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.
– 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.
"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.
– “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."
– 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.
– 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.
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.
