HK$100,000 Short Deck Ante-Only
Day 2 Started
2018 Triton Super High Roller Series Jeju
HK$100,000 Short Deck Ante-Only
Day: 2
Event Info
Final Results
Event Info
Level Info
2018 Triton Super High Roller Series Jeju
Buy-in
100,000 HKD
Entries
61
Level
16
Blinds
0 / 0
Ante
80,000
Nick Schulman Hops Onto the Felt for his First Short Deck Event in Jeju
While Nick Schulman might be more recognized for his commentary as of late after putting in many hours in the booth during the World Series of Poker, he’s taking some time to hop back onto the felt here in Jeju for the Triton Super High Roller Series. Despite his time in the booth, Schulman still considers himself a player first, and a commentator second, saying that the games don’t have to be that juicy to entice him to play.
“Well, I mostly play,” Schulman explained. “You know I only do a little bit of commentating. Not that juicy. If I feel like playing, I'm in there. Like this tournament for example, no idea what I'm doing. I'm in there fighting”
Stepping back onto the felt after spending time commentating has its pros and cons for Schulman. He explained the commentating does keep him sharp and helps him think about the game in new ways, but at the same time, there’s no better learning tool than buckling down and hopping into the games.
And as he’s grown as a commentator, his fanbase has grown as well. Over the course of the summer, Schulman received much praise for his work in the booth from players and viewers alike who voiced their pleasure over various forms of social media. And while the praise for his work certainly keeps him motivated, Schulman remains humble, explaining that there’s a lot that goes into his preparation and that he’s always trying to make improvements.
“I really appreciate it,” Schulman said about the praise he’s been receiving. “I’m always trying to grow in the role. The praise makes me a little bit uncomfortable, but it also feels really really good. I don’t want to really let it fuck with my style. I have a lot of ideas that I try to build, I take a lot of notes. I prepare diligently for it honestly. Everything from my voice to just the poker itself and even the dynamics in the booth. I really appreciate the role and I don’t take it for granted.”
For Schulman it’s his very first time playing short deck hold’em, but he’s already having a blast learning the new game.
“I just came out with some friends for the series, just for a little bit of vacation action,” he explained. “Didn't even know about this one until I got here and the buy-in is reasonable and it's the first time I've ever played. I really don't know what I'm doing which is fun because I can only, I think, maybe I can actually get worse than I am now. Probably that's possible. You know it's a lot of fun and I'm happy to be here”
Along with that, Schulman is also playing in his first Triton Super High Roller Series as well, but that didn’t stop him from singing his praises after just arriving yesterday.
“Beautiful,” Schulman said. “Beautifully run and the accommodations are great. Not surprising because I’ve watched the last one, some of the stream. It’s top-notch, it’s great.”
Schulman traveled to Jeju for the event with Illya Trincher, another high stakes regular, and before playing the two discussed a bit of strategy in preparation for the tournament.
“Yeah me and Illya were talking,” Schulman explained. “Talking with a few buddies. Obviously, I play a lot of no-limit hold’em, or at the very least think about it a lot. So, you take 20 cards out of the deck, there’s all sorts of stuff going on. Some of it is somewhat natural. The nuances and all the sorts of strategies of this game… I’m sort of just poaching it off players who played it a little bit and talking and asking for advice. Me and Illya just kind of mess around and try to come up with some stuff.”
For Schulman, the biggest strategies he’s been working on for short deck are in pre-flop decision making and post flop decision making, something that’s a big part of no-limit hold’em as well.
“Pre-flop decision making, post-flop decision making,” he said explaining some of his preparation topics. “And of course some of the stack size stuff gets crazy. And you know some of these middling kind of hands that make straights. This is a little bit foreign to no-limit hold’em players, and even though it makes sense given that there’s no fives through deuces, it’s still a little bit tricky and sometimes you can just kind of revert to no-limit. But all of that stuff we were just talking about briefly.”
And despite spending so much time on his commentary, Schulman is playing with a new crowd of players in this event, many players who have yet to make a splash in the North American poker circuits. For him though, it’s still a bit too early to tell who’s doing what.
“I haven't really been playing long enough today to really see any kind of discernible sort of styles,” Schulman explained. “And so many hands from multi-way or they're limped. It's kind of hard. I feel like nuances and the good players in this game, it might be a little more subtle than in other games. I haven't really picked up all that much. I'm just kind of in there, gunslinging a little bit.”
Schulman is able to find the good in playing with players he knows as well as new faces, something that he’ll be doing a lot of with the mixed bag of players in this event.
“Both are nice. No-limit hold'em is my preferred game. I just love to play and that's often conducive towards people that I know. Which is a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun to play with great players. I enjoy that. But having said that, playing with people I've never seen is great. Playing a new game a new game is great, and I'm having a lot of fun.”
Despite not having much experience with the game, Schulman was able to sneak his way into Day 2 of this event. He will return later on Wednesday with his stack of 685,000 in an effort to run even deeper in the tournament. And even though he's having a blast playing the game, Schulman thinks it might take longer for the game to integrate into the mainstream poker scene, for a multitude of reasons.
“It’s a really good question,” Schulman said. “Are there any legality hold-ups in the states or can it be spread? It’s a very fun game. It’s an action kind of game. It’s a gambley game. But I really don’t know as far as will it take off or will it not? I can’t quite say.
Schulman couldn’t put a number on it, but he did say it’s a logical move to eventually make short deck into a World Series of Poker Bracelet event.
“I don’t know what the timeline is, but I would have to think that probably there will be one,” he said. “It’s a pretty natural move to incorporate short deck out west for a lot of different reasons.”
When it comes to the future and the rest of the series, Schulman is looking forward to some of the larger buy in, no-limit hold’em events, but mentioned what he would really like is if Triton would integrate more mixed games into the schedule.
“There’s the 50k no-limit that’s coming up and I think there’s a 250k U.S. that’s coming up, I’m really excited about,” he said. “Any of the short deck buy ins above this, I don’t know. I’m really raw out there. I made a couple of plays out there today that whiffed.”
“Mixed games,” Schulman said is what he would like to see. “But I don’t know if that’s really going to pop off in Jeju. So maybe a half no-limit half short deck sounds fun. I do love the mixed games. I love stud. If any of these dudes want to play some limit stud, I’m here.”
Perhaps Schulman is on the right track though. Could a no-limit, short deck hold’em and pot-limit Omaha mix event be the next step for Triton? Only time will tell.
First Short Deck Champion To Be Crowned Today at Triton Super High Roller Series Jeju
Only 16 players remain in contention for the title in the opening event at 2018 Triton Super High Roller Series Jeju. They will come back Wednesday, July 25 at 2 p.m. local time to battle it out in the final day of the HKD 100,000 Short Deck Ante-Only with over $270,000 lying at the top (HKD 2,135,000).
This marks the second time the short deck has been featured at Triton Series, with the first two editions played two months ago in Montenegro where Phil Ivey and Jason Koon emerged victorious. They both joined the 61-entry field in Jeju but neither was be able to advance through Day 1b.
So there will be a new player joining the ranks of the short deck champs today. It's hard to predict favorites in the field with the high variance of the game and very little studying material available. While the final 16 feature some of the most accomplished high stakes players who regularly rub their shoulders in no-limit tournaments all around the world, the transition to short deck might be tougher than it seems.
The likes of Ben Lamb and Stephen Chidwick paid tolls during their first rounds of short deck hands, having busted on Day 1a. Both Lamb and Chidwick returned for Day 1b and finally survived.
Lamb was getting particularly unlucky runouts in the opening flight but he got some better boards yesterday and managed to make it through with 1,030,000. That puts him in sixth place on the leaderboard. That is a solid base ahead of the final day with the top seven positions paid.
Payout structure:
| Place | Payout HK$ | Payout Approximate USD |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | 2,135,000 | $272,084 |
| 2nd | 1,319,369 | $168,140 |
| 3rd | 874,801 | $111,484 |
| 4th | 619,272 | $78,920 |
| 5th | 466,223 | $59,415 |
| 6th | 371,917 | $47,403 |
| 7th | 313,418 | $39,941 |
However, Lamb is still below the virtual average line, mainly due to a huge surge of Wai Kin Yong who destroyed Day 1b to amass an overwhelming 3,380,000, in other words, almost one-fifth of all chips in play. Yong utilized some vast aggression and never slowed down. Yong will start directly to the left of Day 1a chip leader Chow Hing Yaung who bagged 1,953,000. Chow rounds out the overall top three, following Ivan Leow with 2,320,000.
Yong and Leow already met on a short deck final table in the HKD 250k event in Montenegro. Alan Sass (1,879,000) and Gabe Patgorski (962,000) joined them back then so these four players already have some experience with the specifics of ICM situations in short deck. Rui Cao is another player who can benefit from his previous experience as he finished fifth in the HK$1 million event.
Come back to PokerNews to find out who will take down the first event in Jeju as the coverage from the final day starts at approximately 2:30 p.m. local time just when the cards-up live stream kicks off (subject to a 30-minute security delay).
Final day seating order:
| Table | Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Ivan Leow | Malaysia | 2,320,000 |
| 1 | 3 | Ben Lamb | United States | 1,030,000 |
| 1 | 4 | Siow Choon Tong | Malaysia | 695,000 |
| 1 | 5 | Stephen Chidwick | United Kingdom | 480,000 |
| 1 | 6 | Ying Jinghui | China | 265,000 |
| 2 | 1 | Foo Sze Ming | Malaysia | 1,595,000 |
| 2 | 2 | Chio Lin Ern | Singapore | 395,000 |
| 2 | 3 | Kenneth Kee | Singapore | 904,000 |
| 2 | 5 | Romain Arnaud | France | 635,000 |
| 2 | 6 | Chow Hing Yaung | Malaysia | 1,953,000 |
| 2 | 7 | Wai Kin Yong | Malaysia | 3,380,000 |
| 3 | 1 | Alan Sass | United States | 1,879,000 |
| 3 | 2 | Rui Cao | France | 610,000 |
| 3 | 3 | Nick Schulman | United States | 685,000 |
| 3 | 4 | Lim Chin Wei | Malaysia | 510,000 |
| 3 | 7 | Gabe Patgorski | United States | 962,000 |
Level: 10
Blinds: 0/0
Ante: 15,000
Lim Doubles Through Patgorski on the First Hand
Lim Chin Wei moved all in before the flop first to act with a shove for 510,000. Gabe Patgorski was next to act and he moved all in over the top. Everyone else folded and it was on to a showdown with Patgorski and Lim
Lim Chin Wei: 
Gabe PAtgorski: 
"Good luck," Patgorski said.
The flop came down 
giving Lim trips and that put him in a commanding position.
"I shouldn't have said that," Patgorski said, shaking his head.
The turn was the 
and that would seal it for Lim as he made quads. The river was the 
and that would finish the board, allowing Lim to double to over a million.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
1,090,000 | 580,000 |
|
440,000 | -522,000 |
Lamb Busts Chidwick from the Feature Table
Level 10
: 0/0, 15,000 ante
Ben Lamb shoved in the hijack and Stephen Chidwick called for his 480,000 on the button with a slightly better hand.
Lamb: 
Chidwick:
The board ran out 
and Lamb finished with a straight to end Chidwick's run on the very first hand on the feature table.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
1,600,000 | 570,000 |
|
Busted |
Cao Chopped by Sass and Lim
Four-way to the 
flop, Rui Cao fired 375,000 in the cutoff, prompting a fold from Nick Schulman on the button. Lim Chin Wei, however, announced he was all in and Alas Sass shoved over the top. Cao called for the rest of his chips and the three hands were tabled in a monster pot.
Sass:
Cao: 
Lim: 
Cao was disappointed to see Sass turn up a superior flush draw, but Gabe Patgorski still had high hopes for Cao: "I feel like Rui is going to hit some s***."
The 
turn, however, left Cao drawing dead and the river gave both Sass and Lim jacks full of queens so they chopped Cao's stack.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
2,145,000 | 266,000 |
|
|
1,400,000 | 310,000 |
|
Busted |
Leow Takes Care of Siow
Level 10
: 0/0, 15,000 ante
Ivan Leow made it 155,000 in the hijack and called when Siow Choon Tong pushed all in for 635,000. They turned up the classic no-limit flip hands.
Siow:
Leow: 
The dealer spread out a board of 
to give Leow top two and Siow was eliminated.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
3,000,000 | 680,000 |
|
Busted |
Jinghui Loses His Short Stack
Level 10
: 0/0, 15,000 ante
Ben Lamb opened the hijack to 125,000 with and Lim Chin Wei folded pocket tens in the cutoff and Ying Jinghui shoved 175,000 with 
on the button.
The flop of pushed Lamb very close to victory and the 
turn locked it up for him. The river couldn't change anything and Jinghui was knocked out on the last two tables.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
1,900,000 | 300,000 |
|
Busted |
Arnaud Three-Outed by Foo
Foo Sze Ming limped in the first position and Romain Arnaud jammed for 635,000 in the cutoff. Ming thought for a while and then tossed in calling chips.
Arnaud was in a great spot as he rolled over to find himself dominating the of Foo.
The flop of 
brought some backdoor chances for Foo but the turn was brilliant for Arnaud. He only needed to fade the three queens in the deck. Unfortunately for him, the dealer turned up a lethal and Arnaud suffered a nasty bad beat which forced him to depart in 12th place.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
1,700,000 | 105,000 |
|
|
Busted |