Level 26
: Blinds 500,000/1,000,000, 1,000,000 ante
Action folded to Benjamin Heath in the cutoff and he raised all in for his stack of 2,500,000. It folded to big blind Alejandro Lococo who made the call to put Heath at risk.
Benjamin Heath: A♦3♦
Alejandro Lococo: 6♠4♠
Heath was ahead with his ace high, and once the board ran out A♣2♥Q♦9♠6♣ Heath secured the double up with his pair of aces.
Level 26
: Blinds 500,000/1,000,000, 1,000,000 ante
Elias Talvitie
Action folded to Alejandro Lococo in the small blind who raised to 2,400,000 with 10♣7♣ and Elias Talvitie called in the big blind with K♣J♥.
After the 8♥4♥6♥ flop, Lococo bet out 1,800,00 with his double-gutted straight draw, and Talvitie made the call with his flush draw and two overcards.
The turn brought the K♦ and Lococo kept betting, this time for 3,600,000, which Talvitie called with his top pair.
To Lococo's delight, the river brought the 9♠ to give him the nut straight, and he bet all in for Talvitie's stack of 11,300,000. After confirming his chip count, Talvitie made the call and was eliminated in fifth after seeing Lococo's straight.
Level 26
: Blinds 500,000/1,000,000, 1,000,000 ante
Daniel Dvoress
Alejandro Lococo raised to 1,600,000 from the cutoff, and once it folded to the big blind Daniel Dvoress, he three-bet all in for his stack of 15,000,000, which Lococo snap called.
Daniel Dvoress: 2♠2♥
Alejandro Lococo: J♠J♥
Dvoress jammed into the pocket jacks of Lococo, and after the board ran out K♥J♣7♦7♥Q♠ Lococo made a full house, jacks full of sevens to take the pot and knock out Dvoress in fourth.
Level 26
: Blinds 500,000/1,000,000, 1,000,000 ante
Sinan Unlu
Alejandro Lococo raised to 2,000,000 from the cutoff and when it folded to the big blind Sinan Unlu he three-bet all in for 2,900,000, which Lococo quickly called.
Sinan Unlu: J♣5♠
Alejandro Lococo: K♣6♥
Unlu was left with just under three big blinds and went with his hand, but did have two live cards to improve past the king high of Lococo.
The board ran out 7♦Q♦8♣10♣7♣ missing both, and Lococo scored the knockout with king-high, sending out Unlu in third place.
Level 26
: Blinds 500,000/1,000,000, 1,000,000 ante
Benjamin Heath
Alejandro Lococo raised all in on the button for Benjamin Heath's stack of 6,800,000 and Heath snap-called in the big blind.
Benjamin Heath: A♥K♣
Alejandro Lococo: K♦2♥
Heath had Lococo dominated, but once the flop came 8♦2♦Q♥ the roles were reversed, and it was Heath looking for the three-outer. The 7♠ on the turn brought no help for Heath, and the 8♥ on the river gave Lococo the pot with his pair of deuces, eliminating Heath in second place.
Level 26
: Blinds 500,000/1,000,000, 1,000,000 ante
Alejandro Lococo
Alejandro Lococo has defeated Benjamin Heath in heads up play, to claim the Triton Million title, his first World Series of Poker bracelet, and the $12,070,000 top prize.
Stay tuned for a winners reaction, and full day recap coming shortly.
Level 26
: Blinds 500,000/1,000,000, 1,000,000 ante
Alejandro Lococo
As a battle rapper, Argentina's Alejandro Lococo is used to performing under pressure in front of large crowds with glory on the line. Tonight in the Bahamas, Lococo used that competitive drive to take down Event #2: $1,000,000 Triton Million at World Series of Poker Paradise for $12,070,000 and his first bracelet.
The unique collaboration between WSOP and Triton, which drew 96 entrants for a $48 million prize pool, paired the best high-stakes players in the world like Alex Foxen (6th - $2,795,000) and runner-up Benjamin Heath ($8,160,000) with deep-pocketed VIPs like David Einhorn (14th - $865,000) and Sosia Jiang ($1,605,000).
With $2.8 million in earnings and a WSOP Main Event final table appearance in 2021, Lococo, a VIP in the event, was somewhere in between the two groups.
"I'm a rapper. I don't study the game. I just try to do the best in every single hand," Lococo told PokerNews in a winner's interview. "I love the game and I try to win of course, but I'm not using solvers (or) ... running sims. You have to be really, really professional and invest a lot of hours of your life to beat these guys."
Triton Million Final Table Results
Place
Player
Country
Prize (In USD)
1
Alejandro Lococo
Argentina
$12,070,000
2
Benjamin Heath
United Kingdom
$8,160,000
3
Sinan Unlu
Turkey
$5,304,000
4
Daniel Dvoress
Canada
$4,390,000
5
Elias Talvitie
Finland
$3,542,000
6
Alex Foxen
United States
$2,795,000
7
Aleksejs Ponakovs
Latvia
$2,140,000
8
Sosia Jiang
New Zealand
$1,605,000
9
Michael Moncek
United States
$1,200,000
Winning for Argentina
Lococo's palms weren't sweaty as he battled on Day 3 of the $500,000 buy-in tournament. Nor were his knees weak. But his arms were in fact heavy as he hoisted the golden Triton trophy in triumph, along with his first WSOP bracelet.
Alejandro Lococo
"I don't know how to explain it," he said. "It's amazing, like (I'm) dreaming. I knew that in some moment of my life, it was going to come, my bracelet. I was feeling really (good) with my game."
It was a victory that almost never happened as the PokerStars ambassador was originally planning on being at EPT Prague. "Sometimes the world (conspires) in your favor."
The bluffs also helped. Lococo is no stranger to going for the win and seemed to make all the right decisions as he raised and re-raised his opponents off hands. "Probably if I play like 200 times with these guys, they're going to find (an) amazing strategy (against me). But lucky for me, I beat them in my first Triton."
Several Spanish and South American pros cheered for Lococo and posed for winners photos, including Juan Pardo, 11th-place finisher Adrian Mateos and Argentina's all-time money leader Nacho Barbero.
Alejandro Lococo
Whether when battle rapping or running deep in a tournament, Lococo said Argentinians back home are constantly rooting for him. "I love Argentina. I think all the Argentinians love Argentina."
The victory puts Lococo second on the country's all-time money list, and he plans to catch up with Barbero. "Of course, man. I am a competitor. I'm not f***ing stopping right now."
Day 3 Action
With his dark hoodie and a baseball cap covering his face, Lococo looked like an Argentinian B-Rabbit as he went into battle on Day 3. The field of 14 players reached a final table within an hour with the eliminations of Stephen Chidwick, Esti Wang, Chance Kornuth and Einhorn, who was looking for a fantastic comeback story after being eliminated on the first hand of the tournament and making the most of his second bullet.
The high-VPIPing Michael "Texas Mike" Moncek dominated the first two days of action, but the back-to-back chip leader's reign ended as he fell in ninth at the hands of Heath.
Michael Moncek
Jiang was next to go after three-bet jamming with king-queen only to be dominated by the ace-king of Daniel Dvoress. Things continued to go the Canadian's way as he eliminated Aleksejs Ponakovs and Foxen.
Lococo took over from there as he eliminated Finland's Elias Talvitie, who had a miraculous spin-up but eventually fell in fifth as his top pair was crushed by Lococo's rivered straight. Lococo then eliminated Dvoress and Turkey's Sinan Unlu to have a dominant chip lead over Heath.
The British high-stakes pro needed a lot of luck on his side to overcome Lococo and didn't get it. In the final hand, Heath had ace-king to dominate Lococo's king-deuce but couldn't fade a deuce on the flop.
Benjamin Heath
That wraps up PokerNews' coverage of a historic event in the Bahamas. Stay tuned for live updates on other events throughout WSOP Paradise.
