The Triton Super High Roller 2017 Montenegro Main Event saw a total of 47 players (including re-entries) cough up the hefty HK$1,000,000 (~$128,140) buy-in with nine players opting for a second (or third in some cases) shot at fortune and glory when the cards failed to fall their way.
A total of 25 players successfully locked up their Day 2 seat after nine 60-minute levels with China’s Wang Qiang leading the charge, but with registration remaining open until the start of level 10 at 1pm CET on Wednesday 19 July this figure is likely to increase before the final numbers are in.
Fedor Holz, Liang Yu, and David Peters were just some of those who chose to re-enter with Dominik Nitsche and Paul Phua choosing to re-enter not twice, but thrice.
Phua re-entered for a third time just as play concluded a little after 11:15pm CET after losing a race with pocket tens against the ace-queen of Sam Trickett in one of the last three hands of the day and Phua will be returning with the 250,000 start stack when play resumes on Day 2.
However, it was 2016 Global Poker Index Player of the Year David Peters’ exit that was one of the more painful ones, at least for the US-pro, who got the last of his chips in on the turn with jack-six offsuit after defending his big blind against a Wang Qiang early position open midway through the last level.
Peter’s had flopped top and bottom pair but was trailing to Qiang’s flopped set of nines. However, one man’s poison is another man’s meat and that pot catapulted Qiang up to the giddy heights of the chip lead with the Chinese player the only man to break the seven-figure mark.
Qiang bagged up an impressive 1,040,000 in chips, snatching the lead from Belarusian Mikita Badziakouski who had been in pole position for a large portion of the day after eliminating China’sLiang Yu partway through level two to climb to double the average stack.
Badziakouski used this early lead to stick near the top of the leaderboard for the majority of the day and he finished play just behind Qiang with a stack of 843,000.
Another player who was able to capitalize on some early good fortune was Greece’s Antonios Paschalidis who won a monster pot from John Juanda midway through the day with the two getting all the chips in on an eight-high flop in a four-bet pot with pocket kings and pocket queens respectively. Paschalidis stacked up to 830,000 in chips after the hand, a stack he managed to maintain until play concluded, though Juanda was not so fortunate.
Defending champion Koray Aldemir (146,000) and former champion Wai Kin Yong (247,000) are amongst the hopefuls that will return for Day 2.
The action will resume at exactly 1pm CET with level 10 and blinds of 4,000-8,000 with a running ante of 1,000. All new entries will receive 250,000 in chips and the event is scheduled to play down to the official eight-handed final table on Day 2. A winner will then determined on Thursday 20 July, and the PokerNews live reporting team will be there to provide all the action.
Main Event Day 2 Seat Draw
1 7 David Peters USA
1 6 Dominik Bosnjak Austria
1 5 Antonios Paschalidis Greece
1 4 Wang Qiang China
1 3 Predrag Lekovic
1 2 Liang Yu China
2 7 Salman Behbehani Kuwait
2 5 Fedor Holz Germany
2 4 Dominik Nitsche UK
2 2 Chan Wai Leong Malaysia
2 1 Alexandros Kolonias Greece
3 7 Mikita Badziakouski Belarus
3 6 Steffen Sondheimer Austria
3 3 Lucas Greenwood Canada
3 1 Sam Trickett UK
4 7 Manig Loeser UK
4 5 Tony Cheng Hong Kong
4 4 Wai Kin Yong Malaysia
4 3 Peter Chan Hong Kong
4 1 Su Hao China
5 8 Koray Aldemir Austria
5 7 Richard Yong Malaysia
5 5 Daniel Cates USA
5 3 Steve O’Dwyer Ireland
5 1 Devan Tang Hong Kong