Bill Perkins Leads Richest Tournament in History After Day 1
The Triton Million - A Helping Hand for Charity has now had its first day come to an end after 10 phenomenal levels of play and it is businessman Bill Perkins leading the final 36 heading into Day 2. As 18 were eliminated, the majority of the field still remains in contention in London.
Perkins is a hedge fund manager from Houston, Texas who dabbles in the occasional poker game and has almost $3 million in earnings, finished the day with the big stack of 3,560,000, up from 1 million to start.
“It feels great [but] it hasn’t really sunk in yet," Perkins said when asked how it felt to lead the marquee event. "The production value was great and I was excited to be here, but most of the day I was just bleeding away. I was card dead or flopped bad and I was frustrated for most of the day.
"I was bitching, I’m not gonna lie,” he added with a grin.
Perkins found himself in a three-way pot to the flop with Elton Tsang and Bobby Baldwin. Perkins led out, Baldwin raised it up and Tsang cold-called the raise. Perkins moved all in over the top and both opponents called. He found himself with top set against top pair and a bottom set. Perkins scooped the pot, eliminating Tsang while leaving Baldwin short in the process.
Perkins said he nearly mucked his hand to preflop action but then "the 'Casino Royale'" flop arrived. Still, he didn't feel totally secure on the two-tone board.
"I was really worried somebody would have a flush draw," he said. "I dream of monsters under my bed, I’m one of those guys. But no one had a flush draw so, swoosh.”
No monsters appeared as Perkins couldn’t get it in any better and nearly tripled up in the process. Shortly after, the founder of Thirst Lounge made another set, this time with sixes on a ten-nine-six flop with two diamonds. His opponent, then chip leader Vivek Rajkumar, held jack-eight of diamonds for a straight flush draw.
Perkins shoved a blank turn after getting a three-bet in on the flop and Rajkumar elected to call with his draw to create the biggest pot of the tournament. The river ran out clean for Perkins and a patient day of poker paid off with a chip-leading stack.
Right behind Perkins and the only other person over the 3 million mark is Canadian pro Timothy Adams with 3,056,000. Adams slowly but surely ran up a stack during Day 1 of this event and will be looking for another impressive cash this year in a Triton event after taking down the HK$2,000,000 Main Event in Jeju in March for the biggest cash of his career.
Three pros, Dan Smith (2,810,000), Rui Cao (2,700,000), and Nick Petrangelo (2,700,000), round out the top five. All are regulars in Triton events, and their strong Day 1s leave Perkins as the only non-pro invitee atop the board.
Triton Million Top 10 After Day 1
| Position | Player | Country | Status | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bill Perkins | United States | REC | 3,560,000 | 178 |
| 2 | Timothy Adams | Canada | PRO | 3,095,000 | 155 |
| 3 | Dan Smith | United States | PRO | 2,810,000 | 141 |
| 4 | Rui Cao | France | PRO | 2,710,000 | 136 |
| 5 | Nick Petrangelo | United States | PRO | 2,700,000 | 135 |
| 6 | Aaron Zang | China | REC | 2,188,000 | 109 |
| 7 | Chin Wei Lim | Malaysia | REC | 2,050,000 | 103 |
| 8 | Justin Bonomo | United States | PRO | 2,050,000 | 103 |
| 9 | Igor Kurganov | Russia | PRO | 2,015,000 | 101 |
| 10 | Hing Yang Chow | Malaysia | REC | 1,975,000 | 99 |
Triton Million Prize Pool
Those who remain will all be battling it out for the first-place prize of £19,000,000 and a chance to put their name in the record books as the biggest single prize winner in poker history. The $23,008,905 payout for the last player standing in the Triton Million is over $4.6 million more than the previous record set by Antonio Esfandiari in the 2012 Big One for One Drop.
| Position | Prize (GBP) | Prize (USD) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | £19,000,000 | $23,008,905 |
| 2 | £11,670,000 | $14,123,312 |
| 3 | £7,200,000 | $8,719,164 |
| 4 | £4,410,000 | $5,340,488 |
| 5 | £3,000,000 | $3,632,985 |
| 6 | £2,200,000 | $2,664,189 |
| 7 | £1,720,000 | $2,082,911 |
| 8 | £1,400,000 | $1,695,393 |
| 9 | £1,200,000 | $1,453,194 |
| 10-11 | £1,100,000 | $1,332,095 |
Some of the players who won't get a cut of that massive prize pool include Michael Soyza, Haralabos Voulgaris, Elton Tsang, partypoker pro Sam Trickett, Paul Phua, Daniel Cates, Leon Tsoukernik, Fedor Holz and David Peters.
Meanwhile, it was a good day for some top-earning pros. Justin Bonomo (2,050,000), Bryn Kenney (1,645,000), and partypoker pro Jason Koon (1,120,000) — all among the top 10 in all-time live cashes — advanced to Day 2.
Day 2 will restart at 1 p.m. local time and the blinds will begin at 10,000/25,000 with a 25,000 big blind ante. The tournament will not bag up for the third and final day until the final table is reached.
Stay tuned to PokerNews for all of the live updates throughout the remainder of the Triton Million, as well as an embedded live stream on a slight delay from London.
on the flop and action checked to Voulgaris who bet 65,000. Jiang called and Chidwick quickly check-raised to 225,000. Voulgaris moved all in for 459,000, Jiang folded and Chidwick called.
on the turn and 
river completed the board, changing nothing as Voulgaris failed to improve and was eliminated by the two pair of Chidwick.
and got looked up by Wai Leong Chan, who held 
board drew nothing but blanks for the Malaysian and he headed for the rail.
and an unidentified card and Perkins called with 
.
flop promised fireworks and Rajkumar checked his option with his straight flush draw. Lim checked, Perkins bet 55,000 with his set, Rajkumar check-raised to 215,000, Lim folded, Perkins three-bet to 655,000, and Rajkumar called.
— "nice and clean," as Perkins would later say — and Perkins took the chip lead from his opponent late in the day.
and Perkins bet 25,000. Baldwin raised to 125,000 and Tsang cold-called, leaving himself with just 165,000 behind.
turn and 
river. Baldwin was left with 412,000 while Tsang was eliminated.
and won the race to send the British partypoker pro to the rail.
, flipping the lead over to Phua who now had a straight. 
as a river card and Chow showed 
and there was 61,000 in the pot. Sam Trickett, Bryn Kenney, and Stephen Chidwick all checked to the 
, called the raise with his flush.