The elite go public at the Triton Super High Roller Series in Montenegro
To summarize the recently concluded Triton Super High Roller Series in Montenegro, it was impressive. For the first time, a festival delivered something innovative to fans worldwide: short deck tournaments and a televised cash game with pots ballooning to $2M. Elite players such as Phil Ivey and Tom Dwan were in attendance with the former winning the opening event. In total there were 4 events over the course of seven days running from May 12 to May 18 at one of the most gorgeous stops of the series.
We have a short recap on the winners and the action. Also on what’s next for the series.
Phil Ivey and Jasn Koon win Short decks events
For a few years now, high stakes and elite players have been playing short deck games. Though many are aware of this new variation of poker, short deck in itself hasn’t hit mainstream just yet. That may all change with the Triton bringing the game to the public via Super High Roller tournaments.
The opening event, the HK$ 250,000 Short Deck Ante Only was captured by Phil Ivey. This was a great achievement for the pro who has only been seen minimally and hasn’t won an event since 2015. Ivey topped a field of 61 entries, shipping in HK$4,749,200 (US$605,000).
Ivey also cashed in the last event, the HK$ 1,000,000 Short Deck Ante Only. He placed 3rd out of 103 entries for a catch of HK$13,082,000 (US$1,666,480). This was an impressive turnout for the event. Winning it was Jason Koon, pocketing the lion’s cut HK$28,102,000 (US$3,579,836) for his largest career win.
The biggest ever televised cash games
The series was truly one-of-a-kind with not just short deck events but also a televised cash game with an astounding €1M buy-in. Fans were able to stream the game on twitch with commentary by Randy Lew and Gabe Patgorski.
Jason Koon Wins a €2 Million ($2,357,517) Pot from Elton Tsang (€2,000/€4,000/€1,000)
Among the players at the table were Ivey, Dwan, Patrik Antonius, Paul Phua, and Daniel Cates. With such a monstrous buy-in, naturally the pots were huge as well with blinds at €1,000-€2,000 then jumping quickly to €2,000-€4,000 ante €10,000.
Kane Kalas and Jason Koon took down the two biggest pots. Kalas shipped in over US$2.1 million off Koon but Koon recovered by winning a pot over US$2.3 million against Elton Tsang. This was the first time pots this size has been privy to the public.
Mikita “fish2013” Badziakouski wins the Main Event for $2.5M
With so much excitement going on, the HK$1,000,0000 Main Event didn’t quite receive the spotlight it should have. According to the report on Pokernews, the event “was cut short as the 10 remaining players approached the bubble because the feature table was needed…” for the televised cash game.
The Main Event drew in 63 entries for a prize pool of HK$59,270,400 (US$7,550,500). Only 9 players got a piece of the pie with Belarus highest ranked player, Mikita Badziakouski, winning the event. He earned his largest career win of HK$19,618,400 (US$2,499,185). Last year’s winner in Montenegro, Manig Loeser was also part of the action. He finished in the money in 8th place for HK$2,015,000.
There was one additional event that also wrapped up, the HK$250,000 6-Max event. Triton founder, Richard Yong, claimed the trophy by overcoming a field of 35 entries, and defeating Steve O’Dwyer at heads up. Yong picked up the HK$3,046,000 cash and his first win at his own series creation.
Up next: New event announced in Jeju
During the festival, the next stop for this elite series was announced. The Triton Super High Roller Series heads to Jeju Island, Korea on July 23 – 31.
Article by Tricia David
Cover picture by Pokernews / Triton Poker
