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.”
Short deck is back on the Triton Series menu today and when registration closed on the $75,000 buy-in Event #3, we had seen 51 transactions at the cage. The breakdown was 28 unique players and 23 re-entries.
All of that means a prize pool of $3,706,500 and seven places paid. The winner will get $1.17 million and the min-cash is $194,500. The full details are below.
There’s also been a last-minute change to the schedule. Responding to player requests, Event #5, which starts tomorrow, now has a buy-in of $75,000. (It had previously been $125,000.)
The tournament will start at 4pm local time, have 40 minute levels, and a buy-in gets you 300,000 chips — in three 100,000 bullets.
Day 1 will play eight levels and there will be a 45-minute dinner break after Level 4.
Our feature table: (clockwise, from bottom left): Richard Yong, Jason Koon, Wei Hsiang Yeu, Kanstantsin Osipau, Phil Ivey, Chris Brewer
You don’t need to know much about short deck poker to know that there’s a lot of gamble in it. Not every hand will be a thrill ride, but there’s a good chance one will be around the corner if it’s been quiet for a while.
Here’s a look at a full orbit on one of the outer tables here at this $75,000 buy-in short deck event at Triton Series Cyprus. We committed to following all the details for six hands in the hope (and expectation) that there would be some fireworks, even this early in the tournament.
This was the final orbit of Level 3, where the ante was 1,500 and the button paid 3,000. It was a good-looking table, featuring the following line-up:
Seat 1 — Richard Yong (Malaysia)
The Triton co-founder had a stack of about 105,000.
Seat 2 — Jason Koon (USA)
The Triton Ambassador and early short-deck aficionado was sitting with about 160,000.
Seat 3 — Wei Hsiang Yeu (Malaysia)
Malaysian Yeu has played frequently on the Triton Series since 2018 and has one notable cash: second place in a HK$250K short deck event, for HK$3.3 million. Chip-leading this table with 235,000.
Seat 5 — Kanstantsin Osipau (Belarus)
A total newcomer to the Triton Series and, it seems, to the world of organised tournament poker. The man from Belarus has no recorded cashes. Stack of about 190,000.
Seat 6 — Phil Ivey (USA)
Never heard of him. A solid start, sitting with 220,000.
Seat 7 — Chris Brewer (USA)
Making his debut on the Triton Series here in Cyprus, and picked up a first cash in the $50K Turbo yesterday. Stack a little more than 100,000.
Phil Ivey: A specialist at every game
Hand 1: Button with Jason Koon
All players in a Triton Series short deck tournament post a single ante, with the player on the button posting the “button ante”, which is double. At this stage, it was 1,500 and 3,000, respectively.
Action starts to the left of the button, in this instance with Wei Hsiang Yeu (maybe WHY for short). He called the additional 1,500. Kanstantsin Osipau was the only other called, and Jason Koon checked.
The flop came and Yeu checked. Osipau bet 9,000 and both Koon and Yeu called.
The turn was the and, after two checks, Koon bet 22,500 and both his opponents folded.
Hand 2: Button with Wei Hsiang Yeu
Three players — Phil Ivey, Chris Brewer and Jason Koon — all called, and Wei Hsiang Yeu checked his option. The flop of brought four checks.
The came on the turn and, after three checks, Yeu bet 8,000. Both Ivey and Koon called, but Brewer let his hand go.
The river was the . After two checks, Yeu bet 35,000 and picked up two calls. They then all showed their cards.
Wei:
Ivey:
Koon:
If you don’t follow short deck, you’ll need to double check what’s going on here. But they all had a straight, A-6-7-8-9. They chopped it three ways.
Hand 3: Button with Kanstantsin Osipau
This one got started with another flurry of calls, from Chris Brewer and Jason Koon, then a check from Kanstantsin Osipau. The three saw a flop of .
Brewer checked, Koon bet 5,000 and only Osipau called.
The two remaining players then checked through the turn and river, with Koon’s taking it down. Osipau mucked.
Hand 4: Button with Phil Ivey
This time the pre-flop callers were Chris Brewer, Jason Koon, Wei Hsiang Yeu and Kanstantsin Osipau, which preceded Phil Ivey tapping his fist on the rail to indicate a check. Those four looked at a flop of .
After a couple of checks, Yeu bet 6,000 and only Brewer called.
Both players checked the turn, which took them to the river. Brewer checked, Yeu bet 10,000, and Brewer folded.
Hand 5: Button with Chris Brewer
Richard Yong hadn’t played a hand until this point. He sat there silently, with a decongestant inhaler up one nostril. But he got this hand under way with a limp from under the gun. Wei Hsiang Yeu called, Kanstantsin Osipau called and Phil Ivey called, and the Chris Brewer moved all-in. He had 111,000 more.
Chris Brewer making a short-deck debut
Yong took a small amount of time but then he moved all-in too, with slightly less in his stack than Brewer. (Technically, this was an undercall, but you wouldn’t know if from Yong’s gleeful thump of the chips into the pot.) All the others got out of the way.
Brewer:
Yong:
You know earlier we stated that fireworks are almost always just arounf the corner in short deck, well here’s the proof.
The dealer put the flop of on the table, giving Yong top set. But then the turn gave Brewer all kinds of flush outs, plus an inside straight draw. And he drilled it with the river.
“My goodness, short deck,” said Koon, exasperated. “That is a straight.”
The dealer took a short while to confirm that Koon was, in fact, right, and Brewer had earned his double up. Yong tossed in another bullet chip, meaning a new 100,000 stack was coming.
Time for another bullet
Hand 6: Button with Richard Yong
Blinds went up after the conclusion of the hand above, meaning it was now 2,000 per ante, and double that for the button. Jason Koon limped fromu under the gun, and Kanstantsin Osipau and Chris Brewer joined him. Richard Yong checked his button.
The flop came . Koon and Osipau checked and, after Brewer bet 6,000, that was good enough for the win.
And with that, a good round for Chris Brewer came to its conclusion. He doubled into the chip lead, with Jason Koon also profiting. Shortly after, Koon celebrated with a standing back-flop — really — pointing to Richard Yong and saying, “I’m 37, Richard.”
Yong managed to resist what was probably a clear urge to respond with: “And I’m over 60” before doing a double back-flip. He can probably do it.
After three full days of high stakes no limit hold’em, the Triton Series Special Edition in Cyprus now shifts its focus to Short Deck Hold’em.
We’re preparing now for Events #3 and #5, beginning today and tomorrow, where buy-ins are $75,000 and $125,000 respectively.
You’ll notice that that’s bigger than the hold’em events, and there’s a reason for that. The players who like short deck the best are the players who like to play highest. This is a game that originated among the high-stakes cash game players in Asia, where the more eye-watering the stakes, the better.
The game is gradually catching on among western players too, particularly those who can sense a money-making opportunity. In this very exclusive world, where pros will want to find the most profitable spots, it pays to do some study and learn a new game, if that’s the game that most people want to play.
If you’re on the fence about short-deck, here’s a quick reminder of the principal differences. (Read the full article here.)
A SHORTER DECK
The most significant difference between short deck and regular hold’em is there in its name. It’s played with a pack of cards from which all of the 2s, 3s, 4s and 5s are removed.
In this game, an ace can be both high and low, as usual, but the next lowest card is the 6. (It’s sometimes called 6+ hold’em, which also makes sense.)
The wheel in short deck is A-6-7-8-9. And a Broadway straight is still 10-J-Q-K-A.
Instead of 52 cards, there are 36 in short deck.
HAND RANKING DIFFERENCES
While there are only a few differences in the value of a hand between the two formats of hold’em, these are very significant. It could prove expensive if forgotten.
In short deck hold’em:
• A flush beats a full house – This is because mathematically it is harder to make a flush than a full house from the reduced deck.
Think about it. In regular hold’em, players with suited hole cards and two community cards of the same suit have nine cards in the deck from which to make a flush. Playing the short deck game reduces this to five cards. This means a flush is far harder to hit thank usual.
EASIER TO HIT A SET
Playing short deck hold’em makes it easier to hit a set than when playing the regular game. Short deck players holding a pocket pair have two cards remaining from the 34 unknown to give them a set as opposed to two cards out of 50 in the regular game.
SHORT DECK HOLD’EM STRATEGY
Players who are used to the regular version of hold’em should be aware of strategy considerations during a traditional game. You need to slightly adjust your expectations of what kinds of hands will win pots.
In general, players will see many more strong hands, so stronger hands are typically needed to win pots.
• The chance of being dealt pocket aces is twice as high
• Hands such as top pair and top kicker have a much lower value
• Single pair hands rarely win a pot
However, this allows greater bluffing opportunities too, where it’s feasible for players often to represent very strong holdings.
FAST & FURIOUS
Action in short deck can be very fast, with pots escalating quickly and bust outs and buy-ins commonplace. That’s how the players on this series like it.
Players always need to remember that while you are sure to hit far more big hands, so will your opponents.
As you have probably already seen, the most unlikely story played out on the Triton Series yesterday when two Hungarian players, who are also good friends, finished first and second in the opening event of this high stakes festival at the Merit Casino & Resort in Cyprus.
But poker is a simply extraordinary game sometimes, and that most unlikely story happened again tonight, almost to the letter.
This time, the two good friends were Dutchmen — Teun Mulder and Tom Vogelsang — who travelled to Cyprus together and then finished heads-up in the $100,000 buy-in no limit hold’em event, both banking more than $1 million.
“We talked about it,” Mulder, the winner, said after the event. “We said to each other ‘Today it’s going to be the Dutch guys first and second.'” The prophesy came true.
Mulder has played once before on the Triton Series. Vogelsang is at his first event. The fact that they were the last men standing is a truly staggering coincidence, as well as testament to their exceptional skills.
Mulder did require at least one incredible outdraw to get into position to win. With three players left, he hit a miracle two-outer on the river to survive in an enormous pot, denting the party-pooper aspirations of Jake Schindler, of the USA. Vogelsang then ended Schindler’s event entirely, leaving the double Dutch delight.
“I’m pretty tired but good,” Mulder said at the end of a marathon day. “I got pretty lucky with the pocket fours, but to play against my best friend, as well.”
Mulder’s win earned him $1,940,000, the biggest live score of his career. Vogelsang banked $1,390,000, also a new mark for him. What a astounding conclusion.
Tom Vogelsang: A happy second
With nine players due to be paid in this one, and a maximum of eight per table, the bubble played out in part on the TV stage and in part in the outer field beside it, with two tables of five players apiece.
It was interrupted by a brief power cut, then a discussion about a dinner break, and then a dinner break itself, all alongside the usual bubble shenanigans. That includes hand-for-hand play, big stacks being ruthless, small stacks clinging on and sometimes doubling up.
Of course, that all inevitably ends, and the eliminated player this time was someone who left without too much complaint. It was Andras Nemeth, the man who won the opening event in this festival.
Andras Nemeth: Winner one day, bubble the next
With the clear potential to make his Triton hit-rate two from two, Nemeth got his stack of about 12 big blinds in the middle as an under-call, following Tom Vogelsang’s open-push from the small blind. (Vogelsang had heaps.)
Nemeth agonised and made the call, learning he was ahead with his to Vogelsang’s , but the board of was a slow torture, eventually filling Vogelsang’s straight.
Vogelsang offered his fist to bump, Nemeth bumped it, and then wandered away as the others headed up to the TV stage. That last nine, all now guaranteed a payday of at least $192,000, settled down for a final table photo and then to play towards a first prize 10 times that amount.
Back row (l-r): Jake Schindler, Teun Mulder, Tom Vogelsang, Ali Imsirovic. Front row (l-r): Paul Phua, Elton Tsang, Daniel Dvoress, Mike Watson, Michael Soyza.
There are always some delightful sub-plots in these Triton events, over and above the fact that they’re playing for tons of money. This time, it was difficult to look beyond the fact that the final had two best friends and countrymen, in Vogelsang and Teun Mulder, the very day after Nemeth and Laszlo Bujtas, friends and countrymen, went heads up. Yesterday it was Hungary, today it was the Netherlands.
The two biggest stacks also fit this dynamic: Mike Watson and Daniel Dvoress, who have endured some rough times on the Triton Series over the years, are friends and Canadian countrymen.
And that’s before we even talk about Paul Phua, the Triton co-founder and most prominent driving force, who was returning to a final table and picking up the 17th cash of his career in this series. Nobody has more, but Phua remains without a title.
The opening stages of the final table were circumspect, at least by Triton standards. It took a good hour or so before we lost a first player. That man was Elton Tsang, the high rolling Hong Kong-based businessman/poker player, who also made yesterday’s final table.
Tsang got the last of his chips in the pot with — up against Watson’s — and was far from dead and buried after the flop of . The turn opened up more possibilities, but the river snatched them away again.
Elimination Elton Tsang
Tsang won $192,000, nearly double his buy-in, for finishing ninth.
There then followed the start of the Phua show. There are few players in world poker with the survival instincts of the Malaysian, and he was assisted by a nice triple up with queens through Watson and Soyza, with jacks and eights, respectively.
Phua latterly doubled up again, keeping his head above water, and he was still a participant rather than a spectator when Ali Imsirovic’s run ended in seventh.
Ali Imsirovic makes his way from the table
Imsirovic perished in a blind-versus-blind collision with Vogelsang: losing out to . Nevertheless, the flag of Bosnia & Herzegovina now features on the Triton rankings table as Imsirovic picked up $251,700 for his debut cash.
Time then caught up with Phua, who left his own arena trophy-less again. Vogelsang had been on a bit of a tear and had recently doubled up through Jake Schindler, with bettering Schindler’s . Vogelsang made a straight.
He demonstrated again the power of the suited connectors in the hand that bust Phua, but this time did it by spiking a jack when he got it in with against Phua’s black pocket tens.
The eventual undoing of Paul Phua
Phua flopped a flush draw on the all-spade board, but it was the jack lurking there, plus the club and diamond on turn and river, that sealed Phua’s fate. Cash No 17 came with $324,500.
Vogelsang’s fortunes did not change. He still had the golden touch — and he got a bit of help for the next elimination from his countryman Mulder.
Mulder pulled off a big double up, of 890,000, getting his to beat Soyza’s . He flopped a king. That meant that Soyza was damaged and short when he got his chips in with and was picked off by Vogelsang’s .
Vogelsang flopped a queen, Soyza couldn’t improve, and the second and final Malaysian went to the cage for a $410,500 payout.
Michael Soyza: Two tournaments, two cashes so far this week
As they had in the day’s other tournament, stacks had really shallowed in this huge buy-in event. Dvoress and Schindler were in the blinds when the next pivotal hand played out.
Dvoress raised from the small blind with and Schindler defended his big with . The flop was an intriguing .
Dvoress moved all-in, with his stack of 2.5 million covering the 940,000 of Schindler. Schindler had the better hand and found the right call, and then improved to a flush on the turn. Dvoress still had full house outs, but didn’t find one of them, meaning Schindler found an emphatic double.
That became even more relevant on the very next hand, when Dvoress had on the button and ripped in his last 1.6 million. Schindler found , reshoved to remove Mulder, and then knocked out Dvoress when the board was dry.
Daniel Dvoress zipped up
Dvoress took $529,000 after the one-two sucker punch combo from Schindler.
Very shortly after Dvoress was knocked out, the other Canadian hit the rail. Watson had been the biggest stack of all when they got to the final, but he was powerless in the face of Schindler’s resurgence.
Schindler had and Watson . The problem was the king on board and the better kicker for Schindler, after they played through all five streets. Watson snap-called Schindler’s river shove and learned the bad news.
The end of the road for Mike Watson
Watson won $683,300, but was clearly hugely disappointed by the outcome.
Schindler was on a roll, but he quickly hit the skids. There soon came that enormous skirmish with Mulder, when the Dutchman opened pocket fours, Schindler three-bet, Mulder four-bet shoved and Schindler called.
The flop was , only good for the jacks. And the turn didn’t hurt Schindler either. However the river was a real sickener and left the lone American with fumes.
Schindler did manage to double up a couple of times, and might actually have vaulted back into real contention in what proved to be his final hand. Schindler had to Vogelsang’s , and the flop brought something for both of them. It came .
Schindler’s two pair was good still after the turn but once again he was killed by the river. This one was the , completing Vogelsang’s flush. GG Jake.
Jake Schindler couldn’t upset the Dutchmen
That left the two Dutch buddies to do battle, and Mulder had the significant chip lead. Although they did not make any deal official — and we don’t know the details of any arrangement they might have made off the table — the heads up lasted all of three hands.
Both players made a straight with the board showing , but Mulder had the stranglehold with his to Vogelsang’s .
And that closed out another remarkable episode on the Triton Poker Series. Truly extraordinary.
“I love Triton,” Mulder said. “Compared to all the other series, I think this is the best.” Triton loves you back, Teun.
Teun Mulder and Tom Vogelsang celebrate
TRITON CYPRUS SPECIAL EDITION EVENT 2: $100K EIGHT-HANDED NLHE
Champion! Matthias EibingerOne of the most tense, fun and at times bizarre tournaments played out at the Triton Series Special Edition in Cyprus tonight, and ended with a debut win for the young Austrian player Matthias Eibinger.
“It’s mine!” Eibinger said, reaching for the trophy that had found its way to the table between him and Ben Heath, the last two players. Eibinger knew it might easily have gone any one of five or six other places, with Heath himself also very close to winning.
The tournament, a $50K no limit hold’em turbo, was a late addition to the schedule but proved to be supremely popular, with 41 entries generating a prize pool of $1,988,500.
All of the players in Triton events are so skilful that they know precisely how to navigate the most unpredictable tournament conditions, and circumstances dictated this time that it would end in a crazy crapshoot for hundreds of thousands of dollars after stacks got so short that practically every move was an all-in push.
This played into Eibinger’s hands, as he acknowledged at the end.
“For sure you can study these spots,” Eibinger said. “My background was sit and gos, hyper sit and gos, so I’m super confident with short stacks, with 10 big blinds and below. I liked it. I wasn’t used to everybody having three, four, five big blinds, but in the end things went for me. I was comfortable, and I was able to take it down. I’m really happy about that.”
Heads up between Matthias Eibinger, left, and Ben Heath
He added: “I was really missing live poker a lot, so I was super happy when Triton announced this series. I just love it. I think every win is a little bit unique, but I think I’m especially happy about this one because Triton sets new standards for tournament series these days and being able to win one of them is really special to me.”
Eibinger’s victory, his first under the Triton branding, earned him a payday of $676,000. (By his own admission, he fired multiple bullets, so the profit wasn’t as much as it might seem.) Heath took $467,500 for second, with Mikita Badziakouski an unlucky third.
After the happy abandon of the late registration period, the tournament slimmed down to its final table in double-quick time. However, only six players were due to be paid, so making the final table alone was not good enough.
There followed an absolutely tortuous bubble period, where the clock kept relentlessly ticking but nobody was knocked out. That meant the number of big blinds in play lowered and lowered and lowered, until anything more than about seven big blinds was a big stack.
Chin Wei Lim bursts the bubble
Chin Wei Lim was the shortest of all, and he he only had two big blinds when he was forced to put one in the pot involuntarily. Sam Greenwood opened from early position and Lim had little option to call, even though he had just .
Greenwood’s hand was and it held up. That meant we finally went down to the last six, guaranteed at least $139K each, and only 83 big blinds between them.
In the money in the turbo (l-r): Mikita Badziakouski, Chris Brewer, Ben Heath, Sam Greenwood, Matthias Eibinger, Phil Ivey.
“I’m extremely unwilling to fold,” Chris Brewer said not long after. He had assumed the short stack after a couple of others had doubled. Ben Heath tested that resolve when he raised from the button with Brewer in the big blind.
Brewer instantly tossed in his last three big blinds for the call, but had run into a hand. Brewer’s was no match for Heath’s .
“I quit,” Brewer said sarcastically. “That’s frustrating,” he added with more sincerity. He won $139,000.
If it was any consolation, his compatriot Phil Ivey lasted only one more hand. Ivey shoved his own last three big blinds with king-queen and Badziakouski busted the American great. Ivey took $179,000.
A head-scratcher for even Phil Ivey
There then followed some even more ridiculous short-stack action. Greenwood doubled through Badziakouski. Eibinger doubled through Greenwood. Eibinger doubled again through Heath. And then again. And then, finally, Greenwood was the next man out — and got a rough beat.
Greenwood’s last 1.6 million went in (eight big blinds) with and Heath called with . There was a two on the flop and Greenwood was gone. He won $228,500.
At this stage, Badziakouski was the big stack, as he had been for much of this final, and he was punishing his opponents with regular shoves. However, he went on a precipitous downswing three-handed as both Heath and Eibinger continued to double up through him.
At one stage, the three of them had almost identical stacks of 2.7 million (10 big blinds) each — “I’m the short stack and also the chip leader,” joked Eibinger — but he then assumed just the latter of those with the latest double through Badziakouski.
This one was versus of Badziakouski and it left the Belorussian with only 200,000, which was less than one big blind. “Just the starting stack,” Badziakouski said, dripping with gallows humour.
Mikita Badziakouski back with his starting stack
He was out next hand when Heath’s pocket threes stayed strong against . Badziakouski, a three-time Triton winner, couldn’t make it four. He took $298,500 for this result.
The pattern established early continued through heads-up play, with Heath getting lucky to double his short stack with against Eibinger’s . The king came on the flop.
But then Eibinger doubled back with against Heath’s .
The final hand came when Eibinger had a slight lead and to Heath’s . This time there was no outdraw, and Eibinger was the champion.
Ben Heath defeated at the last
Eibinger has previously sat out the short deck events, so this might be his last appearance in a Triton branded event in Cyprus. But with the collaboration with the Super High Roller Bowl meaning there are plenty more no limit hold’em tournaments to come, back Eibinger to hit the money again.
TRITON CYPRUS SPECIAL EDITION EVENT 6: $50K EIGHT-HANDED NLHE TURBO
The Triton Series Special Edition in Cyprus will tomorrow take on a slightly different tone. That’s when we start the short deck hold’em half of the festival, the format favoured by the biggest gamblers from Asia.
The purists who prefer “regular” no limit hold’em had one last chance to play their best game tonight, when organisers were persuaded to add a $50K buy-in turbo to the schedule. It hadn’t originally been planned that way, but player power spoke and the Triton Series staff delivered.
The players duly played their part too, turning up in their droves and buying in in a frenzy — never more so than in the final 10 minutes before registration closed on the tournament, shutting out NLHE experts for the remainder of the week.
This phase of the Triton tournaments is quickly becoming the best bit to watch, when we learn what’s considered a good enough hand to risk it all, based on the “double-up or head to the re-entry desk” philosophy.
In that 10 minute period, there were at least three eliminations, all of whom swiftly re-entered. (Amid it all, both Phil Ivey and Dan Cates also showed up and sat down to play for the first time.)
Let’s look at those eliminations. On Table 3, Chris Brewer pushed from the button with about 20 big blinds. Cary Katz, in the small blind, moved in too, with a stack about half the size of Brewer’s.
“That’s not what I wanted to see,” Brewer said.
“You’re OK,” Katz assured him.
Cary Katz is out. Cary Katz is back in.
As it turned out, they were racing. Katz had and Brewer had . The flop brought the alongside two jacks and Brewer took the lead. He retained it through the turn and river, and Katz was out.
Straight to the cage, and he was back again.
Only a few hands later, something very similar occurred. This time Johan Guilbert raised from under the gun and Brewer moved all-in, covering Guilbert. The blinds folded and Guilbert flicked in the call.
Brewer:
Guilbert:
The dealer put the board out there, and Brewer won this one too. Guilbert was out.
Johan Guilbert is out. Johan Guilbert is back in.
Straight to the cage, and he was back again.
One table over, Vladi Chaoulov open shoved with and he was picked off by Laszlo Bujtas with .
Although this tournament is taking place entirely away from the television stage, this was a made-for-TV run out. The gave a straight draw for Chaoulov.
He hit it on the turn, but that also brought a flush draw for Bujtas. The river completed that flush. Chaoulov was out.
Vladi Chaoulov is out. Vladi Chaoulov is back in.
Straight to the cage, and he was back again. This time he was put back in the wxact same seat as well.
Registration finally closed with the total number of entries hitting 41. Nine of them were re-entries. It meant that the prize-pool came in at $1.988 million, and the winner set to receive $676,000.
And now if you’re out, you’re out.
TRITON CYPRUS SPECIAL EDITION EVENT 6: $50K EIGHT-HANDED NLHE TURBO
As Event 1 played to its Hungarian-influenced conclusion in Cyprus tonight, the second event on the week’s schedule played through its Day 1.
In that one, there were 51 entries of $100K apiece (with registration still open) and the familiar figure of Michael Addamo atop the overnight counts.
Chip leading Michael Addamo
Addamo has been on one of those streaks of late that sometimes occur in the high buy-in events. He even cashed the $50K here, before hopping into the $100K to bag the chip lead.
The Dutch pair of Tom Vogelsang and Teun Mulder are Addamo’s closest challengers at this stage, both of whom arrived slightly late to Cyprus but have hit the ground running.
The full stacks at this stage are as follows. Registration remains open for another hour on Day 2 before they play to a winner. There’s also an additional $50K Turbo event starting tomorrow at 4pm.
The Triton Poker Series always generates the best stories, and we saw a cracker in Cyprus tonight. The final two players in the first event of this week’s action — a $50K buy-in no limit hold’em event — were two friends, Andras Nemeth and Laszlo Bujtas.
They are both Hungarian. They were both playing their first ever Triton event. And, in fact, they were the first two players from Hungary ever to play on this series. And then they finished heads-up, with Nemeth beating his good friend to a first prize of $1.082 million.
Bujtas, who at 29 is 10 years younger than Nemeth, made do with $770,000. Both have every reason to be delighted with their debut performance on this tour.
“It wasn’t easy,” Nemeth said. “The final table was really tough. I was a little bit nervous at the start and I made a couple of … well, it was close but I made some not good decisions. Then when we got short stacked, it was all about who was going to win the first major all-in.”
He added: “It was surreal to play for the first time and to then get heads-up against one of my best friends in poker. I had to pinch myself.”
There were 36 players seated at the start of play today, including the Dutchman Teun Mulder, who became the final buy-in before registration closed. Organisers soon confirmed the near $4 million prize pool, including more than $1 million for first place.
With only 11 places paying, and some short stacks, the inevitable fast start swept plenty of players away — or, more precisely, to the second event of this week’s series, a $100K no limit hold’em tournament. (That one concludes tomorrow.)
The bubble approached rapidly and burst before the dinner break, with the Belorussian Triton favourite Mikita Badziakouski falling in 12th place. He had only a tiny stack and an ace in the big blind, which made it a mandatory call after Michael Soyza shoved all-in from the small blind.
Mikita Badziakouski bursts the bubble
Unfortunately for Badziakouski, his couldn’t outdraw Soyza’s and Soyza, celebrating his birthday, locked up a cash for himself — as well as the other 10. Badziakouski was bounced short of another $100K payday.
Soyza’s joy was relatively short lived as he slipped away in ninth ($113,000), joining Michael Addamo (11th – $99,000), Eng Siang Ewe (10th – $99,000) and Sam Greenwood (eighth – $147,000) in departing before the final table.
Sam Greenwood: Day ended in eighth
But then the last seven (officially an “unofficial” final table in a six-max event) took some dinner and then their seats again to play to the first champion of the week.
Last seven (l-r): Jason Koon, Tommy Kim, Stephen Chidwick, Andras Nemeth, Laszlo Bujtas, Phil Ivey, Elton Tsang.
It wasn’t long before the first elimination: Stephen Chidwick perished in seventh after flopping a set of twos on a ten-high board. The only problem for the British player was that Elton Tsang’s turned a flush. Chidwick, already the leader on the UK money list, added a further $188,000.
Stephen Chidwick: Seventh
After Chidwick’s departure, stack sizes were short and there was every chance of a swift conclusion, particularly as the length of the levels was also reduced. However, the tournament then went through one of those periods where every single all-in player doubled up and the chip lead rotated through almost all of the remaining contenders.
“This is a really cool final table,” Jason Koon said after he doubled up Tsang. Tsang, who led overnight, had been left short after doubling up at least three others, including Koon.
As it turned out, those two became the next two eliminations. Tsang had built back to second in chips, but perished at the hands of the leader, Nemeth. Tsang was disappointed, but there was nothing he could have done. It was simply one of those days. He took $240,100 for sixth, after losing with to Nemeth’s .
Elton Tsang rode the roller coaster before busting sixth
Koon was similarly helpless with a sub 10-big blind stack. At this point, it was really just about laddering up if possible, and taking it on the chin if not. Koon lost with to Bujtas’ . There was not much he could have done about that either.
Jason Koon’s fun tournament ended in fifth
If there was ever proof that this had turned into the kind of tournament where there wasn’t a whole lot of player agency, the next person out was Phil Ivey. Plenty of poker observers are convinced that Ivey has the ultimate magic touch, capable of turning any situation to his profit.
But not this one. He had the micro stack four-handed and it was soon in the middle. He was next to the payouts table, collecting $387,100, when his lost to Bujtas’ .
Phil Ivey made the final on his return to Triton Series
At this point, the only player who could upset the Hungarian party was South Korea’s Tommy Kim, who was also a first-timer on the Triton tour. But the gods seemed to have decreed the European battle and Nemeth knocked out Kim in third when his pocket fours made a straight to beat Kim’s pocket sevens.
That was harsh, but Kim picked up $503,000, which is also a fine payday for a newcomer.
Tommy Kim couldn’t beat the Hungarians
Nemeth referenced all of the major hands — those winners against Tsang and Kim in particular — when he gave a quick post-tournament interview. There was also not much he could do about any of that, but was delighted to end up on the right side of it. It was a pretty swift affair against Bujtas too. Nemeth had and Bujtas had .
Everything went in, and Bujtas finished second. He collected $770,000 and left Nemeth as the millionaire.
Lazlo Bujtas’ defeated heads upA very happy Andras Nemeth
It’s Nemeth’s largest ever live cash, but one suspects he’ll improve on it pretty soon, particularly if he continues to play on the Triton Series. There are five more events to come this week alone. Follow all the action in the usual places.
TRITON CYPRUS SPECIAL EDITION EVENT 1: $50K SIX-HANDED NLHE
1 – Andras Nemeth, Hungary, $1,082,000
2 – Laszlo Bujtas, Hungary, $770,000
3 – Tommy Kim, South Korea, $503,800
4 – Phil Ivey, USA, $387,100
5 – Jason Koon, USA, $307,000
6 – Elton Tsang, Hong Kong, $240,100
7 – Stephen Chidwick, UK, $188,000
8 – Sam Greenwood, Canada, $147,000
9 – Michael Soyza, Malaysia, $113,000
10 – Eng Siang Ewe, Malaysia, $99,000
11 – Michael Addamo, Australia, $99,000
and Yeu checked. Osipau bet 9,000 and both Koon and Yeu called.
and, after two checks, Koon bet 22,500 and both his opponents folded.
brought four checks.
. After two checks, Yeu bet 35,000 and picked up two calls. They then all showed their cards.
.
turn and 
taking it down. Osipau mucked.
.
turn, which took them to the 
to Vogelsang’s 
, but the board of 
losing out to 
bettering Schindler’s 
. 
and Schindler defended his big with 
. 
on the button and ripped in his last 1.6 million. Schindler found 
. The problem was the king on board and the better kicker for Schindler, after they played through all five streets. Watson snap-called Schindler’s river shove and learned the bad news.
river was a real sickener and left the lone American with fumes.
, and the flop brought something for both of them. It came 
.
. Badziakouski, a three-time Triton winner, couldn’t make it four. He took $298,500 for this result.
against Eibinger’s 
. The king came on the flop.
against Heath’s 
.
couldn’t outdraw Soyza’s 
