Steve O’Dwyer last night launched a scathing attack on Daniel Smiljkovic, accusing the German pro of “abusing honest players” by stalling after max. late regging.
O’Dwyer’s anger at Smiljkovic broke after busting the Irish Open €10k SHR, the Irishman turning to the German as he left and saying: “I’ll make sure the whole world will know the shit you’re pulling.”
“I think you should retire. It might be better,” replied a grinning Smiljkovic.
That was far from the end of it, a series of tweets from O’Dwyer explaining just what had got him so hot under the collar.
Enough is enough, tournament organisers and directors need to start being extremely strict about not seating players once late reg is closed because fucking parasites like Daniel Smilijkovic and others of his ilk will never stop abusing honest players who seat themselves on time
— steveodwyer (@steveodwyer) April 17, 2025
“Soft Cheating”
“Enough is enough, tournament organisers and directors need to start being extremely strict about not seating players once late reg is closed because fucking parasites like Daniel Smiljkovic and others of his ilk will never stop abusing honest players who seat themselves on time.”
“Once again, Smiljkovic got away with it today in the Irish Open 10k, and was seated 16 minutes after late reg closed. He does this everywhere he goes and gets away with it because of the good graces of the TD’s who aren’t wise the fact that he soft cheats us everywhere he goes.”
The practice of abusing the late registration process is not new and is used by some to get as close as possible to the payouts before actually playing any poker. Last year’s WSOP saw Chris Brewer calling out exactly this tactic.
The clock has to stop for the max late reg in these high rollers. It’s extremely unfair what is happening @WSOP we are 15 minutes into the level with a line of 12 people and tables still getting opened. People walking in to reg 5-10 minutes past reg and allowed in. @padspoker…
— Chris Brewer (@Chris_D_Brewer) June 7, 2024
Closing the loopholes
According to O’Dwyer, some major events have responded to the abuse and closed the loopholes Smiljkovic has been exploiting.
“Myself and other players over the last year argued for strict late reg procedures in direct response to his antics at EPT Paris, PokerDream Jeju and Triton and thankfully those events have responded well and it’s no longer an issue there, but more need to be aware.”
According to the live updates from the event, a “miscommunication” allowed Smiljkovic, Jamie Dwan and Adi Rajkovic to enter beyond the late reg cut off time.
Big name support
O’Dwyer calling it out for some reason attracted abuse on X/Twitter, but some big names stepped in to support him. Ramon “Beriuzy” Chamas tweeted:
Why is Steve getting hate from a bunch of randoms when he's doing the right thing?
— Beriuzy (@beriuzy) April 17, 2025
That type of behavior needs to be stopped as it's literal cheating. There's no way to defend it.
I think calling out Daniel is too much but I assume there's enough proof for him to do it?
Sam Greenwood backed up O’Dwyer’s claims: “Daniel has done it at EPTs, Tritons and now the Irish Poker Open. He brazenly abuses so often that he does not have any plausible deniability.”
Aleks Ponakovs was another highroller reg to speak up: “Saw that more than once, I think tournament directors just should be aware of players doing this. I remember in Cyprus whole German crew was doing same. Every 25k late for 5-15min.”
According to O’Dwyer, the abuse of the current setup is clear.
“Modern tournament apps make it very easy to know exactly how much time is left on the clock to reg, there is absolutely no excuse for a player to walk up to reg 1 second before it closes and stall as long as possible before being seated.”
The Search for Honesty
As others have pointed out previously, O’Dwyer agreed that there should always be a little leeway for everyday issues, but it relies on players like Smiljkovic being honest.
“It would be great if we could trust everyone to allow a little bit of leeway for someone who might have had some bad luck that prevented them from arriving on time, but people like him ruin it for everyone else and it sucks. Now we have to be super strict to stop this scamming.”
His final plea was a call for help from the man at the top of the pile: “Hope @SavagePoker can take the reins and make sure TD’s everywhere are aware of this issue and prevent the rest of us from having to deal with this bullshit everywhere we play.”
The debate, or argument, will continue, but meanwhile Smiljkovic will take his seat in day 2 today after surviving an hour of play, sitting 18th of 25 in the chase for the €163k top prize.
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