The NLHE portion of the Triton Super High Roller Series in Northern Cyprus is drawing to a close, with only the final day of the Main Event to play. After that, all of the 2s, 3s, 4s and 5s in the decks of cards of the world can take a holiday. It’s short deck only from hereon in.
But just before the emphasis shifts to hold’em’s more gambly cousin, there was the small matter of a quick $50K Turbo to play. It started late, at 8pm, because of an unscheduled interruption, but it blazed through the levels before reaching a conclusion at 3.40am.
The last man standing was Austria’s Matthias Eibinger, who has seen all of this before. Eibinger won his first Triton title in a turbo event here in Cyprus last time out, again on an outer table while bigger action was going on elsewhere. That one also ended at stupid o’clock, and featured some ridiculous short-stack bingo.
But Eibinger made his name playing high stakes hyper turbos online, so this is precisely his wheelhouse. Back-to-back pocket kings also helped at the death, but Eibinger just knows this game, regardless of the cards.
His victory, over Jonathan Jaffe, earned him $545,000 and rounded off his trip nicely. Eibinger doesn’t play short deck so is heading home now. It’s a nice way to finish a trip.
TOURNAMENT ACTION
In addition to the delay caused by a problem with the venue air conditioning, the action in this one slowed right up as the bubble approached. Although there weren’t many blinds in play, and the rapidly escalating levels were eating them up rapidly, it still took more than an hour to go from eight to six.
But Ebony Kenney took the walk in eighth, losing with ace-king to pocket tens. The slight complication was that it was Phil Nagy with the tens — i.e., the man who had invited Kenney to play the Coin Rivet Invitational this week. That invitation had earned Kenney $1.7 million, so Nagy was well in credit. But nobody likes knocking out a friend.
“I guess it says something about the integrity of the game,” Nagy said. “It wasn’t a TV table, no one would have known if I’d thrown something away.”
Ebony Kenney bust two from the money
There was no hard feelings, and Kenney hopped on a call home while Nagy moved into the money. They took that step when Scott Ball’s pocket threes lost out to Mikita Badziakouski’s . Badziakouski had earlier been all-in for this tournament life but survived, and now knocked out Ball. It guaranteed everyone at least $110,000, but nothing for Ball.
Last six in the $50K Turbo (clockwise from top left): Mikita Badziakouski, Matthias Eibinger, Phil Nagy, Jonathan Jaffe, Alejks Ponakovs, Danny Tang
The average stack of the last six was only about 18 big blinds, and only two players had more. Jonathan Jaffe and Matthias Eibinger had been dominating from about two tables out.
One of the shorties was Danny Tang, who had observed just before the bubble that he was basically playing a starting stack, “It’s like I just regged,” he said. His next visit to the registration desk, however, was to pick up $110,000 for a sixth-place finish. Aleksejs Ponakovs’ jacks stayed strong against Tang’s .
That was as good as it got for Ponakovs, however, as the tournament became a total crapshoot. Only the chip-leading Jaffe and Eibinger had a double digit big-blind stack, so it was purely a case of either double up or go home. Ponakovs found , which was clearly good enough to get it in. Eibinger had and Ponakovs was soon out, taking $140,000.
Nagy busted next, and his elimination was pretty gross. Jaffe open-jammed with and Nagy called all in for his last handful of blinds with a dominating . A ten on the flop changed that, and finally released Nagy to go home. He said he was tired, and now had a cash of $185,000 to help him sleep.
The dam had definitely now burst and Badziakouski was next to be washed away. He had when he got it in and might have hoped for a chop against Jaffe’s . But Jaffe ended up with trip fives and that was that for Badziakouski. He banked $245,000.
Heads up between Jonathan Jaffe and Matthias Eibinger
Jaffe had a 46 to 18 big blind chip lead when they went heads-up, but Eibinger quickly doubled up to even them out. Eibinger found kings against Jaffe’s and there was no outdraw. It happened again soon after, with kings again finding their way into Eibinger’s hands. Jaffe this time had , but again the kings stayed good.
Jaffe finished second for $375,000 while Eibinger picked up another $545,000 and became a repeat Triton champion!
The inaugural Coin Rivet Invitational tournament reached a thrilling finale in Northern Cyprus tonight, with the final stages of this unique $200,000 buy-in event providing a perfect crystallisation of what’s so appealing about the Triton Super High Roller Series.
This prestigious tour brings together the world’s elite tournament pros and pits them against high-rolling recreational players, who may not have the same level of skill, but who have fearlessness born from bottomless pockets. For the first half of a high-octane final table, with a $5.5 million first prize in everyone’s sights, the pros were powerless to stop the charge of the hyper-aggressive French financial trader Karl Chappe-Gatien. He said he likes to play poker like he does his trading: high on risk and full of gamble.
But after Chappe-Gatien’s incredible steamroller eventually veered off the road, two top poker pros were lying in wait to pick up the pieces. Switzerland’s poker royalty Linus Loeliger and the British scrapper Sam Grafton ended up heads up for the title, with the momentum finally favouring Grafton. He completed his sensational rise through the poker ranks in emphatic fashion.
Grafton KO-ed Loeliger at around 10.30pm local time, earning the biggest win of his tournament poker career. Grafton first appeared on the poker scene playing tournaments with buy-ins of around $5. But tonight he walked away with a winner’s cheque of $5.5 million. It was a brilliant triumph for the 42-year-old, whose star continues to rise.
Heads up between Sam Grafton and Linus Loeliger
“It was so much fun,” Grafton said. “Playing against some of the most remarkable entrepreneurs and businesspeople in the world…It was played with a special spirit. On the day the two lanes merged, players were smiling like it was Christmas or their birthday. Everyone had a skip in their steps.
“Tournament poker is just amazing. Playing this format is very special.”
Grafton also gave special mention to the two players he defeated after a remarkable three-way battle. On Chappe-Gatien, Grafton said: “He played with so much heart and swagger. It was so much fun.” Grafton added about Loeliger, “Obviously Linus is remarkable. To beat him heads-up, he’s probably the best in the world in the heads up format.”
Karl Chappe-Gatien rides the big stack
Loeliger, long established as one of the world’s greatest players, particularly in high stakes online cash games, took $3.9 million for second. Both the final two earned more from their single win in this tournament than they had in documented tournament cashes in their careers to date.
It took some doing to finally get past Loeliger, who twice hit river cards to survive heads-up, forcing Grafton to regroup and play harder. But after three days, he wasn’t going to let this chance slip through his fingers.
The 90 players who played the Coin Rivet Invitational were divided into two camps at the beginning of play. One one side were the recreational players, typically businesspeople with various finance, crypto or real estate connections. They were each permitted to extend one invitation to a pro to compete in the other half of the field. The two sides merged on Day 2 and stayed as one until the end.
Grafton’s partner, his friend and Coin Rivet co-founder Dave Nicholson, also made the money in the event, busting in 16th. Grafton approached Nicholson at the conclusion of the tournament and said, “Thanks for the invite, bruv. I wouldn’t have come if it hadn’t been for you. I didn’t have my name on the list.”
He then looked to another friend and said, “How have I done this?”
“It was destined,” the onlooker replied.
Sam Grafton is embraced by his rail
TOURNAMENT ACTION
Ninety players began the event all the way back on Saturday, each parting with that $200,000. Over the course of the registration period, there were 25 re-entries, putting $23 million in the prize pool. The first elimination went in Loeliger’s favour, when he eliminated Phil Ivey in Level 1, and never looked back.
The tournament only really got serious on Sunday, day two, and for long periods yesterday, as the tournament moved slowly towards the money, Fedor Holz was making hay. He had a big stack and had all the skills to make the most of it, continually applying pressure to everyone at his table and asking them whether they wanted to risk busting, or simply give him their chips without a fight. He became a hugely dominant chip leader as a result.
However, after play resumed on Day 3 with 16 players left, Holz found resistance, chiefly in the form of the Dubai-based French trader Karl Chappe-Gatien. In one pivotal pot, Chappe-Gatien found kings when Holz had ace-king, and it all went in pre-flop. There was no ace and Chappe-Gatien scored an enormous double, slicing Holz’s stack to ribbons.
By that point, they were already in the money, of course. Chris Brewer became the bubble boy late on Sunday, losing most of his stack when he doubled up Ebony Kenney (kings staying good against ace-jack). It was an emotional moment. Brewer had made a slight blunder in failing to notice an opening raise before Kenney’s shove, and made a call that perhaps he otherwise wouldn’t, going on to compound his error by accidentally exposing his hand. He lost the pot and wept, crestfallen, into his baseball cap. “I’m out, I’m out,” he said, as if trying to come to terms with it.
Emotion on the bubble from Chris Brewer
Brewer actually survived that hand as he had the covering stack by one big blind, and he then managed a couple of doubles. He was still the short stack though and ended up being sent to the rail by Chappe-Gatien, finishing on the stone bubble.
The American author, trainer and entrepreneur Eric Worre also bust late on Sunday, but at least he was in the money. It left 16 coming back for the third and final day.
The recreational side of the draw was well represented on the last two tables. Eight of the final 16 were not professional players, exactly half the field, despite the supposed disparity in talent. However, the push to the final was particularly cruel on those so-called amateurs, with Dave Nicholson, Leon Tsoukernik, Horace Wei, Theis Vad Hennebjerre, Vadzim Godzdanker and Tony G all departing before the final.
Tony G busts to take them down to nine
The only pro to be knocked out was the American great and part-time Poseidon Daniel Cates, whose time in the jungle was ended by Seth Davies. It was a cutoff shove from Cates with , picked off by Davies’ .
Tony G’s bustout took us to the final, with Chappe-Gatien an comfortable leader. The stacks heading to the final were as follows:
Karl Chappe-Gatien – 9.5 million
Linus Loeliger – 7.175 million
Seth Davies – 4.825 million
Ebony Kenny – 3.425 million
Sam Grafton – 2.575 million
Tom Vogelsang – 2.250 million
Fedor Holz – 1.925 million
Elias Talvitie – 1.775 million
Aleksejs Ponakovs – 1.050 million
Coin Rivet Invitational final table players (clockwise from top left): Seth Davies, Ebony Kenney, Aleksejs Ponakov, Linus Loeliger, Elias Talvitie, Tom Vogelsang, Karl Chappe-Gatien, Sam Grafton, Fedor Holz.
Chappe-Gatien already had an advantage, and it quickly widened. The next player to get sucked into his vortex was Tom Vogelsang, who got it in good with against Chappe-Gatien’s , but then looked on impotently as Chappe-Gatien rivered a queen.
Vogelsang earned $620,000 for ninth, but obviously would have been hoping for more.
Tom Vogelsang was first out from the final table
The same most certainly applied to Seth Davies, who came to his third final table of the week in scintillating form, but whose run good had run out at the crucial times. That miserable pattern continued at this final table, as he became Chappe-Gatien’s second victim in short order.
First, Chappe-Gatien’s made a flush in a huge pot to beat Davies. And on the very next hand, they got it all in pre-flop with Chappe-Gatien’s making a straight to oust Davies’ . Davies, silent and stoic as ever, made his way to the payouts desk where $770,000 awaited him. But he must have been burning up inside.
Gritted teeth only for Seth Davies, who suffered another unfortunate elimination
Next up to the chopping block, Elias Talvitie. The Finnish real estate mogul was a proud recreational player, joking that his previous proudest moment in poker was hitting a bad beat jackpot in a Helsinki casino, winning €5,500. He got another bad beat here to end his participation in the Coin Rivet Invitational, but when his pocket sixes lost to Chappe-Gatien’s , all-in pre-flop, there was a $1,050,000 consolation prize waiting for him.
Talvitie did not seem unduly hurt by the turn of events, wishing his table-mates good luck as he departed in seventh.
Elias Talvtie breathes his last
Aleksejs Ponakovs also seemed perfectly at ease with his departure in sixth. The World Series bracelet winner from Latvia had been a tournament short stack from before the bubble period, but had eked into the money and then got to celebrate his 31st birthday at an enormous final table. He had been under threat on numerous occasions, and survived them all. Until he didn’t.
This time, in a break from tradition, it was Holz who applied the killer touch. First up, Holz doubled through Ponakovs with beating . Ponakovs was exposed with a short stack then and Holz then found to beat Ponakovs’ . That ended the tournament for Ponakovs and started the birthday party instead, with $1.375 million behind the bar.
No hard feelings from birthday boy Aleksejs Ponakovs
One of the best subplots to this entire Triton festival, and certainly the one that was attracting the most media attention, was the run of the American pro Ebony Kenney. Kenney was the first woman ever to play as a professional in a major invitational tournament such as this, the guest of Phil Nagy, and had clearly repaid the faith.
She had a film crew for an upcoming documentary following her every move, and excitement was beginning to reach fever pitch that she was going to do the unthinkable and actually win it. Having also been under threat during the bubble period, but survived, the Kenney dream was real. But then Chappe-Gatien intervened.
Both players found pocket pairs — jacks for Kenney and nines for Chappe-Gatien — and the chips all went in. Chappe-Gatien spiked a nine on the turn and faded straight outs, snuffing out Kenney’s hopes. She won $1.7 million, a huge increase on her previous highest career score, which she had secured only a couple of days ago when she was also fifth in the $25K curtain-raising tournament here. It’s an incredible start to a high roller career, and a fairly excellent opening chapter to a movie too.
Ebony Kenney’s thrilling ride comes to its conclusion
Kenney gave every opponent a hug on her departure, and the embrace seemed especially warm for Holz, the player next to whom she had spent a long period yesterday as he had put on his pre-bubble clinic. Holz, however, blessed as he is, turned out to be the next player out of this one, swept away in the Chappe-Gatien tsunami.
As before, Chappe-Gatien came from behind to score the knockout, with his hitting a flush to oust Holz’s . The jack on the flop gave the outdraw a particularly dramatic feel, but the hands played themselves with the stack depth, and certainly Holz didn’t seem to bear any grudges.
Although he missed out on his hat-trick of Triton titles, he added another $2.1 million to his ledger.
Fedor Holz shakes hands with his assassin
It turned out that Chappe-Gatien had hit his peak. Although it had looked for all the world as though his name was on the trophy, the whisky-quaffing Frenchman could get nothing further going his way. The big stack is obviously required to be the one to either double up the short stacks or knock them out, but he now began the process of doing the former, repeatedly, as both Grafton and Loeliger took chunks from his stack.
Loeliger doubled with against Chappe-Gatien’s . Then Grafton won a race with to Chappe-Gatien’s . Chappe-Gatien battled on with a short stack but it hardly suited him after the fireworks of the first couple of hours.
He was eventually forced in with and this time there was no outdrawing Grafton’s . Chappe-Gatien had proudly announced earlier that he didn’t really feel anything when gambling in poker, proudly announcing an absence of emotion. But something truly seemed to crackle as he gave Grafton a goodbye hug. They had become firm friends, and Chappe-Gatien was sorry to say goodbye.
Grafton and Chappe-Gatien bid farewell
The elimination, however, left us with just those two — and a hefty lead with Grafton. It was approximately 70 big blinds to 16, but Loeliger won the first all-in pot, with beating Grafton’s thanks to a king on the river.
The second all-in, call, also went to Loeliger, and this time the river saved him again. Grafton had to Loeliger’s . There was a king on the flop, but Loeliger had a flush draw on the turn and spiked a five on the river to survive.
When they got it in for a third time, Grafton had the advantage once more, but nobody was counting any chickens. Grafton had to Loeliger’s , and there was a flop of . It should have been over, but then the came on the turn and everyone held their breath.
Linus Loeliger refused to die
The river finally allowed everyone to exhale. We were done, and Grafton was the inaugural Coin Rivet champion. He has come a long way.
A first champion from Cyprus: Christopher Philippou
All the hullaballoo in the tournament room at the Triton Super High Roller Series in Cyprus last night was focused on Day 2 of the Coin Rivet Invitational. It was playing into the money and beyond. But on three, then two and then one table across the room, Triton was naming its newest champion.
The $25,000 Pot Limit Omaha event played out in its entirety in relative silence on Sunday, September 11, and Cyprus-based Christopher Philippou claimed the very first major tournament score of his career — and it was a first-place on the world’s most prestigious tour.
Philippou beat a field of 32 entries, including nine re-entries, to claim at $270,000 prize. The final table gives an indication of the quality of the players defeated: Eric Seidel was knocked out in sixth, Stephen Chidwick made it to fourth and Philippou beat Talal Shakerchi heads-up to claim the prize.
Shakerchi had a healthy chip lead when it was just him and Philippou at the table, but Philippou was able to turn it around and wrap up the win just after 3am local time. His only other documented tournament cash came in an online WSOP event, where he finished 63rd in a $1,500 PLO event in 2020.
Heads up between Talal Shakerchi and Christopher Philippou
This is therefore a breakout success for him, against a small but exceptionally tough field. We hope it won’t be Philippou’s last appearance on the Triton Super High Roller series.
Event 7: $25,000 Pot Limit Omaha Dates: September 11, 2022 Entries: 32 (inc. 9 re-entries) Prize pool: $800,000
1 – Christopher Philippou, Cyprus – $270,000
2 – Talal Shakerchi, UK – $190,000
3 – Iurii Anisimov, Russia – $120,000
4 – Stephen Chidwick, UK – $92,000
5 – Gregoire Auzoux, France – $72,000
6 – Erik Seidel, USA – $56,000
The Coin Rivet Invitational is now 10 levels old, and that means registration is closed. It also means we now know specifically how big this thing is — and the answer is, pretty darn big.
There were 115 entries to the tournament, including 25 re-entries. That means there is $23 million in the prize-pool, with the winner now set to receive $5.5 million. The first 17 players will be paid, as we re-define the “min” in min-cash. The lowest payout is $380,000.
This is officially the second biggest tournament ever held on the Triton Series, behind only the 2019 Helping Hand for Charity event, with its £1 million buy-in.
Whatever way we look at it, this is a huge, huge success. When organisers first considered this tournament, the belief was that it might attract around 20-25 partnerships. But that number continued to go up and up, right up until the final moment that registration was permitted.
We ended up with 45 partnerships, i.e., 90 players, of whom 25 were knocked out and re-entered. There were also some players who opted not to exercise their option to re-enter. One and done.
However from now on, this is a freezeout. Lose your chips now, and the game is up. The other thing that has changed now is the tournament format. For Levels 11 and 12, tables are balanced with four pros and four recreational players. But there will be a full redraw after Level 12, mixing the field entirely.
It’s real poker now, folks. And soon it’s going to be time to name a few more millionaires.
The Coin Rivet Invitational got started at the Triton Super High Roller Series in Northern Cyprus today, pitting the world’s elite poker pros against high-rolling VIP businesspeople in a unique format poker tournament.
All entrants were required to stump up $200,000 to play, but just having the money wasn’t enough to gain entry. One half of the field comprises those recreational players, all keen poker enthusiasts but people with other, more significant income streams. Each of the VIPs was permitted to invite one poker pro to play the tournament too, with the two halves of the field remaining separate for the first day of play.
That restriction essentially means two separate tournaments running concurrently for the first day, before the fields merge on Day 2. It introduces ICM considerations for the pros from the very outset, with them keen not to bust before getting the chance to play against opposition from outside the game’s elite.
It also meant that the table draw, conducted in a grand ceremony at the Triton player’s party on the eve of the event, was taken very seriously. The partnerships were called onto the stage by MC Andy Rowe and then drew their seat cards from separate pots, determining where they would sit. There wasn’t much value to be had, with pros certain to be matched only with other pros, but it was important still to know the scale of the task, and to then dash away to study the competition. The full table draw for the start of the tournament is below.
Sosia Jiang and Jason Koon choose their seat cards
The tournament was then due to kick off at 4pm on Saturday, after formal introductions in the main congress centre of the Merit Royal Resort. There was a rare sense of anticipation as the players, their friends and family gathered. Organisers insisted the entire field was seated at the very start of play, to ensure pros didn’t opt instead to merely arrive when the fields were about to combine. The happy knock-on effect was a busy tournament room right from the start, and a crackling atmosphere.
Eventually, Rowe completed the “Shuffle up and deal!” and the tournament began. And as if to mark the grandness of the occasion, the first man out was Phil Ivey. That doesn’t happen to often either.
Here are some photos from the player party and table draw from Joe Giron/Poker Photo Archive.
Wai Kin Yong and Linus LoeligerFelipe Ramos and Shaun PerryElton Tsang and Mikita BadziakouskiMelika RazaviTable/Seat Draw
COIN RIVET INVITATIONAL
STARTING SEAT DRAW
BUSINESSPEOPLE
TABLE 1
1 Ivan Leow
2 Elias Talvtie
3 Leon Tsoukernik
5 Theis Hennebjerre
6 James Bord
7 Ali Reza Fatehi
8 Santhosh Suvarna
9 Aleksei Platonov
TABLE 2
1 Elton Tsang
2 Kent Staahle
3 Ewlong Zhou
5 David Einhorn
6 Jean Noel Thorel
7 Richard Yong
8 Kerem Tibuk
9 Kannapong Thanarattrakul
TABLE 3
1 Sosia Jiang
2 Horace Wei
3 Punnat Punsri
6 Phachara Wongwichit
7 Tony Guoga
8 Sam Miller
9 Unlu Sinan
TABLE 5
1 Ramin Hajiyev
2 Ashkan Fattahi
3 Eric Worre
5 Paul Newey
6 Feng Yu
8 Paul Phua
9 Johan Guilbert
TABLE 6
1 Philip Sternheimer
2 Amit Kanodia
3 Talal Shakerchi
5 Scott Ball
6 Morten Klein
8 Andrew Pantling
9 Karl Gatien
TABLE 7
1 Rob Yong
2 Wai Kin Yong
3 David Nicholson
5 Phillip Nagy
6 Sean Perry
7 Melika Razavi
8 Chin Wei Lim
9 Vadim Godzdanker
PROS
TABLE 8
2 Viktor Kudinov
3 Rui Cao
5 Benjamin Tollerene
6 Felipe Ramos
7 Barak Wisbrod
8 Ebony Kenney
9 Christoph Vogelsang
TABLE 9
1 Sam Greenwood
2 Albert Daher
3 Nick Petrangelo
5 Artur Martirosyan
6 Chris Brewer
7 Jason Koon
8 Danny Tang
9 Kahle Burns
TABLE 10
1 Phil Ivey
2 Stephen Chidwick
3 Tom Vogelsang
5 Linus Loeliger
6 Michael Zhang
7 Daniel Cates
8 Benjamin Heath
9 Viacheslav Buldygin
TABLE 11
1 Adrian Mateos
3 Michael Addamo
5 Fedor Holz
6 Luuk Gieles
7 Yuri Dzivelevski
8 Isaac Haxton
9 Mustapha Kanit
TABLE 12
1 Sam Grafton
2 Matthias Eibinger
3 Espen Uhlen Jørstad
5 Wiktor Malinowski
6 Henrik Hecklen
7 Patrik Antonius
8 Erik Seidel
9 Steve O’Dwyer
Kahle Burns marked his return to the Triton Series with the biggest cash of his career
In recent years, the high stakes poker scene has been a happy hunting ground for Australian players — or, more specifically, one Australian player, named Michael Addamo. But tonight at the Triton Super High Roller Series in Northern Cyprus, the biggest prize of the series so far was secured by another player from Down Under, a man who was swimming in the Triton waters before Addamo.
Kahle Burns picked up his biggest previous tournament score at one of Triton’s first events, finishing third in Macau, for $1.3 million, in October 2017. But nearly five years later, Burns is back, and this time he has gone even better.
Burns won the $75,000 buy-in Event #5 in the early hours of Saturday morning, banking a new career best of $1.73 million. He defeated Canada’s Sam Greenwood heads up, with the runner-up also taking a seven-figure score.
“I guess I’m just lucky,” Burns said, when asked how it felt to have come back to the Triton series and immediately secured a win. “I took some time off, spent some time with my girlfriend, my family. When you travel a lot, you start to miss some things. I was missing my friends, missing my family. But then I started to miss the poker, so I came back.”
Kahle Burns was running good
This was a titanic battle, playing long into the night, and with the Triton Player’s Party starting and then finishing before this tournament was done. The final card came down at 2.23am, ending Greenwood’s pursuit of a maiden title, but adding Burns’s name to that particularly prestigious roll call.
He also won the Shamballa Jewels bracelet, and the biggest cash of his career.
FINAL DAY ACTION
Although plenty of the chatter in the tournament room was focused on the Coin Rivet Invitational, whose table draw was due to take place today ahead of the event tomorrow, registration was still open at the start of play in this $75K tournament, where big money was certain. In all, there were 88 entries, which guaranteed a very long day as they looked for the two millionaires.
The early stages went as expected, with players gradually drifting away without a cash. And then the bubble was navigated fairly smoothly too, with Burns knocking out Sean Perry in 14th. Perry ran into Burns’s pocket aces, having flopped what he thought was top pair with his own .
Sean Perry bursts the bubble
Laszlo Bujtas, Michael Soyza and Pedro Garagnani were then knocked out, securing a cash but missing out on the final.
With 10 left, they went to dinner, but hadn’t been back long before a double knockout took us down to a final table. Both Bruno Volkmann and Jonathan Jaffe were short stacked on the same table and action folded to Volkmann on the button. The Brazilian moved in for his last six big blinds, prompting Sam Greenwood, in the small blind, to re-shove with about 20 bigs. Jaffe then looked down at in the big blind and decided to commit his last 15 bigs with that.
Volkmann also had an ace — — but the problem was that Greenwood not only had the biggest stack, he had a better ace than all of them, with .
The dealer provided no help for either Volkmann or Jaffe and they went out in 10th ($145,000, Volkmann) and ninth ($185,000, Jaffe) respectively.
Event #5 final table players (clockwise from top left): Linus Loeliger, Artem Vezhenkov, Kahle Burns, Seth Davies, Sam Greenwood, Santhost Suvarna, Talal Shakerchi, Yuri Dzivielevski.
The eight-handed final table stacked up like this:
Although he was propping up the counts, there was no question as to who was the happiest player to be sitting at the final table. Santhost Suvarna was at his first Triton Series stop, here to play in the Coin Rivet Invitational, but having previously recorded documented tournament cashes only in his native India. They added up to only around $18,000, so this was a major step up in both stakes and competition.
Making it all the way to eighth had attracted a busy rail of at least five friends or family members. Event when Suvarna lost his final pot, with beaten by , Suvarna’s supporters cheered. They accompanied him to the payouts desk where $245,000 was waiting for him. That will be an enormous confidence boost ahead of the big one tomorrow.
Santhosh Suvarna: A first Triton cash
The next player out was Artem Vezhenkov, who had made the money for the second time on this, his debut trip to the Triton Series. After a 10th-place finish in the $25K first event of the week, he earned himself $315K for his run to seventh — and it might have been more had Kahle Burns not rivered a straight with a dominated hand.
Vezhenkov raised from early position pre-flop with and Burns defended his big blind with . They saw a flop of and Burns’s bet was called by Vezhenkov. That took them to the turn.
Burns, with a straight draw and a live nine too, moved all-in, covering Vezhenkov comfortably. Vezhenkov called and was ahead, but the hit Burns and sent Vezhankov out.
Artem Vezhenkov: Two in a week
The pot put Burns into the chip lead, but Seth Davies retook supremacy in a pot that terminally damaged Linus Loeliger’s chances in the event. Loeliger got aggressive with a three-bet shove from the big blind after Davies’ button open. Loeliger, with 2.6 million in his stack, covered Davies’ 2.1 million.
It wasn’t really about Loeliger’s . He was presumably hoping for a fold, against a light button open. But Davies had it this time, specifically , and Loeliger paid dearly for the bad timing.
His stack was cut to shreds and he perished at the hands of Burns not long later. Loeliger won $400,000 for sixth.
Linus Loeliger with the mistimed push
Dzivielevski assumed the five-handed chip lead after turning a straight against Burns and extracting all the value, but as the levels grew shorter, owing to the reduced number of players, the stacks grew shorter, applying pressure to everyone else.
Talal Shakerchi’s stack was the next to vanish. He lost a huge pot when Dzivielevski forced him to fold with a big river shove, looking at a board of , and Greenwood hoovered up the last, winning a race with against Shakerchi’s pocket twos.
Shakerchi’s last appearance on the Triton Series was in London in 2019, where he played the £1 million Helping Hand for Charity event. And he’s in town this week for the Coin Rivet, of course. He’ll obviously be happy with a $510,000 score by way of warm up.
Talal Shakerchi in town for the big one
Four players now remained, and they were four of the very best. It seemed highly unlikely that there would be any false steps, so the gods would have a large part to play in how the remaining $4.5 million would be divvied up. Both Burns and Dzivielevski entered a period where they couldn’t win a pot. Dzivielevski in particular doubled up both Davies and then Greenwood, slipping out of the chip lead to become the man most under threat.
He survived another few orbits but the first time Dzivielevski was all-in and under threat, he was out. His lost to Burns’ when the smaller ace rivered a wheel.
Dzivielevski has had a decent week, with a second place in the $30K, where he won $750K, and now a fourth for another $630K. It can’t be long until a trophy is heading to Brazil, likely in his luggage.
Yuri Dzivielevski endured a rough ride short-handed
The three remaining players — two north Americans and an Australian — had only 70 big blinds between them, but they were evenly spread. It meant some cagey play and chips gradually moving in one direction and then back again. As the blinds went up again, it got even more swingy, with each player holding the chip lead and then each surrendering it. There were no fewer than six double-ups as the chips began to fly, with Burns coming out on the right side of most of them.
After Burns won a huge one from Davies — Burns had against Davies’ and hit an ace — Davies was back on the ropes. The next hand he was out, as Burns found aces and Davies had . Davies flopped a queen, but it wasn’t enough.
Davies continues to go deep but was still unable to get over the line. He took $815K for third.
Seth Davies ran into Burns on a heater
The remaining two were both now millionaires, but both obviously still very keen to win their first Triton trophy. Burns had a better than three-to-one chip lead, with 34 BBs versus Greenwood’s 10.
In these circumstances, it couldn’t really be a long heads-up battle, and the first all-in confrontation ended it. Burns had to Greenwood’s pocket fours, but hit a seven to lock it up.
A near miss for Sam Greenwood
“Good game, my friend,” Burns said as he shook Greenwood’s hand. Both will be very content with their result.
“If you enter a tournament, you know you’re not really supposed to win it,” Burns said. “So you always have to get lucky…I do what I think is good. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.”
Champion Pieter Aerts claimed the spoils only two days after a sickening bubble
The best thing about these long stops on the Triton Series is that no matter how badly it goes one day, there’s always a chance for redemption soon after.
Just ask Pieter Aerts.
Back on Tuesday night, Aerts was the bubble boy in Event #2, busting just one agonising spot short of the money in the €30K 6-Handed tournament. But two days later, Aerts is now a Triton champion, picking up $1,472,000 alongside his first Triton trophy as the winner of the €50K 6-Max in Cyprus tonight.
“Obviously, I feel very, very good,” Aerts said, clutching that trophy alongside his exclusive Shamballa Jewels bracelet, handed to winners at Triton Cyprus. “I got luck to be in this position, but I guess that’s always the case.”
Aerts revealed that he originally had a flight back to his native Belgium booked for today, but changed it so he could play the final table. The same thing had happened a few weeks ago, when he had a flight booked on the day he also made it to the final of a World Series event on GG Poker. Aerts changed his flight that day too and went on to win the bracelet.
If anyone needs the phone number of Aerts’ lucky travel agent, he could probably auction it to the highest bidder.
Aerts defeated the British pro Sam Grafton heads up, after those two were the final players left of a 117-entry field. The luck Aerts referred to in his interview came on the final hand, when he managed to spike a deuce to eliminate Grafton when Grafton had a dominating ace in an all-in pot. But having suffered that bubble experience, it’s difficult to begrudge him the victory this time. Grafton will surely be content with $994,500 for second.
Aerts paid tribute to all of his beaten opponents, as well as the staff of the Triton Series, and his supporters watching the stream.
“These events are top notch,” he said. “It’s been such a good experience…It’s something I hope all poker players can have. I want to thank everyone who was railing me at home.”
A champion’s fist-clench for Pieter Aerts
Aerts finished his winner’s interview by issuing an open invitation to any watching businesspeople who might be considering a late entry to the $200,000 Coin Rivet Invitational, starting on Saturday.
If someone wants a player in form, Aerts will surely happily change his flight again…
FINAL DAY ACTION
With 36 players surviving the 12 levels of the opening day, everyone in the tournament room at the Merit Diamond resort knew they were in for a long day today. We had to find a winner, and stacks were deep at the start.
The first significant order of business was the bubble, which would burst when only 17 remained. As is typical, the tournament flowed quickly as the bubble remained in the distance, but then slowed significantly as it loomed clearly into view. It took 11 hands of hand-for-hand play on three tables before Vladi Chaoulov, who had been chip leader earlier in the day, became the player to leave with nothing.
Chaoulov lost two major pots, both to Fedor Holz and both with less than premium holdings — and — although it was probably only because Holz had trips and then a straight, respectively, that he was able to pick him off. Chaoulov had merely mistimed his aggression and paid the price.
With Chaoulov gone, the rest of the field could relax and pick up a minimum of $92,000 apiece — although all, of course, were still focused on the first seven-figure payday of the festival.
Post-bubble, all of Espen Jorstad, Paul Phua and Jason Koon, among others, were swept away, and when Thailand’s Punnat Punsi hit the rail in eighth, the last seven assembled around just one table. It was a six-handed tournament, but they don’t play with a four/three divide.
Event #3 unofficial final table (l-r): Kannapong Thanarattrakul, Fedor Holz, Ben Tollerene, Matthias Eibinger, Sam Grafton, Isaac Haxton, Pieter Aerts.
Holz was still in a clear lead, and his closest challenger was the bubble boy of Event 2, Pieter Aerts, who had this time made the most of surviving through the earlier dangers. Kannapong Thanarattrakul was at his second final table of the week as was Ben Tollerene, of course, who was yesterday’s champion.
They stacked up like this:
Fedor Holz, Germany – 6,030,000
Pieter Aerts, Belgium – 4,590,000
Kannapong Thanarattrakul, Thailand – 3,545,000
Matthias Eibinger, Austria – 3,145,000
Sam Grafton, UK – 2,110,000
Benjamin Tollerene, USA – 2,040,000
Isaac Haxton, USA – 1,790,000
The seven-handed stage went on far longer than anyone could have expected and, for some people, far longer than they could possibly have wanted. Chief among them was Holz, whose previously unimpeachable stack suddenly took a nosedive. He lost a major pot to Aerts when the two leaders got involved in something that got badly out of hand. Holz had three-bet pre-flop with and continued to tell the same story of strength after the flop (it went bet, raise, call here) and then after the turn. That’s the point at which Aerts shoved for his last 2.3 million and Holz called.
There have been a lot of amazing hero calls already in this Triton festival, but this wasn’t one of the successful occasions. Aerts had pocket jacks and was good, scoring the full double. It left Holz with only 2.3 million, but when he found a pair of jacks of his own a few hands later, both Kannapong Thanarattrakul and Ben Tollerene had ace-king and ended up chopping it up on the river when a king fell. Holz was walking away as they divvied up his chips, picking up $260,300 for seventh and a second cash in consecutive days.
Fedor Holz heads away in sixth
Isaac Haxton became the next man to hit the rail, having not really been able to do much more than tread water at the final. His elimination was one of those unfortunate ones that plays itself: Matthias Eibinger open-shoved the button with a stack that covered both Sam Grafton, in the small blind, and Haxton, in the big.
Grafton got out of the way, but Haxton’s pocket eights were way ahead of Eibinger’s shoving range in this spot and he called. Eibinger had but hit his ace to send Haxton packing. His sixth place paid $340,300.
Adios Ike Haxton
It was about this point that Sam Grafton began an exceptional resurrection. Grafton had been the short stack for quite a while, essentially clinging on for dear life. But he managed to double up through Haxton, Eibinger and Tollerene, making him far more comfortable as each of those three went broke.
Sam Grafton’s resurrection picks up pace
Eibinger lost a heap in the pot against Grafton — vs. — and the rest of it went to Tollerene with against Eibinger’s . Eibinger won $431,800 for fifth.
The end of the road for Matthias Eibinger
But Tollerene followed him quickly out of the door, getting outdrawn by Aerts’ . This was only Tollerene’s third Triton tournament and he followed up yesterday’s outright victory with a fourth-place finish, worth $535,000. Easy when you know how.
Ben Tollerene learns that you can’t win them all
While the back-to-back final-table exploits of Tollerene and Holz did not go unnoticed, only one player in today’s final had cashed all three of the opening events in this festival. That man was Thailand’s Kannapong Thanarattrakul, who finished seventh in Event #1 for $145K and 10th in Event #2 for $75,000. He was also now in the final three of Event #3, and although he went out next, he banked another $646,500.
Grafton and Aerts combined to account for Thanarattrakul, with Grafton’s pocket fours taking a chunk, followed by Aerts’s pocket sixes. The final sliver went to Aerts when Thanarattrakul pushed with and Aerts called and won with .
Two cashes in as many days for Kannapong Thanarattrakul
Aerts had a significant chip lead when heads-up play began — around 16 million to Grafton’s 6.5 million. But the big blind was 250,000, so there might still have been some play in it yet. However after about half an hour of play with no significant chip fluctuations, the first major pot of heads-up ended up being the last.
Aerts, in the small blind, looked down at and just called. Grafton, with a stack of 6.7 million, found and raised it up.
Heads up betwen Grafton and Aerts
Aerts pushed all-in, with a covering stack of about 17 million, and Grafton snap-called. This was looking like a great spot for another Grafton double up, and the flop was clean. But the popped out on the turn, vaulting Aerts into the lead, and he never let it go.
“My birthday in coming up in two weeks, so me and my friends are going to have a pretty big celebration,” Aerts said, revelling in this second triumph. Start looking for flights to Belgium.
Ben Tollerene, champion on only his second Triton Series outing!
Another intriguing tournament on the Triton Super High Roller Series concluded in Northern Cyprus tonight with a heads-up battle between two Triton newcomers and another masterclass in short-stack play.
The trend during recent tournaments on this series is for huge-field events to become very shallow-stacked during the closing stages, with an assortment of GTO masters demonstrating a computer-like grasp of ICM considerations too.
This latest example came in the $30,000 buy-in Event #2, where the final three players from a 123-entry field were Stephen Chidwick, Yuri Dzivelevski and Ben Tollerene. The former of those is a Triton veteran, but he perished in third, leaving Tollerene and Dzivelevski heads-up to decide who took a maiden title in what was only a second Triton tournament for both of them.
They chopped it heads up, based on chip stacks at the time, securing Tollerene at least $777,927 and Dzivelevski at least $749,073. But with $30,000 left on the side to play for, the winner would also take the most money, alongside the Shamballa Jewels bracelet, the trophy and the bragging rights.
Luca Vivaldi oversees the deal between Yuri Dzivelevski and Ben Tollerene
After a short battle, and a couple of pendulum swings, it was Tollerene who ended up taking all of that swag, notching his first Triton title and keeping Brazil waiting for its first. Tollerene, a good friend of the Triton Ambassador Jason Koon, was happy that his buddy had finally persuaded him to come along.
“I’m very tired,” Tollerene said in his winner’s interview. “I was sort of stressed because I haven’t played poker in a while and I was struggling to remember everything.”
But he certain got back into the swing pretty easily, and his $807,000 score is a nice way to start your Triton career.
FINAL DAY ACTION
After a prolonged bubble period last night, 17 players returned today safely in the money, but with a long way still to go until the six-handed final table. Some of those at the top of the overnight counts couldn’t make it through, but others went in the opposite direction. Both Tollerene and Dzivelevski, for instance, had been in the bottom half of the counts overnight, but took their place at the final less than 14 hours later.
The overnight leader was Viktor Kudinov, who prospered especially on the bubble by making a huge call for his tournament life against Tollerene. But it was Kudinov’s departure in seventh, losing a race with to Dzivelevski’s that turned the unofficial to the official final.
Event 2 final seven (l-r): Yuri Dzivelevski, Viktor Kudinov, Alex Keating, Ben Tollerene, Fedor Holz, Stephen Chidwick, Ignacio Moron Chavero
Here’s how they lined up with six left, all peering up at Dzivelevski, but with not much between them.
Yuri Dzivelevski – 5.4 million
Fedor Holz – 4.825 million
Ignacio Moron Chavero – 4.625 million
Ben Tollerene – 3.725 million
Stephen Chidwick – 3.425 million
Alex Keating – 2.6 million
This then turned into one of those final tables that could have been over in the blink of an eye but somehow transpired to take far longer. It was because of a number of double-ups with six players still involved.
All of Alex Keating, Chidwick and Ignacio Moron Chavero managed to get their chips in good and stick around, even as the stacks went through their familiar shallowing. We were even looking like getting to a stage of play where there would be 60 big blinds between six players, but then the dam broke.
Chavero, another player making his Triton debut in Cyprus, picked up his first cash in this, his second event, but ultimately he wasn’t able to spin it up into a win. He became the first elimination from the final losing with to Dzivelevski’s . A ten fell on the river, and Chavero earned $215,000 for sixth place.
Ignacio Moron Chavero: First cash for newcomer from Spain
As ever, viewers on the Triton live stream had been enjoying watching these elite talents do battle with one another, but one personal battle had been getting them especially excited. Holz was sitting to the right of Chidwick, and two of the modern game’s great starers had been giving each other eyes from close quarters. It helped, of course, that they were also playing perfect poker, three-betting when they had to, and folding losers when that was required.
Unfortunately even great talents like this couldn’t do much with stacks so short, and this particular sub-plot ended when Holz busted to Tollerene. Holz raised from his stack of abut six big blinds with . Tollerene defended his big blind with and flopped top-pair queens.
Holz jammed with a backdoor flush draw and one overcard, but the board bricked out and Tollerene’s hand held. Holz looked amazed to be out, but he’ll take $272,300 and almost certainly reinvest it in the next tournament on the schedule.
An eyeball-popping elimination for Fedor Holz
That left four players, three of whom had not been to any previous Triton events. But all of them were making the right moves at the right time, including Keating, who just happened to be the next man out. Keating’s stack kept dipping then doubling, dipping then doubling, but then he lost what turned out to a decisive pot against Tollerene when Keating shoved the button and ran into a hand.
Keating had and Tollerene had . They both flopped a pair, but aces are always bigger than deuces. Keating finally perished two hands later with to Dzivelevski’s , but he only had one big blind. Keating won $337,500.
A battling Alex Keating says goodbye
The next man out was Chidwick, the current leader of the Triton Player of the Year race, who had had such an incredible run in Madrid earlier this summer. Chidwick’s push to this final table proved again that he has lost none of his appetite, and he took another $408,000 for his third place here.
Chidwick had tormented everyone when he had a big stack, but was forced to pick his spots with care, like everyone else, once those stacks grew shorter. He actually found what looked like a perfect moment to force through a bluff — he had looking at a flop of — but Dzivelevski made a good read to pick him off with ace-high.
Stephen Chidwick dazzling with his Jacob & Co watch
Chidwick still has his Main Event winner’s watch glinting under the studio lights, even though he’s not going to win them all.
With just two of them left, they quickly decided to do a chip-chop. Tollerene had the slightly bigger stack and took the bigger share, and there was every indication immediately that the two of them were prepared to embrace the volatility of this heads-up battle.
Dzivelevski scored a massive double up with beating Tollerene’s . But then Tollerene managed to battle back into it, and secured a double up of his own with beating .
Yuri Dzivielevski settles for second
The final hand was a cracker, playing through all the streets, with Tollerene limping from the small blind, setting a trap with . Dzivelevski checked his option with . The flop was , giving both top pair. Tollerene bet, Dzivelevski raised and Tollerene called.
Then the turn was what Dzivelevski must have considered the gin card. It was the . It went bet, raise, call again, with the Brazilian hoping for a double up. However the river gave Tollerene a better two pair, and that’s where the rest of the chips went in. Tollerene was the champion.
Koon gave him a huge hug and Tollerene looked a little shell-shocked that his return to poker after his extended break could be so successful so quickly. And the series is barely started yet…
Jason Koon persuaded his friend Tollerene to come to the Triton Series
The bubble period in any poker tournament always offers some prospects of high tension, and even though the super high rollers like to project a feeling of weary indifference, it’s actually very clear how much it means to them when you see it up close on the tournament floor.
Event 2 of this year’s Triton Super High Roller Series stop in Cyprus brought us a really thrilling bubble period late last night, complete with four short-stack double ups (or bubble-ups, to use an alternative term) and then a sickener for a Triton newcomer.
The event was a $30,000 6-Max tournament, with the biggest field ever assembled on the Triton Series for a 6-Max event. There were 123 entries, wiht 46 re-entries, which meant a $3.69 million prize pool, a top prize of $930,000 and, crucially, only 17 players to be paid.
As the tournament clock closed in on the end of Level 17, the scheduled end of the day, the tournament reached the stone bubble with 18 players left. All 18 agreed to play on until the money was reached, and that brought us the exciting passage of play described below.
Bubble-up 1: Garagnani through Yong
Pedro Garagnani’s joy as Jason Koon walks away in disgust
The first bubble-up came on Table 3, i.e., the only table not on the television stage. It came about after Stephen Chidwick, with a big stack, made an early-position raise and Kannapong Thanarattrakul called on the button. Pedro Garagnani, the table short stack, was sitting in the small blind with only 270K in his stack, but he had looked down at . With so much money in the pot already, and a premium holding, he sigh-shoved it in.
But if he’d have hoped for quick folds, he was immediately disappointed. Wai Kin Yong, in the big blind, re-shoved for 1.7 million. The others did now quickly fold.
Both players now let out a chuckle when hands went on their backs because Yong had the same: . “Anyone suited?” said Jason Koon, who had abandoned his short stack on Table 2 to come over a see what might happen here. Noticing they were both off-suit, Koon said, “Boring.”
But it turned out to be anything but.
The dealer put the flop out there: and Garagnani now realised he had forgotten which ace-queen was his. He was relieved to find out that his was the hand with the in it.
When the turn brought the , Garagnani started to believe. And the river gave him the flush and the full double-up. He clenched his fist in celebration, as Koon wandered away muttering expletives under his breath.
Bubble-up 2: Koon through Keating and Dzivielevski
Jason Koon’s prayers were answered with a triple up
After witnessing one of his principal bubble rivals double, Koon was now the man under most threat. And on the next hand, he open-raised to 200,000 from a stack of 235,000, leaving himself just enough to see another hand if things got weird.
Both Alex Keating and Yuri Dzivielevski, in small and big blinds, respectively, called Koon’s bet, and they saw the flop of . After two checks, Koon pushed the 35K forward, and he picked up two calls.
Koon was now all-in, but there was betting still between Keating and Dzivielevski, so cards stayed face down after the turn. Both active players checked. That brought the on the river and two more checks.
As this was playing out, another massive pot was going down back on Table 3, where two big stacks were playing through every street. So it meant Koon, Keating and Dzivielevski had to keep their hands concealed still.
That other hand also ended with a shove and a call — details below — so tournament director Luca Vivaldi told the Table 3 players to wait and scooted over to Table 2 to see the result of this one first.
Koon tabled for a flopped pair of jacks, and both his opponents mucked. That was a triple up for the Triton Ambassador.
Bubble-up 3: Kudinov through Tollerene
Viktor Kudinov ponders a tournament-defining decision
Bubble play is usually only really stressful for the short-stacked players who have little fold equity and who know that one false move or bad beat could spell disaster. But sometimes you also get two huge stacks going at it, potentially lighting on fire hundreds of thousands of dollars of tournament equity, else putting themselves firmly in a position to win heaps. These pots usually start off as a kind of sub-plot to the main bubble drama, but can quickly escalate.
That’s exactly what happened in the case of the second Table 3 skirmish of this bubble period, which played out immediately after the Garagnani/Yong confrontation, and concurrent to the Koon/Dzivielevski/Keating hand.
Ben Tollerene had been one of the tournament big stacks almost right from the very start, and was looking to exert more pressure on the medium stacks at his table during the bubble period. Tollerene made a standard opening raise to 110,000 from a 2.5 million stack and Viktor Kudinov, with 1.4 million, called from one seat to his left. The rest of the table folded.
The dealer put the flop out there and Tollerene bet 250,000. Kudinov called, seeing the on the turn. Tollerene kept with his story and bet 450,000. Kudinov still wasn’t giving up and called.
The river was the , surely a blank, but Tollerene emptied the clip and moved all-in, meaning Kudinov would need to call off everything he had to see a showdown.
Kudinov immediately pushed all of his time bank chips in front of him. There were at least eight of them. One by one they dwindled as time went past in 30 second intervals, and the dealer even had to give him “change” from his five time-bank chip. Eventually, with just 20 seconds left, Kudinov had had enough. He called, potentially ending his tournament right there.
“Hold it, Ben!” Vivaldi, the tournament director, said, as Tollerene went to show his cards. Vivaldi had to scoot over to Koon’s table, as detailed above, to oversee the triple up for Tollerene’s good friend.
By the time Vivaldi had come back, the atmosphere was relaxed on the Tollerene/Kudinov table because it seemed that Tollerene’s hand had been seen and the information perhaps relayed to Kudinov. Although the American had for top pair, Kudinov’s pocket jacks were good. He was going to pick up a huge double up and survive, leaving Tollerene back in the pack.
Bubble-up 4: Jorstad through Malikeh
The run-good continues for Espen Jørstad
The main feature table, Table 1, had three of the five shortest stacks at the start of bubble play, and after the two on the other tables both doubled, those three were now propping up the chip counts. The first of them to make a stand was the WSOP Main Event champion Espen Jorstad, who got his last few big blinds in and found a double too.
This one was relatively drama free. Razzavi Malikeh was very comfortable, with a huge stack, even though the other leader, Fedor Holz, was sitting to her left. Malikeh nonetheless opened this pot to 115K, from a 3.3 million stack, and Holz got out the way, as did Sam Greenwood to his left.
Jorstad, however, moved all-in for 235,000 and action passed back to Malikeh. “I can’t fold,” she said and tabled . Jorstad was in good shape with , but certainly not out of it.
This time the dealer did not provide any weirdness. The flop was entirely clean and the pocket pair held up, keeping Jorstad afloat.
Bubble bursts! Keating busts Aerts
A sickening end for Pieter Aerts
The tournament clock had ticked deep into Level 18 as all the bubble shenanigans played out, nearly a full level longer than had been originally planned. And then finally a short stack was unable to find a double up and the pressure finally abated.
The unfortunate player was Belgium’s Pieter Aerts, making his Triton debut here in Cyprus. And this was a forgettable end for him, coming in a blind-versus-blind encounter with Alex Keating.
Aerts, with a 510K stack, raised his small blind to 500K, another one of those “almost” all-ins, but not quite. Keating defended his big blind with a call.
The flop came and Aerts checked. Keating bet 50,000, asking Aerts to commit his last 10,000, which he did. But it was bad news for the Belgian.
Aerts had , and had a gutshot, but Keating had top pair with his . The turn and river were bricks, and a very sick Aerts made his way out the door.
The bags came out leaving the remaining 17 players in the money and heading to Day 2.
*****
End-of-day chip counts:
Viktor Kudinov 3,590,000
Malikeh Razavi 3,515,000
Fedor Holz 3,250,000
Wai Kin Yong 1,955,000
Stephen Chidwick 1,810,000
Ignacio Moron Chavero 1,645,000
Alex Keating 1,495,000
Kannapong Thanarattrakul 1,400,000
Yuri Dzivelevski 1,190,000
Pedro Garagnani 1,060,000
Benjamin Tollerene 965,000
Paul Phua 680,000
Jason Koon 630,000
Espen Joerstad 370,000
Artur Martirosyan 360,000
Nicolas Chouity 355,000
Sam Greenwood 345,000
The huge banners that hang from the walls of the Triton Series tournament rooms are a who’s who of poker’s most decorated players. Seemingly all of the brightest stars in the world game have won at least one event on this prestigious tour, and these banners are like a picture gallery of poker’s most elevated elite.
But until tonight, there was one very conspicuous absentee — and it happened to be one of the only poker players who could probably be considered pin-up material, even before you factor in his sensational poker skills.
Patrik Antonius has long been one of poker’s true poster boys, and now finally the flying Finn can join that gallery of stars. Antonius took down Event #1 of the Triton Super High Roller Series festival in Northern Cyprus, earning $825,000 for beating a record-breaking field of 131 entries. Long considered a cash-game titan, with a tournament game to stand comparison with anyone else’s, Antonius is now also a Triton champion. And it feels good.
“These are the nicest events that exist in poker…everything is top, top quality,” Antonius said as he reflected on his first tournament win since 2018. “They couldn’t do a better job. I’m happy to play these tournaments and I’m happy to win my first one. I’m happy. I’m happy.”
Antonius also becomes the first player to win an exclusive limited-edition Shamballa Jewels bracelet along with his trophy.
The exclusive Shamballa winner’s bracelet
Antonius beat Fahredin Mustafov heads-up, completing the job on a player who had earlier tried to run an audacious triple-barrel bluff on Antonius, resulting only in the Finn making a sensational hero call for his tournament life with nothing but a pair of deuces. It was a truly amazing call, following a truly audacious play from Mustafov, who was making a move with ten-high. It gave Antonius a lead three-handed that he never gave up.
Not even a classic Steve O’Dwyer rearguard action could halt Antonius, despite O’Dwyer clinging on with a short stack when it seemed impossible, and then building back from one chip to a playable stack. Antonius accounted for O’Dwyer in third ($362,000) and then Mustafov in second ($557,000) to give himself more than $800K to speculate through the remainder of this 15-event series.
FINAL DAY ACTION
The volatile nature of short-stacked tournament play was evident immediately on the resumption of play today, with the overnight leader, Paul Phua, becoming the first player knocked out. Other former big stacks, including Bruno Volkmann and Ivan Leow followed the Triton founder out the door before they reached a final table.
That particular milestone was reached when Artem Vezhenkov and Santi Jiang were eliminated all but simultaneously on neighbouring tables, taking a field from 10 to eight, and leaving the following to battle for the biggest money.
Cyprus Event #1 final table players. Clockwise from top left: Fahredin Mustafov, Danny Tang, Kannapong Thanarattrakul, Viacheslav Buldygin, Patrik Antonius, Ebony Kenney, Steve O’Dwyer, Seth Davies.
It was truly anybody’s game at this stage, but some patterns began to emerge. Antonius, in particular, seized his opportunity to begin some upward momentum, while O’Dwyer drew on all of his experience to know precisely when to make his moves.
Meanwhile, those first-timers, led by Ebony Kenney, were enjoying their time at their debut final table. The conversation was flowing, even as the state of the stacks left the order of eliminations largely in the lap of the gods.
The Triton regular Seth Davies was the first to bust from the final table, taking the first six-figure pay-day of this Cyprus stop. Davies had when Fahredin Mustafov had pocket sixes and the pocket pair held up. Davies’ padded his bank-roll to the tune of $109,500.
The end of the road for Seth Davies
The last Thai competitor, Kannapong Thanarattrakul, hit the rail next, speculating his last 10 big blinds with and also losing to a small pocket pair: this time, pocket fives with Antonius.
Kannapong Thanarattrakul
Antonius was also responsible for the next elimination, when his held up against Viacheslav Buldygin’s . Thanarattrakul took $145,700, while Buldygin won $190,500 for seventh and sixth place, respectively.
A decent run for Viacheslav Buldygin
Kenney was having a ball on her first visit to the Triton Series, having stepped up from a regular diet of $5K and smaller buy-ins to mix it in this rarefied company. Kenney was invited to Cyprus to partner Phil Nagy in the Coin Rivet Invitational, but also decided to get some experience at the high roller felt in the tournaments running up to that $200K buy-in event.
She later said that she had settled into the game very easily as players on her first table began discussing relationships and sex. But her poker game was also a match for her conversational dexterity and she cruised into the money — not many players notch a cash on their Triton debut — and she then became the first woman ever to feature at a Triton Series final table.
This particular party ended for Kenney when her last 10 big blinds went in with . But Mustafov had pocket kings and flopped another one, leaving Kenney drawing to running cards for a straight. They didn’t come and she was gone, picking up $240,500 and heaps of valuable experience for her next tilt at a title.
Ebony Kenney enjoyed a dream debut on the Triton Series
One of the players at Kenney’s first table yesterday, whose table chatter had helped her feel at home, was the Hong Kong-based Triton regular Danny Tang, and Tang had also made it to the final. He also ended up following Kenney out of the door in fourth. Tang now has nine cashes on the Triton Series, but had to make do with $300,000 for fourth place this time, losing his chips to Mustafov.
In his final hand, Tang’s rivered a straight, but Mustafov’s had made a flush. It all went in, and Tang was out.
Another Triton cash for Danny Tang
By this stage, O’Dwyer had seemed a certain bet to be out. He was a short stack before the bubble yesterday, and was down to literally one chip when they were four-handed, after losing a big hand against Mustafov. But he managed to crawl back from the dead to ladder up when Tang departed, and then gather a decent handful of chips thanks to flopping two pair with against Antonius’s .
One chip Steve O’DwyerMore chips!
However, Antonius got his revenge a little while later, getting to hold up against O’Dwyer’s . That send O’Dwyer into Event 2 with his $300K.
Antonius was purring, and you’ll do well to seek out footage of the hand he played against Mustafov when he called off his tournament life with on a board of . Mustafov, with , raised the button and then bet every single street.
Fahredin Mustafov: Couldn’t get past Antonius at the last
Antonius check-called all the way down, including the shove on the river, when staring at elimination. He burnt through all of his time-bank chips before coming to the right decision. “Take a bow, sir,” said Henry Kilbane in the commentary booth. It put the momentum fully with Antonius, and he never looked back.
After O’Dwyer went out, Mustafov and Antonius sat down for their heads-up battle, but it only ended up lasting three hands. Antonius this time flopped a straight with his and out-paced Mustafov’s . It’s the kind of hand that would have ended the tournament anyway, but it was what went before that proved once again just how formidable Antonius can be.
Antonius revels in his victory
“It has a special feel,” Antonius said. “All the top players are playing this tournament, so it’s nice to win, I have to say. It’s a nice way to start a series like this. It’s always a good feeling to win a tournament.”
. Badziakouski had earlier been all-in for this tournament life but survived, and now knocked out Ball. It guaranteed everyone at least $110,000, but nothing for Ball.
.
, which was clearly good enough to get it in. Eibinger had 
and Ponakovs was soon out, taking $140,000.
and Nagy called all in for his last handful of blinds with a dominating 
. A ten on the flop changed that, and finally released Nagy to go home. He said he was tired, and now had a cash of $185,000 to help him sleep.
when he got it in and might have hoped for a chop against Jaffe’s 
. But Jaffe ended up with trip fives and that was that for Badziakouski. He banked $245,000.
and there was no outdraw. It happened again soon after, with kings again finding their way into Eibinger’s hands. Jaffe this time had 
, but again the kings stayed good.
, picked off by Davies’ 
. 
against Chappe-Gatien’s 
, but then looked on impotently as Chappe-Gatien rivered a queen.
made a flush in a huge pot to beat Davies. And on the very next hand, they got it all in pre-flop with Chappe-Gatien’s 
making a straight to oust Davies’ 
. Davies, silent and stoic as ever, made his way to the payouts desk where $770,000 awaited him. But he must have been burning up inside.
. Ponakovs was exposed with a short stack then and Holz then found 
. That ended the tournament for Ponakovs and started the birthday party instead, with $1.375 million behind the bar.
. Then Grafton won a race with 
and this time there was no outdrawing Grafton’s 
thanks to a king on the river. 
to Loeliger’s 
. There was a king on the flop, but Loeliger had a flush draw on the turn and spiked a five on the river to survive.
, and there was a flop of 
. It should have been over, but then the 
river finally allowed everyone to exhale. We were done, and Grafton was the inaugural Coin Rivet champion. He has come a long way. 
— but the problem was that Greenwood not only had the biggest stack, he had a better ace than all of them, with 
.
beaten by 
and Burns’s bet was called by Vezhenkov. That took them to the 
turn.
and continued to tell the same story of strength after the 
and just called. Grafton, with a stack of 6.7 million, found 
. The flop was 
. The turn and river were bricks, and a very sick Aerts made his way out the door.
, raised the button and then bet every single street.
