button in SafariKhoa Anh Ngo Goes From Triton ONE to Super High Roller Champion
Khoa Anh Ngo is no stranger to making history at Triton Poker. After all, he is the first, and to date only, two-time champion on the Triton ONE tour.
Now, he has a Super High Roller title to add to his burgeoning reputation in the global game, along with the not-so-insignificant matter of $1,090,000 to show for it.
Anh Ngo took down the $25K NLH Titi Poker at the Triton Super High Roller Series Jeju II, in a festival that is quickly becoming notable for the number of first-time winners and breakout stars that have emerged.
The Vietnamese player defeated Russian crusher Anatoly Filatov heads-up to claim his third Triton trophy, and told PokerNews after his victory, “Winning the Triton ONE title two times meant a lot to me. It gave me a lot of confidence. [It made me think] I can try to go a little bit further and play some events of the Triton Super High Roller Series.”
Triton SHRS Jeju II $25k NLH Titi Poker Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Payout |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Khoa Anh Ngo | Vietnam | $1,090,000 |
| 2 | Anatoly Filatov | Russia | $733,000 |
| 3 | Isaac Haxton | United States | $515,000 |
| 4 | Aren Bezhanyan | Armenia | $417,000 |
| 5 | David Coleman | United States | $330,000 |
| 6 | Joe Hindry | United Kingdom | $250,000 |
| 7 | Justin Chu | Taiwan | $184,000 |
| 8 | Batmunkh Unubukh | Mongolia | $134,000 |
| 9 | Thomas Boivin | Belgium | $111,000 |
Anh Ngo: "Totally Confident"
Anh Ngo's experience at Triton stood him in good stead when he reached heads-up against Filatov, with the three-time champ saying he “was totally confident” he could win after his opponent turned down an ICM deal.
“It’s always good to reduce the variance," he said. "As we all know, poker is a game of high variance. So yeah, I discussed with him, but he disagreed. And then we continued to play."
It has been a remarkable and rapid rise for Anh Ngo, who only started playing poker during the COVID-19 pandemic. Even he admits he could not have predicted how quickly things would develop.
“When I first started, to be honest, I didn’t expect that it would run like this, like what I am now. I will try to be a better version of myself, try to study, try to improve. I think poker is a long journey and we never know the future. I’m just doing my best and hope for the best.”
All Change at the Top As 6 Play Down on Final Day
Six returned on the final day of the three-day event to play down to a seven-figure winner, with a minimum $250,000 already locked up for those remaining.
The American duo of David Coleman and Ike Haxton, both Super High Roller Series winners with millions in Triton earnings, led the way with the top stacks, followed by Aren Bezhanyan and Filatov, who had both lifted the famous Trident trophy in Jeju before. Anh Ngo and Joe Hindry propped up the foot of the counts, with the least experience of closing out super nosebleed-stakes events.
In the first major pot of the day, Anh Ngo got the momentum going quickly, picking up aces against Coleman's king-jack and raking in a huge pot to double through the start-of-play chip leader.
From there, Anh Ngo never looked back. After Filatov eliminated Hindry in sixth place, Coleman was the next to go, relinquishing his chip lead in rapid fashion to crash out in fifth to Bezhanyan, leaving Anh Ngo with a big stack.
Next, Anh Ngo would take out the Armenian in somewhat fortuitous fashion after running into pocket queens. His suited jack-nine of spades got there on the turn as he made a flush, and then there were three.
Haxton would depart next and was very short by that point in comparison to Anh Ngo and Filatov. Once again, the Vietnamese star would act as final table executioner, dumping Haxton out with ace-seven over ace-five, picking up middle pair on the flop.
With play heads-up, the players discussed the possibility of an ICM deal with the help of Triton's Senior Director of Live Events Luca Vivaldi, but couldn't come to an arrangement, so it would be played out for the full near-$1.1 million payday.
Anh Ngo was ahead going in and he would never relinquish it. After he won an 18-big-blind pot against Filatov, who was looking to go back-to-back in this event after winning it last year, with nine-three suited, he moved even further into command.
After both players picked up a pair of eights in the final hand, it all got in the middle postflop. Anh Ngo hit his two pair and that was that.
A million-dollar winner, the second-most successful Vietnamese player in history, and the second player in history to win titles on Triton ONE and the Super High Roller Series was confirmed.
