The closing stages of the first event of the Triton Super High Roller Series’ second trip to Monte Carlo ended with a heads-up duel that underlined the breadth of this tour’s immense appeal. At one end of the table, after more than 100 others had departed, was Brian Kim, fresh from the final table of the World Series Main Event and featuring at his ninth Triton final. At the other, Enrico Camosci, a young Italian of enormous promise, playing his first ever event in this revered environment.
They were short stacked. They had both been on the brink of elimination before. And this might easily have gone either way. But when the final card was dealt at around 2.40am local time, it was Kim finally reaching for the trophy and the $941,000 first prize, while Camosci had to settle for the runner-up spot and a $634,000 consolation prize.
Kim has come so, so close before, and he puffed out his cheeks in evident relief at finally managing to get over the line. He really had to dig deep, eventually taming the aggressive and unpredictable talents of Camosci, whose time will surely come again.
“It’s elusive,” Kim told Marianela Pereyra in the post-game interview, referencing his numerous near misses on the Triton Series. “With all these great players, it’s possible I could have been coming to Triton for another seven years and not winning one.”
This curtain raiser in Monte Carlo was named the WPT Global Ultimate Slam, recognising the Triton Series new title sponsor. Its $25,000 buy-in was the smallest of the week, but the 170 entries put $4.25 million in the prize pool and the players wrung every inch out of it.
It concluded in one of those finals where it sometimes felt it would never end, each player sitting with far fewer blinds than used to be considered possible. But they play a careful, measured, ICM-savvy game in these parts, and they fought over every last blind.
The final hand only came about after the pendulum had swung both ways heads-up, with each player doubling up when under threat. But eventually, Camosci had to shove his last six blinds in with 
and Kim called with 
. The dealer had no more tricks.
Kim said: “I’m just so happy to be here and talking to you. I never knew if I would have one of these conversations. I’m going to take the trophy home and put it somewhere special.”
TOURNAMENT ACTION
From a starting field of 170, only 34 players came back for Day 2, with China’s Xu Liang a massive leader. Liang had 93 blinds, with his closest challengers sitting with only 50-ish. No lead is ever fully secure, but this was bigger than most and it allowed Liang to play the tournament bully. That helped everyone else get through the money bubble, the presence of which dominated players’ thoughts for the opening exchanges.
Only 27 places paid in the tournament, meaning seven still had to leave before anyone was guaranteed some money. After Pieter Aerts lost with queens to Elton Tsang’s aces, the stone bubble featured a single double up — Aleks Ponakovs’ jacks holding against Roberto Perez’ deuces — plus a chopped pot, before Liang laid a tough beat on Jeremy Zouari to end the Frenchman’s short-stack struggle.
The last of the chips went in with Zouari in good shape. He had 
against Liang’s 
, with the flop showing 
. The 
turn enhanced Liang’s chances of coming from behind, and the 
river sealed the deal.
That was a straight for Liang and a very nasty 28th place finish for Zouari.
As attention now focused on the final table, the inevitable torrent of eliminations swept away players including Ike Haxton, Nacho Barbero, and Artur Martirosian, the latter of whom had survived through the bubble with a tiny stack but who found doubles at the right time.
Liang and Tsang briefly jostled for supremacy at the top, but Liang’s amazing run began stuttering as the tournament structure caught up with the stacks. The average stack hovered around the 30 big blind mark, which meant a couple of missteps could bring about the end. Liang ended up on the rail in 13th.
By the time they got down to the last nine, there was a new leader, Alex Theologis, and some stacks that looked like this:
Alex Theologis – 9.325m (47 BBs)
Brian Kim – 8.075m (40 BBs)
Roberto Perez – 7.575m (38 BBs)
Tom Fuchs – 5.75m (29 BBs)
Dominykas Mikolaitis – 3.725m (19 BBs)
Aleks Ponakovs – 2.325m (12 BBs)
Enrico Camosci – 2.3m (12 BBs)
Elton Tsang – 2.05m (10 BBs)
Ranno Sootla – 1.375m (7 BBs)
Elton Tsang needs little introduction to the hordes who watch the Triton Series cash games, but he is also an excellent tournament player with more than $24 million in documented live earnings. He had been flying high through much of this event, but was forced into a big fold during the run-up to the final table, when he four-bet Roberto Perez, but then faced a five-bet jam.
It left him with 10 big blinds and when he found pocket nines during early exchanges at the final, it was clearly good enough to get the last of his chips in. However, Theologis had aces, made a mandatory call of Tsang’s shove, and sent the Hong Kong great to the rail in ninth. Tsang starts this festival with a $95,000 score.
There were, as ever, a few drastically short stacks at this stage, but Ronno Sootia and Enrico Camosci both doubled to survive, and left Aleks Ponakovs and Tom Fuchs in danger. However, they clung on as well, which swung the finger of doom back towards Sootia and he became the second consecutive player to get knocked out by a pair of aces.
Sootia, playing his first ever event on the Triton Series, three-bet jammed with 
and slammed into Ponakovs’ aces. He flopped some chop outs but missed and had to make do with $115,000 for eighth. Still, plenty of players visit the Triton Series for years and don’t trouble the cashiers. Sootia did it immediately.
With seven players left, we were now looking at a 20 big blind average and the tournament organisers ready to trim the levels down by five minutes when one more player was knocked out. These kinds of threats are intended to speed things up, but it can often have the reverse effect as play becomes especially cagey.
A few blinds moved here, then they moved back again. And then Ponakovs, who was responsible for the most recent elimination, became the next man onto the rail. He picked up pocket eights and saw Roberto Perez make a raise ahead of him. Ponakovs pushed all in, but Perez had a real hand. The pocket queens revealed by the Spaniard stayed best. Ponakovs could make it to bed by midnight if he wanted, with $159,000 more in his Triton account.
Tom Fuchs was another player at this final who had never cashed on the Triton Series, but unlike the two debutants alongside him, Fuchs had played before. Ten times, in fact. This cash therefore shook one monkey off his back, and he would obviously have liked to have registered a win from his first in-the-money finish.
He was the short stack six handed, but found a double up with pocket sevens. Such was the nature of the tournament now that it pushed him into third place in the counts, and it also revealed a chink in Alex Theologis’s armour. His loss in the coup, with 
resulted in a tumble down the leader board.
Dominykas Mikolaitis dipped below 10 big blinds now and he got a little unlucky to find Enrico Camosci holding a real hand when action folded to Mikolaitis in the small blind. Looking at 
, Mikolaitis shoved. However, Camosci had pocket nines and snapped him off. Mikolaitis couldn’t find a queen and busted.
This was a third career cash following two in Jeju. This one was for $218,000.
Enrico Camosci has been playing poker for more than a decade, but in recent years has taken his live tournament game to a new level. His arrival on the Triton Series comes on the back of a career-best result in a tournament in Barcelona in September, and he immediately seemed to feel at home in this rarefied company.
Camosci made the final table in his first ever Triton event, and he was sitting with the chip lead in what had now become incredibly shallow. However, he doubled up former chip leader Theologis with 
losing to . And that then gave Theologis the chips to dispense with Fuchs from this final.
Theologis jammed his button with 
and Fuchs undercalled with . There was nothing dramatic on the board and Fuchs took the walk, picking up $284,000 and his maiden cash.
None of the last eight players had ever previously won on the Triton Series, but with only four now left, the prospect of a famous victory was real for all of them. Theologis was back in front, the only player with a bigger than average stack, but one double up, or equivalent, could change everything.
Brian Kim found that other way. He four-bet over Perez and Camosci to pick up a big chunk. Then he opened and four-bet jammed again over Camosci to push himself into the lead, all without seeing a flop.
That gave Kim the chips to start making a few moves of his own, and he got lucky to eliminate Perez in fourth. Perez, a cash-game specialist, was running deep again in a Triton event but had been the quietest of everyone in the late stages tonight. However after Kim shipped from the small blind, Perez was content to risk the last of his chips with 
, which was well ahead of Kim’s .
However, a five on the flip swung things in Kim’s favour and sent Perez out the door. We were left with three players, while Perez earned $356,000.
The crowd had thinned slightly by this point, but spectators had been urging players to “show the bluff” whenever they got a bet through on the river. In one hand, Theologis was able to turn to the onlookers and accurately state that he had shown a bluff, but it was only because Kim had called it, was right to do so, and left Theologis in real peril as a result.
Theologis had only 
and played through all the streets as the dealer slowly put the 
board on the table. The bad news for this spirited bluffer was that Kim had 
and called all the way with his boat. Theologis was left with only about two big blinds.
He found one quick double, but got his stack in again soon after. This time Kim made a priced-in call and turned a straight with his 
to best Theologis’ 
. Theologis won $436,000 for third.
Heads up play began with Kim ahead by a handful of blinds, but there was near parity for the first time today. Another five minutes were trimmed from the levels and they settled down to play with about 40 blinds between them. Kim moved into a lead, but Camosci’s pocket tens beat Kim’s to put the Italian ahead. But then Kim got maximum value from his 
, which flopped top pair nines. He was back in the driving seat, and Camosci’s resistance was broken.
“It’s insane,” Kim said at the end, revealing that his wife had been the driving force behind his quest for a Triton trophy. He has one now to bring home, and it may end up being the first of many.
EVENT 1: $25K WPT GLOBAL ULTIMATE SLAM
Dates: November 1-2, 2024
Entries: 170 (inc. 63 re-entries)
Prize pool: $4,250,000
1 – Brian Kim, USA – $941,000
2 – Enrico Camosci, Italy – $634,000
3 – Alex Theologis, Greece – $436,000
4 – Roberto Perez, Spain – $356,000
5 – Tom Fuchs, Germany – $284,000
6 – Dominykas Mikolaitis, Lithuania – $218,000
7 – Aleks Ponakovs, Latvia – $159,000
8 – Ranno Sootia, Estonia – $115,000
9 – Elton Tsang, Hong Kong – $95,000
10 – Matthias Eibinger, Austria – $81,000
11 – Zhewen Hu, China – $81,000
12 – Xu Liang, China – $71,000
13 – Thomas Boivin, Belgium – $71,000
14 – Hossein Ensan, Germany – $64,000
15 – Emilien Pitovy, France – $64,000
16 – Roland Rokita, Austria – $57,000
17 – Frederic Delval, France – $57,000
18 – Benjamin Chalot, France – $51,000
19 – Konstantin Maslak, Rusia – $51,000
20 – Artur Martirosian, Russia – $51,000
21 – Isaac Haxton, USA – $47,000
22 – Nacho Barbero, Argentina – $47,000
23 – Tobias Schwecht, Germany – $47,000
24 – Sirzat Hissou, Germany – $43,000
25 – David Yan, New Zealand – $43,000
26 – Ian Bradley, UK – $43,000
27 – Dimitar Danchev, Bulgaria – $43,000