The Triton Series Special Edition in Cyprus will tomorrow take on a slightly different tone. That’s when we start the short deck hold’em half of the festival, the format favoured by the biggest gamblers from Asia.
The purists who prefer “regular” no limit hold’em had one last chance to play their best game tonight, when organisers were persuaded to add a $50K buy-in turbo to the schedule. It hadn’t originally been planned that way, but player power spoke and the Triton Series staff delivered.
The players duly played their part too, turning up in their droves and buying in in a frenzy — never more so than in the final 10 minutes before registration closed on the tournament, shutting out NLHE experts for the remainder of the week.
This phase of the Triton tournaments is quickly becoming the best bit to watch, when we learn what’s considered a good enough hand to risk it all, based on the “double-up or head to the re-entry desk” philosophy.
In that 10 minute period, there were at least three eliminations, all of whom swiftly re-entered. (Amid it all, both Phil Ivey and Dan Cates also showed up and sat down to play for the first time.)
Let’s look at those eliminations. On Table 3, Chris Brewer pushed from the button with about 20 big blinds. Cary Katz, in the small blind, moved in too, with a stack about half the size of Brewer’s.
“That’s not what I wanted to see,” Brewer said.
“You’re OK,” Katz assured him.
As it turned out, they were racing. Katz had 
and Brewer had 
. The flop brought the 
alongside two jacks and Brewer took the lead. He retained it through the 
turn and 
river, and Katz was out.
Straight to the cage, and he was back again.
Only a few hands later, something very similar occurred. This time Johan Guilbert raised from under the gun and Brewer moved all-in, covering Guilbert. The blinds folded and Guilbert flicked in the call.
Brewer: 
Guilbert: 
The dealer put the 
board out there, and Brewer won this one too. Guilbert was out.
Straight to the cage, and he was back again.
One table over, Vladi Chaoulov open shoved with 
and he was picked off by Laszlo Bujtas with .
Although this tournament is taking place entirely away from the television stage, this was a made-for-TV run out. The 
gave a straight draw for Chaoulov.
He hit it on the 
turn, but that also brought a flush draw for Bujtas. The 
river completed that flush. Chaoulov was out.
Straight to the cage, and he was back again. This time he was put back in the wxact same seat as well.
Registration finally closed with the total number of entries hitting 41. Nine of them were re-entries. It meant that the prize-pool came in at $1.988 million, and the winner set to receive $676,000.
And now if you’re out, you’re out.
TRITON CYPRUS SPECIAL EDITION
EVENT 6: $50K EIGHT-HANDED NLHE TURBO
Date: April 4, 2022
Entries: 41 (inc. 9 re-entries)
Prize pool: $1,988,500
1 – $676,000
2 – $467,500
3 – $298,500
4 – $228,500
5 – $179,000
6 – $139,000
Photography by Joe Giron/PokerPhotoArchive