The $500k buy-in Triton Million tournament kicks off in the Bahamas on Friday with 56 players playing.
The format is familiar: participants are divided into pairs, and professionals can only get in by invitation from wealthy amateurs.
Almost every episode features players whose amateur status is highly questionable. This time, Triton's expert committee seems to have outdone itself. Jared Bleznick is among the VIPs, and his partner is Alex Kulev.
But now Elias Talvitie from Finland has been classified as a professional, although two years ago he played as an amateur in a similar tournament with a buy-in of $200k. At that time, this raised many questions, since his level of play was clearly closer to the regulars.
This series will mark the Triton debut for Daniel Negeranu:
– I will be playing my first ever Triton Poker event and doing it in style, a $500k buy in where half the field are businessmen who each invite one pro.
And yes the VLOGS will be back for all of it!
WSOP GGPoker Paradise is going to be epic 🔥🔥🔥
"Who is the businessman that invited you?" Chris Hunichen asked.
“After all these years… how am I not a businessman?,” Daniel answered evasively.
– "lol cmon, you play infinitely more than me, I rarely play poker anymore. Can I come in as a business man too?"
– "I’d allow it but it’s not up to me 😂 and no I’m playing on the pro side."
Daniel never wrote who invited him to the tournament. However, he failed to maintain the intrigue. The next day, the series' Twitter reported that Negreanu was invited by the founder of Hustler Casino, Ryan Feldman.
Alexey Ponakovs also received an invitation, and his partner was Wai Kin Yong.
Michael Addamo is really hoping to take part in this tournament. He has been incredibly active on Twitter, although he used to tweet once in a hundred years.
"Anyone wants to see overbets?" he asked, tagging the WSOP and Triton accounts.
A few days later he turned to Guy Laliberte :
– Hey Guy remember when we had so much fun playing the One Drop?
And in Michael's pinned messages there is now a photo with Vladimir Korzinin :
– Strategy meeting with our overlord
Vladimir has not yet confirmed his participation in the tournament.
Addamo, meanwhile, had to take extreme measures.
“I'll promise to do an interview if you can get me a seat,” he wrote in the comments to one of the latest posts on Triton’s official Twitter.
Alex Foxen also put out a call on Twitter:
– I am still in search of a partner for the Triton Poker $1,000,000 invitational. Get in touch with me if you're interested in playing.
"Do I qualify as business man yet?" Daniel Weinman asked.
“Based on Monte Carlo lineup I think you're live,” Alex replied.
Regulars continue to closely monitor exclusive games on GG.
On 2+2 ggbruce compiled a new ranking of the strongest professionals:
1. Innerpsy (NL ONLY)
2. Russian micro-stakes MTT streamer, forgot his nickname, starts with M.
3. Fedor HolzElky was also on the list, but I removed him because he now looks more like a casino owner than a player.
You-mad-bro also decided to expose the room's ambassadors:
– “Even a lot of the 'pros' playing GGPoker exclusive games sell huge % to GG insiders.
Minthon, who's been playing 100/200 like it's play money, sold 60% for a $500 MTT last Sunday.
Is this online poker now? 'Regs' with connections chopping up VIPS, giving huge % to the site 😬
What has online poker become? Well-connected "regs" are ripping off VIPs, giving most of the profit to the room 😬
Misha Inner has also sold 50% of his action, probably to the pokerOK (GG skin) CEO.
Most games are some combo of these guys, fedor and elky playing VIPs. How can this be better than the old system for anyone except GG?
They close all access, and have house pros playing with a tiny piece in higher raked games.
– Pads, do you still think that “GG don’t owe us anything”? – Mark Rubbatan asked Patrick. – They are like a cancer for our favorite game, and I don’t understand why you see it differently.
– Yes, I think GG doesn't owe us anything. But I also think it's absolutely normal when George highlights such moments publicly. But even he's unlikely to write that GG owes him anything.
"I agree with Pads, they don't owe us anything," Froggatt confirmed. "But that's why we need to call out their unethical behavior. So that they understand that everything has a price. And maybe in the future it will influence other rooms and ambassadors who will choose not to do that."
The CoinPoker room became a haven for regulars . On Sunday, an event with the loud name Cash Game World Championship started there.
The strongest professionals and amateurs will compete at the $50/$100 tables throughout December. The action goes on almost around the clock.
The official website updates the results every day. Linus Loeliger is in the clear lead, clearly missing the action and playing almost non-stop for the first day. Barak Wisbrod is at the bottom of the table:
The champion will be determined at the end of December and will be the player who shows the best EV result and plays at least 20,000 hands.
On a recent Hustler stream, Rob Yong and Ryan Feldman played a very unusual hand.
Rob called all-in on the turn, looked at his opponent's cards and mucked his hand saying "no outs".
The game was played in a friendly atmosphere, so Rob's cards were quickly returned.
“The lady is saving you,” Feldman clarified. “Let’s watch the river.”
“I don’t care, I already mucked,” Rob continued to insist.
Naturally, a queen came on the river.
"It doesn't change anything, I mucked. There are clear rules about that," Rob started pushing his stack toward Ryan. "I was actually sure I had no outs. I was wrong."
"Keep some of it for yourself," Ryan suggested. "You can't always follow the rules blindly, let's do the right thing."
But Yong was adamant.
After the stream, Rob recorded a short video:
– Strange hand that I had, I know you guys are putting a lot of comments on. It wasn't that strange. We use dynamic shuffling at Onyx, so the river card is kind of random.
So, wait another 5 seconds before the dealer deals, and it could have not been the queen.
You should rule in the interest in the fairness of the game.
Patrick Leonard is concerned about his health:
– "Do you ever forget how old you are? I just stood in Starbucks line for 2/3 minutes trying to remember if I’m 35 or 36. Am I losing my mind?"
– "You mean you forgot what year it is right now? :)" – Orpen Kisacikoglu didn’t understand.
– "I wanted to not have to do the math. I ended up doing the math."
“You can prob remember 30 hand histories from 10 years ago though.,” suggested Matt Salsberg.
“All the time,” Joe Ingram reassured.
"Yeah I never understood why ppl needed to tank when asked how old. Until I hit like 30 lol," wrote David Yan.
New career achievement for Steve O'Dwyer :
– I’m the king of student poker in Ireland. Last month the poker club at the University of Galway invited me to play and I finished 5th/70. Tonight I visited Dublin City University, the alma mater of EasyWithAces. He put a €20 bounty on me and I came out on top of a field of 100.
– I let them keep the €100 1st prize to put towards their end of school year championship but I’m keeping Fintan’s lucky €20 bill.
Rampage's problems with bookmakers continue.
– Update with my bookie: Neema Khazaie, – he wrote the other day .
He received a $30K check 2 weeks ago that was meant for me, he sent me $25K of it the remaining $5K from that check has been taken by the bank to pay is outstanding balance
To give him credit, it seems like he’s trying his best to pay off the debt and but I am still owed $113,969.89
Will post more updates for transparency.
Main Event champion Jonathan Tamayo is investing his winnings well. A couple of weeks ago, he hit a royal flush against the house.
– It seems the Year of Tamayo continues.
– Will you get 500 to 1? – they clarified in the comments.
– 500 to 1 on the blind bet ($200), 1 to 1 on the rest.
A few days later, at the same table, Jonathan made a straight flush.
– Ha-ha, first deal of the day.