Author: Triton Poker

It was a long and gruelling day on the Triton Poker High Roller Series and it ended with all still to play for. With four players left at 2am — and a massive cash game scheduled for the Triton live stream tonight — Event #5, the HK$1 million Short-Deck, bagged and tagged.

Furkat Rakhimov, Paul Phua, Jason Koon and Jun Wang will come back tomorrow to see who wins the HK$22.3 million (US$2.84 million) first prize and the latest Triton title. That’s the lion’s share of a HK$76.14 million prize pool, with Rakhimov in front. The Russian cash game specialist signed for a stack of 8.775 million chips, ahead of Phua’s 7.035 million, Koon’s 5.075 million and Wang’s 3.41 million. They’ll come back tomorrow to an ante of 60,000.

This was a test of endurance and a day on which all these players’ full array of tournament skills were required. Registration was still open at the start of play today, and allowed for 22 last-minute entries, bringing the total to 81.

After a rush to the bubble — eventually burst by the elimination of Isaac Haxton in 10th place — they then gradually, slowly, eroded the field further, with all of Devan Tang (9th – HK$2,200,000); Wai Kin Yong (8th – HK$2,900,000); John Juanda (7th – HK$3,700,000); Richard Yong (6th – HK$4,700,000) and Gabe Patgorski (5th – HK$6,100,000) hitting the rail.

The two Yongs — Richard, the co-founder of the Triton Series, and his son Wai Kin — sat next to one another for long periods, further underlining their claims to be Asian poker’s answer to Doyle and Todd Brunson. But both were eventually undone, leaving Triton representation in the capable hands of Koon.

Koon signed a deal as a Triton Ambassador in the past couple of months, and this tournament offered further evidence that the brand has made a superlative acquisition. Koon has played all four events so far at the Landing Casino, Jeju, and has made the final table on three of them. It’s a remarkable feat of strength and endurance, but the indefatigable Koon shows no sign of his concentration flagging.

The HK$2 million main event begins at 2pm tomorrow as well, and that will doubtless bring even more superstars to these luxurious surroundings. It promises another enormous prize pool, to be decided over three days.

We look forward to your company tomorrow as well.

CHIPS FOR REMAINING FOUR PLAYERS

1 – Furkurt Rakhimov, Russia, 8,775,000
2 – Paul Phua, Malaysia, 7,035,000
3 – Jason Koon, USA, 5,075,000
4 – Jun Wang, China, 3,410,000

RESULTS SO FAR

Triton Jeju Event #5 – Short-Deck Ante-Only
Buy-in: HK$1 million
Entries: 81 (inc. 44 re-entries)
Prize pool: HK$76,140,000

1 – HK$22,300,000
2 – HK$15,900,000
3 – HK$10,440,000
4 – HK$7,900,000
5 – Gabe Patgorski, USA, – HK$6,100,000
6 – Richard Yong, Malaysia – HK$4,700,000
7 – John Juanda, Indonesia – HK$3,700,000
8 – Wai Kin Yong, Malaysia – HK$2,900,000
9 – Devan Tang, Hong Kong – HK$2,200,000

Photography by Jamie Thomson/Poker Photo Archive.

A huge amount of money changes hands at poker tournaments these days, particularly the Triton High Roller Series, where the enormous buy-ins are the raison d’etre. But the organisers here remain keenly committed too to sending money where it can do the most good, and continue this season with generous donations to a number of charities.

In keeping with all other events around the world, players pay a rake and a service charge on their tournament buy-ins on the Triton Series, which then pays staff and the numerous costs associated with laying on the event. But when all the accounting it done, Triton pledges all of its profits to charitable causes, usually resulting in a significant donation.

While figures for this event in Jeju won’t be known for some time, previous tournaments have yielded excellent returns for various non-profits. For instance in 2016, the HK$100,000 event in Manila sent a PHP 1.15 million ($25,000 approx.) donation to Project Pink Philippines, a support group for breast cancer patients and their family members. A further donation went to the Red Cross in the Philippines.

Through the 2017 season, HK$1 million went to each of Caritas Services Rehabilitation Services in Macau and Healthy Hong Kong across the bay in China’s other special administrative region.

The Caritas money went specifically to the Lar De Nossa Senhora Da Penha centre, which started life as a residential home for children abandoned on the streets of Macau, and now assists in care for handicapped children in the region. Healthy Hong Kong was founded by the actor Eric Tsang and offers free medical care.

As the Triton Series continues to break records for prize pools, the charitable donations similarly grow. One event in particular this year — full details of which will come in due course — is set to be exceed all previous totals, so watch this space.

Photography by Jamie Thomson/Poker Photo Archive.

The million dollar entry short-deck event is under way at the Triton Series, Jeju, fulfilling the dream for many of the high rolling poker superstars in this region. This is the favoured variant of poker, played for stakes that makes the eyes water, and the field is growing into another beast.

It might “only” be Hong Kong Dollars, but this is hardly play money: one buy-in is approximately US$127,000. Through seven levels on the opening day, 35 players produced 59 entries between them. Registration is open for another hour tomorrow as well, so the prize pool is going to be huge.

At bagging time, Sergey Lebedev, who came third in Event #1, led the way with 1.6 million (the starting stack was 300,000) with a phenomenal chasing pack behind him. All of the short-deck elite, as well as some established full deck hold’em superstars, took a chair, and the likes of Tan Xuan (1.238 million), Jason Koon (1.1 million), Paul Phua (1.062 million), Dan Cates (1.044 million) and Stephen Chidwick (995,000) are close.

Both Tom Dwan and Timofey Kuznetzov fired bullets in this one, but only Kuznetzov bagged chips. Dwan can re-enter again for the first hour tomorrow if he wishes. We will only know the full size of the prize pool when registration is closed, but it seems certain to be the richest of the week so far.

That said, the HK$2 million main event begins at 2pm tomorrow, which is set to break records both for this venue and for the Triton Series as a whole. As ever, there will be full coverage of all Triton events on the live stream, with expert commentary from Lex Veldhuis and Randy “nanonoko” Lew.

OVERNIGHT CHIP COUNTS AND DAY 2 DRAW

POS	NAME	COUNTRY	CHIPS	TABLE/SEAT
#1	Sergey Lebedev	Russia	1,600,000	5-2
#2	Xuan Tan	China	1,238,000	3-6
#3	Jason Koon	United States	1,100,000	5-5
#4	Paul Phua	Malaysia	1,062,000	5-7
#5	Daniel Cates	United States	1,044,000	2-6
#6	Stephen Chidwick	England	995,000	6-3
#7	Peter Jetten	Canada	990,000	5-3
#8	Zuo Wang	China	790,000	1-8
#9	Furkurt Rakhimov	Russia	755,000	1-5
#10	Richard Yong	Malaysia	738,000	3-8
#11	Jun Wang	China	719,000	3-1
#12	Gabe Patgorski	United States	701,000	1-3
#13	Robert Flink	Sweden	641,000	2-7
#14	Devan Tang	Hong Kong	631,000	2-5
#15	Justin Bonomo	United States	500,000	2-8
#16	Shu Nu Zang	China	500,000	1-1
#17	Ivan Leow	Malaysia	473,000	2-1
#18	Rui Cao	France	425,000	6-7
#19	David Peters	United States	400,000	2-3
#20	Mikita Badziakouski	Belarus	385,000	5-6
#21	Daniel Dvoress	Canada	385,000	3-5
#22	Isaac Haxton	United States	354,000	6-2
#23	Bjorn Li	United States	322,000	1-2
#24	Wai Kin Yong	Malaysia	290,000	6-1
#25	Timofey Kuznetsov	Russia	280,000	3-2
#26	Andrew Robl	United States	239,000	1-7
#27	Michael Watson	Canada	100,000	3-7

This is the second time in its short history that the Triton Series has visited Jeju island, and specifically the similarly young Landing Casino at the Shinhwa World Resort. Although various parts of this sprawling 2.5 million square foot property have been opening since April 2017, the official launch came only in March last year. The Triton Series was quick to move in.

Everything here is high-end and luxurious and it’s very easy to see the attraction for both tournament organisers and players. In contrast to numerous other poker rooms around the world, this one has a lot of space. Tables are set at least eight feet apart from one another on all sides, meaning plenty of room for food and massages, as well as just to stretch legs between hands. That’s helped, of course, by the comparatively small fields on this High Roller series, but the intention is that with high stakes comes exclusivity, and that’s what you get here.

There’s a sizeable casino floor only footsteps away, but the sounds don’t encroach into our surroundings. There’s also a dedicated poker room menu, which was discussed and designed with poker players in mind. (They need to be able to eat and play, so nothing too gloopy is usually the order of the day.) The kitchen of the casino’s Solitaire club, which caters specifically to high rollers, prepares the food 24 hours a day.

That kind of co-operation between Triton and host venues does not come by chance. Throughout years working in the industry, and in particular with high rollers, the Triton staff has built good relationships with players and offers significant add ons. For instance, players buying into the Main Event and one other side event get a complementary hotel room for the duration of the festival in the adjoining Marriott, plus a limousine transfer from the airport to the property.

Players are in constant contact with a concierge service, which means they can order in anything from Starbucks to headache tablets; golf course reservations to wake-up calls. Triton is especially proud of its player liaison, and player feedback is invariably positive.

And that’s not all. Also in contrast to numerous other poker rooms around the world, this one is only a short walk from a couple of theme parks. It’s true. Not content with filling the 2.5 million square metres of space with four luxury hotels, a shopping arcade, numerous restaurants and a conference facility, there is also fun here for all the family. 

Shinhwa Waterpark is the only large-scale waterpark in Jeju, while the drier theme park has 15 rides, spread through its three “zones”. We have Rotary Park, which is a steampunk-themed area, Oscar’s New World, which is a mysterious jungle, and Larva Adventure Village. If you didn’t already know about cartoon characters for Korean kids, you soon will. (We’re also not far from the Transformers Autobots Alliance Museum, while the Lionsgate Movie World is opening soon.)

The 2019 Triton season has five events scheduled, the full details of which will be announced very soon. There may not be roller coasters at each stop, but the tournament schedule will be very similar, and the liaison service will only get slicker and more comprehensive. Watch this space as further details emerge, and email info@triton-series.com to find out more.

For the second time in two days at the Triton Poker Series, Jeju, the final stages of a multi-million dollar tournament came down to an east versus west heads-up duel between two elite poker talents. 

But unlike yesterday, when Justin Bonomo took first place for North America, this time Hong Kong’s Devan Tang bested the Canadian Peter Jetten to secure a HK$9.7 million (US$1.24 million) first prize and the second title in this six-event high roller series.

This was one of the most dominant final-day performances of any poker tournament, with Tang hitting an extraordinary run of cards to complement his tremendous talent. He found pocket aces over and over again to win enormous pots, and also hit miracle quads when he had only a four percent chance in a pivotal hand. That was a crucial moment: he could have been out in seventh, so it essentially earned him an extra US$1 million. It set his steam roller trundling over a table packed again with poker’s finest. 

“I’m very, very happy about it,” Tang said. “I got very lucky. I was lucky the whole way.” When asked how many times he found aces today, Tang held out his hand, fingers outstretched, and said: “At least this many times.” He also tried to add that he thought he had misplayed them once or twice, but quickly realised that as a champion it didn’t matter so much.

Even though short-deck hold-em means bigger hands with more frequency, this was exceptional. It made for a high octane end to a HK$500,000 buy-in tournament, in which eight players shared a HK$15.275 million prize pool. 

“It was a tough field, for sure,” Tang said. “When you’re playing this big and you make the final table, you have to play your best for sure.”

In actual fact, both of the last two players survived potentially tournament ending moments when they were both all in and in trouble against covering stacks, but hit miracle sixes on the river to survive. Tang’s turned his set of sixes into quads and beat Mikita Badziakouski’s set of queens, but Jetten too made a straight to survive against Isaac Haxton. This was a day full of thrills.

Though both Jetten and Tang might have thought they were blessed today, someone had to win it. And eventually Tang’s hit a straight to beat Jetten’s . It brings Tang’s career earnings from tournament poker to more than US$6 million and consolidates his position as No 2 on China’s all-time money list.

FINAL DAY BLOW-BY-BLOW

A starting field of 69 entries was trimmed to a final 14 on the first day of play. With only eight places paying, it meant that the opening stages of the final day were focused once again on an enormous bubble, this time HK$1.3 million (around US$166,000). 

Bonomo couldn’t repeat his showing and was one of the first players eliminated today, with other leading lights Bryn Kenney and John Juanda also falling short.

The unluckiest of them all today was Malaysia’s Chua Ying Lin, who had done everything right on his quest for back-to-back final tables, but then suffered a bad beat at the hands of Isaac Haxton to bust in ninth. Lin got the last of his chips in with and was ahead of Haxton’s . But Haxton managed to river a straight leaving Lin stunned and silent, before he eventually walked away.

Lin’s demise meant his countryman Paul Phua was in the money for the first time this week, but Phua too suffered an ugly elimination shortly after. This time it was Romain Arnaud up to his old tricks. The Frenchman took the tournament chip lead on day one by twice cracking pocket aces, and Arnaud’s did it again to Phua’s . Arnaud hit a flush. Phua laughed it off and took HK$1.3 million.

Phua’s elimination brought them down to the last seven, and that meant a final table with a much more cosmopolitan make-up than yesterday’s Malysia/USA dominated affair. Players from Canada, France and Belarus were also added to today’s mix–although Badziakouski, Belarus’s finest poker export, was next to be exiled from this event.

Badziakouski has made a new home in the high stakes arenas of Asia, and the cash-game regulars talk incredibly highly of the man also considered in the top five tournament regulars in the world. But for all his skills, Badziakouski was powerless to avoid a real sickener in the decisive hand when he queens lost to Tang’s quads. (He was out soon after with pocket eights against Jason Koon’s pocket kings.)

“That was a brutal hand,” Badziakouski said, referencing the quads vs. full house confrontation. “But that’s the beauty of short deck. You always have some chances, you are never dead.” He added that he intends to play all the remaining events on the schedule, seeking a third Triton title.

China’s Chan Wai Leong was a short stack for a long period today, and expressed his lack of surprise when he hit the rail in sixth. Tang found a pair of black aces as Leong had and the chips all went in. For once the aces held up and Leong walked. “I was pretty short the whole tournament, so there’s not much I can do,” Leong said. “The last hand, there’s nothing much I can do about that.”

The next really significant pot played out between Haxton and Jetten, with the latter all-in with and dominated by . However, the full board fell and the six on the end left Haxton in peril. He then became the next player to run into Tang’s pocket aces and Haxton was out in fifth. 

Haxton was one of relatively few established hold’em pros to play both short deck events here this week, and admitted to a deliberate strategy to profit while the going is good. “A couple of times in my career before this I’ve kind of missed the boat,” Haxton said, adding that he didn’t transition quickly enough from limit to no limit holdem, or to pick up PLO. “Each time I felt like I’ve done it two years, three years later than I should have. With short deck, I’m only getting to it one year later than I should have, so I’m feeling pretty good about it.” 

Tang was absolutely crushing at this stage, with nearly double the chips of his three opponents combined. But he took a temporary back seat to allow Jetten to pick up some chips, through the unfortunate Jason Koon.

Koon, who is playing his first major event since becoming a Triton Poker ambassador, has mastered short-deck hold’em more quickly than most and leads the nascent short-deck all-time money list. He won more than $3.5 million playing this variant at Triton Montenegro last year, and again proved that was no fluke.

But variance was on Jetten’s side at the end today, when Koon’s pocket queens lost to Jetten’s rivered straight. Koon had to settle for HK$3.435 million this time out, which is around US$440,000. “I play this game a lot, so I’m used to taking nasty beats like that,” Koon said. “It happens. It was nothing like the one Mikita took today.”

The huge hands going in favour of Tang and then Jetten meant that Arnaud was the short stack when three-handed play began. And it was a case of irresistible force meeting immovable object when he got all his chips in with pocket queens and Tang called with black pocket aces yet again. Although Arnaud had cracked aces with under-cards at least three times in this tournament, Tang had used those specific black bullets to wreak havoc in today’s field. And this time it was Tang who stayed strongest, sending Arnaud out of the tournament. “I don’t know how many aces I got,” Tang confessed.

Tang had a three-to-one chip lead when they went heads-up and although Jetten made him wait for the title through more than an hour of one-on-one play, Tang was not to be denied. Jetten’s second place was worth more than HK$7 million, but Tang–as was always the case today–just had slightly better than that.

Triton Jeju Event #2: Short-Deck Ante-Only
Buy-in: HK$500,000
Entries: 69 (inc. 24 re-entries)
Prize pool: HK$32.43 million

1 – Devan Tang, Hong Kong, HK$9,730,000
2 – Peter Jetten, Canada, HK$7,040,000
3 – Romain Arnaud, France, HK$4,540,000
4 – Jason Koon, USA, HK$3,435,000
5 – Isaac Haxton, USA, HK$2,660,000
6 – Leong Chan Wai, China, HK$2,075,000
7 – Mikita Badziakouski, Belarus, HK$1,650,000
8 – Paul Phua, Malaysia, HK$1,300,000

Yesterday in the poker room of the Landing Casino, Shinhwa World, Jeju, the organisers of the Triton Poker High Roller Series laid on a reception to welcome the elite of the world game to these luxurious surroundings. There was champagne and orange juice, and chocolate desserts fashioned into the Triton logo. There was a boozy kick at the bottom.

There was also a gathering of poker players so talented that we all earned 500 GPI rankings points just by standing in the same room. They mingled, flutes in hand, and listened to warm, welcoming speeches from Triton co-founder Richard Yong, and Tournament Director Luca Vivaldi, then either retook their seats in the $500K short-deck event, or vanished off into the resort in the hunt for food, entertainment or sleep.

It wasn’t until today that something fairly significant dawned on us. A lot of those poker players weren’t actually playing poker. While short-deck hold’em is clearly growing massively in popularity, plenty of the pros don’t yet want to get involved. All of Steve O’Dwyer, Timothy Adams, John Cynn, Christoph Vogelsang, Jimmy Guerrero, Nick Petrangelo and Henrik Hecklen have been in Jeju for more than 24 hours, and a lot of them came to the reception, but they didn’t register for a tournament on the festival’s opening two days. In other words, they skipped the events played with 36-card decks.

Matthias Eibinger, the Austrian sensation, might be one of the hottest properties in world poker at the moment, but he also admitted earlier today that short-deck wasn’t yet something he wanted to play. He said he had spent only about five minutes looking at the strategy and found it difficult to decipher. He made a shrewd move to sit out for now. However, Eibinger settled into one of the leather chairs alongside the feature table this afternoon and prepared for the start of Event #3 — Six-Max Hold’em, with a regular 52-card deck.

The tournament got under way a little after 4pm, and Eibinger was joined by all of O’Dwyer, Adams, Vogelsang, Petrangelo and Hecklen, and soon enough other tournament superstars including Dominik Nitsche, Dan Smith and Erik Seidel settled in. This is a HK$500,000 buy-in event (US$64,000 approx) and there’s now a shot-clock in play as well.

With 40-minute levels and unlimited re-entries until the start of Level 9, there’s every likelihood that this field will grow to match the size of previous events, which will mean another couple of million US dollars in the prize pool. All of that will be decided over the coming few hours.

Another day, another huge tournament here on the Triton Poker Series. And we’re not even talking about Justin Bonomo’s latest victory — although that did happen too, of course.

But while poker’s hottest talent was adding another US$500,000 and change to his ledger, another massive field was assembling at the at the Landing Casino, in the Shinhwa World Jeju Resort, for the second tournament of the week. This time is was a HK$500,000 buy-in short deck event, which attracted 69 entries (including 24 re-entries). That’s more even than the tournament with a buy-in half the size.

That’s the way things go here on the Triton series, where poker’s normal rules are turned on their head. Raise the buy-in, watch the fields swell. And that means the prize pool does as well. Some time tomorrow, one of the 14 remaining at the end of today’s 11 levels will win the HK$9.730 million first prize. That’s around $1.24 million in USD and the first seven-figure tournament prize of the 2019 Triton tournament series. It will not be the last.

At bagging time, France’s Romain Arnaud had snatched the chip lead, having increased his 300,000 starting stack to 3.030 million — the kind of stack someone would be happy to take to the final table. The man known online as “moirhums” is also a formidable live tournament player, who beat his countryman Rui Cao heads up here in Jeju in another Super High Roller tournament last December. “I got really lucky,” Arnaud admitted at the end of the day, with a bashful chuckle. “Against Rui again.”

Arnaud then described how he cracked Cao’s pocket aces twice, once by rivering a set of tens and another time by taking pocket kings up against the aces and winning that too. It’s how come Cao was on the rail by the end, while Arnaud is at the top of the leader board.

Almost everyone who played the first event came back for another shot today, but it a few of the new faces who got the photographers’ shutters clicking with most eagerness. Both Tom “durrrr” Dwan and Timofey “Trueteller” Kuznetsov played their first tournament of the week.

It was important that the photographers were so on their game, because neither Dwan nor Kuznetsov lasted the night. At least Dwan fired only one bullet, while Kuznetsov misfired with three. Gabe Patgorski hit the rail after five buy-ins, Mike Watson headed back to his room after four.

But they need not worry about missing the action. Tomorrow we have a HK$500,000 6-Max tournament starting (and they’ll be using all 52 cards in that one).

Here’s the full list of counts for the remaining players. Yes, that’s the same Bonomo in there with heaps of chips as the man who won Event #1. He hopped straight into this one and continued the fun. Full payout schedule is below. This tournament resumes at 2pm local time tomorrow and plays to a winner, while Event #3 starts at 4pm.

Event #2 Day 2 chip counts and seat assignment:

NAME	COUNTRY	CHIPS	SEAT
Arnaud Romain	France	3,030,000	1-4
Ying Lin Chua	Malaysia	2,135,000	2-5
Wai Leong Chan	Malaysia	2,010,000	3-6
Ying Seng Devan Tang	Hong Kong	1,950,000	2-6
Mikita Badziakouski	Belarus	1,745,000	1-2
Peter Jetten	Canada	1,500,000	1-1
Jason Koon	United States	1,490,000	3-4
Justin Bonomo	United States	1,415,000	2-2
Xuan Tan	China	1,220,000	1-6
Wei Seng Paul Phua	Malaysia	1,110,000	3-5
Bryn Kenney	United States	1,000,000	2-4
Johnson Juanda	Indonesia	760,000	3-1
Tong Siow Choon	Malaysia	735,000	1-5
Isaac Haxton	United States	600,000	2-1

Full payout information:

Triton Jeju Event #2: Short-Deck Ante-Only
Buy-in: HK$500,000
Entries: 69 (inc. 24 re-entries)
Prize pool: HK$32.43 million

1 – HK$9,730,000
2 – HK$7,040,000
3 – HK$4,540,000
4 – HK$3,435,000
5 – HK$2,660,000
6 – HK$2,075,000
7 – HK$1,650,000
8 – HK$1,300,000