The 2015 PokerStars Carribean Adventure $100,000 no-limit hold’em super high roller drew a record field of 66 entries, outperforming the prior high water mark of 59 entries in 2013. As a result the prize pool swelled to over $6.4 million dollars. In the end the lion’s share of that went to Steve O’Dwyer, who notched the largest score of his career when he was awarded the $1,872,580 first-place prize.

“I don’t really care about the money ever, I just want to play against the best players and prove to myself that I can do this at the highest level,“ said O’Dwyer after locking up his seventh live tournament title.

The 32-year-old poker pro who currently resides in Ireland proved just how high a level he can reach on the final hand of the tournament, making a “hero call” for the win. He had entered the final table in third chip position but made it to heads-up with a strong chip lead after picking up some big pocket pairs short handed and winning large pots with them. By the time the final hand arose he had built a more than 3-to-1 chip advantage over heads-up opponent Roger Sippl, an American businessman and poker enthusiast who had more than $1.6 million in prior cashes under his belt.

Sippl raised to 450,000 on the button with the J 10 and O’Dwyer made the call with the A 10 . The flop brought the Q 8 8 and O’Dwyer checked to Sippl, who bet 750,000 now, leaving just under 3 million left in his stack. O’Dwyer made the call and the turn brought the 2 , prompting a check from both players. The 3 on the river elicited a third check from O’Dwyer which was quickly followed by an all-in move from Sippl. After several minutes in the tank O’Dwyer made the call with his ace-high and found out that his hand was indeed good enough to secure him the pot and the title.

Sippl earned $1,344,420 and 600 Card Player Player of the Year points for his runner-up finish, while O’Dwyer scored 720 POY points as the winner. This event is the first major tournament of the new year, which means that O’Dwyer has taken the early lead in the overall POY standings.

Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded at the final table:

Place Player Earnings ( USD ) POY Points 1 Steve O’Dwyer $1,872,580 720 2 Roger Sippl $1,344,420 600 3 Bryn Kenney $873,880 480 4 Sorel Mizzi $659,400 360 5 Christoph Vogelsang $512,160 300 6 Sam Greenwood $396,920 240 7 Andrew Robl $313,700 180 8 Scott Seiver $243,280 120

Winner photo courtesy of PokerStars / Joe Giron.