“It’s mine!” Eibinger said, reaching for the trophy that had found its way to the table between him and Ben Heath, the last two players. Eibinger knew it might easily have gone any one of five or six other places, with Heath himself also very close to winning.
The tournament, a $50K no limit hold’em turbo, was a late addition to the schedule but proved to be supremely popular, with 41 entries generating a prize pool of $1,988,500.
All of the players in Triton events are so skilful that they know precisely how to navigate the most unpredictable tournament conditions, and circumstances dictated this time that it would end in a crazy crapshoot for hundreds of thousands of dollars after stacks got so short that practically every move was an all-in push.
This played into Eibinger’s hands, as he acknowledged at the end.
“For sure you can study these spots,” Eibinger said. “My background was sit and gos, hyper sit and gos, so I’m super confident with short stacks, with 10 big blinds and below. I liked it. I wasn’t used to everybody having three, four, five big blinds, but in the end things went for me. I was comfortable, and I was able to take it down. I’m really happy about that.”
He added: “I was really missing live poker a lot, so I was super happy when Triton announced this series. I just love it. I think every win is a little bit unique, but I think I’m especially happy about this one because Triton sets new standards for tournament series these days and being able to win one of them is really special to me.”
Eibinger’s victory, his first under the Triton branding, earned him a payday of $676,000. (By his own admission, he fired multiple bullets, so the profit wasn’t as much as it might seem.) Heath took $467,500 for second, with Mikita Badziakouski an unlucky third.
After the happy abandon of the late registration period, the tournament slimmed down to its final table in double-quick time. However, only six players were due to be paid, so making the final table alone was not good enough.
There followed an absolutely tortuous bubble period, where the clock kept relentlessly ticking but nobody was knocked out. That meant the number of big blinds in play lowered and lowered and lowered, until anything more than about seven big blinds was a big stack.
Chin Wei Lim was the shortest of all, and he he only had two big blinds when he was forced to put one in the pot involuntarily. Sam Greenwood opened from early position and Lim had little option to call, even though he had just 
.
Greenwood’s hand was 
and it held up. That meant we finally went down to the last six, guaranteed at least $139K each, and only 83 big blinds between them.
“I’m extremely unwilling to fold,” Chris Brewer said not long after. He had assumed the short stack after a couple of others had doubled. Ben Heath tested that resolve when he raised from the button with Brewer in the big blind.
Brewer instantly tossed in his last three big blinds for the call, but had run into a hand. Brewer’s 
was no match for Heath’s 
.
“I quit,” Brewer said sarcastically. “That’s frustrating,” he added with more sincerity. He won $139,000.
If it was any consolation, his compatriot Phil Ivey lasted only one more hand. Ivey shoved his own last three big blinds with king-queen and Badziakouski busted the American great. Ivey took $179,000.
There then followed some even more ridiculous short-stack action. Greenwood doubled through Badziakouski. Eibinger doubled through Greenwood. Eibinger doubled again through Heath. And then again. And then, finally, Greenwood was the next man out — and got a rough beat.
Greenwood’s last 1.6 million went in (eight big blinds) with 
and Heath called with 
. There was a two on the flop and Greenwood was gone. He won $228,500.
At this stage, Badziakouski was the big stack, as he had been for much of this final, and he was punishing his opponents with regular shoves. However, he went on a precipitous downswing three-handed as both Heath and Eibinger continued to double up through him.
At one stage, the three of them had almost identical stacks of 2.7 million (10 big blinds) each — “I’m the short stack and also the chip leader,” joked Eibinger — but he then assumed just the latter of those with the latest double through Badziakouski.
This one was 
versus 
of Badziakouski and it left the Belorussian with only 200,000, which was less than one big blind. “Just the starting stack,” Badziakouski said, dripping with gallows humour.
He was out next hand when Heath’s pocket threes stayed strong against 
. Badziakouski, a three-time Triton winner, couldn’t make it four. He took $298,500 for this result.
The pattern established early continued through heads-up play, with Heath getting lucky to double his short stack with 
against Eibinger’s 
. The king came on the flop.
But then Eibinger doubled back with 
against Heath’s 
.
The final hand came when Eibinger had a slight lead and 
to Heath’s 
. This time there was no outdraw, and Eibinger was the champion.
Eibinger has previously sat out the short deck events, so this might be his last appearance in a Triton branded event in Cyprus. But with the collaboration with the Super High Roller Bowl meaning there are plenty more no limit hold’em tournaments to come, back Eibinger to hit the money again.
TRITON CYPRUS SPECIAL EDITION
EVENT 6: $50K EIGHT-HANDED NLHE TURBO
Date: April 4, 2022
Entries: 41 (inc. 9 re-entries)
Prize pool: $1,988,500
1 – Matthias Eibinger, Austria, $676,000
2 – Ben Heath, UK, $467,500
3 – Mikita Badziakouski, Belarus, $298,500
4 – Sam Greenwood, Canada, $228,500
5 – Phil Ivey, USA, $179,000
6 – Chris Brewer, USA, $139,000
Photography by Joe Giron/PokerPhotoArchive