2018 Triton Super High Roller Series Montenegro

HKD $250,000 Short Deck Ante-Only
Day: 1
Event Info

2018 Triton Super High Roller Series Montenegro

Final Results
Winner
Winning Hand
qj
Prize
4,749,200 HKD
Event Info
Buy-in
250,000 HKD
Prize Pool
14,347,200 HKD
Entries
61
Level Info
Level
20
Blinds
0 / 0
Ante
100,000

HKD $250,000 Short Deck Ante-Only

Day 1 Completed

Ivey; Cates and Koon Among Nine Finalists in First Live Short Deck Poker Event

Level 13 : 0/0, 20,000 ante
Phil Ivey
Phil Ivey

The Triton Super High Roller Series once again headed to the stunning Maestral Resort & Casino in Budva, Montenegro for the second year in a row and the first of four events of the seven-day festival attracted some of the biggest names of the international high stakes poker scene for the first-ever live Short Deck Ante-Only tournament.

All low cards, deuces to fives to be exact, were removed out of the traditional Hold'em card deck, and there were only 36 cards in play. The tables were running seven-handed to further increase the aggressive playing style with frequent all in showdowns despite the ante only and button double ante format. With a starting stack of 300,000 chips split into three bullets, which could be redeemed at any time during the registration period in the first nine levels of 45 minutes each, the vast majority of the participants opted to try and run up individual bullets of 100,000 each at a time.

As a result, it came as no surprise that the tournament with a buy-in of HKD250,000 (approximately $31,850) saw it's field of 61 total entries consist of 31 unique entries and 30 re-entries. This included some of the most well-known faces of the High Stakes circuit such as Tom Dwan, Dan Cates, Phil Ivey, Triton Poker founder Richard Yong, Paul Phua, Winfred Yu and Mikita "fish2013" Badziakouski.

Phil Ivey
Phil Ivey returns to the live poker scene

Ivey not only returned for another rare sighting on the live poker circuit over the last few years, but reached the last nine as the bubble burst in level 13 with Badziakouski heading to the rail empty-handed without anything to show for. In the second-last hand of the night, Ivey doubled through 2016 Triton Super High Roller Series Manila Main Event champion Wai Kin Yong and advanced to the final day with a stack of 1,800,000. He is joined by Cates and Koon, who narrowly missed out on the overnight chip lead after bagging up 2,670,000 and 2,495,000 respectively.

The top spot after Day 1 belongs to Alan Sass with 2,775,000. Mid-way through the day, Sass went on a hot streak in which he could barely lose any all in showdown against shorter stacks to emerge as big stack. The other finalists include Gabe Patgorski (2,575,000), Ivan Leow (2,070,000), aforementioned Wai Kin Yong (1,970,000), Furkat Rakhimov (1,190,000) and Mikhail Smirnov (900,000).

Alan Sass
Alan Sass ended Day 1 at the top

Among those to bust throughout the day were Devan Tang, Sean Dempsey, Peter Jetten, Winfred Yu, Marius Torbergsen, Rui Cao and Tom Dwan. After joining late and entering three times, Dwan ran a big bluff for most of his stack on the last two tables with ace-queen high against Wai Kin Yong and the latter called with queen-eight for a straight on the river of a paired jack-ten high board.

Only minutes later, a short-stacked Mikita Badziakouski invested half of his stack preflop with ace-king and Gabe Patgorski called on the button with jack-ten. Badziakouski jammed a queen-high flop with a straight draw, while Patgorski looked him up with middle pair to let the bubble burst after two blanks on turn and river. That ended the day and all remaining nine hopefuls bagged and tagged right after.

Mikita Badziakouski
Bubble Boy Mikita Badziakouski

Action resumes with just over 30 minutes left in level 13 with an ante of 20,000 and button double ante of 40,000, which gives bottom stack Smirnov 45 antes worth, while chip leader Sass has 139 antes. The second and final tournament day kicks off around 1 p.m. local time on Sunday, May 13, 2018, and for the first time ever, Triton Poker is also hosting a live stream on their Twitch channel on a security delay of 30 minutes with English commentary by Kane Kalas and Randy Lew, further streams are hosted in Russian and Chinese

Seat Assignments for the final day

TableSeatPlayerCountryChip CountAntes
11Wai Kin YongMalaysia1,970,00049
12Furkat RakhimovRussia1,190,00030
15Ivan LeowMalaysia2,070,00052
16Alan SassUnited States2,775,00069
17Phil IveyUnited States1,800,00045
      
21Dan CatesUnited States2,670,00067
23Gabe PatgorskiUnited States2,575,00064
25Mikhail SmirnovRussia900,00023
27Jason KoonUnited States2,495,00062

Here is what the nine finalists are playing for:

PlacePrize (in HKD)Prize (in USD)Prize (in EUR)
14,749,200604,977505,812
23,199,000407,505340,708
31,937,000246,745206,300
41,334,000169,932142,077
5918,000116,93997,771
6689,00087,76873,382
7560,00071,33659,643
8488,00062,16451,974
9473,00060,25350,377

The second tournament of the festival in Montenegro kicks off at 4 p.m. local time on May 13 as well and the buy-in for the 6-Max No Limit Hold'em Side Event remains the same at HKD250,000 (approximately $31,850), the PokerNews live reporting team will be back on the floor to provide all the action for both events.

Tags: Alan SassDan CatesJason KoonMikita BadziakouskiPhil IveyRichard YongWai Kin Yong

Mikita Badziakouski Bubbles the Short Deck Ante-Only Side Event

Level 13 : 0/0, 20,000 ante
Mikita Badziakouski
Mikita Badziakouski

On the outer table, Mikita Badziakouski raised first to act for a decent portion of his short stack and Gabe Batgorski came along from the big blind. On the {Q-Spades}{J-Diamonds}{7-Diamonds} flop, Badziakouski shoved for his last 140,000 and Patgorski called.

Mikita Badziakouski: {A-Clubs}{K-Spades}
Gabe Patgorski: {J-Clubs}{10-Spades}

The {Q-Hearts} on the turn and the {6-Spades} on the river let the bubble burst with Badziakouski leaving empty-handed. All remaining nine players will now bag and tag their chips and return tomorrow at 1 p.m. local time to play down to a winner.

Player Chips Progress
Gabe Patgorski us
Gabe Patgorski
2,575,000 475,000
Mikita Badziakouski by
Mikita Badziakouski
WSOP 1X Winner
Busted

Tags: Gabe PatgorskiMikita Badziakouski

Ivey Doubles Through Yong

Level 13 : 0/0, 20,000 ante

Ivan Leow raised to 100,000 with the {A-Diamonds}{J-Hearts} and Phil Ivey called with the {J-Spades}{10-Spades}. Wai Kin Yong raised to 500,000 with {A-Clubs}{Q-Spades} and Leow folded, while Ivey called with only 261,000 behind.

On the {K-Clubs}{9-Spades}{6-Spades} flop, Ivey moved all in and Yong called. Ivey's gutshot and flush draw immediately got there on the {Q-Hearts} turn, the {A-Hearts} river was a blank to let Ivey double on the money bubble.

Player Chips Progress
Ivan Leow my
Ivan Leow
2,100,000 -800,000
Wai Kin Yong my
Wai Kin Yong
2,000,000 -900,000
Phil Ivey us
Phil Ivey
WSOP 10X Winner
Poker Hall of Famer
WPT 1X Winner
1,800,000 1,019,000

Tags: Phil IveyWai Kin YongIvan Leow

Ivey Below a Million

Level 13 : 0/0, 20,000 ante

Phil Ivey raised to 120,000 with the {Q-Clubs}{j-Clubs} on a stack just shy of one million and Wai Kin Yong called with the {K-Spades}{J-Hearts}. The flop came {A-Spades}{6-Spades}{K-Clubs} and Ivey continued for 200,000 and Yong called.

After the {9-Diamonds} turn, Ivey checked and Yong checked behind. The {9-Hearts} river paired the board and both players checked. Yong scooped the pot and that left with Ivey below a million.

Player Chips Progress
Wai Kin Yong my
Wai Kin Yong
2,900,000 950,000
Phil Ivey us
Phil Ivey
WSOP 10X Winner
Poker Hall of Famer
WPT 1X Winner
781,000 -1,195,000

Tags: Phil IveyWai Kin Yong

Smirnov in Another Tough Spot

Level 13 : 0/0, 20,000 ante

On the three-way flop of {A-Diamonds}{9-Clubs}{6-Spades}, Mikhail Smirnov bet 95,000 from early position and Dan Cates called in the cutoff, as did Gabe Patgorski on the button. The {Q-Clubs} on the turn brought another bet of 250,000 bySmirnov and Cates asked for his stack size before calling, Patgorski folded.

The {6-Diamonds} fell on the river and Smirnov checked. Cates bet 400,000 and the Russian was visibly frustrated, once more facing a river bet on a paired board over on the outer table. Smirnov folded and Cates claimed the pot without showdown.

Player Chips Progress
Dan Cates us
Dan Cates
WSOP 2X Winner
2,650,000 590,000
Gabe Patgorski us
Gabe Patgorski
2,100,000 -100,000
Mikhail Smirnov ru
Mikhail Smirnov
800,000 -400,000

Tags: Dan CatesGabe PatgorskiMikhail Smirnov

Level: 13

Blinds: 0/0

Ante: 20,000

Arnaud Busts to Sass; Hand-For-Hand Mode Activated

Level 12 : 0/0, 15,000 ante
Romain Arnaud
Romain Arnaud

Over on the feature table, Romain Arnaud got his stack of around 947,000 in preflop and was met by a reshove for more than 1.5 million by Alan Sass.

Romain Arnaud: {A-Hearts}{Q-Hearts}
Alan Sass: {A-Clubs}{A-Spades}

The board came {K-Spades}{8-Hearts}{7-Diamonds}{Q-Clubs}{10-Diamonds} and Arnaud was eliminated in 11th place to trigger hand-for-hand mode. However, the hand on the outer table was still waiting for completion. The river showed {K-Clubs}{10-Diamonds}{6-Clubs}{A-Spades}{8-Clubs} and Dan Cates bet 250,000. Gabe Patgorski raised it up to 850,000 with some 500,000 behind and Cates took a long time to consider before folding.

Sass had moved over to watch the action and Patgorski was tempted to show, but ultimately raked in the big pot with a smile on the face and resisted the urge to reveal his cards.

With some 10 minutes left in the final scheduled level for the night, the clock has been stopped and for every hand during the bubble period, two minutes will be deducted from now on. If there are still 10 players remaining at the end of the level, action will likely resume until the bubble has indeed burst.

Player Chips Progress
Alan Sass me
Alan Sass
Day 1 Chip Leader
2,570,000
Gabe Patgorski us
Gabe Patgorski
2,200,000
Dan Cates us
Dan Cates
WSOP 2X Winner
2,060,000
Romain Arnaud fr
Romain Arnaud
Busted

Tags: Alan SassDan CatesGabe PatgorskiRomain Arnaud