The bubble period in any poker tournament is always the most tense, but it rarely has as much unpredictability and humour as we had during this one at the Triton Series $75,000 short deck event #3.
There were short stacks rising to the summit, multiple shoves, calls and doubles, plus one player darting to the bathroom rather than watch his fate dealt out.
That’s how it happens on the Triton Series.
We returned today with 11 players and knew that only seven would make the money, so the whole early levels of today were essentially an extended bubble.
The first three eliminations all came on the feature table. It means viewers of the live stream will have got a close view of the car crashes approaching and then happening, plus a view of the aftermath.
The players we lost were Mikita Badziakouski, Dan Cates, and Chris Brewer with Mike Watson the biggest beneficiary. He went from short stack to near chip leader in the space of a level and a bit. (Only Elton Tsang, who took a big pot from Badziakouski, was above him.)
There was a good deal of chip movement on the outer table during this period too, with another overnight short stack, Kiat Lee, rising through the ranks. This adds context to how the bubble eventually burst.
Lee doubled up early when he shoved from his button, after four limps, and Jason Koon was the sole caller.
Lee had 815,000 in his stack and 
versus Koon’s 
. The flop had all kinds of colour on it and gave both players two pair, but Lee’s was bigger.
Koon lost another pot, this time to Phil Ivey, in a super interesting situation. After three players saw the flop for the minimum — Koon, Ivey and Wai Kin Yong — the dealer put the 
on the table. Koon bet 60,000 and Yong folded. Ivey called.
The turn was the 
and Koon bet 80,000. Ivey then announced that he was all-in for more than 1.5 million, only a little less than Koon had.
“That’s the perfect bet for my exact hand!” Koon said. “Holy shit.” Ivey had sniffed out this opportunity and seized it.
“King high diamonds,” Koon said, as he folded. Ivey chuckled. Those two had been yukking it up out there, taking about every thing from nights out in Melbourne to the mineral content of sparkling water. It was a fun table, with Ivan Leow also joining in plenty of chit-chat.
Lee was relatively quiet, but he soon found another chance to let his chips do the talking. After Koon opened to 125,000, Yong, one seat to his left, moved all in for about 1.7 million. Ivey quickly folded, but Lee looked at his stack of 1.23 million and pondered risking all of it.
After a little while — we were still two off the money at the time — he decided he had to, and under-called all-in. Koon folded, but Lee was still at risk from Yong.
Yong tabled his 
and Lee showed . It was a good set-up for Lee, but percentages are never so extreme in short deck as they are in regular hold’em.
The 
flop was safe for Lee, but the 
turn gave outs to Yong. The 
river was a blank, however, which meant Lee doubled again. Yong assumed the short stack as the bubble now moved into view.
He managed to secure one double up through Koon, when Yong’s 
beat Koon’s 
. At that point, he had a stack of 535,000 so doubled back to more than 1 million.
By this point, all of Badziakouski, Cates and Brewer were gone, so we were on the stone bubble. Yong’s father Richard had doubled his short stack once on the feature table, and Wai Kin had actually moved off the foot of the leader board.
Incredibly, it was now Koon, the overnight chip leader, who was most under threat — and he was staring at elimination when he pushed all-in and Yong called him.
Yong had 
and Koon had 
. He also had a bursting bladder and wasn’t keen to wait until all the TV crew moved in, and the hand finished on a feature table, before he could use the bathroom.
“I’m just going to go pee and look at the app to see if I doubled or busted,” Koon announced. “Can I do that?”
No one said he couldn’t, so Koon was off, sprinting to the toilet while his fate was delivered in his absence. The rest of the tournament players, staff and spectators saw the dealer put the 
on the board, to which she added the 
turn. That gave Koon a couple more outs.
The hit the river, and that was a great card for Koon — even though he wasn’t there to see it.
Moments later, as the chip stacks were being tidied in front of Koon’s chair, we heard a distant whoop as Koon came galloping back to his seat. “It was brutal, man,” Yong said, and Koon apologised for his exuberance, but added, “I’m so glad I didn’t have to sweat that run-out.”
That skirmish left Yong very short, and he got his last chips in the middle very soon after. Phil Ivey reshoved after Yong pushed and cards were on their back:
Yong: 
Ivey: 
“OK, Phil, thanks for doubling me up,” Yong said.
But it wasn’t to be. The board of 
sent Yong out the door on the bubble.
The remaining seven are now sitting down to see who wins the $1.17 million top prize. And if we’ve learned one thing from all this, it’s that it’s still anyone’s game.
A reminder of the payouts:
TRITON CYPRUS SPECIAL EDITION
EVENT 3: $75K SHORT DECK
Dates: April 5-6, 2022
Entries: 51 (inc. 23 re-entries)
Prize pool: $3,706,500
1 – $1,170,000
2 – $840,000
3 – $538,000
4 – $408,000
5 – $315,000
6 – $241,000
7 – $194,500
Photography by Joe Giron/PokerPhotoArchive