Under the gun, Andrew Robl opened to 28,000 holding . Mikita Badziakouski was in the hijack seat with and he called. Xuan Tan was holding and he called as well in the cutoff.
The flop was and Robl used a time bank before he put out a bet of 25,000. Badziakouski raised to 50,000. Tan folded and Robl put Badziakouski all in for an extra couple thousand. Badziakouski called.
The turn was the and that would put Robl in the lead and the on the river would seal it, forcing Badziakouski to use another bullet re-entry ticket.
By the time we arrived, Gabe Patgorski's hole cards were already in the muck but it became apparent that he couldn't beat Romain Arnaud who made nut flush with . Patgorski lost all his chips and it was his final bullet so he went to the registration desk to re-enter. Then he returned to his previous seat and continued battling the likes of Jason Koon, Ben Lamb, Richard Yong and Arnaud.
After several limps, Tom Dwan raised to 198,000 on the button. Marius Torbergsen called over his limp while everyone else folded.
Tom Dwan:
Marius Torbergseb:
The flop was and the turn was the giving Dwan a straight. Torbergsen could still catch up with a flush but the river was the and that would allow Dwan to take down the pot. Torbergsen was forced to use another bullet.
Marius Torbergsen raised in the hijack seat to 22,000 with . Tom Dwan called in the cutoff with . Ivan Leow then called on the button with .
The flop was and Torbergsen put out a bet of 30,000. Dwan called, as did Leow.
The turn was the and Torbergsen moved all in with 268,000 and both of his opponents called, Dwan with top two pair and Leow with his double gutshot straight draw.
The river was the though and that would be the big pot for Torbergsen to chip up to 760,000 while Dwan was left with 254,000. Leow was officially eliminated from the tournament again and he'll have to re-enter if he wants to make a run.
Day 1 of the HK$1,000,000 Triton Hold'em (Short Deck Ante-Only) event drew 41 entries and 16 players found their way through the first six 60-minute levels. Late registration will remain open through one more level so there might be some more players interested in joining or rejoining the action tomorrow.
So far, Romain Arnaud has managed to amass the most chips, having accumulated 1,580,000. Arnaud mostly increased his belongings in the last level. His pivotal surge came when he eliminated Gabe Patgorski with the nut flush. A couple of more additions to his stack helped Arnaud surpass Kenneth Kee in the overnight standings.
Kee was right at the top for a solid part of the day, having built a big stack in the early stages. Kee left his foot firmly on the pedal and kept piling up to eventually cross 1.5 million in chips, trailing only Arnaud.
Wai Kin Yong rounds out the top three with 1,284,000 in his bag. Yong's most significant moment came when he peeled pocket aces and held against Phil Ivey who put his second tournament life on the line with queen-ten suited. Ivey busted for the second time and took a break before play wrapped up for the day. He might have another shot at the title tomorrow when the action resumes.
While Ivey didn't find a bag tonight, some other North American stars were able to navigate their way into Day 2. Those include HK$1 Million Triton Hold'em Montenegro champion Jason Koon who was able to spin his stack up to 837,000, good for sixth place on the leaderboard. Koon sits behind Peter Jetten (1,169,000) and Alan Sass (1,130,000) who have participated in both previous Triton Hold'em events here in Jeju.
Andrew Robl made his debut today, taking to the felt for the first time at the festival and he finished in the middle of the pack with 610,000. The bottom half of the rankings features Tom Dwan (386,000) and Ben Lamb (315,000), among others.
Day 2 kicks off Sunday, July 29 at 2 p.m. local time with the 5,000 ante and 10,000 button-ante. Come back to follow PokerNews live updates as the 2018 Triton Super High Roller Series will crown the fourth champion tomorrow.