It’s an overstatement to say that Daniel Dvoress likes the Bahamas – I mean, who doesn’t like the Bahamas – but Daniel Dvoress really likes the Bahamas.
His first-ever live cash came in the 2013 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) in the Bahamas, finishing 39th in a $1,100 No-Limit Hold’em event for $2,700. His first-ever win in a live tournament came in last year’s same series, winning a $25,000 No-Limit Hold’em game for $73,785.
Then he rocks up to the Baha Mar and takes down the 51-entrant $250,000 Super High Roller Bowl for $4,080,000. Given that the previous field size of his first win fitted in an inkpot (6-players), it’s safe to say that this was his first ‘real’ victory, and it took him less than two days to pick up his second.
Dvoress secured back-to-back Bahamian boom-booms after taking down the $25,000 Short-Deck event at partypoker MILLIONS World, and it wasn’t easy. The final six players were a tombstone makers dream with $97.2m in live tournament winnings between them.
John Cynn finished in sixth place for only the fourth cash since winning the 2018 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event. Ike Haxton shifted his annual earnings to $3.7m after taking fifth (the third-best yearly haul of his career).
Phil Ivey continued his healthy return to the live tournament tables with a fourth-place finish. Ivey cashed four times at the WSOP in the Summer before picking up $1.7m in winnings during the World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE).
The third-place spot belonged to one of the hottest live tournament players on the circuit. Chin Wei Lim has earned $7.3m this year, including a tenth place finish in the Triton Million for £1.2m, before going on to win the €100,000 Diamond High Roller for $2.4m, and finishing second in the €250,000 Super High Roller for $1.9m, both at the WSOPE.
The heads-up action came down to a battle of the Daniels.
Both Tang and Dvoress had recently played the role of the grim statue as the photog poured praise onto someone else. The location was Montenegro. The series was Triton. And on each occasion, both Daniels played second fiddle to a man called Bryn Kenney (Dvoress lost the HKD 500k, and Tang lost the HKD 1m).
Dvoress also lost a second heads-up skirmish in Montenegro, when John Juanda beat him to win the HD 250,000 Short-Deck, and in 2017 he lost heads-up in two €50k events at the PokerStars Championships in Panama (Ben Tollerene) and Monte Carlo (Adrian Mateos).
Tang had picked up seven silver medals, four of which have been in World Poker Tour (WPT) side events. The $1.8m Tang received for losing to Kenney in Montenegro sweetened that one.
The history books showed that Dvoress had the experience, and it helped, as he overcame Tang to collect another primetime victory. You wait for six-years for your first big win, and then two come along, just like buses.
ITM Results
- Daniel Dvoress – $375,000
- Daniel Tang – $250,000
- Chin Wei Lim – $175,000
- Phil Ivey – $126,250
- Isaac Haxton – $95,000
- John Cynn – $70,000