2018 Triton Super High Roller Series Montenegro

The high stakes tournament action in the Triton Super High Roller Series did not conclude with Mikita Badziakouski’s Main Event victory, but ratcheted up to new heights as the HKD $1-million (~$132,000) Short Deck Ante Only Event got underway.

Some of the game’s biggest names fought it out at the felt, with 50 entries (including 18 re-entries) anteing up and getting involved in only the second-ever tournament of this type ever held. With all deuces through to fives removed from the traditional deck of 52-cards the game plays with a deck of 36, flushes beat full houses and jack-ten plays like ace-king.

The tables did not run over six-handed, allowing a great deal of aggressive play and, dare we say it, quite a bit of gambling. The action was high tempo from the start, with players quite willing to get all the chips in at a moments notice, with frequent multi-way all-in showdowns seemingly the norm, at least while the re-entry period remained open – which it will until the end of level 9 on Day 2.

Players began with a 300,000 chip stack, split up into three 100,000 bullets which players could take all at once, or one at a time – which appeared to be the more popular option – and played seven 60-minute levels.

While 50 players entered, only 13 survived the carnage that ensued once game time began with players of the caliber of Phil Ivey, Jason Koon, Dan “jungleman12” Cates, Richard Yong, two-time Triton SHR Champion Wai Kin Yong, Paul Phua and Winfred Yu just some of the familiar faces showcasing their short deck skills.

This may be a new game, but Ivey already has the form, having taken down the HKD $250,000 Short Deck Ante Only opening event earlier in the festival for a US$600,000 payday.

While it took him two attempts, Ivey climbed near to the top of the counts once again, bagging up 1,083,000. However, it is Hong Kong’s Devan Tang who topped the counts with a massive 2.3-million-chip-stack, which took him just a single 100k bullet of his initial entry.

Tang is well practiced at the Short Deck Ante Only format though, and is a regular in the monster cash games that take place in Macau. Tang is also pretty good at tournaments, with over US$4.3M in live tournament winnings, putting him at #3 on the China All Time Money List.

US pro Jason Koon also enjoyed the rub of the green, concluding play with a stack of 1.81 million. Koon climbed to the top of the counts early after playing a massive pot against fellow countryman Gabe Patgorski, with the pair playing a 750,000-chip pot on just the second level of the day.

Other notables to lock up a Day 2 berth included China’s ‘Shanghai’ Wang Qiang (1,490,000), Canadian pro Peter Jetten (1,451,000), Jaime Kaplan (1,401,000) and Andrew Robl (750,000).

While it took him multiple attempts, Patgorski made it through with a stack of 750,000 and endured a rollercoaster ride of a day, dusting off a huge stack to Tang that saw the latter shoot to the top of the counts and the former re-enter for the third time. The pair got all the chips in on the flop, and while Patgorski’s flopped full house was leading his opponent’s , Tang spiked a spade on the river to win the monster pot.

Amongst those to hit the rail were Dan Cates, Russia’s Mikhail Smirnov, Triton founder Richard Yong, Wai Kin Yong, Main Event finalist Rui Cao, and 2016 Monte Carlo One Drop Extravaganza Champion Elton Tsang.

Day 2 Draw

The action restarts for Day 2 at 3pm local time on Friday 18 May, with two levels of re-entry left and the antes resuming at 6,000, with the button posting a double ante of 12,000. There will be a live Twitch Stream starting at 4pm with English commentary by Kane Kalas and Randy Lew, and the PokerNews live reporting team will be on hand to bring you all the tournament thrills and spills so join us then.

The clock has been paused with 15-minutes remaining on the clock on level seven, with four more hands left to be dealt for Day 1 of the HKD $1-million Short Deck Ante Only Event at the 2018 Triton Super High Roller Montenegro.

Wai Leong Chan doubled for 225,000 with the against the of Gabe Patgorski on a board of , the chips had gone in preflop.

Winfred Yu busted to Jaime Kaplan while Phil Ivey scored a pot without showdown after betting the three-way flop of for 200,000.

Over on the feature table, Alan Sass doubled for 85,000 with against Jason Koon's on a board of .

On the three-way flop of , Phil Ivey bet 30,000 first to act and Marius Torbergsen called in the cutoff. Alan Sass moved all in for 159,000 on the button and Ivey reraised to force a fold from Torbergsen.

Alan Sass:
Phil Ivey:

The turn and the river failed to improve Sass and he redeemed the final bullet.

While Devan Tang has boosted his stack further to move up to 2.4 million on the outer tables, Richard Yong got his stack in preflop for around 205,000 with the . Gabe Patgorski looked him up with the and the board ran out .

Now the field has shrunk and some of the players are really deep in relation to the antes the crazy gambling has subsided, at least for the time being and there has been a lot of limped pots played as of late.

Elton Tsang busted not long before the break, we have no idea how but his seat is now empty. Winfred Yu may well be joining him on the rail, though Yu still has one bullet left of his initial buy-in after busting his second to Jaime Kaplan. Yu had not long doubled though Wai Leong Chan, but Kaplan took all these chips when Yu moved all-in over the top of a Kaplan 40,000 early position open for close to 250,000 and Kaplan made the call.

Winfred Yu:
Jaime Kaplan:

The flop was not a bad one for queens, but the turn was and the river saw Yu's chips shipped Kaplan's way and Yu called for his last bullet while Kaplan climbed to 1.3 million.

Wai Kin Yong and Elton Tsang were no longer in their seats while Wai Leong Chan and Andrew Robl traded pots.

Robl limped from the cutoff and Chan raised to 50,000 on the button, Robl called. On the flop, Robl checked and folded to a bet of 80,000.

Soon after, Robl raised to 40,000 and was called by Chan. The flop fell and Robl continued for 45,000, Chan called. After the turn, Robl carefully considered his next move and bet 90,000, Chan snap-folded.

There are 17 players still in contention and the last level of the day is now in progress. Here's how they are stacking up: