The buy-in hit six figures at Triton Madrid today as the €100,000 No Limit Hold’em Main Event kicked off.
Although we are only through one day of three, and registration is not yet closed, it’s already clear that we’re looking at an enormous event. There have been 72 entries, including 18 re-entries, which means €7.2 million in the prize pool already.
The pattern established early in this Triton Series stop has continued: the higher the buy-in, the busier the event. Or maybe it was just the lure of the sirens standing next to the registration desk.
Some additional visitors to the tournament room today
Either way, the world’s elite poker players were all in attendance, as well as many of the familiar figures from the world of business who enjoy mixing it in poker’s top echelons in their spare time.
The opening line-up on Table 6 was a perfect distillation of that: the high stakes superstars Michael Addamo, Michael Soyza, Stephen Chidwick and Steve O’Dwyer were all in a line, but playing into them was Alfred DeCarolis, a man who has played only once on the Triton Series. That just happened to be the €1 million buy-in event in London in 2019, where DeCarolis made the final table and more than $2 million.
Of course, the line-up changed significantly as the day progressed. Players came and went; stacks grew and shrank. When the tournament paused after its first eight 40-minute levels, Kevin Paque was out in front.
The Dutch player secured a big knockout early in the day, dispatching Sirzat Hissou. And after that it was a story of steady accumulation.
There were also fine showings from Mikita Badziakouski, Orpen Kisacikoglu and Aleksejs Ponakovs, with Patrik Antonius rounding out the top five, and they will all come back confident of further progress tomorrow.
Day 2, which resumes at 1pm, will play on until we reach a final table. That will mean a few more entries early on — registration is still open for two 50-minute levels — and then a rush to the bubble, which will likely be around 15 players. Then they will need to cram onto the final table, ahead of a big finale on Sunday.
Here are the full chip stacks at this stage:
Kevin Paque – 1,460,000
Mikita Badziakouski – 880,000
Orpen Kisacikoglu – 833,000
Aleksejs Ponakovs – 816,000
Patrik Antonius – 769,000
Michael Addamo – 696,000
Elton Tsang – 684,000
Ferdinand Putra – 639,000
Phil Ivey – 598,000
Phachara Wongwichit – 555,000
Michael Soyza – 544,000
Daniel Dvoress – 532,000
Christoph Vogelsang – 495,000
Tom-Aksel Bedell – 489,000
Chris Brewer – 480,000
Fedor Holz – 402,000
Laszlo Bujtas – 401,000
Nick Petrangelo – 395,000
Kannapong Thanarattrakul – 393,000
Paul Phua – 383,000
Andy Ni – 366,000
Wiktor Malinowski – 359,000
Stephen Chidwick – 356,000
Henrik Hecklen – 348,000
Seth Davies – 339,000
Jeremy Ausmus – 330,000
Andriy Lyubovetskiy – 287,000
Jason Koon – 239,000
Steve O’Dwyer – 218,000
Matthias Eibinger – 213,000
Sam Grafton – 211,000
Alfred DeCarolis – 208,000
Andras Nemeth – 206,000
Luuk Gieles – 202,000
Ivan Leow – 186,000
Sam Greenwood – 175,000
Danny Tang – 163,000
Sergio Aido – 162,000
Linus Loeliger – 155,000
Wai Kin Yong – 142,000
Artur Martirosyan – 132,000
Brian Kamphorst – 131,000
Wayne Heung – 123,000
Yaman Nakdali – 100,000
Australia’s Michael Addamo is in the two-time Triton Series club, securing his second title in less than a week in the Spanish capital Madrid and demonstrating that no end is in sight for his incredible winning streak.
The 27-year-old Australian has been on one of those spectacular high stakes surges we see sometimes, winning in all corners of the globe. He has won six $50+ buy-in tournaments in less than a year, and he took down his first Triton Series title in the very first event held here in Madrid last Friday. Six days later, he made it two.
This one was even more valuable — although it comes with a major asterisk. At the end of this €75K buy-in tournament, Addamo and his heads-up opponent Stephen Chidwick arranged a deal. Addamo may have won the tournament, and took €1,152,086, which he adds to the €478,000 he won in Event #1. But Chidwick had the chip lead when they negotiated, and the Brit took €1,291,414.
Addamo will know that this could easily have gone Chidwick’s way, after the pair were forced into a short-stacked, high variance heads-up duel following another tight and tricksy final table had run long. That’s why they did the sensible thing and chopped it.
But Addamo’s golden touch then became apparent again, and he left Chidwick still searching for his first Triton win — even though he has compensation of a big seven-figure score for “second” place.
“I have to always acknowledge that to win this much you have to get incredibly lucky,” Addamo told Ali Nejad after the tournament’s conclusion. “So I think there’s a lot of luck involved. Obviously some skill as well, but winning the all-ins.”
Stephen Chidwick, left, took the biggest prize
The heads-up duel, between the old adversaries of the UK and Australia, was another topsy-turvy affair, following on from last night’s marathon between Mikita Badziakouski and Danny Tang. Tonight’s show also featured the American Seth Davies, who finished third, but who traded blows with the two others for long periods at a time when other events might have long concluded.
But with the payouts so high, and the poker knowledge so advanced, there are almost never any mistakes at this elite level. It’s how come two of the very best made it all the way once again, and how come they eventually decided to essentially call it a tie.
Chidwick had a small heads-up chip lead when they beckoned over Luca Vivaldi and asked to broker a deal. They agreed on the ICM deal, which gave Chidwick more, but there was the non-insignificant matter of the trophy and the Player of the Series points, and they are going to Addamo.
After the deal, it was all Addamo — and he closed it out with to Chidwick’s . Addamo flopped bottom pair; Chidwick flopped middle pair but there was another club on turn and river to give Addamo the flush. Addamo shoved, Chidwick thought long and hard about it, but fell into the trap with a call. It was over.
Chidwick and TD Luca Vivaldi discuss numbers
“It was a super tough table, a lot of great players,” Addamo added. “Three handed, with a lot of all ins going back and forward, it was hard to know what was going to happen. It’s great to get the win from there.”
FINAL DAY ACTION
There’s no such thing as a soft field on the Triton Series, but this one seemed especially tough. As the 28 players who returned overnight battled towards the money (only eight were paid), the rejects heap came to feature players like Phil Ivey, Steve O’Dwyer, Christoph Vogelsang, Ike Haxton and Elton Tsang.
Down to nine, they assembled around one table and took a picture, but they all knew that one of them wouldn’t be making the money. Laszlo Bujtas had nine big blinds, Tony G had 19. And both of them will have looked on with glee when Fedor Holz became the one to sample the ignominy of the bubble.
Fedor Holz ran into Addamo’s aces to bubble
To be fair to Holz, there wasn’t a whole lot he could do about it. Addamo, in the hijack and in a dominant chip position, opened to 80,000 (blinds were 20K/40K) and Holz found in the big blind. Holz jammed for a little more than 1 million (26 BBs) but slammed straight into Addamo’s .
Those short stacks were delighted as Holz made his exit, penniless. Addam took yet another huge lead to the official final.
FINAL TABLE CHIP COUNTS
1 – Michael Addamo, Australia – 3,360,000 (84 BBs)
2 – Seth Davies, USA – 2,080,000 (52 BBs)
3 – Ben Heath, UK – 1,955,000 (49 BBs)
4 – Jason Koon, USA – 1,570,000 (39 BBs)
5 – Daniel Dvoress, Canada – 1,335,000 (33 BBs)
6 – Stephen Chidwick, UK – 1,095,000 (27 BBs)
7 – Tong G, Lithuania – 740,000 (19 BBs)
8 – Laszlo Bujtas, Hungary – 440,000 (11 BBs)
Event 7 last nine (clockwise from top left): Ben Heath, Michael Addamo, Daniel Dvoress, Laszlo Bujtas, Tony G, Stephen Chidwick, Seth Davies, Fedor Holz, Jason Koon.
There was nothing at this stage to suggest the next elimination would be anyone but Bujtas, but the gods had other ideas. Poor Ben Heath. Sitting on the button, he looked down at and then watched Seth Davies open shove from under the gun. Heath snap-called, of course, even though he had the marginally smaller stack.
Davies had and it seemed like a pretty good set-up. However, Davies had 30 percent equity and, bink, there it was on the flop when the was in the window. Had Heath’s hand held, he would have been second in chips. As it was, he was sent away in eighth for €189,000.
Tony G hit the rail next. He had been enjoying an epic massage in the late stages of the tournament, with a massage therapist kneading his back for several hours. But just as his deep tissues got a pummelling, so did his stack, and the last went in with after yet another Addamo open. Addamo had and ended up turning a set to end Tony G drawing dead.
A welcome spot at the final for Tony G
Guoga, to give him his full name, picked up €241,000 (and one hopes the massage therapist got a good tip).
The Addamo show wasn’t done yet. A few hands later, Jason Koon found himself flipping against the Australian for his tournament life, and Addamo doesn’t tend to lose in these situations. Koon’s came unstuck against Addamo’s . An ace flopped.
Koon yesterday watched Mikita Badziakouski draw clear of him, winning his fourth Triton title. Koon, who has three, had been in decent shape to match his Belarusian adversary, but Addamo had other ideas. Koon won €302,000.
Bujtas had been the happiest player at the final as he saw all of these opponents vanquished. Although he had pulled off one double up, through Tony G, with beating Guoga’s , he hadn’t actually ever built what you might call a stack.
But he had duly laddered to fifth and got his last seven big blinds in with . Davies called him with and there was no help for the short stack. Bujtas earned €387,500 for his second career Triton cash.
The next player out was another Triton stalwart: Daniel Dvoress, whose decline coincided with Chidwick’s rise. Chidwick managed to double through Dvoress with aces against Dvoress’s . Chidwick opened, Dvoress ripped in 2 million, and Chidwick was obviously happy to call all in with the best hand in hold’em.
Daniel Dvoress hits the rail
It held and left Dvoress with crumbs. He doubled up once, but even then only had 310,000, and was out a couple of hands later, with losing to Addamo’s . Dvoress took €500,500 for his second cash of the week.
Addamo was still in front at this stage, but both Davies and Chidwick had pulled into sight. The three handed counts had Addamo with 67 big blinds, ahead of Chidwick’s 52 and Davies’s 41. As they played into the next level, everything shrank a bit — including the average stack, which was quickly only 34 big blinds.
And then began the merry-go-round that would last another couple of shortening levels. Davies won a big pot from Chidwick with beating . But then Chidwick won a big pot when he outdrew Addamo’s with .
Addamo then doubled back through Davies, with beating and we were basically all square again. Round and round they went.
It was a long three-handed passage of play
Last night, we saw a titanic heads-up battle, where two seasoned campaigners, at the top of their games, refused to bow down for three hours. Tonight, there was a third dimension: all of Chidwick, Davies and Addamo had their small-pot strategies working smoothly and no one was taking unnecessary risks. Chidwick was the one who seemed to be on the ropes most often, dwindling to single-digit blinds. But he found at least two doubles to stay afloat, and his presence meant it would be madness for one of the others to get knocked out now.
Then, with the blinds at 100K/200K and an average stack only 21 big blinds, Chidwick got the wind in his sails. He doubled again, through Addamo, with beating . He then woke up with when Addamo tried to force the issue and shoved from the button with the big stack.
Addamo had only in that spot and Chidwick’s double this time put him into the chip lead.
Stephen Chidwick sizes up Addamo during three-handed play
The level went up again, meaning there was only now 50 big blinds between three players and every pot was crucial. And that’s when the dam finally broke, sweeping away Davies.
He found pocket threes in the small blind and made a raise of all but one 25K chip (not even a small blind). Chidwick called in the big blind, sitting with pocket tens. They ended up checking the flop, turn and river all the way through, and the tens held, meaning Davies went into one more hand.
But that one he lost with to Chidwick’s . Yes, Davies’s six-high was actually ahead pre-flop, but there were two fours on the board and that was it. Davies’ stern resistance earned him €661,500, which was the first Triton cash of his career.
That in itself was a big result for Davies, but he will have regretted missing out on the million.
Seth Davies finished third, his first ITM result
That was what was now guaranteed to each of Chidwick and Addamo, the final two players left. Chidwick had Addamo in a very unfamiliar position: the Brit had a five-to-one lead over the Australian.
The tournament structure meant it was impossible for there to now be a repeat of last night’s really long heads-up duel, but everyone who knows anything about poker also knew that things might not be over just yet. Sure enough, Addamo doubled on the first hand of heads-up play, hitting a queen with his to beat Chidwick’s .
He then won another big pot to bring the stacks level, moving all in on the river with the board showing . Addamo had and Chidwick was forced to fold his .
With the blinds encroaching again, the old rivals knew that it was no longer all about their skills. They looked at the numbers and quickly agreed, allowing Addamo to sweep quickly to the title.
There’s truly no stopping him — and he now takes a big lead in the Player of the Year race.
The Triton Poker Plus app is like nothing else available
Following all the action on the Triton Super High Roller Series just got even easier. It also just got more comprehensive. And more fun.
The Triton Poker Plus app, which is now live for all Apple and Android devices, is the most sophisticated app ever produced to follow poker tournaments — whether you’re a high stakes player sitting at the tables, or an armchair fan following along at home.
Every hand of every tournament played on the Triton Series is now logged, meaning you can follow absolutely everything that takes place at the tables. You can see all the action: who raised, who called, who doubled or bust. And you can track every player’s chip stack through the entire event, the peaks and the troughs of high stakes tournament play.
When you combine this with the superlative live stream, which follows all the action from one table at a tournament — and all final tables — there is simply no package in world poker that can hold a torch to the Triton offering.
Let’s take a look at the app in more depth.
DOWNLOADING AND SETTING UP
The app interface opens up all the information you could want
Search in the Apple app store, or in Google Play Play, for Triton Poker Plus, or click the following links: APPLE or GOOGLE PLAY.
Download and install as normal. There is no requirement to open an account. And this is absolutely free.
Your app is ready to go immediately, without costing you a penny.
FOLLOW AN EVENT
Opening the app during a Triton stop will present you with three options.
At the top, you can watch the current live stream (with added extras, discussed below), or click through to a “Festival” page. You can slide left and right to see available options, with the current festival presented as default.
Below that, you can see links to the Triton Series infamous cash game videos. All of the episodes are there, featuring your favourite players involved in insane high stakes action.
At the very bottom of the page, you can also see an option to click through to “Rankings”. More on that later.
Track a player’s progress here and in previous events
LIVE COVERAGE
From the front page, click the top panel to go through to the live coverage, where the current live stream should begin playing automatically. Key tournament info, including the tournament level, can be seen below it, as well as an option to see “Table” or “Hand” information.
If you have “Hand” selected, you can see the full action for the hand in progress, updated the minute a player makes a move, even if they just fold their cards. You can watch the hand play out in full, with betting amounts made clear.
(Although all Triton live streams reveal players’ hole cards, you’ll only see the hole cards on the app if it goes to showdown. The data loggers input data in real time, so do not see the hole cards.)
If you have “Table” selected, you can see the table line-up, with players listed in seat order, alongside their chip counts in both actual terms and in big blinds (for hold’em) or antes (for short-deck). Counts are updated at the end of every hand.
If you then click on the player’s picture, you enter that particular player’s full profile, which has everything you need to know about that player’s progress through this and other tournaments.
PLAYER PROFILES
If the selected player is currently involved in a tournament, their player profile page is dominated by a graph that tracks their chip stack. Every time they are involved in a pot, a new data point appears on the graph, and the line that follows their stack jags either upward or downward.
You can click on those data points to find out exactly what happened in the hand in question. You’ll see all the information that the logger saw. If it went to showdown, you’ll see the hole cards. If it didn’t, you’ll be left guessing. But you’ll be able to see all the bets, the community cards, and the results.
A logger inputs latest hand information
If you scroll left and right on this graph, you can see precisely how the player’s stack grew and shrank throughout the entire tournament. And every data point tells you exactly what happened in every hand they played. It’s completely comprehensive.
In the top left of the screen, you’ll see the player’s picture and “View profile” beneath. Click that to learn even more about the player.
An individual profile page shows everything they have ever done on the Triton Series. Their Triton earnings, titles and cashes are displayed prominently, and below that you can scroll through a timeline of their tournament entries — their Triton Track Record.
Every tournament the player has entered is listed there, with their results made clear — even if they did not cash. It is a complete database for every player who has ever played on the Triton Series.
If you click the “Video” tab, you can find a short cut to every video that features your chosen player.
COMPLETE TOURNAMENT COVERAGE
All of the above information is available for all tables in play at any time, not just on the feature table. You can access the information from the outer tables by clicking on the relevant festival from the homepage, then clicking on the specific event you’re interested in — under the “In Progress” tab.
You now have four options: Leaders, Seating Chart, Payouts and Structure.
All the information from across the tables
The “Leaders” shows all the players in order of chip count, but the “Seating Chart” shows how they are spread across the tournament floor. You can then click to whichever table you want information for, and watch chip stack adjustments after every hand.
You can also click through to player profile pages on these outer tables and see the hand information, and tracking charts, as you would for those on the feature table.
It means you will never again be mystified as to how come players suddenly have enormous stacks (or have somehow dusted them off). You’ll never miss a bubble hand, or a three-way all-in, or anything else that characterises all poker tournaments.
Absolutely everything is accessible, all of the time, for absolutely free.
The “Payouts” tab shows the scheduled payouts and who has won what so far. (This is only available after registration is closed.) And the “Structure” tab shows the tournament structure, including scheduled breaks, for the tournament in progress.
SPOILER FREE COVERAGE FOR VIEWERS; REAL TIME COVERAGE FOR PLAYERS
One of the most impressive elements of the app is its dual functionality, which allows viewers at home to keep track of the tournament perfectly in line with what’s occurring on the live stream, while players in the room can get real-time access.
For obvious security reasons, and in common with all poker broadcasts, what you see on the “live” stream actually took place about an hour ago. So when you’re looking at the app from home, all the information you see there is also delayed by precisely the same amount.
Ben Heath checks the app between hands
If you see someone moved from the feature table, for example, you can then click to the outer table coverage and watch what happens after they sit down elsewhere. There is no break in the continuity, and you won’t spoiler anything for yourself by seeing something on the app that hasn’t happened on the stream.
However, for players in the tournament room, who are necessarily seeing things happen in front of their eyes, there’s a special “Player Only” mode, which removes the delay. So players sitting in the tournament can get real time updates of every table, whether they’re sitting at it or not.
This mimics the experience of playing online — the breeding ground for many of the Triton players, of course — and allows players to monitor stack sizes and make crucial tournament calculations.
It’s unique to Triton, and just one more reason why players consider the experience of this tour to be better than anywhere else.
LATEST RANKINGS AND POY STANDINGS
At the bottom of the homepage, you can click through to see the latest Triton “Rankings”. There are two options here, the “All-Time Rankings”, which list all of Triton’s players in order of their gross tournament earnings, and below that the latest Player of the Year standings.
The Player of the Year race is taking shape
If you haven’t heard, Triton launched a Player of the Year race in Madrid, a leader board contest whose winner will get a $200,000 prize, plus an exclusive trophy.
Points are awarded based on tournament finishing positions, but additional points are available for turning up on time and re-entries, and vary depending on size of buy-in and size of field. It’s all very straightforward, but it’s worth clicking through to find out more.
The Player of the Year standings are updated as soon as an event ends, so players can figure out exactly how many points they now need to overhaul their competitors and be in with a shout of winning. There’s a 100 point bonus for the best player at a certain stop, and so there are two rankings charts here, showing the overall race and the race for that specific stop.
THE PLAYER’S REACTION
Based on a few questions put to players around the room, the reaction to the app is universally positive. “Awesome” was probably the word used most among the players, who all also agreed that nothing even remotely similar is available anywhere else.
There were one or two suggestions for potential improvements, all of which will be taken on board by the developers. But already, Triton Poker Plus is an incredible hit.
The final stages of the biggest event on the Triton Madrid schedule so far pitted against each other two players who had taken very different roads to end within touching distance of a title.
On the one hand, there was Mikita Badziakouski, already a three-time Triton Series champion, who assumed the chip lead early on the second day of this €50,000 buy-in event and then barely relinquished it for hours, sitting calm and comfortable and making all the right decisions to keep his eye on the top prize — and a record-setting fourth success.
Sitting opposite him was Danny Tang, a Triton regular seeking a first win, whose passage through the tournament was anything but serene. His tracking graph went up and down precipitously, and he was staring at near certain elimination six-handed, when he somehow managed to win with the worst hand in a three-way all in.
However, Tang took the triple up, bludgeoned past another couple of players, and then squared off against Badziakouski, the last two of a 101-entry field. There was €1,340,000 on the line for first place and €932,000 for second. Perhaps wary of each other’s skills, and aware of how fickle the poker gods can be, the pair talked about a deal.
Badziakouski, left, played an epic against Tang
But they opted not to do one and returned to the table to play it out. And by then, all bets were off. Tang and Badziakouski somehow became locked in one of those titanic heads-up duels where it looks as if either man could win it at any moment, but also that it might go on forever.
After more than three hours, the real winner was the tournament structure, which shallowed the stacks to the point that there was no longer much room for players to manouevre. They eventually had only 25 big blinds between them, but still neither could get one to stick. When it honestly looked as though they might just have to somehow arrange a tie, the deadlock was finally broken.
Tang shoved with , Badziakouski called with and the pocket pair held.
This was a majestic moment for Badziakouski. He is nothing if not stubborn — a fact he has demonstrated numerous times on the Triton Series and beyond, and which had earned him those three previous wins — in Montenegro in 2018 and 2019 and Jeju in 2018. By his standards, a three-year period without a victory was an eternity — and Badziakouski was eventually able to end the drought.
Tang’s search for a title goes on, but it can’t be long. He has been pictured in many winner’s photos down the years, hugging friends and celebrating as they all earned their silverware. Surely soon enough he will be allowed sit there by himself and hoist the trophy aloft.
He takes €932,000 as consolation. But Badziakouski becomes the first seven-figure prize winner of this stop, and collects €1,340,000 plus the fourth trophy. Not that he was bragging about it. “I put in high volume and have been lucky sometimes,” he said. “It’s pure luck. We had a couple of all ins and I was the one to win it.”
Badziakouski stretches during the long battle
FINAL DAY’S ACTION
The tournament resumed on Day 2 with 23 players, meaning some exceptional talents hit the rail before the bubble bobbed into view: Patrik Antonius, Stephen Chidwick and Erik Seidel were among those who fell short. Tournament organisers arranged a redraw when 14 players were left, with the next man out leaving with nothing.
At this stage, there were five players with fewer than 20 big blinds, but tournament strategy is so advanced these days, that that by no means guaranteed a quick bubble resolution. So it proved, as these wily operators picked their spots and refused to call it quits for at least 75 minutes. There were a few double ups, a few big folds, and lots of nerves, even from these seasoned campaigners.
The unfortunate player ended up being the Polish cash-game crusher Wiktor Malinowski, whose fortunes took a three-stage nosedive. Firstly, he was very unfortunate that Henrik Hecklen didn’t bust on the feature table, when Hecklen went up against Adrian Mateos with to Mateos’ . Hecklen turned a seven to survive.
Wiktor Malinowski lost two huge pots to burst the bubble
At that exact point, Malinowski was involved in a pot against Phachara Wongwichit on the outer table, where Malinowski flopped two pair with but Wongwichit’s rivered a set.
Had either of those situations ended differently, Malinowski would have made the money. But the way it went was that Badziakouski then polished him off, with staying good against Malinowski’s .
Everyone immediately breathed a sigh of relief and Brian Rast, the shortest of short stacks, got it in immediately, lost, but knew he would be picking up €101,000 for 13th place. That was fortunate for him, because his elimination was grim: pocket queens losing to Bruno Volkmann’s pocket 10s. At least he had the comfort blanket of a debut cash.
With only eight spaces at the last table (and seven at the “official” final), some more top names would need to depart. And, in fairly order, the tournament lost Wongwichit, Phil Ivey, Mateos and then Hecklen, taking them to that single table and the dinner break. They all won more than $100K and a handful of all-important Player of the Year points.
Phachara Wongwichit
When they reconvened, Badziakouski was some way clear at the top of the counts. The stacks were as follows:
1 – Mikita Badziakouski, 5,450,000
2 – Kevin Paque, 3,720,000
3 – Fedor Holz, 3,195,000
4 – Michael Watson, 2,470,000
5 – Tom-Aksel Bedell, 1,635,000
6 – Bruno Volkmann, 1,430,000
7 – Danny Tang, 1,170,000
8 – Linus Loeliger, 1,125,000
Blinds 40,000/80,000 Ante 80,000
Unofficial Final Table (clockwise from top left): Kevin Paque, Linus Loeliger, Danny Tang, Bruno Volkmann, Fedor Holz, Tom-Aksel Bedell, Mike Watson, Mikita Badziakouski.
Loeliger had dazzled on the opening day of this tournament, his first day of action for the stop. But he’d had his wings clipped somewhat on the second day, unable to get much going, and he became the next elimination. Loeliger moved his last 1.025 million (about 13 big blinds) with , and was called by Badziakouski’s . There was a king on the flop, and nothing else meaningful, which meant Loeliger was done in eighth for €187,000.
The next player out was also seeing his first Triton Madrid action in this event: Tom-Aksel Bedell. A regular on the European tournament circuit, Bedell often pops up in the big events where his talents belie his appearance. He is far from a spring chicken, but he has the aggression and fearlessness to surprise many of his opponents. It’s a result of his Norwegian heritage — although he now lives in Spain, and visits Casino Gran Via regularly.
Tom-Aksel Bedell’s tournament comes to an end
Bedell decided to give things a spin on the Triton Series, and if the Twitch and YouTube chat is anything to go by, he became a quick favourite. Everyone was sorry to see him go in seventh, when his lost to Fedor Holz’s . Bedell won €240,000.
Nobody at this stage was an enormous stack, but things were looking a tiny bit perilous for Tang, who had about 15 big blinds. But things suddenly took a real turn for the better for Tang, precisely as they turned very sour for Volkmann.
Volkmann is one of a cadre of top Brazilian pros who dominate the online tournament scene. But he decided to take a stab at some live poker this week and hopped in here in Madrid, a decision that earned him €389,000, but even so, ended in a sickener.
Danny Tang thought he was out far sooner than he actually was
Tang opened a pot with a shove for 1.5 million, sitting with . In the small blind, Holz looked down on and re-shoved for his 2.5 million stack. Volkmann, who covered both of them, then woke up in the big blind with . Volkmann called.
The flop was immediately bad for Volkmann. It was . The turn was then the and the river was a further twist: . That gave Tang two pair, for a huge triple up; it gave Holz a pair of kings to win the side pot, and it gave Volkmann nothing. He lost all but three big blinds.
Bruno Volkmann sees the funny side even after suffering a gross elimination
They were in very soon after, when Holz this time had pocket queens and Volkmann’s couldn’t find a miracle.
In the commentary booth, Randy “nanonoko” Lew was delighted by the poker he was seeing, describing every hand as being full of complexity and nuance. There was one hand in particular that grabbed him, when Holz made a big and convincing bluff with ace high to get Kevin Paque to fold a pair of sixes. It wasn’t the biggest pot Paque had played (that one he won: a big flip against Badziakouski to put him temporarily into second place), but Paque had seemed like he knew he might be being pushed out of it. And he never recovered.
Paque left the tournament in fifth place, when his lost to Tang’s . Paque, primarily a cash-game player, but with a string of decent tournament scores too, banked €389,000.
Tang was now the man with the momentum. Ever since that incredible triple up escape versus Holz and Volkmann, the Tang player couldn’t put a foot wrong. He was responsible for the next knockout too, sending Mike Watson to the rail in fourth.
There was nothing controversial about this one. Watson had pocket fours and shoved over Tang’s open. But Tang had aces, and there was nothing to help Watson on the board. Watson has had a very good trip here so far, cashing in three of the five tournaments he has played. He has finished in second, seventh and now fourth, this time adding €482,300 to his coffers.
Another deep run for Mike Watson
Tang seized the chip lead with that knockout, even though all three remaining players still had relatively comfortable stacks. That very quickly changed, however, and sent Tang soaring to the summit, when he knocked out Holz in third. This one was another cooler: Tang opened to 300,000 with and Holz three-bet to 1.1 million with . Tang moved in, and Holz called off the extra 3.7 million.
There was a king on the flop to leave Holz drawing thin. He was drawing dead by the turn. Holz took €482,300 for third.
From near-certain elimination, Tang now took a two-to-one chip lead — 13.375 million to 6.825 million — over Badziakouski. And although the pair stepped outside apparently to discuss some business, they did not resolve anything and returned to play it out.
Tang’s lead grew to four-to-one, then eight-to-one, and then ten-to-one. And only then did Badziakouski find a double up, with beating Tang’s . Then Badziakouski did it again, this time with beating Tang’s .
The pendulum had swung back to the Belarusian, and he now edged closer and closer. Badziakouski retook the chip lead when both players had a queen in the hole and the flop brought another, but Badziakouski’s kicker played. They now had only 50 big blinds between them, and a rapid conclusions seemed inevitable. But still they managed to stretch it out some more, neither willing to budge an inch.
Every small pot was now the difference between first and second place, until eventually, at 1am local time, it finally ended. Badziakouski’s girlfriend was the first to congratulate him, as his friends also draped a Ukraine flag over his shoulders.
Both heads-up players will probably try to grab some rest before registering for Event 7, whose second day starts at 1pm tomorrow.
It’s Linus Loeliger’s first event in Madrid, and he leads it into Day 2
The buy-ins went up again at Triton Series Madrid today — and so did the number of entries. Playing Event #6, the latest long-deck hold’em tournament — costs €50,000 for one entry, but by the time registration had closed, there had been 101 of them, including 45 re-entries.
We were into three figures in the entry column for the first time since the tour arrived in Spain, the first time since London in 2019, in fact. And that’s the way these things go on the Triton Series. It’s never that the buy-in is too expensive; it’s usually that it’s not high enough.
That flurry of activity at the registration desk means a prize pool for this one of more than €5 million, and a first prize that will make someone a millionaire. There’s €1.34 million up top, and even a min-cash is €101,000.
Packed Tournament Area
As we edge closer to the Main Events, we’re getting back to the enormous pay-checks that people particularly love about the Triton Series.
With all that money up for grabs, the very best in the world will have designs on it. And that’s how we account for the likes of Linus Loeliger appearing back on the Triton Series for the first time since before the enforced break.
Loeliger doesn’t just show up to make up the numbers: he built a strong chip lead at about the mid point of Day 1 and never gave it up today. The Swiss phenom will return tomorrow to a stack of 2,216,000 (185 big blinds), heading the field of 29 that made it through the day.
Loeliger’s closest challengers include two other players who skipped the opening of this festival, and only joined the action in this tournament. They’re Norway’s Tom-Aksel Bedell (1.184 million) and Henrik Hecklen, of Denmark (1.158 million).
Adrián Mateos: Hometown hero
And, look, there’s Adrian Mateos too — the home-town hero, who has come to the Triton party. Mateos bagged 1,075,000, which puts him sixth overall. Mikita Badziakouski and Mike Watson are also back near the top.
It’s a super tough field, and a thrilling one to watch on the live stream, when we’ll play down to a champion. That’s also when another big hold’em event gets going — a €75K buy-in 8-handed tournament — which will make things even more exciting. Join us tomorrow.
Here are the chip stacks overnight, and the payout schedule is below that.
Linus Loeliger, Switzerland – 2,210,000
Mikita Badziakouski, Belarus – 1,212,000
Tom-Aksel Bedell, Norway – 1,184,000
Henrik Hecklen, Denmark – 1,158,000
Mike Watson, Canada – 1,093,000
Adrian Mateos, Spain – 1,075,000
Wiktor Malinowski, Poland – 1,006,000
Danny Tang, Hong Kong – 975,000
Fedor Holz, Germany – 974,000
Bruno Volkmann, Brazil – 918,000
Stephen Chidwick, UK – 687,000
Phil Ivey, USA – 682,000
Jeremy Ausmus, USA – 675,000
Tony G, Lithuania – 638,000
Laszlo Bujtas, Hungary – 570,000
Yaman Nakdali, Spain – 564,000
Luuk Gieles, Netherlands – 521,000
Patrik Antonius, Finland – 476,000
Daniel Dvoress, Canada – 472,000
Brian Rast, USA – 452,000
Kevin Paque, Netherlands – 450,000
Bjorn Li, Hong Kong – 440,000
Phachara Wongwichit, Thailand – 380,000
Teun Mulder, Netherlands – 292,000
Sergio Aido, Spain – 262,000
Erik Seidel, USA – 260,000
Isaac Haxton, USA – 236,000
Aleksejs Ponakovs, Latvia – 235,000
Steve O’Dwyer, Ireland – 44,000
The exclusive list of players who have won two titles on the Triton Series grew this evening after Rui Cao, the French high stakes cash-game specialist, proved once again that he has a tournament game to be feared as well.
Cao blazed through the field in Event #5, the €25K Short Deck, where he unleashed a barrage of betting to pummel all-comers in the 68-entry field. Cao had a big stack early, and bullied his way through the bubble, and then also hammered away once they reached a final table.
Only some stern resistance from the Triton co-founder Richard Yong threatened to halt Cao’s charge to the title. But Cao eventually managed to grind down even Yong and beat him heads-up. Cao’s victory brought him €497,000. Yong had to make do with €357,000, and wasn’t quite able to emulate his fellow co-founder Paul Phua in winning a title in Madrid. (Not yet, anyway.)
Cao, who won a massive short deck event in Montenegro in 2019, is now in that two-timers club. And this was a performance that was every bit as emphatic as any we’ve seen on this series. No one quite wields a big stack as ruthlessly as Cao.
“It was just regular short-deck aggression, and a little bit of luck,” Cao said when it was over. “I got the result…I think I’m better at short deck than long deck. It suits my personality. I’m pretty aggressive, and that’s better in short deck.”
The relaxed and ruthless Rui Cao
FINAL DAY ACTION
As if it wasn’t already apparent, the identity of today’s bubble boy underlined how unforgiving poker can be sometimes. Yesterday, Chris Brewer was the champion, turning a short stack into his maiden title. But today he hit the rail in 10th, the last person out before they started getting paid.
With a handful of players staring at possible elimination, and Cao at Brewer’s table bullying with a monster stack, Brewer decided to take a stand with . He made an “almost” all-in shove, but Santi Jiang, who had even less than Brewer, felt like this was his time. He under-called all-in with .
Jiang hit a jack on the flop, so all but doubled up, leaving Brewer with only four antes. They went in the next hand, when Brewer had , but this time Cao had . Cao flopped a set this time, and Brewer could not go runner-runner to win. Brewer departed — some days you’re the windshield, other days you’re the bug — and Cao was one of the leaders heading into the money.
A bubble today for Chris Brewer
“There’ll be some all-ins pretty quick here,” said Brian Rast in the commentary box, looking around at plentiful shorts stacks, which had only grown smaller through the pre-bubble period. Rast was right. In less than an hour, they went from nine down to three.
Ryan Yum was the overnight chip leader, and it had all been going swimmingly for him until he ran into Kenneth Kee today. Kee doubled through Yum with a flopped two pair, when Yum flopped top pair aces. And then Kee also finished the job later on, when Kee’s turned a straight. Yum had navigated the bubble, but couldn’t rebuild. He went out in ninth for €49,400.
Isaac Haxton followed him on the next hand, also losing to Kee. Haxton’s lost to Kee’s and Haxton won €64,600. And at the precise time that hand was playing on the outer table, Cao was accounting for Jiang on the feature.
Jiang had and flopped a nine to momentarily take the lead against Cao’s . But the queen on the turn put Cao back in the lead and Jiang was out in seventh. That meant they assembled a six-handed final, with Cao and Kee sitting with enormous stacks.
The final six in Event #5: Kenneth Kee, Richard Yong, Choon Tong Siow, Jason Koon, Rui Cao, Tom Dwan.
Jason Koon has been to a few finals before. He has 16 tournament cashes on the Triton Series, and three titles. But he was a short stack heading into this final, and couldn’t get anything going to muster a challenge for a fourth trophy.
Koon ended up as the first elimination from the final, getting it in with the short-deck favourite but this time unable to beat Cao’s . Koon won €105,400.
Whenever Cao took a breather, Kee took over. And the next player to depart, Choon Tong Siow, was just another pulled beneath Kee’s juggernaut. Siow had , which is a pretty good hand to take up against most, even in short deck, but Kee turned his into a winner.
Kee flopped the queen on the board and he then turned the . Siow still had tons of outs heading to the river, but the was a blank.
Siow, who has been a bubble boy once this week, would have been happy to pick up €136,000 for his fifth-placed finish.
The end of the road for Choon Tong Siow
Kee and Cao were super comfortable at this stage, Yong a little less so, and the short-stack duties had been assumed by Tom Dwan. That’s not a position Dwan particularly likes to be in, and he didn’t remain there very long.
Very soon after Siow busted, Dwan under-called all-in from the button with after yet another bullying Cao shove. But Dwan was in bad shape against Cao’s and couldn’t realise his 33 percent equity.
The board his neither of them and Cao’s king played. Dwan went out in fourth for €175,100.
Even Tom Dwan couldn’t stop to Cao machine
Yong had kept himself to himself during all this carnage, allowing Cao and Kee to do the damage while he laddered to third. But there was no hiding any more, particularly because his stack was less than half either of his opponents’.
But Yong grew more and more involved and watched his stack increase accordingly, pulling up alongside and then overtaking Cao, while Kee too began moving in reverse. Play was far less volatile during this period, with the clock ticking onward but major skirmishes staying largely absent. They played a good few levels between the three of them, all the while Yong making inroads and the others just about treading water.
One of the interesting features of three-handed play was the fact that each of these players was searching for a second Triton title. Yong had previously won a six-max long-deck event in Montenegro, the same location that Cao had won the short-deck main event. Meanwhile Kee had won a short-deck title in Jeju.
It was Kee, though, whose double chances vanished first. He lost a massive pot to Cao when Cao flopped three queens with and Kee was not able to get away from his , at least until Cao bombed the river. By that point, the pot was 4.5 million, and it was a decisive swing to Cao.
Even Kenneth Kee couldn’t beat Cao
Soon after, the hand almost repeated. Kee had and he moved all in for 3.8 million after Cao’s limp. Cao called again, with — and this time he flopped the first queen, and turned a second.
Kee was eliminated in third for €232,000 as Cao took a big chip lead — 176 antes to 79 — over Yong into heads-up play.
Yong refused to give up without a fight and scored a big double with over Cao’s pocket queens. But Cao could not to be beaten, and also demonstrated just how canny he is when he somehow managed to fold a straight in a big pot against Yong when his opponent rivered a full house.
Yong put up spirited resistance against Cao
That pot put Yong temporarily into the lead, but Cao’s confidence only grew. As did his aggression. He simply never let up from that moment on, and continued to grind Yong down again. With the levels also ticking by, and gradually shallowing the stacks, Yong finally got the last of his chips in with when Cao had .
The board came , and they both had full houses. But Cao’s was bigger — and that was decisive.
Short deck now goes on another brief hiatus as the Triton Series reverts back to long-deck for a few days. Keep your eyes here for all the latest reports and results.
Richard and Wai Kin Yong both celebrated with Cao
Triton Madrid – Event 5
€25,000 Short Deck Ante-Only
1 – Rui Cao, France – €497,000
2 – Richard Yong, Malaysia – €357,000
3 – Kenneth Kee, Malaysia – €232,000
4 – Tom Dwan, USA – €175,100
5 – Choon Tong Siow, Malaysia – €136,000
6 – Jason Koon, USA – €105,400
7 – Santi Jiang, Spain – €83,500
8 – Isaac Haxton, USA – €64,600
9 – Ryan Yum, Hong Kong – €49,400
The second of back-to-back short deck events got under way at Triton Madrid today, with 68 entries of €25,000 apiece. That’s sedate by the standards of this series, even if the winner is set to receive €497,000 from a €1.7 million prize pool.
That winner’s identity will be discovered tomorrow.
Many of the usual suspects turned up to play, and many of them went deep as the field was cut to 13 heading into Day 2. However, it’s one of the lesser known names who takes the chip lead tonight, edging ahead at the death to steal the thunder from one of the most recognisable talents in the world.
Hong Kong’s Ryan Yum has the biggest stack in the room at present, only a few antes more than the Triton Ambassador Tom Dwan. Those two traded the lead often throughout the later stages of the opening day in this one, and when play drew to a close, Yum had 4.405 million to Dwan’s 3.395 million.
Yum is not a total rookie. He played three tournaments at Triton London in 2019, but did not cash in any of them. He’s back for more here in Madrid and so far this tournament has been perfectly smooth for him. While all eyes were undoubtedly on Dwan, Yum just went about his business to occupy the top spot overnight.
As for Dwan, what more can one say about him?
Dwan showed incredible stamina
Dwan arrived to Madrid a couple of days ago and hopped into the first short deck event on the schedule. He duly made it through Day 1 of that, then headed into a cash game, which reportedly only finished at 7am. After that, he played Day 2 of Event #3 and made the final table, finishing seventh, and then hopped into this one.
Flash forward another few hours, and Dwan was near the summit of the field. Form is temporary; sickness is permanent. Perhaps he’ll never sleep again.
The rest of the field is littered with short-deck maestros from across the world, including Dwan’s fellow Triton Ambassador Jason Koon, and Chris Brewer, who earlier won Event #3. The father and son Malaysian pair of Richard and Wai Kin Yong are also both still involved.
The bubble has not yet burst (nine players will be paid) so there’s plenty of time for drama.
Here’s how they stack up tonight, and a reminder of the payouts is below:
Ryan Yum, Hong Kong – 4,405,000
Tom Dwan, USA – 3,395,000
Kenneth Kee, Singapore – 2,085,000
Richard Yong, Malaysia – 2,085,000
Jason Koon, USA – 1,705,000
Rui Cao, France – 1,360,000
Choon Tong Siow, Malaysia – 1,025,000
Wai Kin Yong, Malaysia – 945,000
Michael Soyza, Malaysia – 945,000
Santi Jiang, Spain – 850,000
Chris Brewer, USA – 635,000
Isaac Haxton, USA – 565,000
Ivan Leow, Malaysia – 425,000
Triton Madrid – Event 5
€25,000 Short Deck Ante-Only
The Triton Series is the proud offspring of Asian poker enthusiasts, who created a tour of exclusive, high stakes tournaments to satisfy the demands of the top players from Malaysia, Hong Kong and beyond.
It has also, of course, become very popular among the elite players of Europe and North America, and this week in Cyprus, where the Triton Series Special Edition has been taking place, every tournament before today had been won by players from outside Asia.
But thanks to the final $75,000 buy-in short deck event, it was not a clean sweep. Far from it. Five out of six players who made the money in this one were from Asia, and the tournament finished in a brilliant heads-up battle between two poker legends from the very beating heart of the Triton operation.
It was won by Winfred Yu, from Hong Kong, who defeated Malaysia’s Ivan Leow heads up. And the fact that the absolute cream of the Asian poker scene — including Leow and three of the other defeated final table players — piled on the stage to celebrate with Yu points to his immense popularity in the game.
Yu has long been a very significant figure for poker in the region, arranging the nosebleed cash games and acting as a liaison to bring big players from across the world together. He has a bulging contacts book, and an endlessly personable manner.
And tonight proves again that he has a pretty mean poker game of his own — and another $1.01 million to put in the bankroll. The whole tournament provided a terrific end to a week in Cyprus: two short deck superstars facing off for another million dollar prize. Either would have been a worthy champion.
“Ivan is not only is a good brother, a buddy, and we play a lot,” Yu said. “He’s aggressive, he put me to the test, kept putting the pressure on. I was expecting to play heads up against him, and I got lucky!”
Ivan Leow was the first to congratulate Winfred Yu
The tournament took on a distinctly Asian feel early in the day with the eliminations of Mikita Badziakouski, Mike Watson, Stephen Chidwick, Sam Greenwood et al, and even the overnight leader Seth Davies and the short deck titan Phil Ivey hit the rail far before the money.
With eight players left, playing four handed on two tables, Yu had an enormous chip lead and the short stacks starting battling each other. Ferdinand Putra doubled through Elton Tsang. Daniel Dvoress doubled through Paul Phua and then Wei Hsiang Yeu. Yeu then doubled back through Dvoress.
Usually in these situations, Phua comes into his own. He has survival skills like no one else, and 17 Triton cashes to prove it. But even he couldn’t survive this vicious back-and-forth, losing with to Yeu’s when a ten flopped.
Paul Phua, with the expression of a pre-bubble elimination
That brought the field down to its last seven, who all fit around the unofficial final table, but still one more player needed to be eliminated before the bubble burst. The viewers on the live stream, now watching all the action, didn’t need to wait for very long to find out who it would be.
It was Yeu.
The Indonesian player had been prominent in those pre-pre-bubble skirmishes, and he was the first to get his chips in on the stone bubble. His flopped very well against Tsang’s when the first three cards off the deck were the . But the turn and river of and filled a flush to Tsang’s queens and Yeu was defeated.
Wei Hsiang Yeu: The smiling bubble boy
Yu was the chip leader still when the actual final table got under way, with Tsang now in second and the resurgent Dvoress in third. Short deck final tables have a habit of being over with either in a flash or after a marathon, so we strapped in to find out which type this would be.
Event 5 final table (l-r): Ferdinand Putra, Danny Tang, Daniel Dvoress, Ivan Leow, Winfred Yu, Elton Tsang.
The initial indications suggested it would be over in a flash. The official final was only a few hands old when Putra got his short stack in the middle. Dvoress called and was ahead, with (Dvoress) to (Putra).
There always seems to be a sweat on every short deck flop and this one was no different. Putra received plenty of help from the board. However the turn and river didn’t fill his potential, and that ended Putra’s tournament in sixth, worth $208,500.
Ferdinand Putra, out in sixth
After Putra’s elimination, we had to wait more than two hours for the next — an extraordinary length of time in this format with these stack sizes. But Danny Tang, who was the short-stack, managed a remarkable double when his made a flush to beat the same hand for Dvoress, only without the crucial diamonds of course.
Tang moved upward and Dvoress, who had held the chip lead at once point, slipped down the order. When he found the same hand as Tang before — the — and pushed with it, he slammed into the of Yu and didn’t get the same kind of miracle. Dvoress took $268,000 for fifth.
Daniel Dvoress’s run ended in fifth
As can so often be the case, one elimination brought two. Within a couple of hands of Dvoress’s departure, Tsang was walking out too, losing with to Tang’s . He tried to cover his face so that the cameras couldn’t see his shame, but he was forced to watch the pocket kings do the damage again. Tsang went looking for a $343,000 payday.
Tsang has cashed every tournament he has played this week, finishing sixth, ninth, and fourth on two occasions. He may have missed out on a title, but he cannot complain with that string of results.
Elton Tsang can’t hide from the pocket kings
There then followed another long and tense period where the three remaining players — Tang, Leow and Yu — exchanged small pots and tended to shove one another out of the big ones. The stacks had evened up, and everyone knew that one false step could represent some ICM peril.
What we perhaps didn’t realise was that we were essentially just waiting for one player to get pocket kings and another to shove, the pattern that had accounted for the two previous eliminations. And it repeated once more.
This time it was Tang who had the smaller stack, and , while Leow was sitting with the kings . Again there was a flop sweat, when it came , but the turn and river were blanks.
Tang, who won a World Series of Poker bracelet in the summer, earned $447,000 for another cash on the Triton Series.
End of the line for Danny Tang
That left us with those two all-time Triton legends: Leow, who has numerous final tables and one title on this series, and Yu, who won a short deck event in Montenegro in 2019, before cashing the Triton Million for Charity in London.
With Leow having only a narrow advantage, there was every chance we could have been in for a long heads-up battle, but they ended up getting their chips in regularly and demonstrating that they were prepared to gamble.
Ivan Leow: Denied a third title
The cards played ball, and gave the ever encroaching crowd plenty of things to cheer. The two pivotal hands came essentially back-to-back, and both went in the favour of Yu.
The first was when Yu’s defeated Leow’s through the slow torture of a run-out, the pocket pair counterfeited on the river.
Not long after, the chips went in again with Leow this time under threat. He had to Yu’s this time, and again the dealer saved the punishment until the river. The first four cards off the deck all favoured Leow. They were and . But the river connected with Yu and earned him his second Triton crown.
Yu drew attention to the fact that he came into the second day with the second shortest stack. “Never give up,” he said. Ain’t that the truth.
A who’s who of poker celebrate with Winfred Yu
And with that, the curtain comes down on another hugely successful stop on the Triton Series, the first after such a long a miserable wait.
Across five events in this six-day tournament series, total prize pools hit $19.231 million, and tournament champions won $5.878 million between them. There were 284 entries, including 116 re-entries.
Exciting announcements are planned for upcoming new stops on the Triton Series. Be sure to look out and see you again next time!
TRITON SERIES SPECIAL EDITION CYPRUS
EVENT #5 – $75,000 SHORT DECK
1 – Winfred Yu, Hong Kong, $1,010,000
2 – Ivan Leow, Malaysia, $699,500
3 – Danny Tang, Hong Kong, $447,000
4 – Elton Tsang, Hong Kong, $343,000
5 – Daniel Dvoress, Canada, $268,000
6 – Ferdinand Putra, Indonesia, $208,500
The final tournament of this Triton Series Special Edition reached its half-way point tonight, with players enjoying one last chance to work towards earning a Triton trophy. The game was short deck, with players aiming to dethrone Phil Ivey who won the latest short deck event earlier in the day.
Registration remains open until the start of play tomorrow, but we have already seen 39 entries into the tournament, including 14 re-entries, and so we’re set for one more big payday tomorrow.
The buy-in for this one is $75,000 — a reduction on the initially advertised $125,000, after players requested this slightly smaller level of play. That’s probably because they know they have a full schedule on the Super High Roller Series Europe to play over the coming week, and we’ll be sharing the tournament room with our temporary collaborators tomorrow.
There’s a $25K PLO event kicking off that festival, while we’ll stay focused on the conclusion of the $75K short deck.
Last chance to play a Triton tournament this week!
The stack sizes for the remaining 20 players are as follows. As you can see, Seth Davies rose to the top today, and became the only player in the room with a seven-figure stack. The American has had a relatively quiet Triton Series so far, but has been studying his short deck game recently, which pair dividends tonight.
The Malaysian trio of Wei Hsiang Yeu, Lun Loon and Ivan Leow all follow Davies. They have short deck in their blood.
A buy-in will get you a stack of 300,000 chips if you want to buy-in any time before the resumption at 1pm tomorrow. Antes on the resumption are 6K-12K, so you’ll have 50 antes and be ahead of 25 per cent of the field.
See you tomorrow.
Triton Cyprus Special Edition
Event #5 $75,000 Short Deck Hold’em
Seth Davies USA 1,019,000
Wei Hsiang Yeu Malaysia 949,000
Lun Loon Malaysia 821,000
Ivan Leow Malaysia 821,000
Ferdinand Putra Indonesia 816,000
Phil Ivey USA 809,000
Chris Brewer USA 779,000
Kiat Lee Malaysia 747,000
Paul Phua Malaysia 706,000
Stephen Chidwick UK 672,000
Daniel Dvoress Canada 627,000
Cary Katz USA 568,000
Elton Tsang Hong Kong 483,000
Danny Tang Hong Kong 411,000
Jason Koon USA 347,000
Mike Watson Canada 340,000
Wai Kin Yong Malaysia 285,000
Mikita Badziakouski Belarus 256,000
Winfred Yu Hong Kong 164,000
Jun Wah Yap Malaysia 81,000
After your aces get cracked for the third time in a row, you might find yourself muttering that poker is so unfair. It can seem that way every now and again, but remember nobody can control what cards you see.
However, players on the Triton Series can be absolutely certain of one very important fact: the tournament staff on this tour do everything in their power to ensure fairness in every other aspect of the game.
Where the stakes and skill levels are super high, every tiny detail can be incredibly important. The fields are full of elite players, who base their decisions on precise calculations, and for whom margins are exceptionally thin. It’s only proper that tournament staff do everything they can to ensure a level playing field. No player should worry about their meticulous preparations being undermined by someone else’s negligence.
Triton Tournament Director Luca Vivaldi has overseen high stakes tournaments for more than a decade, and has introduced a few innovations specifically for these exclusive, small-field tournaments, designed to ensure fairness.
To a casual poker fan, the importance of these things might seem vanishingly small, but they are crucial to the elite player, and add to Triton’s overall appeal. Here, Vivaldi talks through three relatively new ways in which fairness is promoted on the Triton Series.
SOFT HAND-FOR-HAND PLAY
When the bubble approaches in tournament poker, it is often in a player’s interests to slow the action down, hoping for someone to be eliminated on another table. The fewer hands you see, the higher your chance of survival, and that means it’s just shrewd tournament management to stall as long as you can before folding.
Shot clocks have helped to address stalling in general. And hand-for-hand play on the bubble is also commonplace is almost all tournaments. But on the Triton Series, we also have a period of play known as “soft” hand-for-hand, in which tournament staff track play on two (or more) tables and ensure that, broadly speaking, all tables play the same number of hands.
Tournament staff monitor hands on multiple tables during soft hand-for-hand
This requires a member of floor staff to stand between the tables and log how many hands are being played on each. If one table ends up playing many more hands than the others, they are told to pause while the others catch up. But, of course, not all poker hands take the same amount of time to complete, and the loggers also record whether action concludes pre-flop, on the flop, turn or river, and make judgments accordingly.
Vivaldi said: “The need for soft hand-for-hand is to stop the players intentionally stalling during the pre-bubble period. Also it’s because sometimes there might be a table that is shorter in players than another table.
For example, in a six-handed tournament, you might have one table that is four-handed and the other two tables are five-handed. We track when the action ended on every table, to see if there’s a need to stop one table from playing, for the other ones to be able to catch up.
Obviously we always want the tournament to play as naturally as possible. We don’t play hand for hand at the beginning of a tournament, of course. We are actively tracking all of these little details to ultimately assure fairness as much as possible in every tournament.”
How far ahead does one table need to get before it is told to stop?
Vivaldi: “It really depends on the data we collect. For example, if one table is ahead by four hands but they only had pre-flop action, and the other table had a lot of action and it went to the river multiple times with all-ins and calls, then we won’t stop it. Obviously if it’s unnatural — if every table went to the river every single time — and after a round, one table is four hands ahead of the other, we’re going to stop that table to make the other table catch up.
The players are on board with it and they really appreciate it, as they are with every other procedure that we introduced first at Triton, such as manual seating at the start of the tournament.”
MANUAL SEATING
Tournaments on the Triton Series are small, with usually no more than about six to eight tables in play even at the busiest period. At the very start of the day, there’s often just two or three.
Vivaldi previously noticed unregistered players coming to the tournament room and looking over at the tables, trying to figure out where the empty seats were and deciding which ones would be the most profitable. They would only then register for the tournament when they figured they had the best chance of being given one of the most profitable seats — a process known as “table shopping”.
Table shopping only works if the tournament uses common poker tournament seating procedures, whereby players get seated at the tables with fewest players. But manual seating, which was pioneered on the Triton Series, solves this problem.
Vivaldi says: “When we start a tournament, and we have enough players to start the game — which usually is 75 percent of one table, or two tables minimum — we ask the players to randomly draw their seats with seat cards.
Manual seating cards solve the problem of “table shopping”
Once we start the tournament, to maintain fairness and randomness in the whole process, we ask the players to pick two cards. The first is a table card, which tells them which table they’ll be at, randomly. And then from that table, they will pick a seat card.
This is because some tables have more seats open than others. Let’s say there are three tables. Two tables are six-handed, two seats open, and the other is five-handed, three seats open. All of a sudden, the player has more chance to pick the table that has three seats open instead of the other two that are two seats open. But to make it fair, we give them the cards that make it 33% which table they get. And after that they get a random seat. Then you balance the tables after that.
During registration, there’s quite a lot of balancing, quite a lot of moving of the players, but they all understand that it is for the fairness of the game. They don’t mind moving. So if they pick a table that is six handed, you’d get seven, six and five. We would balance out to the table with five.”
TRACKING AND BALANCING BASED ON PLAYERS SEATED
Vivaldi again: “Another thing that we do exclusively at Triton is to track which table played the fullest the longest or the shortest the longest, to make sure during the registration period that when we balance a table, from one table to another table, we will do it from the table that played the longest amount of time with more players.
Let’s say there are three tables, tables one and two are six handed and table three is four handed, instead of balancing from the highest table, which would be table two, we would go to our sheet that we were filling in during registration and we can see which one, from the two tables, got six players first. That would be the one that played the fullest longest, and we would take the player from that table, and balance it to table three.
Obviously with 100 tables, it’s something you cannot possibly do. But in these exclusive events, we try to find the smallest details that can really make a difference. In buy-ins this high, with these exclusive players, it’s important.
Nobody complains, even if they are being moved often, because they are regulars with Triton and they know that this is our procedure, this is what we do, and that we do it for the fairness of the game.”
ROTATING THE FEATURE TABLE
Almost all Triton events are streamed live, with hole-card information displayed. There is, of course, a security delay on the broadcast, so players’ cards cannot be seen in real time, but even with this delay, the very fact that a player is essentially showing his cards to his potential opponents can work against him in the long term. All good players will be studying the stream later and looking for tendencies and tells.
All tables get equal exposure on the TV stage
For this reason, it’s only fair that nobody spends more time on the feature table than anybody else. That player may be a fan favourite, but it is not good for game integrity if any one player is forced to play on TV longer than any other. In order to solve this, tournament tables are regularly rotated through the TV stage.
Vivaldi says: “Once again, to maintain fairness, the feature tables are rotated in and out. So in one tournament every table gets rotated onto the feature table.
Obviously for these players, revealing their cards gives information, and information in poker is extremely important. We want to make sure that we’re not unfair to certain players and keep them all day at the feature table. That’s why we rotate every player during the day.”
to Chidwick’s 
. Addamo flopped bottom pair; Chidwick flopped middle pair but there was another club on turn and river to give Addamo the flush. Addamo shoved, Chidwick thought long and hard about it, but fell into the trap with a call. It was over. 
in the big blind. Holz jammed for a little more than 1 million (26 BBs) but slammed straight into Addamo’s 
.
and then watched Seth Davies open shove from under the gun. Heath snap-called, of course, even though he had the marginally smaller stack.
and it seemed like a pretty good set-up. However, Davies had 30 percent equity and, bink, there it was on the flop when the 
was in the window. Had Heath’s hand held, he would have been second in chips. As it was, he was sent away in eighth for €189,000.
after yet another Addamo open. Addamo had 
and ended up turning a set to end Tony G drawing dead.
came unstuck against Addamo’s 
. Davies called him with 
and there was no help for the short stack. Bujtas earned €387,500 for his second career Triton cash.
losing to Addamo’s 
. Dvoress took €500,500 for his second cash of the week.
. But then Chidwick won a big pot when he outdrew Addamo’s 
.
and we were basically all square again. Round and round they went.
beating 
. He then woke up with 
when Addamo tried to force the issue and shoved from the button with the big stack.
in that spot and Chidwick’s double this time put him into the chip lead. 
to Chidwick’s 
. Yes, Davies’s six-high was actually ahead pre-flop, but there were two fours on the board and that was it. Davies’ stern resistance earned him €661,500, which was the first Triton cash of his career.
.
and Chidwick was forced to fold his 
to Mateos’ 
rivered a set. 
. There was a king on the flop, and nothing else meaningful, which meant Loeliger was done in eighth for €187,000.
. Paque, primarily a cash-game player, but with a string of decent tournament scores too, banked €389,000.
. Then Badziakouski did it again, this time with 
, and they both had full houses. But Cao’s was bigger — and that was decisive.
river were blanks.
