The Triton Super High Roller Series’ trip to Vietnam ended tonight with a crazy finish to a madcap turbo and presented Sam Greenwood with a fun and famous victory.
As is customary in turbo events, with rapidly escalating blind structures, the stacks were short and there was plenty of gamble — all of which goes double when it’s short deck. This one cost 20K to enter and presented one last chance to rescue the trip to Vietnam’s east coast.
As it turned out, it actually became a light-hearted investigation into players’ knowledge of push/fold charts, coupled with a good run out for the poker gods. The players were, of course, impeccable, and fate played its part too, delivering double-ups and outdraws aplenty.
But Greenwood had just enough when it came down to it to overcome the challenge of Lun Loon, who lost heads-up. Greenwood’s first Triton title has an asterisk beside it as it came from the tournament that was abandoned in Cyprus owing to the tragic events that occurred there. Greenwood was leading at the time and was declared the winner.
But this time, they went all the way and the Canadian picked up a cheque for 207K alongside the Shamballa Jewels bracelet and the trophy. Loon secured his biggest Triton payday of 143K.
It was a terrific end to a spectacular trip to Vietnam, with many of the game’s leading players returning to the tournament room to drink beer and watch it play out. They were enthusiastic supporters of Greenwood, who claimed some valuable Player of the Year points to take that race into the final stop.
He also revealed that he was “celebrating” his first wedding anniversary, even though his wife was back in Toronto. “At least I’ve come home with a title and I love you Paige, and I’m really excited to see you when I get back,” Greenwood said.
ALL THE ACTION
It was the final day of the series and, with many players already departed, there wasn’t the usual snaking line at the registrations desk when the tournament got started at 4pm. However, by the time registration closed, there were 28 entries including nine re-entries, which made for a prize pool of more than half a million. And this is the smallest event of the week.
The usual suspects came and went, and the tournament condensed down to a single table. With only five places in the money, it became pretty tense, particularly for the short-stacked Lun Loon and Yake Wu.
The button skipped around the table and the antes were peeled from stacks. When blinds went up entering Level 15, Wu had only seven antes left and finally needed to take a stand with his 
. Seth Davies had 
and made the call, and the dealer gave Wu hope with a flop of 
.
Davies, however, held up the ace and pointed to the diamonds on it. He knew. The 
turn brought a chorus of “GGs”. Yu was flushed out on the bubble.
LOON’S ESCAPOLOGY ACT
With the micro-stack now departed, all eyes were on Loon’s tiny stack. He got it in with 
and cracked Haxton’s aces to double. And then he got it in again with 
and chopped a pot with Davies whose 
ended with the same full house as Loon.
Haxton also doubled up through Wei Hsiang Yeu, with a more typical hold’em match-up: pocket queens beating . Yeu had been the dominant force on the bubble, wielding the big stack with unforgiving menace. But this pot put a stop to it and brought Haxton into contention.
The Main Event had now ended on the feature table, so these five received an unexpected promotion to star under the studio lights. All of them had been there before, but probably not in such rapidly-escalating circumstances, with blinds now flying upward every 20 minutes.
The general trend didn’t change, however. Loon doubled again, with 
making a straight against Sam Greenwood’s 
. This time the double put him into the lead.
SHORT STACKS AND DOUBLE UPS
The tournament was beginning to get a little sticky. No one was getting knocked out. Greenwood, having lost the big pot to Loon, now doubled up through Yeu, cracking pocket queens with 
when the under cards turned a straight.
That pot left Yeu, who had once been so dominant, with only eight antes. And they found their way into the pot very quickly. But true to form he doubled up, not once, but twice. Both times through Loon, and Yeu now retook the chip lead.
However, no one stuck around in the lead for very long, and Yeu took a nosedive once again. Haxton doubled up through him, and then a pot against Greenwood finished him off. It was 
against and for once the best hand held.
Davies was the next to depart. Another former chip leader dispatched to the rail. Davies got his last chips in with 
against Greenwood’s 
.
After the first four cards off the deck were 
, Davies seemed certain to chop it. “How can I lose?” he said. But then the river was the 
and Davies was done. He took 65,800 and Greenwood built his stack some more.
GREENWOOD’S SURGE TO THE TITLE
Loon, Greenwood and Haxton were left, with Greenwood nominally in the lead, but any pot changing that. However, Greenwood continued to get the cards to do the most damage, and he next dispatched Haxton to the rail in third.
Haxton shoved with 
and Greenwood made the call with . There were no further dramas, and Haxton was out in third for 91,000. He still hunts that elusive first Triton win.
Greenwood had 86 antes to Loon’s 19 when they reset for heads-up play.
It wasn’t long, of course, before the chips went in for the first time. Loon doubled with against Greenwood’s .
However, the second time the money went in, Loon’s couldn’t catch up after Greenwood’s 
flopped a straight on the 
board. The turn left Loon drawing dead.
Greenwood is another short deck acolyte, keen to encourage others to join the fray. “I just think more people should give it a try,” he said. “I think it’s a really fun game. I don’t think it’s been as solvable post-flop. I think it’s more of a social game because more pots are multi-way.
“At first people might be a little intimidated by it, and at the start you’re going to make some mistakes. But the good thing about short deck is that any mistakes you make can’t be that bad.”
With that, we say goodbye from Vietnam at the end of another spectacular Triton Series festival.
RESULTS
Event #14 – 20,000 Short Deck Turbo
Dates: March 13, 2023
Entries: 28 (inc. 9 re-entries)
Prize pool: 560,000
1 – Sam Greenwood (Canada) – 207,000
2 – Lun Loon (Malaysia) – 143,000
3 – Isaac Haxton (USA) – 91,000
4 – Seth Davies (USA) – 65,800
5 – Wei Hsiang Yeu (Malaysia) – 53,200
Photography by Joe Giron/Poker Photo Archive