We’ve been here before.

Already No 1 on poker’s all-time money list, Bryn Kenney extended his lead at the top of the world by another $4.41 million tonight, taking down the latest no limit hold’em Main Event on the Triton Series, for yet another famous title.

Kenney was already a Triton champion when he won the biggest prize ever handed out on the tour, back in 2019 in London, and had three titles to his name when he sat down in the Salle des Etoiles in Monaco today. This was the final table of the $125,000 buy-in Main Event, and Kenney was one of nine left after the rest of this 159-entry field had departed.

He was, as is always his way, the unstoppable force. He’ll be the first to admit he needed a huge slice of good fortune to defeat Malaysia’s Wai Leong Chan heads-up. But Kenney puts himself in the right position so many times that these things happen. It was another spectacular performance from the scintillating New Yorker, who is now a two-time Main Event champion too.

“Crazy,” an exasperated Kenney said when asked to describe this latest triumph. “It’s a bit surreal for sure. It’s amazing to be up here. Just super blessed and grateful for what the cards life gives me.”

As he takes career poker earnings past $70 million, Kenney was asked what the secret is.

“Never give up, that’s the secret, for sure,” he said. “Everyone has their roller coaster, their wave that they’re on…You just got to hang on for the ride. Give it your best, don’t let things get you down and never stop fighting.”

He committed himself to more of the same in the future. “Just stay on the wave and see where it takes me,” he said.

Chan will take plenty of sympathy for how this turned out. The Malaysian, at his 12th final table, had Kenney all-in and behind during heads up play, but watched his American opponent spike a five-outer on the river to survive, double up, and build an insurmountable lead.

Chan’s consolation prize was $2,970,000 for his runner-up finish, while Punnat Punsri, also chasing a second Main Event victory of his own, banked $2,045,000 for third.

Kenney’s prize included an exclusive Jacob & Co timepiece, reserved only for winners of Triton Series Main Events. It was his first, having picked up his first Main Event win before the partnership with the master watchmaker.

As ever, Kenny was humbled and a little stunned by his success. “I’ve put my life into poker,” he said. “It’s been quite the mountain climbing. Incredibly lucky, grateful, blessed.”

TOURNAMENT ACTION

The tournament began three days ago, and while its buy-in is only the third biggest at this Triton Series stop, the word “main” in the event title, plus the Jacob & Co timepiece on offer to its champion, ensures anticipation is dialled up a notch, and attendance is high.

In all, 99 players sat down and added 60 re-entries, to bring the prize pool close to $20 million. Day 1 was about slowly building a stack and avoiding elimination. The same things mattered on Day 2 as well, but there was also the bubble and then the pursuit of a seat at the final.

As is always the case, plenty of Triton titans couldn’t last the course. Jeju Main Event champion Roman Hrabec perished in 87th. Last year’s Monte Carlo champion Matthias Eibinger could only reach 31st this time.

By the time the tournament got to its stone bubble, three players were critically short. Samuel Mullur had only four big blinds, Curtis Knight had five and Konstantin Maslak had seven. They were the three most likely candidates for this specific misery; a two-day battle ending in nothing.

Knight gave himself some breathing space. He tripled up thanks to finding a pair of kings under the gun. Adrian Mateos, on the button, had pocket eights and committed his stack too. Then Jesse Lonis, in the small blind, covered them both and forced them to put all their chips in the middle with a raise. (It also persuaded Sam Greenwood, in the big blind, out of the pot. He had looked like joining the party for a while.)

Lonis had so needed to spike an ace to kill of both of them. But the board was entirely blank, meaning Knight won the hand and tripled, while Mateos won the side pot with his eights. “I’m the only one who loses,” Lonis said.

Over on the other table, Mullur folded his big blind, leaving himself with two blinds behind. And he then also folded his small blind, taking himself down to just one. However, those two folds essentially made him the best part of $200,000 because of what happened back at the Lonis/Knight/Mateos table.

Here, Ole Schemion and chip-leading Wai Leong Chan got involved in a blind-on-blind battle that ended in tears. The pair had recently played a big pot, where Schemion bluffed the river with a pair of fives, looking at a board containing four spades. He did not have a spade, but Chan did, the and deemed it good enough for a call.

Perhaps this dynamic played into what happened next, but it resulted in a huge free-fall out of the tournament from Schemion. He had in the small blind and completed Chan’s big blind. Chan raised to four big blinds and Schemion responded with a jam for his whole 30 big blind stack.

Chan had and called, setting up a pot of more than 60 big blinds on the stone bubble of a $100K Main Event in which one other player had one blind.

The board brought little encouragement for Schemion, but the turn added a flush draw. However, the river bricked and the German crusher took the long walk out of the tournament room, surrendering a mid-sized stack to the new, overwhelming tournament chip leader Chan. Mullur and other short stacks around the room rejoiced.

Focus now shifted on reaching the final and, better, doing so with a stack to challenge the top six, where seven-figure prizes awaited. This passage of play is another that frequently claims the scalps of some of the very best: Chris Brewer, Ike Haxon, Alex Foxen and Fedor Holz fell in 17th through 14th, by way of example.

Mikita Badziakouski, who made the final table of the Triton Invitational only a couple of days prior, stuck around with a short stack as the field whittled to 12, 11 and then 10. And ironically it was only after he had doubled up twice to build a playable stack that he lost it: Badziakouski flopped a pair of aces with his but Jonathan Jaffe completed a flush with and sent Badziakouski to the rail.

That gave Jaffe the most chips to try cramming into a bag as they went to bed to prepare for the final. The stacks they would return to looked like this:

Jonathan Jaffe – 12.65m (101 BBs)
Wai Leong Chan – 6.2m (50 BBs)
Bryn Kenney – 4.075m (33 BBs)
Mario Mosbock – 3.575m (29 BBs)
Danny Tang – 3.375m (27 BBs)
Punnat Punsri – 3.35m (27 BBs)
Bob Voulgaris – 3.35m (27 BBs)
Jesse Lonis – 1.9m (15 BBs)
Thomas Muhlocker – 1.275m (10 BBs)

There was drama straight away as the tournament got restarted. Mario Mosbock picked up red pocket aces on the very first deal, but Jonathan Jaffe flopped a straight with his , which became an unnecessary flush by the river. Jaffe went for all of it, but a disciplined Mosbock wriggled away losing the minimum.

Thomas Muhlocker was still the short stack, but he didn’t find any appropriate spot to risk it — at least not before Jesse Lonis had stuck his chips in the middle, looking for a crucial double. Unfortunately for Lonis, Punnat Punsri was sitting behind him waiting with a better hand to knock him out.

Lonis and Punsri had recent history together. As the Main Event got started on Saturday night, those two were heads up for the $50K 7-Handed tournament, in which Lonis got the better of Punsri for a debut Triton trophy. Both players hopped into the Main Event at its conclusion, and now here they were again at a final table together.

But Lonis’ stay was brief. He jammed with and Punsri picked him off with . Punsri finished with a straight, while Lonis took $445,000 for ninth.

At times last night, Muhlocker will have known that it was touch and go whether he would make the final. He had been nursing a short stack for several hours, but skilfully navigated his way into the last day regardless. All good things must come to an end eventually, however, and his tournament ended in back-to-back beats against, first, Mario Mosbock and then Bryn Kenney.

The first pot was the biggest. Muhlocker open shoved and found Mosbock willing to call for all his chips with pocket sixes. A six on the flop left Muhlocker drawing thin on the flop, dead on the turn. It was a major double for Mosbock and left Muhlocker with crumbs.

He got them all in on the very next hand and had the good fortune to find pocket kings. But Kenney’s spiked an ace to end Muhlocker’s tournament. Had Mosbock not taken most of Muhlocker’s chips, they surely would have gone all in on this hand anyway.

Muhlocker won $538,000 for eighth.

Danny Tang hadn’t had many opportunities to do very much at this final table, but eventually looked down at and saw Mosbock open the pot ahead of him. With 15 big blinds, he decided this was his moment. The chips went in. Tang had no way of knowing that Jaffe, still the chip leader, was lurking behind with . Jaffe called the shove, Mosbock folded and Tang’s tournament was on the line.

Tang will always remember this trip to Monte Carlo as it’s the place he picked up the Ivan Leow Player of the Year trophy for his scintillating displays during last season. A Main Event final table shows that Tang has lost none of his hunger, but unfortunately this one ended in seventh. Jaffe’s dominant ace stayed better and Tang departed with $743,000.

They played on to the first tournament break of the day, at which point the blinds went up and the average stack reduced to 27 big blinds. Jaffe still led the way with 45 bigs, but there were three players — Wai Leong Chan, Punsri and Kenney — deadlocked in second, with 30 apiece. Bob Voulgaris and Mosbock were hovering below the average line.

The minimum payout was now more than $1 million, so whatever happened there was reason to celebrate. And certainly there was nothing approaching regret when Mosbock’s rollercoaster ride hit its final buffers at around 4pm local time.

Kenney took Mosbock’s final few blinds, but the damage was done in a major clash with Bob Voulgaris. There was not much a couple of short-stacked player are going to do when one gets pocket kings (Mosbock) and the other aces (Voulgaris) and, sure enough, stacks went in pre-flop. Mosbock had Voulgaris covered, so the Canadian landed a big double after a blank board.

Mosbock was all in the next hand and couldn’t beat Kenney. Mosbock departed $1.02m richer.

That pot against Mosbock was the first significant uptick at this final table for Voulgaris, and another player who had largely stayed out of the major confrontations to this point, Wai Leon Chan, also soon broke cover. And this was an enormous pot, with the two overnight chip leaders squaring off.

Jaffe, still out front, had and called an opening raise from Chan. He then went to what must have seemed like a dream flop of . Chan, however, had , also top pair and with a better kicked. Jaffe check-called bets on every street, including a jam on the river from Chan, by which point Jaffe’s back-up flush draw had whiffed.

The dominant ace pre-flop, which was now two pair, landed Chan a massive double and sent Jaffe spiralling down to fifth out of five left. Although he battled on for a while, it proved to be too significant a hurdle to overcome for Jaffe. After picking up he opened pre-flop and Chan laid a trap by defending his big blind with only a call, despite holding .

The flop was and Jaffe shoved over Chan’s donk-lead. Second pair was not good enough against Chan’s top pair, and Jaffe’s tournament was over. He won $1,330,000 for fifth.

Chan now has the bit between his teeth, and he ended another North American interest not long later when Bob Voulgaris tries to win a flip. The pair got everything in pre-flop in this one, with Voulgaris’ going up against Chan’s black pocket tens.

Once again, Chan was already leading, but rivered a set for good measure. Voulgaris’ entire 13-big blind stack was slid to Chan, while the Canadian collected $1,665,000 for his fourth place.

Just like that, the tournament was three handed, with Kenney and Chan neck and neck at the top — they had about 40 blinds each — and Punsri holding on with 15.

But he could only hold on for so long. As Chan attempted to turn the screw, he open-jammed his small blind to question whether Punsri fancied committing his last chips to the pot. With , Punsri decided it was worth it. He had decent equity against Chan’s .

Punsri’s hand was pretty but he still needed it to improve. Despite flopping a flush draw, he missed his numerous outs on turn and river, with the king staying best. That sent Punsri out of the tournament with another $2,045,000 for his efforts. He’s finished in third and second in consecutive events here in Monte Carlo, which must feel very good.

“You played well again,” Kenney said as he bade Punsri farewell.

They took a quick break and prepared to return for heads-up. Chan sat with 57 blinds to Kenney’s 43, plenty of ammunition for a significant heads-up battle.

These two were not here to play small-ball, however. And the cards didn’t favour that approach either. Only a few hands into heads up play, the dealer pitched pocket kings to Chan and to Kenney, and the pair started raising and re-raising pre-flop.

Kenney put in the last bet, a four-bet for his whole stack, and Chan made a happy call. The flop came to add a couple more outs to Kenney, but the turn changed nothing. However the river brought gasps from all sides of the stage, and left Chan’s tournament in tatters.

He had only three big blinds left after the grimmest of hands, and though he doubled on the very next hand, he was all-in and under threat again very quickly after. This time, Kenney had pocket sixes to Chan’s and there was nothing on flop, turn or river to bail out Chan.

Kenney rose and took a deep breath. He’d done it. Again.

RESULTS

EVENT 9: $100K – NLH MAIN EVENT
Dates: November 9-11, 2024
Entries: 159 (inc. 60 re-entries)
Prize pool: $19,875,000

1 – Bryn Kenney, USA – $4,410,000
2 – Wai Leong Chan, Malaysia – $2,970,000
3 – Punnat Punsri, Thailand – $2,045,000
4 – Bob Voulgaris, Canada – $1,665,000
5 – Jonathan Jaffe, USA – $1,330,000
6 – Mario Mosbock, Austria – $1,020,000
7 – Danny Tang, Hong Kong – $743,000
8 – Thomas Muhlocker, Austria – $538,000
9 – Jesse Lonis, USA – $445,000

10 – Mikita Badziakouski, Belarus – $377,000
11 – Curtis Knight, Canada – $377,000
12 – Linus Loeliger, Switzerland – $328,000
13 – Alexandre Reard, France – $328,000
14 – Fedor Holz, Germany – $298,000
15 – Alex Foxen, USA – $298,000
16 – Isaac Haxton, USA – $268,000
17 – Chris Brewer, USA – $268,000
18 – Daniel Rezaei, Austria – $239,000
19 – Dan Smith, USA – $239,000
20 – Sam Greenwood, Canada – $239,000
21 – Ossi Ketola, Finland – $218,000
22 – Alexander Zubov, Russia – $218,000
23 – Steve O’Dwyer, Ireland – $218,000
24 – Samuel Mullur, Austria – $199,000
25 – Emilien Pitavy, France – $199,000
26 – Konstantin Maslak, Russia – $199,000
27 – Adrian Mateos, Spain – $199,000

ALL REPORTS AND RESULTS FROM MONTE CARLO

SEE LIST OF TRITON SERIES MULTIPLE CHAMPIONS

Patrik Antonius has been at the highest peak of poker for more than 20 years. He has seen everything, won everything, and beaten everyone on an unstoppable march to the Poker Hall of Fame and poker greatness.

But perhaps the toughest opponent of his entire career sat opposite him today in the Salle des Etoile, Monte Carlo, behind a long white beard and a rookie’s devil-may-care attitude. Antonius had to dig deeply into his vast reserves of grit to outlast Estonian newcomer Vladimir Korzinin and take down the $200,000 Triton Invitational for $5.13 million.

That is the single biggest prize of Antonius’ incredible career, and he was made to work for it by a man who only took up poker a few months ago. At 69, Korzinin is on a personal mission of dream fulfilment and learning, turning to poker to sate his unquenchable thirst for knowledge and experience.

He found the Triton Series, he entered this massive tournament, and then there he was in the final two of a 102-entry field, staring across at one of the all time greats.

Antonius was impeccable, of course, and had no room for sentimentality. He was all in and under threat a couple of times, but he rode it out and allowed himself a good deal of satisfaction.

“Obviously it feels really special at home,” Antonius, a Monaco resident, said. “A bit surreal.”

As to whether he found himself ever carried away with the situation, Antonius said: “I just came to play. As long as I’m rested, I play hand by hand. I’m aware that it’s never easy. You never win straight away all the hands. I’m kind of happy the way I focused.”

He paid tribute to all his opponents. “It was not easy today,” he said, but added that he remains passionate about poker even as he enters his third decade in the game. “I love it. I’m still getting started. I’m planning on a long time playing…Without the passion, I wouldn’t be playing so much.”

It was a wholly fitting end to the Invitational tournament, which pits specially invited players against elite pros. Antonius accepted his invitation from Finnish gambling tycoon Ossi Ketola, and immediately paid back the faith. Korzinin was from the other side of the draw, the very definition of a recreational poker enthusiast, and there was a great dynamic at the end as the pro gradually turned the screw, despite the amateur’s spirited competition.

By that point, pros Espen Jorstad, Roman Hrabec and Mikita Badziakouski had already departed, with invitees Morten Klein, Konstantin Maslak, Tan Xuan and Mikalai Vaskaboinikau also on the rail.

But this was all about Antonius in the end. He had a chip lead for longer than anybody, and eventually closed it out after three days of dominance.

“Triton is just the best poker experience you can have as a player,” he said. “We know how well things are taken care of. You can see how good the vibe is with the players. Everyone is in such a good mood here. We all know what Triton has done for poker.”

Antonius has done his fair share as well, and this was a marvellous way for him to hit a new high.

TOURNAMENT ACTION

The unique invitational format is well known now to players and Triton fans, and it provides the perfect representation of the tour’s ethos. This is the event in which the enthusiastic recreationals, all successes in various lines of business, get to do battle with the best poker pros on the most level playing field.

Through the first two days, with a field split into two camps on the first, and then a more conventional race to the bubble on Day 2, spirits had been high and competition fierce. A $320,000 bubble gradually bobbed into view, which would burst when 17 players were left.

Players went on a tournament break late on Friday night and returned to 19 seats. That was two eliminations from the money and the smallest stack was still 10 big blinds. It could have been a tortuous passage of play as the bubble neared.

But it wasn’t. It was the absolute opposite. Four pros got involved in two hands, both all-in pre-flop. Isaac Haxton smashed into Roman Hrabec’s pocket kings. They were in the two blinds and got involved in a game of pre-flop chicken, where neither backed down.

That put Haxton on the rail while, at a neighbouring table, Patrik Antonius and Aleks Ponakovs were butting heads. Antonius had pocket nines and Ponakovs had and though Antonius flopped a set, two clubs on the board gave Ponakovs hope. But turn and river bricked and Ponakovs perished.

Just like that, the remaining 17 were all in the money. Those short stacks rejoiced.

The remainder of Day 2 was all about securing a spot at the final table, and Antonius was on a tear. He stood tall at the top of the counts as all around him fell short, eventually taking them down to nine at around 1am local time. That was when Sinan Unlu became Antonius’ last victim of the night, losing with against .

The following nine bagged up and prepared to return for the final:

Patrick Antonius – 9.66m (121 BBs)
Roman Hrabec – 5.36m (67 BBs)
Vladimir Korzinin – 4.155m (51 BBs)
Mikita Badziakouski – 2.975m (37 BBs)
Tan Xuan – 2.5m (31 BBs)
Mikalai Vaskaboinikau – 2.155m (27 BBs)
Konstantin Maslak – 1.725m (22 BBs)
Espen Jorstad – 1.38m (17 BBs)
Morten Klein – 735,000 (9 BBs)

There was a buoyant sense of anticipation ahead of the last passage of play. With four players from the pro side of the draw and five invitees, the balance was just about perfect for a fascinating final day. Antonius, obviously, was in awesome form and had the chip stack to do the most damage. But with wildcards throughout the field, anything was possible.

It did not take long to lose our first player, and with Morten Klein’s departure, any short-stack-rising-from-the-dead story halted before it began. Antonius did the damage, raising from the button with and then calling after Klein jammed from the small blind with .

A deuce on the river was all Antonius needed to condemn Klein to a ninth-place finish. It was, however, another brilliant performance by the investor from Oslo. He has cashed three times here this week and added another $510,000 to his bankroll.

No one ever expected Tan Xuan to sit around, obey ICM and wait to ladder up. That’s just not the way this dynamic player approaches poker. With eight players left, Xuan found pocket jacks and made an opening raise from under the gun. Action folded to Antonius, who looked down at on the button and put in a three-bet.

Xuan pushed for his last 20 blinds and Antonius had both the stack and the cards to make a call, which meant they were flipping for Xuan’s tournament life. As can so often be the case, the poker gods waited all the way until the river before ruining Xuan’s day. That’s when the won it in Antonius’ favour.

Xuan banked $684,000 but his hunt for a third Triton title must go on.

So two invitees had hit the rail in the opening exchanges, and Antonius wasn’t done yet. He is a player who doesn’t even need good cards to profit from even the toughest fields, but when he’s getting hit by the deck as well, it essentially impossible to beat. Antonius soon found pocket jacks and stuck in a raise. Konstantin Maslak looked down at and got his final 16 blinds in the middle.

After Antonius called again, they were again flipping. And again Antonius came out on top. There was neither an ace nor a king on flop, turn or river, and that meant Antonius’ poker pair remained best. Maslak, a property investor and sports bettor, found a great spot to get his chips in, but it wasn’t to be this time.

Maslak won $908,000 for seventh, his biggest career cash to date.

The pro:invitee ratio was now 4:2, with Antonius single-handedly responsible for that. It was time for Vladimir Korzinin to fight back, and he won the kind of pot that underlines why everyone loves playing these invitationals so much.

Korzinin found and opened from mid-position. Mikita Badziakouski called in the big blind with , and the flop was great for Badziakouski. It came .

Badziakouski checked his two pair and Korzinin obliged with a bet, sitting with an inside straight draw. Badziakouski raised. Korzinin jammed and Badziakouski called, prompting a quick discussion about the equity each player now had in the hand. Badziakouski of course had the mathematics nailed perfectly, but Korzinin put his faith in what he could sense was about to happen.

Sure enough, the fell on the turn, which was gin for Korzinin. Badziakouski missed his full house outs on the river and was banished to the rail in sixth. He won $1,188,000, the first seven-figure payout from this tournament.

Things finally slowed down a touch with five players left. Espen Jorstad made a few moves to get himself up the counts and above Roman Hrabec and Mikalai Vaskaboinikau. But Korzinin and Antonius remained at the very top. However, when the next elimination did roll around, it was Hrabec who knocked out Vaskaboinikau, which put the Czech player back in contention again.

This was a pretty standard coup, with Hrabec open-jamming from the button holding pocket fours and Vaskaboinikau picking up in the big blind and calling for his tournament life.

The cards were on their backs and the dealer made things interesting with a flop of . But the turn and river weren’t what Vaskaboinikau was looking for. He fell in fifth for $1,506,000, continuing a sensational 2024 for him.

Four-handed play began with an average stack of 38 big blinds but only Antonius sitting with more than that. Hrabec had built up to 30 blinds thanks to the hand against Vaskaboinikau, Korzinin had 27 and Jorstad 22. Despite a couple of multi-way deals in earlier Monte Carlo tournaments in similar situations, there was no such talk this time. On they went with that $5 million carrot still dangling for all of them.

Korzinin was looking at elimination, all-in pre-flop against Antonius with an inferior kicker, but survived with a chop after a double-paired board. Then Jorstad was flipping for his tournament life, but doubled with against Hrabec’s pocket sevens.

That left Hrabec in desperate shape and when the blinds went up he was left with only four of them.

Hrabec did very well to rebuild his stack back to around 13 bigs, but ended up on the wrong end of a cooler against Antonius.

Antonius raised his button with and Hrabec called in the big blind with . Viewers watching the stream knew that a jack now would be disastrous, and that’s exactly what arrived on the flop, nestled between the and the . Hrabec checked, Antonius bet, Hrabec raised, Antonius three-bet jammed and all the chips were then in the middle.

Both turn and river were blanks, and Hrabec’s tournament came to an end. He took $1,867,000 for fourth.

Jorstad had taken a back seat since doubling up through Hrabec, but he was now the man most in danger. And he was then the next man knocked out. This time it was Korzinin who did the damage. The Estonian opened from the small blind with and Jorstad called in the big with . The flop brought immediate action. It came . Korzinin led with his top pair, Jorstad jammed his flush draw and Korzinin called.

Two blanks on turn and river kept Korzinin ahead and Jorstad perished in third. It came with a $2,255,000 consolation prize.

So here they were, the 69-year-old rookie against the 43-year-old veteran. An amateur on an incredible journey versus the cold, hard reality of one of poker’s best ever players. Could Korzinin really pull this one off? He had the chip advantage — 61 big blinds to Antonius’ 41 — and he’d proved he had the moves.

But a heads-up battle against Patrik Antonius has melted the resolve of many hundreds of prior players. Would the newbie have a chance?

It certainly seemed possible. Although the first run of small pots went to Antonius, Korzinin was more than happy to play big pots, which paid dividends when he made big hands. In one, Korzinin’s turned a straight while Antonius’ rivered trips. There was betting on every street, a shove and a call on the end, and a massive double for Korzinin.

The next time the stacks were in the middle, Antonius was under threat, but his remained strong against Korzinin’s . Antonius nosed ahead once more.

But back came Korzinin. He won a succession of pots to pull ahead again, leaving Antonius in danger the next time all the chips went in. But this time, again, Antonius doubled with a set of fives and opened up a significant lead of his own.

That proved crucial. There was time only for one more all-in: this time on a raggedy board of , Korzinin bet with a pair of fours and Antonius moved all in. He also had a four, but a better kicker, and after Kozinin called, Antonius successfully faded three outs to win.

Korzinin’s resistance was broken, and Antonius was the champion.

“I’m living my dream life,” Antonius said. “And I want to keep living like this.”

EVENT 8: $200K – TRITON INVITATIONAL
Dates: November 7-9, 2024
Entries: 102 (inc. 22 re-entries)
Prize pool: $20,400,000

1 – Patrik Antonius, Finland – $5,130,000
2 – Vladimir Korzinin, Estonia – $3,470,000
3 – Espen Jorstad, Norway – $2,255,000
4 – Roman Hrabec, Czech Republic – $1,867,000
5 – Mikalai Vaskaboinikau, Belarus – $1,506,000
6 – Mikita Badziakouski, Belarus – $1,188,000
7 – Konstantin Maslak, Russia – $908,000
8 – Tan Xuan, China – $684,000
9 – Morten Klein, Norway – $510,000

10 – Sinan Unlu, Turkey – $418,000
11 – Saya Ono, USA – $418,000
12 – Linus Loeliger, Switzerland – $367,000
13 – Chris Brewer, USA – $367,000
14 – Nick Petrangelo, USA – $336,000
15 – Brian Kim, USA – $336,000
16 – Wai Kin Yong, Malaysia – $320,000
17 – Ferdinand Putra, Indonesia – $320,000

ALL REPORTS AND RESULTS FROM MONTE CARLO

SEE LIST OF TRITON SERIES MULTIPLE CHAMPIONS

In a hectic tournament room at the Triton Poker Series in Monte Carlo this afternoon, it was at time difficult to know where to look. Up on the main stage, the Triton Invitational played to a winner, while the rest of the room was filled with the start of the Main Event.

But for American pro Jesse Lonis, the quiet corner of the secondary feature table will be the place he remembers the most. That was where this 29-year-old New Yorker (now a Las Vegas resident) took down the first Triton title of his career, beating Punnat Punsri heads up at the end of a $50,000 buy-in 7-Handed event.

Despite playing way down the bill, this tournament came with a first prize of $1,502,000, an amount second only to the sum he received for winning a huge PLO title at the World Series a year ago. It came over a characteristically tough Triton field, from which Dan Smith finished third and Leonard Maue was fourth.

Punsri, already a three-time Triton champion, had proved to be the most difficult foe, sitting for long periods with a dominant chip lead. But Lonis simply focused on his game.

“I think I never gave up, which was good,” Lonis said, reflecting on his win. “I didn’t quit, or just get it all in, just kept doing my normal thing, stabbing and it worked out…Obviously you never know when you’re going to win, so I just came in and played my best.”

He allowed himself a moment of congratulation. “It was awesome to get my first Triton,” he said.

Punsri had to make do with $1,021,000, another fine result for him. They got in done in plenty of time to head over to join the Main Event, and that’s where both quickly headed.

TOURNAMENT ACTION

By the standards of some events in Monte Carlo this week, this final tournament before the Main Event got started clipped along at breakneck pace. From 125 entries on Day 1, only 28 players came back for Day 2, and the bubble was only eight spots away.

Punnat Punsri had a vast chip lead, but players including Luc Greenwood, Ren Lin and Artur Martirosian had fewer than 10 big blinds. Sure enough, they were all swept away before Nikita Kuznetcov burst the stone bubble.

There were still a good handful of players with fewer than 10 blinds when 21 players remained, but one of them, Orpen Kiscacikoglu, got a three-bet shove through, while another, Jonathan Jaffe, scored a double through David Yan.

Kuznetcov open-jammed his five blinds from under the gun, holding and he nearly got it through. But Anson Ewe woke up in the big blind with , made the call, and watched his better hand hold. Kuznetcov perished in 21st and took nothing. Everyone else was in the money.

With 30 minute levels and a couple of significant chip leaders (Dan Smith and Jesse Lonis had moved alongside Punsri at the top), the tournament went through a period of stagnation as players attempted to inch to the final table.

All of Jaffe, Kiscacikoglu and Yan perished, among others, leaving the rest to play a high-variance shootout to try to book their place at the final. Eventually, and after doubling up Leonard Maue one hand before, Punsri knocked out Pieter Aerts in ninth place to set an eight-handed final.

They lined up as follows:

Punnat Punsri – 6.325m (63 BBs)
Jesse Lonis – 6.18m (62 BBs)
Dan Smith – 4.145m (41 BBs)
Daniel Rezaei – 3.455m (35 BBs)
Leonard Maue – 1.88m (19 BBs)
Mario Mosböck – 1.16m (12 BBs)
Alex Kulev – 1.12m (11 BBs)
Anson Ewe – 725,000 (7 BBs)

All eyes were on short-stacked Anson Ewe, but it was actually Alex Kulev who was the centre of the action on the very first deal. He had 11 big blinds and peered down at a pair of aces. Now he just had to figure out how to get value from them.

Maue helped him out, raising from the button. Kulev three-bet his small blind and Maue called. They went to a flop of and both players cagily checked. Then the came on the turn.

Kulev now bet 225,000 (the big blind was 100K) and Maue called. That took them to the river. Kulev now shoved his last five blinds in, and Maue snapped him off. Maue had flopped the world with his and the day was done for Kulev. He took $194,000 for eighth.

Ewe managed to cling on for a bit longer, and ended up getting his last three blinds in with a chance of tripling them up. He jammed with and, after Lonis called, Mosböck jammed behind, holding .

Lonis called that shove too, holding , and a ten on the flop should have resulted in a double elimination. However, the case eight was also on that flop, keeping Mosböck alive. Ewe, though, was toast. He took $262,000 for seventh.

It proved to be something of a false dawn for Mosböck too. He bobbed along for another five hands or so, before gave him every reason to three-bet shove over Punsri’s opening raise. Punsri called and had . He hit both of them on the flop to win this one.

Mosböck banked another $350,000 from his good week.

Although there were fewer than 100 blinds between five players, there was a ton of ICM pressure on everyone and there were few major swings. Daniel Rezaei slipped to the bottom of the counts purely by folding blinds, and when he did make a stand, it spelled the end.

Rezaei picked up in the small blind and moved all in for his last seven blinds. Punsri was lurking with pocket eights in the big blind and didn’t need any help to stay best. Rezaei’s fourth Triton cash, this one worth $446,000, pushed his earnings past the $1 million mark.

Punsri was playing well and running well, and was able to knock out Leonard Maue only a couple of hands later. This time Punsri picked up on the button and opened. Maue found in the big blind and pushed in his 24 big blinds.

Punsri called immediately and the best hand held up again, boosting Punsri’s stack to 73 big blinds, while his two remaining opponents — Dan Smith and Jesse Lonis — had only 25 between them. Maue meanwhile had $556,000 to take to the main event.

Lonis got his stack in first, and found a double against Punsri. His counterfeited Punsri’s pocket fours after a double-paired board. It meant that when they returned from another tournament break, Smith had 10 big blinds, Lonis had 23 and Punsri 51.

The first hand back and Smith’s stack went in. He had and opened for half of it from the button. Punsri moved in from the small blind with and Smith called.

It looked good for Smith after a jack came in the window. But Punsri continued to find the cards when he needed them and the river was the last Smith saw in this tournament. He took $675,000 for his efforts here.

Punsri had Lonis outchipped by exactly three-to-one, but they asked to look at the ICM numbers to figure out if they wanted to chop it up. After a short discussion they opted just to play it out — and Lonis was immediately the happier. He doubled very quickly after the restart, making two pair with and getting Punsri to pay off his river shove with a pair of eights.

It put Lonis marginally ahead in an otherwise even battle, but it proved decisive a moment later when they got it all in again. This time, Lonis had to Punsri’s , and his chip advantage was crucial. The board ran dry, which gave Lonis the outright win and a first Triton title.

“I knew the first time I came, in Jeju, I would always try to come back,” Lonis said. “This obviously helps.”

EVENT 9: $50K – NLH 7-HANDED
Dates: November 8-9, 2024
Entries: 125 (inc. 44 re-entries)
Prize pool: $6,250,000

1 – Jesse Lonis, USA – $1,502,000
2 – Punnat Punsri – $1,021,000
3 – Dan Smith, USA – $675,000
4 – Leonard Maue, Germany – $556,000
5 – Daniel Rezaei, Austria – $446,000
6 – Mario Mosböck, Austria – $350,000
7 – Anson Ewe, Malaysia – $262,000
8 – Alex Kulev, Bulgaria – $194,000
9 – Pieter Aerts, Belgium – $150,000

10 – Choon Tong Siow, Malaysia – $125,000
11 – Wiktor Malinowski, Poland – $125,000
12 – Dimitar Danchev, Bulgaria – $110,000
13 – Orpen Kisacikoglu, Turkey – $110,000
14 – Stephen Chidwick, UK – $100,000
15 – Andy Ni, China – $100,000
16 – Benjamin Chalot, France – $90,500
17 – Michael Soyza, Malaysia – $90,500
18 – David Yan, New Zealand – $81,000
19 – Dominykas Mikolaitis, Lithuania – $81,000
20 – Jonathan Jaffe, USA – $81,000

ALL REPORTS AND RESULTS FROM MONTE CARLO

SEE LIST OF TRITON SERIES MULTIPLE CHAMPIONS

The ever-popular Bounty Quattro Turbo at Triton Monte Carlo blasted through its 105-entry field at high speed tonight, ending in a crazy, swingy battle of the all-in shovers before Artur Martirosian emerged dazed but alive from the carnage.

Martirosian, one of the best players on the Triton Series without a title before this moment, earned $531,000 plus $360,000 for his nine bounties, defeating his countryman Nikita Kuznetcov heads-up.

The two came to the final table as the two smallest stacks. But after a nine-handed logjam, which lasted two levels, Martirosian suddenly went on a spree and knocked out six players in a matter of five or so hands. But it all slowed down again against Kuznetcov as the pair played a few, cagey levels of heads up.

But as the clock ticked towards 2am local time, the pair got it all in one last time and Martirosian’s flopped a pair and turned trips. It was finally done.

Kuznetcov won $358,000 for second, but Martirosian again showed his wizardry in these bounty events only a couple of days after he dazzled in the Mystery Bounty tournament.

TOURNAMENT ACTION

Having raced through the early stages, the bubble was just bobbing on the horizon when Adrian Mateos went to work. In back to back hands, Mateos knocked out three players. He had pocket deuces and was all in at the same time that Ole Schemion was all in with pocket nines and Benjamin Chalot, with the covering stack, called with .

Mateos hit a boat on the flop, felting Schemion and leaving Chalot with less than one big blind. That was in on the next hand, but so was Dominykas Mikolaitis with . Mateos found pocket sixes and after four spades came on the board, one of those sixes was the only other spade out there. Mateos flished out both Chalot and Mikolaitis, taking the tournament into the money.

The average stack was 25 big blinds, the leader (Jamil Wakil) had 52 bigs and four players had fewer than 10.

The next major stop was the final table, and with those $40K bounties up for grabs, it didn’t take long to get us there. Dan Smith, Danny Tang and then Zhewen Hu fell in 12th through 10th, leaving us with the following nine still in with a shot:

Jamil Wakil – 4.85m (49 BBs)
Ren Lin – 3.55m (36 BBs)
Ben Tollerene – 3.15m (32 BBs)
Adrian Mateos – 2.5m (25 BBs)
David Benefield – 2.5m (25 BBs)
Paulius Vaitiekunas – 1.575m (16 BBs)
Espen Jorstad – 1.25m (13 BBs)
Nikita Kuznetcov – 950,000 (10 BBs)
Artur Martirosian – 700,000 (7 BBs)

Remarkably, two full level passed at the final without a bustout, which meant stacks were getting hilariously short. The average was 12 blinds and the chip leader now only had 21. That was the formidable figure of Ben Tollerene, who hasn’t yet found a format of the game he hasn’t mastered.

Four players had sub-10 big blind stacks and then, boom, two were knocked out on the same hand as Artur Martirosian all but tripled up. Paulius Vaitiekunas was first in with his . Jorstad followed him in with . Tollerene moved in too, covering both, with pocket threes. And Martirosian got his chips in too, with pocket eights.

An ace on the flop looked like it was going to save the former pair, but the river was an eight giving Martirosian the win. Jorstad had marginally more chips than Vaitiekunas, so took $71,000 to Vaitiekunas’ $53,000.

Martirosian took over at the top of the leader board, and he put further distance between him and the field when he completed the job on Tollerene. Only a couple of hands after the four-way all-in, Tollerene found and jammed under the gun. Martirosian had on the button, made the call and held.

Tollerene took $94,000 from the main pool, plus some bounties.

The dam had well and truly broken and it was Martirosian smashing down the wall. He next accounted for David Benefield with for Martirosian besting Benefield pocket twos. The American pro is in town for the Triton Invitational, which starts tomorrow. He warmed up with this final table appearance and took a $123,000 score.

And it didn’t stop there. One more hand later, and two more players hit the rail. This time both Mateos and Ren Lin bust to Martirosian, whose made a straight and outdid Mateos’ and Lin’s .

Martirosian now had 63 blinds, with Kuznetcoz sitting with 10 and Jamil Wakil with 13. But it was Wakil who went next, the collateral in a three-way all-in. Martirosian this time only won the side pot. His was better than Wakil’s when a jack flopped, but Kuznetcov’s pocket threes turned a set.

Kuznetcov built his stack to 30 blinds. Martirosian had 54. Wakil’s third-place prize was worth $233,000.

The Russian flag came out as these two countrymen squared off. And they took it very seriously, sitting in stony silence for the most part, with Kuznetcov beneath a green hoodie and Martirosian wearing a T-shirt showing a teddy bear on a fishing trip.

Kuznetcov was down, but doubled. Then Martirosian ground him down again. Then Kuznetcov doubled again and there were 35 blinds between them, with Kuznetcov in the lead. Then Martirosian’s eights held against Kuznetcov’s sixes and the pendulum swung once more.

The tournament clock ticked into level 28, where Martirosian, the chip leader, had only 26 blinds to Kuznetcov’s nine. They got it all in one more time and this time Martirosian’s hit two nines to beat Kuznetcov’s .

“Good game,” Martirosian said as he rapped the table, job well done.

EVENT 7: $30K – NLH Bounty Quattro
Dates: November 6, 2024
Entries: 105 (inc. 28 re-entries)
Prize pool: $3,150,000 (inc. $1,040,000 in bounty pool)

1 – Artur Martirosian, Russia – $531,000 + $360,000 in bounties
2 – Nikita Kuznetcov, Russia – $358,000 + $80,000 in bounties
3 – Jamil Wakil, Canada – $233,000 + $120,000 in bounties
4 – Adrian Mateos, Spain – $193,000 + $120,000 in bounties
5 – Ren Lin, China – $156,000 + $80,000 in bounties
6 – David Benefield, USA – $123,000 + $40,000 in bounties
7 – Ben Tollerene, USA – $94,000 + $40,000 in bounties
8 – Espen Jorstad, Norway – $71,000 + $40,000 in bounties
9 – Paulius Vaitiekunas, Lithuania – $53,000 + $40,000 in bounties
10 – Zhewen Hu, China – $43,000 + $40,000 in bounties
11 – Danny Tang, Hong Kong – $43,000 + $40,000 in bounties
12 – Dan Smith, USA – $38,000
13 – Emilien Pitavy, France – $38,000
14 – Seth Davies, USA – $35,000
15 – Brian Kim, USA – $35,000
16 – Roberto Perez, Spain – $33,000
17 – Samuel Mullur, Austria – $33,000

ALL REPORTS AND RESULTS FROM MONTE CARLO

SEE LIST OF TRITON SERIES MULTIPLE CHAMPIONS

When Alex Foxen takes control of a poker tournament, there’s not much anyone else can do to stop him.

The American pro has not been seen on the Triton Super High Roller Poker Series for five years — he had other priorities and didn’t want to travel so much — but showed today what everyone already knew: he could do very good things on this tour.

Foxen was the dominant force throughout pretty much every moment of the final day in the $50,000 NLH 8-Handed, never relinquishing his chip lead throughout a final table from which he emerged with $1,470,000 and his first Triton title.

It came after the last four cut a four-way deal, with three opponents all closely packed a long way behind Foxen’s dominant lead. They took a bit of the variance out of it thanks to the ICM chop, but Foxen was immediately guaranteed $1.3 million and quickly secured up the remaining $170,000 as well, with Latvia’s Aleks Ponakovs and the Lithuanian duo of Marius Kudzmanas and Dominykas Mikolaitis unable to do anything about it.

“It defintiely feels great,” Foxen said. “There’s no high stakes series like this one.” He added: “Missing it was definitely a little painful.”

He made it look easy and admitted things had gone pretty much perfectly, stating “The tournament went really smooth for me. I was really fortunate for a lot of the time.

“Everything just felt right…I was feeling confident and excited.”

Everything was wrapped up before 10.30pm local time, with Foxen stating that he and his wife Kristen will be returning pretty quickly to the Triton Series. “I definitely think the Foxens will be on the Triton tour a lot more,” he said. “There’s no comparison in terms of high stakes poker from what I can see. You’ll definitely be seeing more of us.”

Each of the three others involved in the deal banked more than $900K, with Ponakovs officially finishing in second place. The Latvian has 17 cashes and more than $10 million in earnings on this tour, but he’ll need to find a more amenable heads-up opponent than Foxen, at least in this mood, to get his first win.

TOURNAMENT ACTION

For the second consecutive day, the bubble burst in unorthodox fashion: two players knocked out on the same hand to send the remaining 23 players into the money. Yesterday’s min-cash was split between two players, but the difference this time was that Matthias Eibinger and Paulius Vaitiekunas were sitting at the same table, and departed in 25th and 24th, respectively.

Eibinger had only three blinds and Vaitiekunas had about nine, and the hand played out with a button shove from Eibinger with , a reshove from Juan Pardo in the small blind with and an under-call all-in by Vaitiekunas with .

Vaitiekunas had the best hand, but if Pardo hit one of his cards, the other two were holding one of each other’s outs. That’s exactly what transpired as the dealer put the flop on the table, and Pardo took a lead that he did not surrender.

Both Eibinger and Vaitiekunas left with nothing.

Pardo was guaranteed a return on investment, but he could not make it to the final. The field of 23 shrank rapidly and they reconvened around a final table at around 5.30pm local time. Alex Foxen had been in characteristically ruthless mood, blasting into a chip lead that he held as the last nine settled down.

The stacks were as follows:

Alex Foxen – 8.56m (86 BBs)
Marius Kudzmanas – 5.09m (51 BBs)
Xu Liang – 4.425m (44 BBs)
Zhou Quan – 3.4m (34 BBs)
Aleks Ponakovs – 2.22m (22 BBs)
Dominykas Mikolaitis – 2.165m (22 BBs)
Kiat Lee – 1.93m (19 BBs)
Lun Loon – 1.095m (11 BBs)
Alex Theologis – 520,000 (5 BBs)

Each of Kudzmanas, Quan, Ponakovs and Mikolaitis were already taking a seat at a second final table of the week, while Liang had made it three cashes from the three events he had played so far. Alex Theologis had also already cashed everything: third in the first event here, followed by ninth in the Mystery Bounty. The momentum was clearly strong with all of them, but they still had to do battle with Foxen, who was in the mood on a rare trip to the Triton Series.

Theologis was the most likely to be knocked out first from the final, and so it proved. He didn’t win a single hand at the final and his last chips dribbled over to Foxen’s stack after Theologis shoved the cutoff with red pocket eights, but lost when Foxen’s hit a ten.

This performance gave Theologis another $170,000 to go with the $70K he picked up in Event #3 (plus bounties) and the $436K from Event 1. He approached the cashier with a friendly smile; he is a regular visitor.

Malaysia’s Lun Loon was one of the breakout stars on the Triton Series last season, and here he was again back at a final table. Similar to Theologis, he also couldn’t find a spot to do anything at the final, and was knocked out the minute he tried.

Loon found in the hijack and put in a big raise for what was essentially half his 11 BB stack. Aleks Ponakovs had pocket tens and asked Loon for the rest of it with a three-bet. Loon called but only connected with his nine on the board. That wasn’t enough. Loon was out in eighth for $214,000.

After these two hasty eliminations, the tournament went through a lull. This was the result of one of those ICM logjams, where Foxen’s stack was unimpeachable, but none of the others wanted to sacrifice their position at the table, at least not before any of the others had.

They went on an extended dinner break so that the mystery bounty pulling ceremony could take place. And when they came back, the dam finally broke, with Zhou Quan and Kiat Lee making way. In fairness, Quan’s elimination could and would have happened at any other stage of the tournament too. He found pocket queens and was up against Dominykas Mikolaitis’ pocket kings. Quan opened, Mikolaitis shoved with the covering stack, and Quan called it off.

Nothing spectacular on the flop and Quan was out for $291,000.

It was the other Lithuanian who did for Lee. The Malaysian pro opened then called the rest when Marius Kudzmanas shoved with his . There was both a jack and a queen on the flop, so the best hand prevailed.

Lee took $393,000 and reinvested a chunk into the $100K that was starting a few yards away. (The cruel run-out, with the jack in the window, at least gave Lee’s rail something to chuckle about.)

Foxen now had an even more commanding lead than before, even though he sat out the third elimination in a row. Xu Liang had fewer than four bigs blinds, which he got in with , only to find Aleks Ponakovs sitting with . The better ace held and Liang took $507,000 for fifth. He has made a profit from every tournament he’s played so far in Monte Carlo.

With Liang on the rail, the remaining four decided to look at the numbers. Foxen had 62 big blinds, the average stack was 29, and nobody else had anything more than 21. With more than $1m between fourth place and first, they decided to take the edge off.

Foxen’s lead translated into a $1.3 million guaranteed payday. Kudzmanas locked up $922,000, Mikolaitis secured $964,000 and Ponakovs was guaranteed $915,000. With $170,000 left on the side, no one was catching Foxen’s payout whatever happened, but it kept it interesting.

Mikolaitis fell first. He found and raised from the button. Foxen three-bet the big blind, holding and it looked bleak for Mikilaitis already. He called, taking them to the flop that ensured it all went in: . Foxen bet, Mikilaitis called and the turn was the .

Foxen now jammed and Mikilaitis called it off with his pair of nines. Foxen’s queens were better, and Mikilaitis went home with that $964,000.

That was one Lithuanian accounted for, and Foxen quickly turned his attention to the other. Foxen picked up and made a standard open. Kudzmanas found and moved all in. Foxen called.

The flop brought an ace, but by the time all five community cards were out there, Foxen had backed into a Broadway straight. That was that for Kudzmanas, whose prize stuck at $922,000. He had been down to only eight big blinds when there were still 19 players left, so this was a great turnaround.

Ponakovs had around 4 million chips as heads up started, while Foxen had 25 million. The Latvian was looking at a steep mountain, but doubled almost immediately with , making trip queens. It didn’t get much better than that for him, however, with Foxen enjoying the run of it again from that moment on.

The final hand came quickly. Foxen limped with , Ponakovs shoved with and the king came on the turn to end it all. Easy as that.

EVENT 5: $50K – NLH 8-Handed
Dates: November 4-5, 2024
Entries: 147 (inc. 51 re-entries)
Prize pool: $7,350,000

1 – Alex Foxen, USA – $1,470,000*
2 – Aleks Ponakovs, Latvia – $915,000*
3 – Marius Kudzmanas, Lithuania – $922,000*
4 – Dominykas Mikolaitis, Lithuania – $964,000*
5 – Xu Liang, China – $507,000
6 – Kiat Lee, Malaysia – $393,000
7 – Zhou Quan, China – $291,000
8 – Lun Loon, Malaysia – $214,000
9 – Alex Theologis, Greece – $170,000

10 – Yaman Nakdali, Spain – $143,000
11 – Juan Pardo, Spain – $143,000
12 – Karl Chappe-Gatien, France – $125,000
13 – Dan Dvoress, Canada – $125,000
14 – Webster Lim, Malaysia – $114,000
15 – Christoph Vogelsang, Germany – $114,000
16 – Benjamin Chalot, France – $103,000
17 – Curtis Knight, Canada – $103,000
18 – Danny Tang, Hong Kong – $93,000
19 – Leonard Maue, Germany – $93,000
20 – Santhosh Suvarna, India – $93,000
21 – Alexandre Reard, France – $85,000
22 – David Yan, New Zealand – $85,000
23 – Ben Heath, UK – $85,000

ALL REPORTS AND RESULTS FROM MONTE CARLO

SEE LIST OF TRITON SERIES MULTIPLE CHAMPIONS

It’s supposed to be difficult to win a tournament on the Triton Super High Roller Series, but nobody told Kayhan Mokri that.

The Norwegian high roller enjoyed one of the smoothest passages to a title ever seen on this elite series, blazing through the second day of this event in Monte Carlo, to wrap up a victory worth more than $1 million. It was only 7.15pm by the time Mokri had his hands on his first Triton trophy, two years after his debut.

“Today was my day,” Mokri said with evident delight, adding, “It’s a momentum thing. I had the best cards today and that’s how it is.”

This takes nothing away from the 30-year-old from Oslo, whose results in high buy-in poker tournaments over the past couple of years reveal a player with bags of talent. He has won tournaments of various buy-in levels across the globe, and managed to translate some excellent form into a Triton win too, a series on which he had previously come up short.

“Now I finally won one,” he said. “Now I can relax a bit more.”

Mokri came into the second day of play in Monte Carlo with one of the shortest stacks in the room. But he quickly doubled up twice to move into contention, then continued a fine run as the tournament got short-handed and shallow.

He came to the final placed ninth of nine, but ended up knocking out seven of those adversaries. The last opponent was Lithuania’s Paulius Vaitiekunas, a player who won a first Triton title in Jeju earlier this year. But in the tournament’s final hand, Vaitiekunas took a stand with a flopped pair of fives and a straight draw, running into Mokri’s flopped two pair that became a flush.

Vaitiekunas won $680,000, while Mokri’s final total hit $1,000,5000.

TOURNAMENT ACTION

While the slow conclusion to Event #1 was playing out late on Saturday night/Sunday morning, Event #2 was motoring through its phases. Registration closed with 144 entries through the gates, and they raced through the bubble which burst when Roman Hrabec was knocked out in 24th. Hrabec had 12 big blinds and raised/called it off with pocket sevens, losing to Zhewen Hu’s .

A jack on the flop sealed Hrabec’s fate and put the remaining 23 in the money.

Kristen Foxen led the late charge to the payouts desk, busting in the same hand as Lun Loon. When the bags came out for the night, 20 players were left, the average stack was only 24 big blinds, and there was every indication that there would be a sprint to the finish line on Sunday.

Hu and Alex Kulev were all but neck-and-neck at the top of the counts, with former Triton champions Andy Ni, Orpen Kisacikoglu, Zhou Quan, Luc Greenwood and Paulius Vaitiekunas also in the top 10. Attention now turned to the final table, but it was far from guaranteed that a seat was reserved for anyone there.

Hu, for instance, tumbled out in 12th. He lost a huge pot with to Patrik Antonius’ , which turned a flush. Vaitiekunas took the last of his chips. The last woman in the field, Saya Ono, made it to 13th before perishing to Kayhan Mokri.

Mokri edged his way into the final, which lined up as follows:

Orpen Kisacikoglu – 5.175m (35 BBs)
Marius Kudzmanas – 5.1m (34 BBs)
Patrik Antonius – 4.575m (31 BBs)
Paulius Vaitiekunas – 3.525m (24 BBs)
Alex Kulev – 2.85m (19 BBs)
Krasimir Neychev – 2.325m (16 BBs)
Dimitar Danchev – 2.025m (14 BBs)
Zhou Quan – 1.9m (13 BBs)
Kayhan Mokri – 1.325m (9 BBs)

The average stack was only around 25 big blinds, which meant this one was going to be turbulent. China’s Zhou Quan, who considers himself more of a PLO expert than hold’em, resultantly knows all about the ups and downs of tournament poker, but it was a speedy downward ride for him at the final.

His stacked slipped to the smallest at the table, and he then got it all in with against Mokri’s . A queen on the flop was the decisive card for Mokri and ended Zhou’s tournament in ninth. That was worth and even $100K.

Things were looking up for Mokri and he also found himself in a lovely spot to double once more. After action folded to Dimitar Danchev in the small blind, the Bulgarian player (one of three at the final) moved all in. It was a standard move, even though he had only .

Mokri woke up with , and called. There was nothing unusual on the board and the coup left Danchev with fumes. He lost his last chips with pocket tens. Orpen Kisacikoglu’s turned a king.

Danchev’s eighth place earned him $125,000.

One Bulgarian on the rail quickly became two. Krasimir Neychev first appeared on the Triton Series at our last event in Montenegro, where he reached the money once from five attempts. This time, he had progressed further than ever before, but became the latest person to run into a resurgent Mokri.

Neychev’s graph had slipped steadily downward since landing at the final, and with only seven blinds, it was a standard shove with pocket sixes in the big blind after Mokri opened from mid-position. Mokri was lurking with aces, and that was the end of the day for Neychev. He won $171,000, the most so far on the Triton Series.

Mokri and Kisacikoglu were now rubbing shoulders at the top of the counts, with the average now not quite 20 blinds. Meanwhile, pocket sixes continued to be something of a bogey hand: Marius Kudzmanas found it next and was knocked out by his Lithuanian countryman Paulius Vaitiekunas.

Kudzmanas is another player who is making his first appearance on the Triton Series here in Monte Carlo and after a whiff in the opening event, got himself comfortably into the black numbers in the second. Sixth place earned him $231,000, locked up after he three-bet shoved those sixes over Vaitiekunas’ raise. But Vaitiekunas’ kings held.

Pressure was now building on everyone, including even Kisacikoglu who lost a massive chunk of his chips with the dreaded pocket sixes. It was a huge skirmish with fellow big stack Mokri, and Mokri’s won the race.

Kisacikoglu clung on with a handful of blinds as Mokri turned his attentions to Patrik Antonius. The Monaco resident was playing his customary flawless game, but he got into a race against Mokri and became the latest to lose the flip. Antonius’ pocket fives lost to Mokri’s . It gave Antonius a payout of $298,000 and left Mokri with a sizeable chip lead over his three remaining opponents.

Three rapidly became two as Kisacikoglu’s final chips left his possession. They went, of course, to Mokri, whose beat Kisacikoglu’s . The two-time champion from Turkey, via London, hit the rail in fourth for $371,000.

Mokri had more than half the chips in play and could continually torment his two opponents, for whom ICM pressure was now painful. There was a $230K payjump between third and second, with another $320K up to first. Vaitiekunas found a double, though, turning a straight with to beat Mokri’s .

It left Kulev feeling the heat the most and, worse, he ran into Mokri with a pocket pair of aces. After yet another Mokri button raise, Kulev jammed for 11 big blinds with only to find out that Mokri had .

The bullets faded backdoor draws and Kulev was dusted in third, taking that $454,000 prize.

They reset the table for heads up play with Mokri sitting with 47 blinds to Vaitiekunas’ 25. Mokri was a clear favourite, but it was far from a foregone conclusion.

After early jostling, it all came down to two hands. In the first, Vaitiekunas limped with and Mokri checked his . That took them to a flop of . Mokri check-raised to 1.8 million after Vaitiekunas bet 500K. Vaitiekunas called.

The came on the turn and Mokri now bet 1.7 million. Vaitiekunas called. Mokri then jammed after the river and Vaitiekunas found a fold.

That left Mokri with a lead of 40 big blinds to 17 and it wasn’t long before the skirmish that ended it.

Vaitiekunas again started with a limp, holding . Mokri checked with his . The flop had plenty of opportunities for both players and it was no suprise that all the money went in.

Mokri checked, Vaitiekunas bet 500K, Mokri raised to 2.2 million and Vaitiekunas jammed for 10 million. Mokri called and the turn followed by the river ended it all.

The TV crew gave Mokri a few minutes’ break while they polished his new trophy. “I like gold,” he said, which is lucky. Much of it has come his way this year.

EVENT 2: $30k NLH 8-HANDED
Dates: November 2-3, 2024
Entries: 144 (inc. 47 re-entries)
Prize pool: $4,320,000

1 – Kayhan Mokri, Norway – $1,005,000
2 – Paulius Vaitiekunas, Lithuania – $680,000
3 – Alex Kulev, Bulgaria – $454,000
4 – Orpen Kisacikoglu, Turkey – $371,000
5 – Patrik Antonius, Finland – $298,000
6 – Marius Kudzmanas, Lithuania – $231,000
7 – Krasimir Neychev, Bulgaria – $171,000
8 – Dimitar Danchev, Bulgaria – $125,000
9 – Zhou Quan, China – $100,000

10 – Samuel Mullur, Austria – $84,000
11 – Andy Ni, China – $84,000
12 – Zhewen Hu, China – $73,500
13 – Saya Ono, USA – $73,500
14 – Wai Kin Yong, Malaysia – $67,000
15 – Artur Martirosian, Russia – $67,000
16 – Luc Greenwood, Canda – $60,500
17 – Dan Dvoress, Canada – $60,500
18 – Juan Pardo, Spain – $54,500
19 – Webster Lim, Malaysia – $54,500
20 – Dan Smith, USA – $54,500
21 – Fedor Holz, Germany, $50,500
22 – Lun Loon, Malaysia, $50,500
23 – Kristen Foxen, Canada, $50,500

ALL REPORTS AND RESULTS FROM MONTE CARLO

SEE LIST OF TRITON SERIES MULTIPLE CHAMPIONS