Organisers of the Triton Poker Series, Jeju, tonight announced an addition to this week’s tournament schedule, inviting players to test their short-deck mettle one more time in a hastily-arranged seventh event.
The new tournament will get under way at 5pm on Saturday and play to a winner on Sunday, extending this festival by a day.
The buy-in for the tournament is HK$1 million, which will earn you three bullets of 100,000 chips each. (Players can convert their bullets to chips at any point while registration is still open.) Levels are 45 minutes long and there’s eight levels of late registration. The word around the poker room is that a handful of VIPs are coming over from the cash games for some short-deck tournament action, so the prize pool will surely scale its customary heights.
Today’s Event #7 — the “Triton Refresh” — had originally been scheduled to be the last. With 30-minute levels and five hours of late registration in that one, it has also swelled to the size we’ve come to know and love. There were 25 entries (including three re-entries), which means a prize-pool of HK$23.5 million and a first prize of HK$9.9 million. Four places will be paid.
Daniel Dvoress eyes redemption in the RefreshTough trip so far for Stephen Chidwick
With a number of the game’s leading lights yet to record a cash here in Jeju, this tournament can be seen as a potential trip-saver. Certainly the vast majority of the full-deck heroes who aren’t still in the main event have anted up. Here’s how the prize pool breaks down:
Registration officially closed on the Triton Poker Series Jeju Main Event at 2pm today at the Landing Casino, Shinhwa World Resord, Jeju. At the last moment, Ivan Leow re-entered for the third time, Michael Soyza fired his second bullet and Wai Leong Chan entered for the first time.
That brought total entries to 48, with 16 re-entries. They cost HK$2 million apiece, which meant we’re looking at a total prize pool of HK$90.204 million, approximately US$11.5 million. Six places are paid, with the champion set for a HK$30.6 million (US$3.9 million) payday.
Last-minute entry for Wai Leong Chan
As expected, that makes this event the richest of the week, and the first prize will be the second biggest ever awarded on the Triton Series. Only Mikita Badziakouski’s victory here last July was bigger–and Badziakouski is among the 18 players still with chips at time of writing here. It would represent one of the best back-to-backs if he could go all the way again, particularly since he squeezed a victory in Montenegro in the middle as well.
To be honest, the attempt to pick a winner from the remaining field would represent little more than wild guessing. With players like Dominik Nitsche, Christoph Vogelsang, Justin Bonomo, Timothy Adams, Ike Haxton, Bryn Kenney, David Peters and Stephen Chidwick all still seated, how can anyone choose between them?
Can Dan Smith make the final on his Triton debut?
In many ways, that’s why it is especially gratifying to see Richard Yong still out in front. He’s not only the loudest player still in the field, he is the most active, the most chipped and the most fearless. The Triton co-founder is sitting opposite his friend and business partner Paul Phua for the early stages of the day, with Smith and Haxton for company, as well as six-max champion Soyza.
Paul Phua providing a conversation partner to Richard Yong
Follow all the action via the live stream or our live text updates, which monitors chip counts for the whole field in real time.
FULL PAYOUT INFORMATION
Triton Series Jeju Main Event Dates: March 7-9, 2019 Buy-in: HK$2 million (US$255,000) Entries: 48 (inc. 16 re-entries) Prize pool: HK$90,204,000
Towards the end of a week in which millions of dollars have changed hands every single day, it seems redundant talking about “The Big One”. But this afternoon, in the Landing Casino, Shinhwa World Resort, Jeju, the elites of the poker world sat down for the Triton Series Jeju main event. And even by the standards already established, this moves everything up a notch.
The buy-in for the main event is HK$2 million, which is around US$250,000. There were 45 entries through the opening 10 levels, and you have to expect a few more might sneak in before registration closes at 2pm tomorrow.
The prize pool with therefore swell past HK$90 million and the first prize will likely outstrip even the HK$22.3 million (US$2.84 million) Jason Koon won with his second short-deck title in Jeju today.
An exhausted Jason Koon was among Day 1 main event casualties
This was a tough day. Even Koon couldn’t survive in what were exceptionally shark-infested waters. He was one of those knocked out and headed out of the tournament room early for the first time this week. Having made three final tables out of four previously, that’s fair enough. He can always come back. And if he does, he’ll be surrounded, as is customary, by all the great and good, among whom Richard Yong has the most chips.
The Triton co-founder may still usually be labelled a “businessman” in the poker world, but he has absolutely no qualms about mixing it with the pros. He bagged 1.19 million chips tonight, and only Dan Smith, with 1.098 million, and Peter Jetten, with 1.020 million, also have seven figures. The three leaders only fired one bullet this afternoon too, while at the other end of the equation, David Peters fired four times. To state the obvious again: this was a tough day.
David Peters: In for a penny…
The outlay column is less important than what comes in, however, and we most likely won’t know who is in line for a payday until late tomorrow, when the final table will be set. We’ll play down to the last group tomorrow, now matter how long it takes. There’s also the start of the “refresh” tournament, the last of this jamboree. Last chance, folks, to get involved.
Justin Bonomo: One of the sharks still with designs on the title
Here are the full counts of the 17 players remaining. A starting stack is 250,000, and blinds are at 5,000/10,000 when play resumes.
The finest players in the western poker world have been turning their attention recently to the preferred game of the Asian high rollers: short-deck hold’em, played with 36 instead of 52 cards. But if they want to have a chance at prevailing at the highest echelons on the short-deck scene, they’re going to need to look closer to home for the man they have to beat.
Jason Koon, the 33-year-old Triton Series Ambassador from West Virginia, USA, further enhanced his reputation as the king of short-deck with victory today in the HK$1 million buy-in event at Triton Jeju. It was worth HK$22.3 million (US$2.84 million) and represents his second title at these stakes in this discipline on the Triton circuit, following his HK$21 million victory in Montenegro last May.
Fearless and indefatigable: Jason Koon
Koon extends his lead at the top of the all-time short-deck hold’em money list, as he closes in on the top 10 in the global all-time standings. He is on an extraordinary heater over the past couple of years, and has been the undisputed star of this week in Jeju. Koon has made three final tables from only four events so far, but this is by some distance the biggest.
“I wanted to come in and just stay focused, and adapt on the fly and stick with what good strategies are,” Koon said. “It worked out for me.”
He struck a humble tone when asked how he explained his exceptional run. “I had great cards, it’s really what it comes down to a lot of the time in these tournaments,” he said. “A lot of good things happened to me at this final table. If anybody else would have been in my seat, it would have happened to them.”
Koon’s victory today came at the end of a heads-up battle against the Malaysian businessman Paul Phua, the man whose enthusiasm for poker in Asia helped boost the Triton series to its current standing. Phua is another short-deck fanatic, frequently to be found in the biggest cash games where the format first grew popular. And he put on a real fight in the heads-up duel against Koon, at one point doubling into a significant chip lead after winning a classic hold’em flip: against Koon’s pocket queens.
But Koon, who has spent more time at the tables than any other player this week, didn’t see any reason that another few hours would hurt him. He dug in once more, doubled back himself when he turned a full house with (Phua had trips) and then won it with against Phua’s . It was another phenomenal performance from Koon, whose feats of stamina and concentration seemingly know no bounds. The tournament had already stretched long into an unscheduled third day when Koon wrapped up his victory, and he’ll be the clear danger when he joins the main event field later today.
“It was extremely tough,” Koon said. “Paul is a great player. I had a good feeling that him and I would possibly have a showdown. He’s just so, so good.”
Koon and Phua showed great mutual respect at the final
Only four players were involved at the start of play as the tournament was paused late last night still in search of its champion. Koon was third in chips but got his surge under way with a big outdraw against Furkat Rakhimov in the first hour. With , Rakhimov open raised and then quickly called after Koon moved all in for his last 4.8 million with .
Koon was in bad shape, and had to endure a few emotional leaps and dips throughout the flop, which put him ahead, and the turn, which put him behind again. But then the river locked up the double for Koon and put him into the lead.
“This game is crazy,” Rakhimov said.
“Too sick,” Koon agreed.
Koon survived thanks to an early outdraw
Koon’s early boost allowed him to boss the table against his less experienced tournament poker opponents, and his first order of business as the big stack was to knock out the man at the other end of the leader board, Jun Wang. Wang clung on for close to an hour — and made a number of highly impressive plays, including an excellent call with an under-pair to the board to beat Koon in one pot — but was still short when he pushed with into Koon’s . Koon snapped and Wang was broken.
It was only as he was exchanging fist bumps with his opponents that Wang revealed that he was playing only his second tournament ever. With HK$7.9 million to show for it, a little more than US$1 million, he may have found a new hobby.
An exceptional showing on only his second tournament from Jun Wang
Rakhimov, who led the final four as the tournament extended into its extra day, could not carry last night’s momentum into the final stages today. He was mortally wounded in Koon’s double-up hand, but still had 3.45 million in his stack when he found open-shoved pre-flop from under the gun with . Koon pushed his cards away, but Phua had and made the call.
Though there was still 39 percent equity for Rakhimov in the coup, he couldn’t realise it. Phua was made to sweat through the flop and turn, at which point his opponent still had a near 40 percent chance of winning. But the river was a blank and Rakhimov busted in third, for HK$10.4 million (US$1.325 million). “You played great,” Koon said as he shook his beaten opponent’s hand.
Overnight leader could not recover from loss to Koon
It was, by a factor of 10, Rakhimov’s largest tournament result, and he had no regrets. “That chips could have been mine,” he said as he looked at Koon’s stack from the rail. “But the board was classic short-deck…It was a very fun tournament and I’d like to come back for sure.”
Rakhimov added that he was another short-deck convert and wouldn’t be hopping into the Main Event despite his score. “I don’t really like full-deck tournaments because it’s so technical and I’m not as good as the top players,” he said. “It’s also less fun.”
That left Koon heads up against Phua: Triton Ambassador against Triton cheerleader, in the latest west vs. east heads up confrontation. It was fine battle too, with the pendulum swinging both ways. Ultimately Koon’s greater tenacity shone through and he booked yet another enormous win.
“Poker god, where are you?” Phua asked as the dealer handed the win to Koon at the death. The answer? Sitting at the other end of the table. It’s Jason Koon’s short-deck world, we all just live in it.
1 – Jason Koon, USA, HK$22,300,000 2 – Paul Phua, Malaysia, HK$15,900,000 3 – Furkat Rakhimov, Russia, HK$10,440,000 4 – Jun Wang, China, 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
Arguably the first megastar of online poker’s boom era, the man who rose to prominence as “durrrr” has kept a relatively low profile over the past five years or so — particularly in comparison with his days as the undisputed phenom of the biggest high stakes cash games. But the 32-year-old from New Jersey has probably been out of the spotlight now for longer than he was ever in it. All that exists are rumours emanating from Asia that he’s been buried away in the continent’s notorious underground cash games, where millions of dollars change hands every night away from prying eyes.
But even though confirmed information is still so scarce, Dwan continues to intrigue. Poker fans the world over still share footage of his audacious bluffs in televised games, as well as hand histories of enormous pots played at the nosebleed stakes. When news emerged that Dwan was en route to the Triton Poker High Roller Series event in Jeju, South Korea, this week, seemingly every other comment in the Twitch or YouTube chat was asking where he was.
The only person not that interested in the subject is Dwan himself. He said today he doesn’t quite know what all the fuss is about.
“I didn’t know the poker world was obsessed with where I am,” Dwan said. “I don’t know, man. I didn’t know that was the case.”
In an interview to be broadcast on the Triton Poker live stream tomorrow, Dwan went on to admit that he didn’t know whether he had ever been in love with poker, despite being one of the highest volume, highest stakes regulars through the game’s most popular period. But he also said he didn’t envisage a time when he would give up the game entirely.
“Playing a bunch of 30-hour sessions in a row, yeah I’d like to have that be a much less common thing at some point in the future,” he said. “Some day I’d like to have poker not be my main focus. But I think I’ll still be playing some of the time, at least for the foreseeable future.”
Tom Dwan makes a rare appearance on the tournament scene
Dwan remained coy on the specifics of where he has actually be spending most of his time over the past few years, but gave away a few hints as to how he fills his schedule. He described his “pathetic” attempts at learning to speak Chinese, but said he had been more successful in adapting to the game that has swept the Asian poker world: short-deck hold’em. He said he now picks his locations to play based on the availability of the 36-card game.
“I think it’s more action, I think it’s more fun overall, and it’s a less predatory environment,” Dwan said of the game he first played around three years ago. “The last few years it got to a point [in full deck] that it was quite predatory. A lot of the businessmen or the fish that would lose didn’t leave with a good taste in their mouths a lot of the time. That’s unfortunate.”
He added: “If you can come up with a game where everyone has a better time, win or lose, I think that’s a good thing, and I think that’s what short-deck is.”
Having now spent more than a decade playing poker professionally, Dwan has seen strategies and approaches to hold’em and PLO he helped popularise become commonplace. He said the same is now happening in short deck. “My problem is that other people are starting to learn it now,” he said. “Actually a number of people are getting quite good.”
Dwan has spent more time on the rail than at the tournament tables in Jeju
Recent results bears it out. In the week that Justin Bonomo won his first short-deck title, it’s been tough going for Dwan. He lasted “about five minutes” in his first tournament, then fired and missed with five bullets in Event #5 — an outlay of HK$5 million. “I haven’t won anything, I’ve been losing every day,” he said. “This time it’s been brutal.”
But describing himself as “older, a bit wiser,” Dwan was able to shrug it off with customary composure. “It’s better to win than it is to lose, but I try to be cool about it. Some days you win, some days you lose.”
LOOK OUT FOR THE FULL INTERVIEW TOMORROW DURING OUR TRITON SERIES JEJU COVERAGE.
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.
Furkat Rakhimov leads the final four
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.
Gabe Patgorski, last man out tonight
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.
Yong senior outshone his son…just
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.
Jason Koon, the man who never sleeps
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
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
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.
Triton co-founder and philanthropist Richard Yong, left, with his son Wai Kin
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.
Registration closed at around 3.30pm today on Event #5 at the Triton Poker Series, Jeju. But like a suitcase ahead of a long trip, so much was stuffed in at the last moment it seemed as though it might never really be shut.
Case in point: Tom Dwan. Yesterday, the American high roller fired one bullet, costing HK$1 million. He was knocked out and took the rest of the evening off, at least from tournament poker. But today, he returned and fired another four bullets in the first hour of play, bringing his total investment to HK$5 million. That’s about US$637,000–and it didn’t bring him any more luck. Dwan is already out for the fifth and final time.
A familiar walk from the stage for Tom Dwan
It’s also been a hell of an event for another of high stakes poker’s great enigmas. Despite keeping a notoriously low profile for most of the year, Timofey “Truteller” Kuznetsov has been prominent here at the Landing Casino, Shinhwa World, particularly at the registration desk. He too bought in five times and he too is now out. These are the joys and perils of short-deck hold’em in South Korea.
Five bullets for Timofey “Trueteller” Kuznetsov
It wasn’t only those two, however. We had seen 59 entries through seven on-hour levels on the opening day, but another 22 bullets were fired in that mad first hour today. That means official numbers show 81 entries to the event, including 44 re-entries. It made a prize pool of HK$76,140,000 (roughly US$9.7 million). The champion will get HK$22.4 million (US$2.84 million). That is for two days’ work.
A reminder: we play to a winner tonight, and then reconvene at 2pm tomorrow for the HK$2 million main event.
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.
Tough day for Tom Dwan
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.
One of Asian poker’s breakout talents was the star of the show on the fourth day of competition at the Triton Poker High Roller Series, Jeju, as Malaysia’s Michael Soyza won the third event of the week and HK$11.15 million (US$1.421 million).
The trend in poker at the moment is for the feted talents of North America and Europe to visit the high stakes arenas of the east in search of further riches, but Soyza continues to be an obstacle even the establishment cannot budge. This 29-year-old won his first major title around 18 months ago in Macau, and since then has flourished on the global scene. Then today, at the Landing Casino, in the Shinhwa World Resort, Soyza secured the biggest victory yet of his highly promising career.
“Feels pretty good, it’s nice to win something,” Soyza said, who added that he doesn’t yet feel entirely comfortable at these enormous stakes despite his success. “You just play your hands and hopefully it works out well. Win flips, you know. That’s how you do it.”
Soyza broke his hand two weeks ago while snow-boarding in Japan, and wore his arm in a sling as he set about his game here. He has 10 screws and a titanium plate in his hand, but it proved to be no distraction.
Champion Michael Soyza shook off snowboarding injury to triumph
Soyza’s final opponent was Sam Greenwood, a Canadian who has been on his own spectacular run of form over the past couple of years, and the final table also featured Bryn Kenney and Triton Ambassador Jason Koon. Soyza’s countryman Ivan Leow, a former Triton champion, also made the final table, but none could get close to Soyza. Greenwood made a huge bluff on the first hand of heads-up play, and Soyza worked it out and picked him off.
Sam Greenwood beaten into second
Late last night, on the penultimate hand of the opening day, Soyza knocked out Justin Bonomo and consolidated his chip lead. Although his stack dipped during the early stages of the second and final day, Soyza bounced back to seal the deal.
Play resumed today with 23 players and a long way to go until they even reached the money, let alone the winner. Timothy Adams, who was Soyza’s closest challenger overnight, was one of those swept away in early skirmishes.
Tough day two for Timothy Adams
Then in the immediate run-up to the bubble, Kenney came to the fore and showed precisely why he is rated in the top five no limit hold’em tournament players in the world, with a characteristic display of aggression. He cracked Daniel Dvoress’s aces and then knocked out the Canadian. Kenney then also eliminated Robert Flink in 10th, when aces stayed good against ace-deuce, and he sat back and saw Tong Siow Choon bust Wai Leong Chan on the other table to burst the bubble.
In that decisive hand, Xu Liang opened to 90,000 with and the short-stacked Tong Siow Choon found on the button. He pushed all in. The only player with fewer chips was Wai Leong Chan in the big blind, and he had . He thought it was worth getting everything in as well. It was only 10 big blinds.
Unfortunately for Chan, his timing was slightly off. His dominated ace did not catch up, and that sent him out on the bubble. It meant he missed out on the HK$1,100,000 min-cash, which all the others began hoping to build to an even more significant total.
For Stanley Choi, that was not to be. He went out in ninth. Then Malaysia’s Tong Siow Choon hit the rail in eighth, recording his second cash (HK$1,439,000) of the week.
At seven-handed, they consolidated for a final table and all of a sudden the full quality of this field was plain to see.
The last seven (l-r): Beh Kok Weng, Ivan Leow, Jason Koon, Michael Soyza, Bryn Kenney, Sam Greenwood, Xu Liang.
After two days of short-deck, this event was played with all 52 cards in the pack, but even in this format, big hand vs. big hand is still the most likely way to get knocked out. Xu Liang’s was pretty enough for him to risk it all, but Michael Soyza’s held firm to send Liang out in seventh.
Not long after, Jason Koon, who had been card-dead in the tournament’s later stages, ran into Kenney’s pair of nines. The Triton Ambassador Koon also recorded his second cash of the week, picking up HK$2.36 million for this finish, and said that he was happy with the result despite the gruelling nature of a tournament series like this.
Nothing but success for Jason Koon since wearing the Triton logo
“It was a great result all things considered,” Koon said. “Tournaments, especially just four or five or six tournaments, you can’t really expect anything over the course of a week. If things go well, that’s wonderful. You just try to keep your energy right, play right, try to keep my nutrition and my brain working. These things are a sick grind.”
He added: “It’s just really, really intense. The goal is just to try and show up and put some A-game poker together and the results will come.”
Beh Kok is another Malaysian showing some real promise, but his run at the title foundered at the hands of his countryman and the eventual champion. The stacks were getting shallow when Kok got it in with and Soyza picked him off with .
The end of the road for Beh Kok
This was the start of Soyza’s real surge to the title. He accounted for every one of his remaining opponents. Next to depart was Kenney, who got his last 20 big blinds in with but ran into Soyza’s .
Even the Jedi Bryn Kenney could not stop Soyza
Soon after, Leow lost almost all of his chips to Greenwood, having his kings cracked by ace-rag, and Soyza mopped up the last. It was a minor outdraw with Leow’s losing to , but another fine performance from Leow. He is also building a much feared reputation, particularly on the Triton Series, and adds a further HK$5.2 million to his coffers.
More Triton excellence from Ivan Leow
In what is turning out to be an exceptional showing from Malaysian players this week, Soyza again demonstrated that he is the absolute best of the best. He quickly polished off Greenwood — it was the very first hand of heads-up, but a brilliant play nonetheless. Greenwood shoved the river looking at a board of and put Soyza under enormous pressure with his .
Soyza and Greenwood heads up for the title
He thought it through — “It’s an eight or nothing,” said Lex Veldhuis in the commentary booth — and made the call. “You got it,” Greenwood said and showed his .
“Thankfully it was short,” Soyza said of the heads-up battle. “Sam’s a good player so I’m just lucky I had a good spot. I decided to take it and it worked out pretty well.”
against Koon’s pocket queens.
(Phua had trips) and then won it with 
against Phua’s 
. It was another phenomenal performance from Koon, whose feats of stamina and concentration seemingly know no bounds. The tournament had already stretched long into an unscheduled third day when Koon wrapped up his victory, and he’ll be the clear danger when he joins the main event field later today.
.
flop, which put him ahead, and the 
river locked up the double for Koon and put him into the lead.
into Koon’s 
. Koon snapped and Wang was broken.
. Koon pushed his cards away, but Phua had 
flop and turn, at which point his opponent still had a near 40 percent chance of winning. But the 
river was a blank and Rakhimov busted in third, for HK$10.4 million (US$1.325 million). “You played great,” Koon said as he shook his beaten opponent’s hand.
and the short-stacked Tong Siow Choon found 
on the button. He pushed all in. The only player with fewer chips was Wai Leong Chan in the big blind, and he had 
was pretty enough for him to risk it all, but Michael Soyza’s 
into Kenney’s pair of nines. The Triton Ambassador Koon also recorded his second cash of the week, picking up HK$2.36 million for this finish, and said that he was happy with the result despite the gruelling nature of a tournament series like this.
and Soyza picked him off with 
.
.