Eoghan O’Dea (pronounced like “Owen”) has one of the more famous fathers in poker– he’s the son of Donnacha O’Dea, a former Olympic swimmer-turned-poker-pro who not only holds a World Series of Poker bracelet and two other final table appearances, but a grand total of 23 money finishes there. The elder O’Dea has appeared on Late Night Poker and won the Poker Million tournament in 2004, and his father was a big poker player as well, so it’s no wonder that Eoghan O’Dea entered into the world of poker.
The younger O’Dea has had a history of strong, aggressive poker playing which has helped to cement his status as a serious player. He came in second in the Poker Million in 2008 and won the iPoker European Championship of Online Poker III main event the same week. O’Dea has also come in second in the 2009 World Poker Tour Marrakech main event and achieved four money finishes in the 2011 WSOP outside of his position as one of the November Nine. O’Dea had a strong showing throughout the main event, starting (and finishing) the final day with the second-highest number of chips– he sits with 33,925,000, while Martin Staszko has only around 40 million in first place. The players will return in November in the same seats in which they left, and O’Dea notes that his seat isn’t the best and that the competition at the final table is quite fierce, but he says that he can’t complain, having gotten this far.
O’Dea has had his fair share of wins and earnings, and he currently sits at number 18 on the list of all-time Irish earners. He’s gained over $700,000 in live poker winnings, and his largest gains have been at the 2008 Ladbrokes Poker Million, which brought him $260,000, and at WPT Marrakech, where he gained another $388,532. He also pulled in $315,000 from the iPoker European Championship, so it’s no wonder that many people consider O’Dea one of the strongest contenders at the final table this year. At only 26 years, he’s already made a name for himself, and he remains one of the best-known players in this year’s November Nine.
This fine player stayed out of the spotlight for the majority of the WSOP 2011 Main Event, playing at a lot of tables full of amateurs and staying out of the camera’s glare. O’Dea had very few all-ins during the course of the tournament so far, but his gains have been steady, nonetheless. He hasn’t faced too many really big pots, and this usually aggressive player has been playing it closer to the chest this year at the WSOP.
With a famous father, O’Dea has surely received his share of pointers and fatherly advice when it comes to poker, but, as he says, where the WSOP Main Event was concerned, his father’s only advice to him was: “Make sure you change your flights on time.” It looks like Eoghan is on his own on this one, but it seems like he’s been getting along just fine.
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