Category: 2023

Canada’s Dan Dvoress has a habit of leaving things late.

Back in Cyprus earlier this year, he won the first Triton title of his career in the series’ very last tournament, telling reporters he had no time to party because he had to dash off to catch a flight home.

Tonight in Monte Carlo, Dvoress put himself among the multiple champions with victory in the $50,000 buy-in PLO event — and it too came on the very last night of play on Triton’s first trip to the principality.

Not only did Dvoress need to beat a 72-entry field, he had to overcome the Monte Carlo sensation Danny Tang heads up. Tang had an enormous chip lead too, and would have become the first player to win titles in no limit hold’em, short deck and PLO had he closed it out.

But Dvoress had other ideas. He found a couple of double ups as the heads-up game got short stacked, and then ground Tang down until they got it all in with Dvoress holding trips and Tang’s overpair needing to hit.

It didn’t, and Tang’s festival ended with one win, one second, two third places and a sixth. But this one belonged to Dan Dvoress.

“It’s fun!” Dvoress told Ali Nejad during his winner’s interview when asked how he stays motivated. “I enjoy the process. Of course, it’s great to win money as well.”

Dvoress took $956,000 for this one, beating by a huge margin what he won for his short-deck title in Cyprus. But Dvoress’ mastery of all games has earned him more than $10 million on the Triton Series, from 11 final tables and 28 cashes.

“There are elements that transfer,” he said, describing how one player manages to excel at more than one variant. “Skills such as keeping it together under pressure.” He went on to pay tribute to his friends and fellow pros with whom he can share frustrations and celebrations. “Most of the time tournaments don’t go that well and it’s extremely important to get things off your chest,” he said.

Tonight, it’s about celebration, however. And Dvoress has already said he’ll be back for Triton’s next stop in Jeju.

So will Tang, no doubt, with $664,000 more in his coffers from this second-place finish.

TOURNAMENT RECAP

After a comparatively steady opening day, the starting field of 70 entries had been reduced to 15 players. That left all the drama for Day 2: the bubble, which would appear when 14 were left (13 places paid), the subsequent push to the final, and then, of course, the crowning of a champion.

To deal with the first of those landmarks: our bubble boy this time was the Brazilian crusher Yuri Dzivielevski. He had been reduced to his last one-and-a-half big blinds, but must have watched in glee as Tom-Aksel Bedell was all-in and called on another table.

However, Bedell doubled up, which meant Dzivielevski had no choice but to watch the button pass gradually around the table and simply pray for good cards when the big blind next reached him.

Those prayers were not answered. When the time came he looked down as and ended up coming third in a three-way coup.

With Dzivielevski out the way, they ground on toward a final. It was remarkably slow going, but eventually Rajamurthy Kabeelan, Eelis Parssinen, Bedell and two of yesterday’s final table players, Dylan Weisman and Iakov Onuchin departed.

That left another of yesterday’s feature table players, Dan Dvoress, ahead of the pack and the remarklable Danny Tang at yet another final. The last eight lined up like this:

Dan Dvoress – 49 BBs
Chris Parker – 48 BBs
Nacho Barbero – 25 BBs
Dylan Linde – 16 BBs
Keith Lehr – 11 BBs
Mads Amot – 11 BBs
Danny Tang – 10 BBs
Shyngis Satubaev – 10 BBs

Shyngis Satubaev is the first player from Kazakhstan to play on the Triton Series and this was already his second cash. He would need something of a miracle to spin up his short stack at the final — and that miracle did not come.

He managed to double up on one of the first hands, getting the beautiful looking to make a flush and crack Chris Parker’s kings. But on the very next hand he ran queens into Dvoress’ aces and this time all his chips went to the Canadian.

Satubaev took $133,000 for eighth.

Dylan Linde had endured a difficult trip to Monte Carlo, with no cashes before this one. (Don’t worry, there are plenty of players that endure that kind of run. Variance in tournament poker is a terrible thing.)

While it’s doubtful whether this tournament could provide a complete trip-saver, it’s always good to make a final — but Linde’s tournament ended in seventh. This was another case of aces cracked. Nacho Barbero limped, Linde raised with and Barbero called.

The flop might have seemed innocuous at first glance, but there was danger lurking. It was . Linde moved in, at least blocking the nut flush draw and the bottom end of the straight. But Barbero called with and his flopped straight stayed good.

Linde won $171,000.

Mads Amot decided to come to Monte Carlo for his first Triton event this week and played just the PLO events. The $30K Bounty didn’t work out for the Norwegian, but here he was at this final justifying his trip.

He was another to curse the sight of Nacho Barbero, however, as Barbero flopped another straight with on a flop of .

Amot’s pocket queens were already defeated, but Barbero ended up with a boat after the turn and river.

Amot had to make do with $216,000 for sixth.

Keith Lehr is another player for whom the Triton Series is quickly becoming something of a home away from home. The American businessman accepted an invitation to play the $250K in London this year, and subsequently received and accepted another one to play the $200K here in Monte Carlo.

Neither of those invitational tournaments worked for him, but he cashed a PLO tournament in London and here he was again with his deepest run yet.

Lehr made it to fifth, but couldn’t make it any further. He ended up being knocked out with three aces in his hand — not quite such a good thing in Omaha as it might seem. His ended up as only a pair of aces after a run-out of . Meanwhile Chris Parker and Danny Tang both had a straight.

Lehr took $277,000 but seems likely to return to the Triton Series for more.

Parker, however, was the next man out. The British player was yet another Triton first timer here in Monte Carlo, and had played two events before this one. Those were whiffs, but he had made this one stick and he’d been chip leader for periods today.

But Dvoress was now the man to beat, and Parker couldn’t do so in a big pot that ended the latter’s tournament. Dvoress had and Parker .

All the money went in after a flop of , where Parker had top two and Dvoress had a set. It was a rough way to end for Parker, but his $344,000 payout was three times his previous tournament scores combined.

So it was that three Triton titans remained: Dvoress, Tang and Barbero. The latter led, but Tang doubled up to get back in contention, and that left Barbero most under threat.

Barbero had actually asked tournament officials to tinker with the schedule of the $25K Turbo taking place in the same room to potentially allow him time to register, should he be eliminated from the $50K. But by the time he was actually put at liberty, the turbo was on the bubble, with registration long closed.

Barbero’s elimination hand came in a four-bet pre-flop pot, with Barbero’s losing out to Dvoress’ .

Barbero this time had to settle for $439,000 — but at least didn’t lose heads-up yet again.

That left the two Dans heads up: Tang versus Dvoress, both of whom were at their second PLO final in as many days. Chip stacks were fairly even, but stacks were short. This could go either way still.

But those aces just kept on coming out. They landed in Tang’s hand — — and the double-paired aces was plenty good enough to call after Dvoress five-bet shoved with .

“Hold!” Tang shouted, and hold it did, giving Tang more than 60 big blinds to Dvoress’ seven.

“Da-nny Tang! Da-nny Tang!” chanted Kiat Lee and Punnat Punsri as they answered the bat signal to come to the tournament room to watch another Tang show. They immediately learned the news that their man had doubled, and took their seats in the stands to watch it all play out.

Dvoress doubled up fairly quickly with a flush. He then doubled once again with a full house. And all of a sudden the stacks were even.

The heads-up duel from this point was conducted in precisely the way you would expect from players as skilled as these. They kept pots small and tried to gently out-manouevre one another.

But Dvoress had the momentum and the prevailing wind blew the chips in his direction. When he had ground Tang down to a short stack, they got it in on a flop of . Tang had but Dvoress was ahead with .

The turn and river couldn’t come to Tang’s rescue. And the title belonged to Dvoress.

RESULTS

Event #12 – $50,000 PLO
Dates:November 3-4, 2023
Entries: 72 (inc. 29 re-entries)
Prize pool: $3,600,000

1 – Dan Dvoress, Canada – $956,000
2 – Danny Tang, Hong Kong – $664,000
3 – Nacho Barbero, Argentina – $439,000
4 – Chris Parker, UK – $344,000
5 – Keith Lehr, USA – $277,000
6 – Mads Amot, Norway – $216,000
7 – Dylan Linde, USA – $171,000
8 – Shyngis Satubaev, Kazakhstan – $133,000

9 – Iakov Onuchin, Russia – $101,000
10 – Dylan Weisman, USA – $77,500
11 – Tom-Aksel Bedell, Norway – $77,500
12 – Eelis Parssinen, Finland – $72,000
13 – Rajamurthy Kabeelan, Malaysia – $72,000

Photography by Joe Giron/Poker Photo Archive

Asked before he set foot on the Triton Series for the first time, back in his home city of London this summer, Gavin Andreanoff said that his poker ambition was “to win a Triton poker tournament!”

Flash forward a few months and that’s “Achievement Unlocked”.

Andreanoff may not be a very familiar name in tournament poker, but he’s been playing professionally for 16 years, mainly PLO cash games live and online, and here he showed just what he can do in the tournament format as well.

Andreanoff took down the $30K PLO Bounty tournament in Monte Carlo, picking up the $387,000 first prize, plus another $160,000 in bounties for knocking out four opponents en route. The last of those was Quan Zhou, the Chinese PLO expert, who also made a final table in the hold’em Main Event this week.

“Basically getting good cards in the right spots,” Andreanoff, 35, said when asked what was the secret to his success. He went on to detail three key pots where his decision-making was remarkably straightforward and earned him all the chips.

With bounties in play, and stacks rapidly shallowing, Andreanoff admitted that it was quite the roller coaster. “In that format, with the ante, it can go either way,” he said. “It was all over the place.”

He added: “It’s sick. It’s super hard. You obviously want the bounties but you want to get yourself in the spot to get in the top places too.”

Andreanoff managed both, and finished with a $547,000 haul.

That’s going to please his family, particularly his uncle, who Andreanoff says claims half of all his poker winnings, remembering a family Christmas game where he supposedly “taught him all he knows”. One assumes Christmas will be lavish this year.

TOURNAMENT RECAP

The first day of competition in this tournament was as lively as you would expect and it ended with a final table of eight players already assembled. Bounties kicked in when 19 players remained, so a hefty chunk of the prize pool had already been awarded.

All that mattered today was who took the very biggest bucks.

All the PLO experts seemed to have made it deep — Dylan Weisman and Laszlo Bujtas barely played a hand of hold’em at this festival — while Danny Tang and Dan Dvoress carried over their good form from the earlier two-card phase.

The mercurial Tom Dwan, however, was sitting at the very top. He too had flown into Monte Carlo simply for the PLO events and was standing tall as the man to catch.

Tom Dwan – 130 BBs
Dan Dvoress – 87 BBs
Danny Tang – 76 BBs
Quan Zhou – 70 BBs
Gavin Andreanoff – 46 BBs
Laszlo Bujtas – 37 BBs
Dylan Weisman – 25 BBs
Iakov Onuchin – 23 BBs

There were fireworks right from the off, with a huge three-way pre-flop all-in shaking up the leader board immediately. Dwan opened with and Tang called on the button, sitting with .

If Tang was setting a trap with the aces, it worked perfectly because Weisman three bet from the small blind, holding .

Dwan four-bet, essentially asking the others if they wanted to play for stacks, and both opponents said that they did. Tang shoved, Weisman under called all-in and Dwan called the extra.

The flop hit both the smaller stacks: . Weisman tripled with his flush, Tang won the side pot with his straight and Dwan tumbled down the counts.

Unfortunately for Weisman, it proved to be a false dawn. Not lot afterwards, he ran kings into the aces of Bujtas — it was five-bet all-in pre-flop — and saw the rest go in the Hungarian’s direction too when beat .

Weisman hit the rail in eighth, for $54,000. That will certainly be reinvested in the $50K PLO starting later today.

As is always the case with Omaha tournaments, players were seeing enormous swings. Dvoress lost a huge pot, doubling up Andreanoff, in a hand where Zhou was also considering calling both of their shoves with the potential to knock them both out.

As it was, all the chip went in on a flop of and, after Zhou folded, Dvoress showed to Andreanoff’s .

The turn and river improved both of their hands, but Andreanoff’s flush scored a triple up, leaving Dvoress on fumes.

Dwan, who embraces the volatility of poker more than most, landed on the wrong side of a severe buffeting in this one. After the skirmish with Tang earlier, he managed to build his stack back, but lost a ton back to Zhou. He then doubled up Dvoress before becoming the second player out from the final, completing a journey from leader to the rail, when he lost another big pot to Andreanoff.

Dwan called Andreanoff’s pre-flop bet with and had top pair after the flop. Andreanoff bet, Dwan shoved and Andreanoff called.

Andreanoff was already ahead of Dwan with his and ended with a flush after the turn and river. Dwan was done, taking $69,500.

With the two Americans now out of the way, the Europeans turned on themselves. Bujtas and Iakov Onuchin got involved in a pre-flop battle that ended with Bujtas four-bet jamming and Onuchin calling.

Onuchin was the effective stack but he had the advantage with against Bujtas’ .

With the full board eventually reading , Bujtas had a straight and Onuchin was out. He won $87,000 for sixth.

Dvoress had done incredibly well to bounce back from a near tournament-ending pot earlier, but his event eventually unravelled in fifth. Shortly after doubling through Zhou with aces, Dvoress found himself defeated for the last time by the same opponent.

They bet on every street through a board of , with Zhou shoving the river and Dvoress calling all in for his final five big blinds.

Dvoress had a flush draw on the flop and two pair by the end, but Zhou had a straight. Dvoress was free to head to the $50K PLO event with $112,400 in his pocket.

Bujtas, known as “omaha4rollz” online, was again fulfilling his role as one of the world’s leading four-card players. But even he was powerless to halt Zhou’s charge at this stage.

Zhou and Bujtas played an enormous pot, with the Chinese player’s ending up with a full house, which beat Bujtas’ .

That cost Bujtas almost all of his stack, but Tang ended up with his bounty. Bujtas got his remaining shrapnel in with a pair of sevens, single-suited, and Tang’s pair of eights remained better. Bujtas took $139,000 for fourth.

Tang has enjoyed an incredible week on the Triton Series, extending what has been a tremendous year. And here he was at a final table of a PLO event as well, having bossed it in NLHE.

Tang’s tournament ended in a third-place finish, however, as he was the latest player to be swept away by Zhou. In a three-bet pre-flop pot, Tang shoved the flop looking at on the board and holding .

Zhou called for what was only a couple more blinds and his ended up hitting two more spades for a flush. Tang grimaced, got up and left, taking $178,000 and $120,000 in bounties.

Zhou therefore squared off against Andreanoff, with a 70-20 BB advantage. It was barely 5pm local time and the final table had flown by.

Both players during the heads-up phase showed a willingness to get their chips in. There was the lesser-seen chopped pot at one point, then Zhou wore Andreanoff down to about 15 big blinds. But Andreanoff doubled back to level with making a straight on a board of . Zhou had two pair.

There was only 50 big blinds between them. And then, as the level went up, there was only 40 big blinds between them.

And then, all of a sudden, it was done.

Zhou had and raised pre-flop. Andreanoff had and called. It took them to the flop of .

Andreanoff check-called Zhou’s continuation bet.

The turn was the and the check-call pattern repeated, which then took them to the river. Andreanoff checked again and Zhou moved all in. Andreanoff now had a flush and made the call. He was good; Zhou’s straight was now beaten.

With that, Gavin Andreanoff comes out of the shadows to secure a first major title of his career.

RESULTS

Event #11 – $30,000 PLO Bounty
Dates:November 2-3, 2023
Entries: 74 (inc. 23 re-entries)
Prize pool: $2,220,000 (inc. $760,000 in bounty pool)

1 – Gavin Andreanoff, UK – $387,000 (+ $160,000 in bounties)
2 – Quan Zhou, China – $269,000 (+ $120,000 in bounties)
3 – Danny Tang, Hong Kong – $178,000 (+ $120,000 in bounties)
4 – Laszlo Bujtas, Hungary – $139,000 (+ $160,000 in bounties)
5 – Dan Dvoress, Canada – $112,400 (+ $40,000 in bounties)
6 – Iakov Onuchin, Russia – $87,000
7 – Tom Dwan, USA – $69,500 (+ $120,000 in bounties)
8 – Dylan Weisman, USA – $54,000 (+ $40,000 in bounties)

9 – Fahredin Mustafov, Bulgaria – $41,500
10 – Li Tong, New Zealand – $31,300
11 – Dimitar Danchev, Bulgaria – $31,300
12 – Armin Ghojehvand, UK – $30,000
13 – Imad Derwich, France – $30,000

Photography by Joe Giron/Poker Photo Archive

Webster Lim is a three-time champion on the Triton Super High Roller Series after winning a fascinating all-Malaysian heads-up duel tonight in Monte Carlo and winning the latest GG Poker Million$ Live tournament.

This is actually Lim’s second GG Million$ Live victory having won the same $25,000 buy-in tournament in Vietnam earlier this year. It’s no mean feat because, at $25K, this is the lowest buy-in on the Triton Series and draws the biggest crowd.

This one was a Triton record, with 187 entries.

“Maybe I should play only this one,” Lim joked as he picked up his trophy.

Lim’s prize was $899,893, an adjusted total after he struck a heads-up deal with his countryman Hing Yong Chow. As ever, the seats around the final table were full with the great and the good of Asian poker, with this crew as tight as any in the world.

“It’s 1am and they’re here, I cannot ask for more,” Lim said.

He added that members of the crew — Danny Tang, Punnat Punsri, Kiat Lee, Lun Loon, Michael Soyza, among others — regularly share notes and tips and support. “You always learn every day,” Lim said.

He also said he enjoyed the fact that he took down the title with the most ever entries on the Triton Series. “It’s always good to see Triton growing,” he said.

TOURNAMENT ACTION RECAP

The tournament resumed overnight with 41 players left from that record-breaking field of 187 entries. As always, the only decisive thing that could happen in the early levels was that players could bust, and quickly the field reduced by nine to leave the tournament on its stone bubble.

Almost immediately, that particular milestone passed. Paul Phua opened a pot, Viacheslav Buldygin shipped with about 10 big blinds, and Phua made the call. It was a classic flip: pocket jacks versus , with Phua holding the jacks. And when another appeared on the flop, Buldygin was drawing to the straight only.

It never came.

The Russian left the field, Phua boosted his stack, and the race towards the final began.

For once in this Triton Series stop, the Asian contingent quickly rose to the top. Phua’s trajectory continued upward, and he was joined by fellow Malaysians Hing Yang Chow and Webster Lim, while China’s Biao Ding also found his stride.

The same couldn’t be said for Steve O’Dwyer, Tim Adams, Alex Kulev, Bruno Volkmann and Artur Martirosian, who were among the players knocked out ahead of the final. When Jean-Noel Thorel’s friend and traveling partner Frederic Delval went out in 10th, the final table was set, with the three Malaysians in the top spots.

Hing Yang Chow – 43 BBs
Paul Phua – 38 BBs
Webster Lim – 28 BBs
Yulian Bogdanov – 28 BBs
Ren Lin – 26 BBs
Biao Ding – 24 BBs
Igor Yaroshevskyy – 22 BBs
Ben Heath – 16 BBs
Ferdinand Putra – 9 BBs

Cash-game regular Ferdinand Putra had locked up a cash for the third time on the Monte Carlo trip, but his stay at this final table was brief. He became the first of three consecutive players to go broke at the hands of Ren Lin, unable to get to hold up against .

Putra picked up $100,200 for this one.

Lin wasted little time before despatching Yulian Bogdanov next. Bogdanov pushed all in from the small blind with and Lin woke up with pocket queens in the big. That was an easy call and Bogdanov took $122,000 — another good result for the Bulgarians.

This tournament, which carried the GG Poker name, employed the “seat swap” format heading into the final table, which is used on the online site. It means that players can select their position at the final, with choices made in order of chip stack.

Phua, who was second in the standings heading into the final, cursed his luck with having swapped seats with Lin. That was certainly the hot seat — and it stayed warm for the elimination of Biao Ding next.

Lin raised from the button with and Ding called in the big blind, sitting with . Ding probably hoped to see a queen, but that was actually the last thing he really wanted. However, the dealer maybe heard his silent plea.

The board came queen high and all the money went in. Lin’s kicker played as Ding was ousted. He won $166,600.

Lin took a back seat now as Webster Lim — one spot along the keyboard only — took over. He knocked out Phua and Igor Yaroshevskyy in back-to-back hands and took over at the top of the leader board.

Lim found aces and, obviously, called Phua’s three-bet jam. Phua did pick up a straight draw with his , but it never came. Phua busted in sixth for $228,000.

On the very next hand, Yaroshevskyy moved all in from under the gun with and Lim snapped him off with , which stayed good.

Yaroshevskyy cashed this very event back in Cyprus earlier this year, where his third place earned him $339,500. This time he had to settle for $301,000 for fourth.

Ben Heath now assumed the unfortunate role of the short stack and he wasn’t able to get it moving in the right direction. In fact, he could do little but sit and stare as others picked up all the pots, then finally getting his last chips in with and losing to Hing Yang Chow’s .

Heath won $380,000, but Chow’s stack was near even with his two opponents as they began three-handed play.

Having scaled the heights earlier, Lin was now the player on the ropes. Lim’s surge had coincided almost precisely with Lin’s decline and there was no surprise when the duo played the pot that sent Lin out in third.

This was a bit of a cooler. Lin had and watched the board come . There was betting on every street, with a shove on the river, and Lin had every reason to think his straight was good.

But Lim had and rivered a full house. He scored a huge double.

Chow took the last few blinds from Lin’s stack with beating . Lin’s tournament ended with a $468,000 payout.

The bleachers were now packed with supporters for this all-Malaysian showdown.

Lim had 62 big blinds; Chow had 31, but both players had been here before and closed it out.

Lim was already a two-time champion, having won this GG Super Million$ in Vietnam, after winning a €50K Short Deck in Madrid. Chow too had a Triton title. He won a PLO event in Montenegro in 2019.

The pair quickly decided on a deal, with Lim securing a minimum $859,893 and Chow locking up $760,107. That left $40K to play for on the side, plus the trophy. There was still life in this one yet.

Lim took the more aggressive lines heads up, but Chow actually managed to quickly pull into a chip lead in pots that went the distance. However, Lim managed to stay calm and continue to chip away at his opponent, opening up a lead of 41 BBs to 18 BBs when they entered Level 29.

Lim shoved on the first hand, but Chow tank-folded. However, Lim built an even bigger lead and Chow had only eight bigs when the chips all went in the middle for the first time. Chow was able to double, however, when his beat Lim’s .

Lim just set to work again and built his lead once more. But then a hand came up that was difficult for anyone to get away from, and it happened to favour Lim.

Chow had pocket sevens while Lim had . There was betting on every street as the board slowly ran .

Lim shoved on the end and Chow called, learning the bad news. Never mind: he dived into the crowd of supporters to show his appreciation too for Lim, who moves up the multiple champion standings and takes a third trophy home.

RESULTS

Event #10 – $25,000 NLH – 8 Handed – GGMillion$ Live
Dates:November 1-2, 2023
Entries: 187 (inc. 70 re-entries)
Prize pool: $4,675,000

1 – Webster Lim, Malaysia – $899,893*
2 – Hing Yang Chow, Malaysia – $760,107*
3 – Ren Lin, USA – $468,000
4 – Ben Heath, UK – $380,000
5 – Igor Yaroshevskyy, Ukraine – $301,000
6 – Paul Phua, Malaysia – $228,000
7 – Biao Ding, China – $166,600
8 – Yulian Bogdanov, Bulgaria – $122,000
9 – Ferdinand Putra, Indonesia – $100,200

10 – Frederic Delval, France – $85,000
11 – Yuri Dzivielevski, Brazil – $85,000
12 – Henrik Hecklen, Denmark – $76,000
13 – Sirzat Hissou, Germany – $76,000
14 – Jans Arends, Netherlands – $69,000
15 – Sam Greenwood, Canada – $69,000
16 – Santhosh Suvarna, India – $62,000
17 – Artur Martirosian, Russia – $62,000
18 – Francisco Benitez, Uruguay – $55,400
19 – Bruno Volkmann, Brazil – b$55,400
20 – Alex Kulev, Bulgaria – $55,400
21 – Timothy Adams, Canada – $50,600
22 – Mario Mobock, Austria – $50,600
23 – Steve O’Dwyer, Ireland – $50,600
24 – Jan Schwipperts, Germany – $45,800
25 – Robert Flink, Sweden – $45,800
26 – Punnat Punsri, Thailand – $45,800
27 – Lewis Spencer, UK – $45,800
28 – Phil Ivey, USA – $41,000
29 – Ian Bradley, UK – $41,000
30 – Justin Bonomo, USA – $41,000
31 – Shyngis Satubaev, Kazakhstan – $41,000

*denotes deal

Photography by Joe Giron/Poker Photo Archive

Two of world poker’s most in-form players squared off in Monte Carlo tonight as Danny Tang took on Isaac Haxton in the $50K buy-in 7-Handed event on the latest Triton stop.

But while Haxton’s incredible year of dominance has earned him spoils in tournaments across the world with various operators, almost all of Tang’s best work has been done on the Triton Series, where he has gone from nought to four titles in less than a year.

And now, you can make that five.

Tang again sealed the deal tonight in this huge event, banking $1.58 million and drawing him neck-and-neck with Phil Ivey in the hunt for Jason Koon’s record nine Triton titles. Haxton still hasn’t got over the line on this tour, although his $1.07 million runner up finish is decent consolation.

But for Tang, this is getting to be quite a habit. He won his first title in Vietnam in March, added two more in Cyprus in May, and then picked up the fourth in London in August. This one was the biggest of them all, and marked him out yet again as a player of class.

He described himself as a “people’s person”, explaining why so many friends and admirers poured on the stage to congratulate him. “I treat a lot of these guys like my brothers,” he said, adding that he still felt the influence of his former mentor, the late Ivan Leow.

“I feel like he’s looking after all of us, not just me,” Tang said, listing Webster Lim, Kiat Lee, Lun Loon and Michael Soyza as part of Leow’s crew. “I’m just the lucky one.”

He paid tribute to Haxton — “I beat the great Ike!” — and reeled off a number of pivotal hands from the final table that propelled him to the top. But Tang gave his now trademark look to the heavens as he posed for his winner’s photo, thankful for what he sees as help from above.

But he’s the one playing the cards and, right now, no one is playing them better on the Triton Series than Danny Tang.

TOURNAMENT ACTION

The last massive buy-in hold’em event of this trip to Monte Carlo attracted the usual crowd of top talents. In all, there were 136 entries building a prize pool of $6.8 million and, of course, some tense scenes all the way.

The overnight returning field quickly slimmed down and then when the tournament was still playing so-called “soft” hand-for-hand, a rush of eliminations took us through a very hasty bubble.

In short order, Axel Hallay lost a flip and Michael Loncar couldn’t get overcards to beat pocket fives. And Patrik Antonius was also all-in, sitting with to Elton Tsang’s .

The kings held and Antonius was knocked out, taking the tournament down to 23 and a guaranteed payout of at least $79,000.

A spot at the nine-handed final would earn a minimum of $158,200, however, so that quickly became the next target. But it was a step too far for previous Triton Monte Carlo champions Dan Smith and Ognyan Dimov, among others, while even nine-time champion Jason Koon perished in 10th.

That did then take us to the final, which lined up as follows:

Chris Brewer — 55 BBs
Pedro Garagnani — 35 BBs
Rodrigo Selouan — 30 BBs
Danny Tang — 29 BBs
Fahredin Mustafov — 28 BBs
Isaac Haxton — 23 BBs
Ole Schemion – 12 BBs
Thomas Muehloecker – 5 BBs
Daniel Rezaei — 1 BB

Coming to any table with only one big blind is never ideal, but at least for Daniel Rezaei, this was a Triton Series final, where the payouts are rich.

To the surprise of no one, Rezaei couldn’t spin things up. He actually found pocket sixes with which to get his last chip in, but there were four over-cards in the hands of Pedro Garagnani and Chris Brewer, who gave him a spin.

Brewer ended up with two pair and sent Rezaei home. His first Triton cash was worth $158,200.

Ole Schemion very nearly became the next man out when he got all his chips in with against Chris Brewer’s pocket kings. This was a bit of a set up for Schemion, who was in the big blind after Brewer shoved from the small. Any ace in that situation is a clear call, but he was just unfortunate to find Brewer with the kings.

That said, the dealer bailed Schemion out, putting an ace on the flop. However, it proved to be only a temporary stay of execution because Schemion played and lost the next two hands, resulting in a nosedive to eighth place.

Schemion called Thomas Muehloecker’s shove, but beat to double up Muehloecker. On the very next hand, Schemion three-bet jammed from the button after Brewer’s opening raise, but Haxton was in the small blind with pocket jacks.

Schemion had but this time didn’t catch. He hit the rail with a $198,000 buffer.

Not for the first time, this Triton final played host to two Brazilians. They tend to do this: make a final table in pairs. But unlike back in London when Bruno Volkmann and Pedro Garagnani ended heads up against one another, Rodrigo Selouan could make it no further than seventh.

There wasn’t much Brazilian team spirit as Garagnani doubled up through Selouan with pocket nines against , and although Selouan doubled back through Brewer not that long afterwards, Isaac Haxton was waiting to knock him out.

Selouan four-bet jammed pocket jacks, with Haxton holding . An ace on the river gave the win to Haxton and set Selouan out in seventh for $270,000.

Plenty of hands now began and ended with a pre-flop shove as blinds escalated and orbits shortened. On one of the rare occasions play extended beyond a flop, Muehloecker’s tournament ended. The Austrian was sitting in the big blind with and called Danny Tang’s opening raise.

The flop of gave Muehloecker a straight draw and he moved all in. Tang had and called. Muehloecker missed his draw and Tang took this one down, leaving Muehloecker looking for $363,000.

With five players now left, we had entered both the short-handed and short-stacked zone. The chip leader, Haxton, had 36 big blinds but the average stack was only 18.

Garagnani now became the player under threat, particularly after a succession of hands in which he lost relatively small amounts, but which added up. He had a short stack and doubled it through Haxton, rivering a straight, but subsequently gave all those chips, and more, back to Brewer.

Garagnani shipped with but Brewer picked him off with and it remained good. Garagnani’s run this time earned him $469,000.

The next two eliminations came quickly: Brewer’s quest for a third title foundered in two pots against Tang, Then Mustafov’s chips also went to the same opponent, setting Tang up perfectly for a run at the title.

Brewer can count himself unlucky. Tang and he played an enormous pot where Tang had and Brewer had . Ordinarily, that match up doesn’t necessarily mean fireworks, but through a board of it was always going to be a sickener for Brewer.

He actually did incredibly well to fold his hand facing a shove on the river, but much of the damage was done. Tang took the last of his chips soon after with over Brewer’s . Brewer won $585,000.

Although Tang will rightly take the plaudits after this one, it’s worth highlighting the performance of Mustafov. He went out in third, but this was his third cash from only three tournaments played this week and his second final table.

Mustafov was another victim of Tang’s sun-run when lost to . Mustafov’s latest cash was worth $715,000.

Tang took a near two-to-one chip lead into heads-up and Haxton never even pulled close. The final hand came quickly. After Tang limped with , Haxton moved all in with . Tang called and the dealer put nothing of interest on the flop.

Tang’s supporters cheered heartily from the rail. Haxton was the first to congratulate his opponent, before Punnat Punsri appeared to throw himself into Tang’s arms.

After that, Tang’s life as a five-time champion began.

RESULTS

Event #9 – $50,000 NLH – 8 Handed
Dates: October 31 – November 1, 2023
Entries: 136 (inc. 46 re-entries)
Prize pool: $6,800,000

1 – Danny Tang, Hong Kong – $1,580,000
2 – Isaac Haxton, USA – $1,070,000
3 – Fahredin Mustafov, Bulgaria – $715,000
4 – Chris Brewer, USA – $585,000
5 – Pedro Garagnani, Brazil – $469,000
6 – Thomas Muehloecker, Austria – $363,000
7 – Rodrigo Selouan, Brazil – $270,000
8 – Ole Schemion, Germany – $198,000
9 – Daniel Rezaei, $158,200

10 – Jason Koon, USA – $133,000
11 – Dan Smith, USA – $133,000
12 – Ognyan Dimov, Bulgaria – $116,000
13 – Iho Hula, Ukraina – $116,000
14 – Elton Tsang, Hong Kong – $105,000
15 – Webster Lim, Malaysia – $105,000
16 – Richard Yong, Malaysia – $95,000
17 – Nick Petrangelo, USA – $95,000
18 – Punnat Punsri, Thailand – $85,600
19 – Brian Kim, USA – $85,600
20 – Henrik Hecklen, Denmark – $85,600
21 – Rodrigo Seiji, Brazil – $79,000
22 – Adrian Mateos, Spain – $79,000
23 – Karl Chappe-Gatien, France – $79,000

Photography by Joe Giron/Poker Photo Archive

As difficult as it is to believe, it’s been more than six years since Christoph Vogelsang last won a poker tournament — longer than the Triton Super High Roller Series has even existed.

But finally tonight, at his 46th attempt, the 38-year-old German pro ended that drought and landed a Triton title — and it was a big one, too, in the $100K no limit hold’em event in Monte Carlo.

Vogelsang banks $2.644 million for this success, after arranging a heads-up deal with Nacho Barbero as Sunday night’s tournament ran into the early hours of Monday. It completed a remarkable turnaround for Vogelsang, who had only one big blinds at one stage today, before the money bubble even burst.

But Vogelsang is in it for the long haul. He has continued plugging away for the past six years, just like he plugged away in this tournament, knowing his time would come.

“I was kind of out of the tournament,” Vogelsang told Mariana Pereyra in a post-game interview. “I was all in so many times.”

He managed to outgun Barbero in a topsy-turvy heads-up contest where both players were all-in and at risk multiple times. Vogelsang referenced one particular hand, where he rivered a set of sevens to beat Barbero’s two pair, as being of particular significance.

“I’m a Christian, and seven is a biblical number,” he said. “It felt very beautiful.”

The Triton trophy too will look pretty nice on Vogelsang’s mantlepiece in his adopted home of London. He expressed his liking for the series, stating, “It’s more like a family…Everyone who is playing here is so, so blessed in their lives.”

TOURNAMENT ACTION

In a change to the way it normally works on the Triton Series, the highest buy-in events at this stop in Monte Carlo were front-loaded, meaning that after this one, the maximum it’s going to cost for a seat in the game is $50K. It follows that all the very best players in the world showed up, building a prize pool of $12 million thanks to 120 entries.

Also as always, dozens of them fell by the wayside before they got even a sniff of a payout. And when the bubble did appear on the horizon, the smallest-stacked player still had 12 big blinds, which meant that hand-for-hand play across three tables might have taken a while.

But it didn’t. On the very first hand of hand-for-hand, that aforementioned shortest stack, Lewis Spencer, found and moved in. Punnat Punsri, chip leading at the time, called from late position and all others wisely got out the way.

Punsri showed and although the first four cards on to the table were blanks, the river was a killer for Spencer. He burst the bubble and put everyone else into the money.

The next target was the final table, which could accommodate only nine players. And there was no room at it for two Triton Monte Carlo champions – Dan Smith and Steve O’Dwyer – who went out in 20th and 18th, respectively, nor other regs Kiat Lee, Santhosh Suvarna and Artur Martirosian, among others.

The most dramatic hand of this period played out when there were 11 left and, in one fell swoop, took us down to the last nine.

In it, Johannes Straver open-shoved his 9 big blind small stack and picked up calls from both Nacho Barbero and Elton Tsang. That took them to a flop of . Both active players checked.

The turn was the and now Tsang checked and Barbero made a 1/4 pot size bet. Tsang called. The river was the .

Tsang checked again and Barbero now shoved, with Tsang’s effective stack only about a third of what was in the pot already. After a long time, Tsang called it off.

Barbero quickly showed his for a rivered full house, and Tsang disgustedly tossed his into the muck. Straver had an even worst beat: his had turned a straight, but he was toast too.

They headed off for dinner, with Barbero returning to a chip-leading stack more than twice as big as his nearest opponent.

Nacho Barbero – 113 BBs
Punnat Punsri – 52 BBs
Danny Tang – 30 BBs
Ben Heath – 25 BBs
Christoph Vogelsang – 25 BBs
Daniel Dvoress – 24 BBs
Phil Ivey – 12 BBs
Franciso Benitez – 11 BBs
Jonathan Jaffe – 9 BBs

This dynamic repeated the state of affairs at two previous final tables this week. Both Mario Mosbock and Adrian Mateos had huge leads coming into their respective finals, but ultimately someone else hoisted the trophy. Could Barbero make his one stick?

First he would have to negotiate the choppy waters as the short stacks looked to double or die. Francisco Benitez, a first-timer to the Triton Series, was the first to do both of those things.

Benitez is an online tournament crusher, with one of the most refined tournament games in the business. He had made it to the final here in only his third event, and doubled up early with pocket deuces staying strong against overcards.

However, when he found a much bigger pair — queens — and got his chips in against Dan Dvoress’s , Dvoress ended up with a flush to send Benitez out in ninth. His $288,000 payday is highly unlikely to be his last.

In his recent interview after winning the $30,000 Turbo, Steve O’Dwyer cautioned reporters that there’s much more to a player’s decision-making at short-stacked final tables than meets the eye. The problem is that it’s only really the big pots that make the reports, and here’s a perfect example: we next need to tell you about the elimination of Phil Ivey, without ever even mentioning that he was even in.

Ivey was one of those players who were all looking up at Punnat Punsri and Nacho Barbero, and who had to take a stand. He did so with from the button, but it just so happened that Punsri was in the small blind with .

There was nothing Ivey could do about a dry board and that sent the American five-time Triton champion out in eighth for $372,000.

During this period of play, both Danny Tang and Christoph Vogelsang scored come-from-behind doubles to remain involved, but stacks were still critically short. Tang also managed a stay-ahead double through Barbero, and that revealed the first chink in the Argentinian’s armour.

Jaffe doubled once through Tang, but the next time he was all-in, his tournament came to its conclusion. Jaffe smashed into Ben Heath’s pocket aces, and that was that for Jaffe.

The relief was such that he got a round of applause before walking from the table. Jaffe is a popular player, no doubt, but it’s still pretty unusual for fellow final table opponents to applaud a man away. Jaffe picked up $504,000 for seventh, but fell short of his second title of the week.

On the very next hand, those pocket aces came out again, this time with Christoph Vogelsang. Unfortunately for Dvoress, he found a hand he felt like shoving with — — and the aces actually ended up being part of a wheel.

That spun Dvoress out, looking for $672,000.

Barbero was still ahead at this stage, with all the others comparatively short. However, when Heath and Vogelsang went at each other soon after, the winner of the pot would vault close to the chip leader. And it went to Vogelsang.

Heath open-shoved the small blind with , but Vogelsang found in the big. The ace turned into a pair on the flop and Heath was cut down to just one big blind. Vogelsang took that on the next hand with pocket fives.

Heath’s fifth place was worth $858,000 while everyone left was guaranteed seven figures.

Vogelsang had now found another gear. He bullied Punsri out of a pot not long after and picked up another few million chips, putting him ahead of Barbero.

Barbero, however, bounced quickly back into the lead by bouncing out Punsri, essentially continuing the job that Vogelsang had started. Punsri open pushed with , and Barbero made the call in the big blind with . The jack on the flop spelled doom for Punsri.

The Thai player banked $1,068,000 for fourth, and the tournament was left with just three.

Tang had 12 big blinds at this stage. Vogelsang had 40. Barbero had 44. But the levels were now shorter and the big blind was coming around quickly.

By this point, all players had supporters on the rail, offering a few whoops and cheers when chips went in. Barbero had friends from his sponsors; Vogelsang had last night’s winner Matthias Eibinger on the sidelines; Tang had his familiar vocal posse.

There was nothing anybody could do about the hand that eliminated Tang though. He had , which was more than enough to risk everything. Barbero had and made the call, and then saw a seven on the flop and river.

Tang, at his second major final table of the week already, couldn’t convert into a fifth title. He took $1,296,000 for third.

Barbero had the chip lead again as heads up play was due to commence. He had 47 BBs to Vogelsang’s 33. They hesitated a little, but then decided to look at the numbers and came to a deal.

Vogelsang guaranteed himself 2.144 million, with Barbero locking up 2.198 million. But they left $500K, plus the trophy, to play for, so this wasn’t the kind of deal that was going to mean a quick all in flip.

Early spoils were mostly shared, but Barbero moved slightly further into the lead. That was until Vogelsang managed the first double up, with against . That gave Vogelsang a two-to-one lead, but Barbero doubled back with beating .

Barbero doubled once more, with pocket threes holding against , but then Vogelsang doubled again with beating . “Back to where we started,” Barbero said.

The next significant pot went to Vogelsang, but this one wasn’t a full double. The pair played a pot through the streets as the dealer put the board of on the table.

Vogelsang’s final bet of 6 million was called by Barbero, who soon saw the bad news. Although Barbero had two pair with , Vogelsang’s pocket sevens rivered a set. That put him back into the lead.

They were all in again very soon afterwards, and this time, finally, the best hand held up. Vogelsang had to Barbero’s .

The flop vaulted Barbero into the lead. It came . “It’s never easy,” Barbero said.

The was a blank. But the river was a killer blow, and finally Vogelsang could celebrate. Eibinger gave his friend a hefty high five and Vogelsang gave a hop of delight.

“I think you can tell, it feels pretty surreal,” he said.

RESULTS

Event #6 – $100,000 NLH 8-Handed
Dates: October 28-29, 2023
Entries: 120 (inc. 42 re-entries)
Prize pool: $12,000,000

1 – Christoph Vogelsang, Germany – $2,644,000
2 – Nacho Barbero, Argentina – $2,190,000
3 – Danny Tang, Hong Kong – $1,296,000
4 – Punnat Punsri, Thailand – $1,068,000
5 – Ben Heath, UK – $858,000
6 – Dan Dvoress, Canada – $672,000
7 – Jonathan Jaffe, USA – $504,000
8 – Phil Ivey, USA – $372,000
9 – Francisco Benitez, Uruguay – $288,000

10 – Elton Tsang, Hong Kong – $240,000
11 – Johannes Straver, Netherlands – $240,000
12 – Mike Watson, Canada – $210,000
13 – Artur Martirosian, Russia – $210,000
14 – Viacheslav Buldygin, Russia – $192,000
15 – Karl Chappe-Gatien, France – $192,000
16 – Ferdinand Putra, Indonesia – $174,000
17 – Santhosh Suvarna, India – $174,000
18c- Steve O’Dwyer, USA – $156,000
19 – Kiat Lee, Malaysia – $156,000
20 – Dan Smith, USA – $156,000

Photography by Joe Giron/Poker Photo Archive

Monte Carlo is synonymous with the highest stakes, the richest talents and the most dramatic occasions. And tonight, on the Triton Series first visit to this unique principality, two of modern poker’s most formidable young talents went to battle in a contest that perfectly suited this most breathtaking location.

Barely anything could separate Matthias Eibinger from Adrian Mateos as the pair played heads-up for the Triton Main Event title in the stunning Salle des Etoiles, with close to $4 million originally reserved for the winner.

But after the buffeting of a cold deck took much of the skill out of their two exceptionally skilful games, they opted to arrange a heads up deal, leaving the trophy and the title (plus $100K) to play for. Soon after, there was one last cooler and Eibinger took the spoils.

Eibinger won $3,461,261, plus a Jacob & Co timepiece, offered only to winners of main events on the Triton Series. Luxury brand Bombay also gave a two-day stay for him and up to five friends on the exclusive Bombay yacht.

The good times roll when you’re a champion on the Triton Series.

This was a brilliant performance from the 30-year-old Austrian, who had to overhaul Mateos’ enormous chip lead coming into the day, as well as survive past seven other fearsome competitors. Eibinger probably had the rub of the green in the heads up portion, but he honed his game in hyper turbo sit n goes online, which presents players with precisely these kinds of situations.

And, once again, Eibinger passed every test with flying colours.

“The feeling is just amazing,” Eibinger told Marianela Pereyra, on the Triton live stream. “It’s by far the biggest cash I’ve ever had. I’ve won two turbos and now I’ve won a main event. I’m just so happy.”

When pressed on how he managed to keep his composure facing Mateos’ stack, plus the rapidly escalating blinds, Eibinger said he loved it.

“It was an awkward spot but I really liked it,” he said. “The shorter I go, the more I enjoyed it. I’ve played 40K hyper turbo sit n goes online, so I have a bit of experience.”

He added that he felt “a little bit of nervousness here and there” but, having hidden it successfully, it was time to party. “Now it is just happiness,” he said.

As for Mateos, he added another $3,120,739 to his coffers. It’s maybe one that got away, but there was no accounting for the cards coming out as they did.

TOURNAMENT ACTION

The Main Event began on only the third day of the Monte Carlo festival, but true to form the room quickly filled. By the time registration was closed, there was $16.875 million in the prize pool, courtesy of 135 entries.

The bubble was due when 24 players were left, spread across three tables, and stars such as Artur Martirosian, Webster Lim and Stephen Chidwick perished shortly before the cash desk opened.

The unluckiest player of all was Ren Lin, who took up against Richard Yong’s , but lost when the Triton co-founder turned a straight.

Lin was knocked out with nothing, while everyone else was now guaranteed $198,000 at least.

The next target was the final table, but all of Christoph Vogelsang, Tim Adams, Jason Koon, Sam Greenwood and Daniel Dvoress were among those who couldn’t make it. They cashed, but their hopes of a win petered out on the penultimate day.

Through all the carnage, the player who had started the day in the chip lead only consolidated his position there. Spain’s Adrian Mateos absolutely crushed it all day and took an enormous stack to the final.

Adrian Mateos — 125 BBs
Chris Brewer — 32 BBs
Nick Petrangelo — 30 BBs
Matthias Eibinger — 28 BBs
Quan Zhou — 28 BBs
Aleks Ponakovs — 27 BBs
Justin Bonomo — 27 BBs
Santhosh Suvarna — 24 BBs
Ken Tong — 19 BBs

With such an overwhelming chip lead — nearly a third of the chips in play — it seemed like this was Mateos’ tournament to lose. He had the chance to steamroll through the field, but was also keenly aware that this wasn’t a done deal just yet.

So it was that the nine of them played mostly small pots for the first hour, with little significant chip moves. Aleks Ponakovs dipped to the lowest stack, then doubled back through Nick Petrangelo. And that then left Petrangelo short and at risk.

Petrangelo found pocket tens and, after opening the pot, faced a three-bet shove from Ken Tong’s covering stack. Petrangelo called it off and was flipping against Tong’s . An ace on the flop and river won the pot for Tong and ended Petrangelo’s tournament.

His ninth place was worth $391,000.

Everybody bar Mateos was still relatively short-stacked, but he found poker’s new powerhouse hand and, after raising, called Mateos’ three-bet jam. Mateos had a real hand too — — and it made broadway.

That sent Bonomo out in eighth, banking $491,000. It wasn’t quite enough for him to retake the top spot in poker’s all-time money list, but who is going to be upset at another half million.

The pattern continued. Chips were shared around the short stacks, while waiting for the dealer to put a set-up into their hands. It happened when action folded around to Ponakovs in the small blind, who also had the smallest stack. Ponakovs had and jammed. Unfortunately for him, Chris Brewer was in the big blind with and made the call.

The board was entirely blank and Brewer’s hand stayed best. Ponakovs was knocked out in seventh for $668,000.

The stack sizes still suggested that this could quite easily get done in a hurry. And not long after, Brewer claimed another scalp when Ken Tong open-jammed with and Brewer called with .

Tong couldn’t survive this coup, but departed with $902,000 as a very happy man. He only decided to come to Monte Carlo the day before the event started, following his friend Elton Tsang to the Mediterranean. A purely recreational player, he made a last-gasp decision to play this main event. And he picked up nearly a million.

Another first timer at the Triton Series, although not quite such a poker rookie per se, Quan Zhou was also enjoying his time in Monte Carlo. The Chinese player had landed at the final table and guaranteed a first seven-figure tournament score by sticking around until the last five.

But Zhou’s stack had dwindled until he was all-in in the big blind. Both Eibinger and Mateos saw a flop with him, but Eibinger got out of the way post-flop and allowed Mateos, with pocket tens, to beat Zhou’s on a dry board.

Zhou, who came to the final dressed in an immaculate white suit, shirt and tie, made a dignified exit and picked up $1,165,000.

Although Brewer had picked up a couple of knockouts from this final table, they had only been of fellow short stacks and he had never really managed to threaten Mateos. Santhosh Suvarna and Eibinger had also moved ahead of Brewer in the counts, which left the American vulnerable if either of those got involved with him too.

And it was Suvarna who ended up accounting for Brewer. Suvarna opened with pocket eights and Brewer three-bet with . Brewer jammed and Suvarna called, and this time the pocket pair held up.

Brewer has won two Triton titles over the past year or so, but this time he could go no further. Fourth place was worth $1,450,000, and this trip to Monte Carlo is far from over yet.

Mateos remained seemingly imperious, but he would have been keenly aware that any double up for either of his two opponents could put them into the lead. And Eibinger managed to find precisely that to leapfrog Mateos.

Eibinger had in the small blind and opted to call only, with Mateos behind in the big blind. Mateos fell into the trap and moved all-in, sitting with . Eibinger called and he faded the outs that could have punished him.

With that, the Austrian was in the chip lead and Mateos, for the first time in three days, was technically now under threat.

But Mateos has made a habit during his relatively short career of finding the right cards at precisely the right time. And his elimination of Suvarna in the next major coup was pretty spectacular.

This one is best to read about without knowing the cards. Suvarna opened his button with a standard min-plus raise. Mateos called from the big blind. They then saw the flop and Mateos check-called Suvarna’s continuation bet.

The came on the turn and Mateos checked again. Suvarna bet and then Mateos shoved with the covering stack.

Suvarna called and the hands were revealed. Suvarna had for top pair and the nut flush draw. Mateos, however, had for a pair of eights, a straight draw and a flush draw.

And, boom, the river was the .

Suvarna’s fist pump suggested he thought he had won this one. He had the ace high flush, so it’s entirely forgivable. But Mateos celebrated too because that particular card gave him the straight flush, and it was enough to oust Suvarna.

The Indian businessman’s love affair with Triton continued with a $1,772,000 payday — albeit with a pretty gross elimination story.

The two top pros now settled in for what could easily turn in to a long battle. Mateos had retaken the chip lead with 62 big blinds to Eibinger’s 51. But those were two sizeable stacks still, and these two players were never going to give it up without either a fight or a cooler.

This, as you’d hope for a tournament of this magnitude, was a heads-up battle for the ages. Eibinger won all the early pots, then Mateos battled back into the lead when he got paid the maximum with a king high flush.

Mateos added some more when pocket aces became a set, but Eibinger doubled back with against , the better jack holding, then doubled once more with beating , the inferior jack turning a straight.

When Eibinger doubled yet again, this time with pocket sevens against Mateos’s flopped flush draw (it missed), the Austrian took a narrow lead again.

Mateos had to get back to work, and he went on another surge into the lead. However, when they got their chips in pre-flop yet again, Eibinger found another double. This time, his defeated Mateos’ .

Once more, Eibinger was the leader.

There was now only 40 blinds between them, so they were scrapping. It played to Eibinger’s strengths, however. He’s a former hyper turbo online sit n go player, where short-stack, short-handed play is what it’s all about. He managed to extend his lead to the point that Mateos was all in for a sub 10-big blind stack. Lo and behold, Mateos doubled up too, winning with against .

This turned out to be the breaking point. They’d seen enough and decided to strike that deal.

Very soon after, Eibinger found and Mateos black pocket tens, the kind of hand that would have put the chips in the middle at any stage. The dealer put a king on the flop, but there were three clubs out there by the turn. However, Eibinger faded the outs on the river and was champion.

Mateos was the first to congratulate him, and he becomes a three-time Triton Series champion.

RESULTS

Event #3 – $125,000 NLH – Main Event
Dates: October 26-28, 2023
Entries: 135 (inc. 47 re-entries)
Prize pool: $16,875,000

1 – Matthias Eibinger, Austria – $3,461,261*
2 – Adrian Mateos – $3,120,739*
3 – Santhosh Suvarna, India – $1,772,000
4 – Chris Brewer, USA – $1,450,000
5 – Quan Zhou, China – $1,165,000
6 – Ken Tong, Hong Kong – $902,000
7 – Aleks Ponakovs, Latvia – $668,000
8 – Justin Bonomo, USA – $491,000
9 – Nick Petrangelo, USA – $391,000

10 – Daniel Dvoress, Canada – $329,000
11 – Lewis Spencer, UK – $329,000
12 – Richard Yong, Malaysia – $286,000
13 – Isaac Haxton, USA – $273,500
14 – Leon Sturm, Germany – $273,500
15 – Sam Greenwood, Canada – $261,000
16 – Leonard Maue, Germany – $236,000
17 – Jason Koon, USA – $236,000
18 – Orpen Kisacikoglu, Turkey – $212,000
19 – Nacho Barbero, Argentina – $212,000
20 – Tim Adams, Canada – $212,000
21 – Christoph Vogelsang, Germany – $198,000
22 – Jans Arends, Netherlands – $198,000
23 – Bruno Volkmann, Brazil – $198,000

Photography by Joe Giron/Poker Photo Archive

For a man who has won just about everything the game of poker has to offer, it would likely surprise most fans to learn that until tonight Steve O’Dwyer had “only” won one title on the Triton Series.

But after a characteristically calm yet ruthless performance in the $25,000 Turbo event in Monte Carlo today, O’Dwyer can add his name to the list of Triton’s multiple champions and put another $416,000 on his ledger.

It was a textbook O’Dwyer display: casually weaving his way through a field stuffed with superstars, riding the inevitable highs and lows of this turbo format, but emerging victorious the other side.

It was in this room in Monaco that O’Dwyer really broke through as a world class talent, back on the European Poker Tour in 2013. But he has destroyed tournament fields of all sizes and buy-ins both before and since, and has naturally made a home on the Triton Series too.

“Winning is nice,” O’Dwyer said, ruefully admitting he was down on the trip after firing four bullets in the Main Event. But he added that he loves the glory of taking a title, and said: “I’ve been waiting to get this second Triton title for a while.”

O’Dwyer beat Dimitar Danchev heads up to claim this latest success, finding the right cards and making the right decisions when things got very short stacked towards the end.

“I think the public has a misconception about how difficult and intricate these short-stacked final tables can be,” O’Dwyer said. “Poker is really hard.”

It’s just that some people — for instance, O’Dwyer — make it seem so easy.

Danchev, making his first appearance on the Triton Series here in Monaco, had to make do with second place and $299,000.

EARLY TOURNAMENT ACTION

With plenty of players remaining in the Main Event as the Turbo clicked through its early levels, there maybe wasn’t quite so many players heading from one side of the room to the other. By the time registration closed, there were 57 entries, including re-entries, precisely the same number that played the turbo on the opening day.

As ever, it was hectic for those early periods and there was a race towards the bubble. But then a slowdown as the in-the-money places grew nearer, with bustouts largely the result of coolers.

Mike Watson was very short, but pulled off back-to-back doubles, including taking pocket eights up against David Yan’s nines and turning a set. That sent Yan out. Then with Punnat Punsri clinging on to a tiny stack on the stone bubble, Alex Kulev got his chips in good with , but ended up losing to Fedor Holz’s .

That bad beat took the remaining nine into the money and seated around the final table. The line-up looked like this:

Steve O’Dwyer – 2.02m
Michael Watson – 1.785m
Clemen Deng – 1.575m
Henrik Hecklen – 1.425m
Dimitar Danchev – 1.335m
Michael Soyza – 1.335m
Fedor Holz – 1.31m
Luc Greenwood – 480,000
Punnat Punsri – 120,000

Despite still sitting with a minute stack, Punsri managed to cling on as two opponents went bust. The first was Clemen Deng, a Triton first-timer in the money in the first tournament he had played on the series.

He lost a massive pot to Steve O’Dwyer, when the latter’s made a straight to beat pocket nines, and the same opponent polished off the last of Deng’s stack too, with besting .

Deng won $41,000 for ninth.

Luc Greenwood, who had been another player sweating the bubble, made it into the money, but could go no further than eighth. He ended up third in a three-way pot that also doubled up Henrik Hecklen.

Greenwood was all in pre-flop with , while Hecklen’s also beat Watson’s . Watson remained in the tournament, but Greenwood was out, earning $54,000.

Finally, the game was now up for Punsri, whose two big blinds got in the middle as a mandated blind bet, with an ante too. His neighbour Watson completed from the small blind with , and Punsri’s was too feeble to do any damage.

Punsri was out in seventh, taking $70,000.

At this stage, O’Dwyer was comfortable at the top of the counts and making the most of his big stack to pick up plenty of uncontested pots. The best thing about being in that kind of position is the way big hands get paid of too. After O’Dwyer raised for the umpteenth time, Fedor Holz threw in the last of his chips.

Holz had pocket threes so there was nothing wrong with that move. It’s just that O’Dwyer had pocket tens and sent Holz to the rail in sixth, for $89,000.

The reaper now came knocking for Michael Soyza, who lost back-to-back pots to Watson and headed out in fifth. Soyza had but couldn’t hit to beat Watson’s pocket fives. And shortly after, Soyza’s went down to Watson’s pocket nines.

Dimitar Danchev was also involved in that pot, also losing a chunk to Watson with his . However, only Soyza was banished immediately to the cash desk, where he picked up $114,000.

Watson took the chips and went on another surge, doubling into the chip lead after winning a race against O’Dwyer.

The four-handed stage of the tournament was when this one got kind of ridiculous, with chips being passed among each of them in pots that determined both the chip lead and who was the short stack. O’Dwyer tumbled as Danchev surged. Then Watson led again. At one point, the average stack was 11 big blinds and the chip leader had 16.

Hecklen never quite made it to the very top, and that made him the most vulnerable. His last chips went to O’Dwyer, whose jacks stayed good against Hecklen’s , which took us down to three. Hecklen took his $147,000 and went to sit on a hotel room balcony with Sam Grafton and Andrew Lichtenberger mainly listening to them discuss intriguing philosophical topics, before tweeting at 3:41am.

There were 45 big blinds between them, and they had 16, 15 and 14 of them each, depending on where the button was. It truly was anyone’s game at this stage, and when that’s the case, it usually turns out to be O’Dwyer’s.

He knocked out Watson first, with against . Watson’s third place earned him $195,000.

And then with the Bulgarian contingent watching closely, O’Dwyer also ended their dreams of a first title by knocking out Danchev next. Danchev had to O’Dwyer’s , but O’Dwyer filled a straight to leave Danchev drawing dead on the turn.

That was the end of that. A turbo that actually flew to its conclusion, start to finish in around eight hours. And it put more silverware on the crowded mantle of Steve O’Dwyer.

Event #5 – $25,000 NLH Turbo
Dates: October 27, 2023
Entries: 57 (inc. 13 re-entries)
Prize pool: $1,425,000

1 – Steve O’Dwyer, USA – $416,000
2 – Dimitar Danchev, Bulgaria – $299,000
3 – Mike Watson, Canada – $195,000
4 – Henrik Hecklen, Denmark – $147,000
5 – Michael Soyza, Malaysia – $114,000
6 – Fedor Holz, Germany – $89,000
7 – Punnat Punsri, Thailand – $70,000
8 – Luc Greenwood, Canada – $54,000
9 – Clemen Deng, USA – $41,000

Photography by Joe Giron/Poker Photo Archive

Correction: This article incorrectly stated that Henrik Hecklen went to bed after being eliminated. Hecklen actually sat drinking champagne on a hotel room balcony with Sam Grafton and Andrew Lichtenberger mainly listening to them discuss intriguing philosophical topics, before tweeting at 3:41am.