A late-night elimination frenzy sent Paul Phua to the top of the leader board in the Triton Series Montenegro short deck main event, leaving the series co-founder in pole position of the seven players hunting a first prize of 26.3 million ($3.35 million).
Phua plays poker with the enthusiasm of a devil-may-care newcomer, shouting in cards, slamming his chips on to the felt, celebrating or commiserating at the highest volume in the room. Spectators gather around him during every pot he plays — and so do chips. Phua made the final table of the full deck main event, finishing sixth, and now he’s back again with his eye on an even bigger prize here at the Maestral Resort, Budva, Montenegro.
He is one of two Malaysians at the final table, with two French players, and one representative each from Singapore, Canada and Hong Kong.
Final table line-up
Paul Phua, Malaysia – 7,960,000 (Seat 2)
Arnaud Romain, France – 6,280,000 (Seat 8)
Rui Cao, France – 6,275,000 (Seat 6)
Kenneth Kee, Singapore – 4,760,000 (Seat 7)
Daniel Dvoress, Canada – 2,060,000 (Seat 3)
Ming Zhong Liu, Hong Kong – 1,335,000 (Seat 1)
Tong Siow Choon, Malaysia – 730,000 (Seat 5)
Phua knocked out Isaac Haxton in eighth, not long after he had sent Mikita Badziakouski to the rail in 10th, dispensing with two of the global game’s most celebrated talents. By that point, this 98-entry tournament was already approaching its final stages, with the ultimate destination of the HKD 92 million ($11,736,640) prize pool on the line.
The series of eliminations pushed Phua ahead in the chip counts of even Arnaud Romain, who won an enormous pot against Canadian pro Sam Greenwood just before the bubble to vault him to the chip lead, which he held until the day’s very last hand.
Until the collision with Romain, Greenwood had been the man to catch. He had earlier knocked out Triton Ambassador Tom Dwan, making a straight flush to crack aces, and then sent a bedraggled Tony G out the door. Tony G was one of a handful of players who had joined a massive cash game into the wee hours, before returning for the tournament restart at noon. He had been looking for another long session until Greenwood took care of him, in a pot that gave Greenwood the overall chip lead.
It was an extraordinary moment, then, when Greenwood became the man out in 13th thanks to the massive hand with Romain. Greenwood almost certainly expected folds from all but the very top of Romain’s range when he limp-three-bet shoved with 
, but Romain was sitting with 
. Greenwood lost the hand and was left with only 55,000, which his countryman Daniel Dvoress snaffled on the next hand.
All of Haxton, Dvoress and Peter Jetten were short stacks on the bubble, but the former doubled through Badziakouski before Dvoress stole a few blinds and antes with a shove. Jetten could not repeat the trick, despite flopping a straight with his 
on a 
board. He was not out of the woods against Rui Cao’s top two pair, however, and a third ten on the river gave Cao a full house and sent Jetten out.
Jetten came third in yesterday’s full deck main event, and has made heaps on the Triton Series. But falling the wrong side of a near $300,000 bubble will sting anyone.
With the pressure of the money bubble now relieved, action loosened up slightly. Guang Pu Lu, who was one of only two players with more than 1 million chips at the start of the day, departed in 11th, losing a flip to Kenneth Kee, and then it became Badziakouski’s turn to leave.
It’s a measure of Badziakouski’s standing on the Triton Series that two cashes in back-to-back main events will probably feel like a disappointment. He felt he could have gone further than fourth yesterday (losing a massive flip to the winner Bryn Kenney) and today he couldn’t get past Paul Phua. Earlier in the day, Phua had made quad sevens to double up through his Belarusian benefactor, and Phua finished the job when he rivered a straight with 
and beat Badziakouski’s 
. They got the money in when Badziakouski had flopped top pair, but it ran out well for Phua. It was tenth this time for Badziakouski and HKD 2.3 million.
Timofey “Trueteller” Kuznetsov had also played pretty much all of last night in the massive cash game (to be screened at a later date) and a little after 11pm, he was freed to either get some rest or head back to the cash tables when he was also knocked out by Kee. Kuznetsov got his short stack in with 
but lost the flip to Kee’s tens.
Kee won the HKD 1 million short deck event in Jeju last July for $2.9 million, only five days after finishing as runner up in the HKD 100,000 event at the same stop. He’s back again at the final table with a big stack. He’s another short deck master.
Haxton assumed short-stack duties, but he couldn’t get his 
to beat Phua’s 
on what would prove to be the last deal of the night. Haxton was knocked out in eighth for HKD 3.4 million ($433,174) and leave us with the seven who will return tomorrow to play to a champion.
One more word about Phua: he played in last night’s titanic cash game too. Rumour has it, it wrapped at about 5am. Phua might be in his mid 50s, but there’s no one in this game with more stamina, and skills too.
Triton Series Montenegro Short Deck Main Event
Dates: May 10-12, 2019
Buy-in: HKD 1 million ($127,000)
Entries: 98 (inc. 51 re-entries)
Prize pool: HKD 92.12 million ($11,736,640)
1 $26,300,000 ($3,350,725)
2 $17,100,000 ($2,178,608)
3 $11,800,000 ($1,503,367)
4 $9,070,000 ($1,155,554)
5 $7,200,000 ($917,309)
6 $5,620,000 ($716,010)
7 $4,400,000 ($560,578)
8 – Isaac Haxton, USA – $3,400,000 ($433,174)
9 – Timofey Kuznetsov, Russia – $2,630,000 ($335,073)
10 – Mikita Badziakouski, Belarus – $2,300,000 ($293,029)
11 – Guang Pu Lu, Canada – $2,300,000 ($293,029)
Photography by Joe Giron/www.pokerphotoarchive.com
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