Early on in the match the two players found themselves in a massive preflop cooler situation, with Teska picking up the QDiamond SuitQClub Suit against O’Dwyer’s KSpade SuitKHeart Suit. All of the chips went in, and O’Dwyer was a big favorite to secure the title right there. Teska flopped a set of queens, though, and held from there to double up and nearly even out the stacks.

By the time the final hand arose Teska had built a solid lead. With blinds of 2,000,000-4,000,000 O’Dwyer raised to 9,000,000 from the button holding 5Diamond Suit5Club Suit. Teska shoved all-in with the 10Club Suit8Club Suit and O’Dwyer called off for 126,000,000. The board came down 8Heart Suit4Spade Suit2Heart SuitQDiamond Suit3Club Suit and Teska made a pair of eights on the flop to win the pot and the title.

O’Dwyer was awarded $1,300,000 and 1,750 Card Player Player of the Year points as the second-place finisher. This was his 13th final table of the year, and with four titles and $5,833,175 in earnings so far this year he has climbed into ninth place on the overall 2018 POY race leaderboard. Rainer Kempe added 525 POY points for his deep run. This was the German’s 23rd final table of the year, and he now sits in seventh place in the standings. Teska took home 2,100 points as the champion. This was just his second final table of the year, but this win alone was enough to move him into 70th place.

$25,500 MILLIONS World Final Table Results: