Category: Poker

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Download it today!

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.

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).

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

Triton Madrid – Event 6
€50,000 7-Handed NLHE

1 – €1,340,000
2 – €932,000
3 – €616,000
4 – €482,300
5 – €389,000
6 – €303,000
7 – €240,000
8 – €187,000
9 – €141,500
10-11 – €108,600
12-13 – €101,000

Photography by Joe Giron/PokerPhotoArchive

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 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

1 – €497,000
2 – €357,000
3 – €232,000
4 – €175,100
5 – €136,000
6 – €105,400
7 – €83,500
8 – €64,600
9 – €49,400

Photography by Joe Giron/PokerPhotoArchive

The biggest mystery through the Triton Poker Series’ first six years was how come Paul Phua had not won a tournament. The Malaysian businessman turned poker shark has been an ever present on the world’s premier high stakes tournament series, and had amassed 19 cashes from these incredibly elite fields — the most recent of them coming yesterday, in the opening event of Triton Madrid.

It was more than any other person, and just made it all the more confusing that he had never crossed the finish line first.

But hold the front page for here is some spectacular news. The mystery endures no more. Paul Phua is now, finally, a Triton Series champion!

Phua staged an incredible heads-up comeback to beat Erik Seidel and win the €30,000 buy-in seven-handed event at Triton Madrid tonight. Phua’s title came with a payday of €740,400 and brought his career tournament earnings past $25 million. But none of that money will matter to Phua: it’ll be all about the trophy that he can now, finally, call his own.

“I thought the fourth second place is coming,” Phua said. “But somehow the cards fell for me.”

Nobody can begrudge Phua this one, not even Seidel, who had staged a pretty remarkable comeback of his own to be in touching distance of his first win on the Triton Series. Seidel had been down to two big blinds at one point, but built a big heads-up chip lead against Phua. However, Seidel’s pocket sevens lost to Phua’s when the reverse result would have given Seidel the win; and Phua then also won with against Seidel’s .

Phua then closed it out with versus Seidel’s to cue pandemonium inside the Casino Gran Via, Madrid. Friends and supporters mobbed a delirious Phua, who could scarcely contain his delight.

It was lucky number 20. Finally it was not just a cash, it was a win.

Phua hugged Seidel, high-fived everyone on the rail, clenched his fists and pretty much crumpled to his knees. The monkey is finally off his back.

“I knew he’d be tough,” Phua said of his heads-up opponent. “Erik’s so experienced, such a great player, but anything can happen.”

Asked by commentator Ali Nejad if he could have ever have dreamed of Triton Series becoming so popular, Phua said, “Honestly, no. After the first few series, it began to get serious. We tried to get the best things in, the best equipment, the best people…We did a good job. But we will always keep improving.”

The same could be said of Phua’s game.

FINAL DAY’S ACTION

Returning with a field of 21, players knew that eight of them would still need to depart before the remainder were in the money — and it proved to be a real battle to decide those coveted spots.

With such talents as Rui Cao, Timothy Adams and Andras Nemeth already on the sidelines, there were at least 10 short-stack double-ups during the crucial pre-bubble period — “bubble-ups”, if you will.

On the one hand, it was just a matter of sitting and waiting for all those with plenty of chips, including Kevin Paque, Phua and Mike Watson, who led the way at the time. But on the other, they will have been just as keen to try to knock out the obdurate shorties, bringing us to the drawn out impasse.

When the pressure finally became too much, it was Tom Vogelsang who became the bubble boy. His debut on the Triton Series in Cyprus ended in pure delight; this follow up in Madrid gave him a taste of the other side of tournament poker. (He’s made of stern stuff, however, and will surely be back.)

POST-BUBBLE ACTION

The drawn-out bubble period meant that stacks shallowed considerably and most of the players in most danger soon got their last chips in. Fedor Holz, Michael Soyza, Kevin Paque, Danny Tang and Patrik Antonius were all in and out, picking up between €56,000 and €78,100.

There are many ways to understand how impressive the fields are on the Triton Series, but just look at that little lot who fell short of the final table.

How about if we add one more name to that list: Phil Ivey, because it was indeed the all-time great who went out in eighth, officially the final-table bubble in this seven-handed affair.

Ivey is on an incredible run of form through these past couple of months, but there was no room for him at this final. He lost with against Isaac Haxton’s . They both flopped and ace, but Haxton’s kicked played. Ivey took €103,200 for eighth.

And so we were left with seven, including all of Haxton, Daniel Dvoress and Seidel, who had been critically short on the bubble but somehow managed to survive. They were, however, looking up to Kannapong Thanarattrakui when the final table assembled: the Thai player having managed to navigate this incredibly tough field to sit with 43 big blinds at the start of final table play.

Final table stacks:

Kannapong Thanarattrakui – 5.4 million
Paul Phua – 4.425 million
Isaac Haxton – 4.175 million
Erik Seidel – 1.8 million
Michael Watson – 1.125 million
Ben Heath – 900,000
Daniel Dvoress – 775,000

Blinds: 50K/125K/125K

At the other end of the ladder, Dvoress, Heath and Watson had fewer than 10 big blinds each, and predictably they were the first three out.

Haxton opened to 250,000 with and Watson moved all in for his last 1.125 million with . Dvoress folded pocket eights after thinking long and hard about it, but Haxton made the call.

The flop gave Watson two pair, but he was far from happy. It came , which left Haxton with a ton of outs. The turn wasn’t one, but the river was. Haxton made a straight and Watson was out, for €132,500.

Having seen his decision to fold those pocket eights vindicated, Dvoress might have thought his luck was in, especially when he quickly doubled through Haxton with . However, he lasted only a few more hands and was knocked out by Phua is another cooler.

Phua opened with and Dvoress took a flop in the big blind with . Like Watson before him, Dvoress flopped two pair, but again like Watson, it still wasn’t great. The specific flop was , so that was a flush draw for Phua.

The money went in and Dvoress was at risk. The didn’t immediately kill him on its own, but in combination with the river, it certainly did. Phua had filled a straight, and Dvoress was toast. He won €167,400 for sixth.

With the two Canadians eliminated, pressure fell on Seidel and Heath. Seidel doubled with pocket tens, again through Haxton, but Heath wasn’t so fortunate. He got his last chips in with the pretty looking on the button, and although Seidel’s in the big blind looked pretty raggedy, he called, turned an ace, and Heath was finished. Heath’s fifth place earned him €214,800.

If you’d have asked Thanarattrakui at the start of the day whether he’d be happy with a fourth-placed finish, chances are he would have jumped at the chance. But having been in the chip lead seven-handed, he might have reassessed. However, Thanarattrakui did indeed make it to fourth in this one, his first Triton cash, and one suspects he’ll come to be very happy about it.

He had dwindled to a short stack four handed, the result of some mistimed aggression, and got his last two big blinds in with . Haxton, who had recently doubled through Phua, called with and the board bricked out. Thanarattrakui’s maiden cash was for €266,500.

Haxton’s bumpy ride wasn’t to last much longer, however. Phua had been more aggressive during today’s play than perhaps we had ever seen him before, and he open-pushed with . Haxon, with 10 big blinds and did the math and called.

But there was a king on the flop, and Haxton was out in third for €340,300.

When they got heads up — two absolute legends of the game — there was only the matter of four big blinds between them, with Phua slightly ahead. But Seidel’s experience really told as he edged further and further ahead.

Phua was faced with elimination, yet another second place, until he hit those miracle cards. Seidel could only chuckle and offer his heartfelt congratulations. He will almost certainly join Phua’s party tonight.

And what about Phua. What will he do now?

He was clear: “Honestly I don’t care. I won!”

Triton Madrid – Event 2
€30,000 NLHE 7-Handed

1 – Paul Phua, Malaysia – €740,400
2 – Erik Seidel, USA – €514,800
3 – Isaac Haxton, USA – €340,300
4 – Kannapong Thanarattrakui, Thailand – €266,500
5 – Ben Heath, UK – €214,800
6 – Daniel Dvoress, Canada – €167,400
7 – Mike Watson, Canada – €132,500
8 – Phil Ivey, USA – €103,200
9 – Patrik Antonius, Finland – €78,100
10 – Danny Tang, Hong Kong – €60,000
11 – Kevin Paque, Netherlands – €60,000
12 – Michael Soyza, Malaysia – €56,000
13 – Fedor Holz, Germany – €56,000

Photography by Joe Giron/PokerPhotoArchive