The hold'em leg of the Triton series ended with the $100,000 main event. Participants totalled 99 entries (34 re-entries).
According to the results of the starting day, two well-known amateurs ended as chip leaders – Jean-Noel Thorel and Talal Shakerchi.
Linus Loeliger was up late at the final table of the $200,000 tournament, so he only entered the fight from the second day. He traded in his signature shirt for a personalized Triton T-shirt with 'K6' all over the back.
It was with this hand that he lost heads-up to Sam Grafton the day before.
Grafton missed the main tournament. Ali Nejad said that he was in a great mood when they went for a walk at the wedding of Ben Heath.
Already at the first level, Linus showed down against Kahle Burns with fourth pair.
Linus defended the BB preflop, the flop was checked, and Burns called on the turn for 70% of the pot.
"You've got a fucking seven," Kyle said confidently, not waiting for Linus to reveal his cards. – ''I knew it.''
– ''This is Linus, calling is his favorite thing'', – Johan Gilbert shared his observations.
Henrik Hecklen also showed his love of calling and showed Kyle Burns with A-high. The Dane did not beat the full house.
Henrik called a min-raise preflop, Burns bet one blind on the flop, and the turn was checked. On the river, Hecklen made the minimum bet and called the raise.
After the break, two Viktors, Kudinov and Malinowski, were seated at the TV table. Both had a good day.
– ''Victor, when will your emojis appear on GG?'' Kudinov asked his namesake.
– “I don’t even know, they planned to do this, but then something stalled. Let's see.''
– ''You can start right here.''
– “Only if I win.''
– ''I would like to see "you suck" performed by you.''
– ''Ha ha. It would look kind of weird.''
– ''Well, at least perform a “splash dance”. One time, just for us.''
Amidst these conversations, Malinovsky received aces, but the stream was interrupted mid hand due to "poor streaming quality."
The game continued a few hours later at the new TV table, where Artur Martirosyan was a one man show.
With 29 players left in the game, Artur was confidently leading both at his table and almost the tournament. He was only a few blinds behind Limitless.
Bold hero calls became the hallmark of this series, but they didn't always work. Dario Sammartino paid Artur three streets with A-high and was eliminated.
At the 20,000/40,000 level, with 17 people left in the game, Arthur and Limitless played a pot for 3.3 million.
Wictor called all three barrels and ended up with a stack of 4.9 million – 20% of the tournament's chips.
– It was a difficult day, I was already tired at the end, and I think the bluff with A7 was good, – Arthur wrote at the end of the day in telegram – just unlucky, there the only river you can give up, depends on how loosely he draws the turn doper, but in general ok, I'll still bet all Kx on the river through a small bet size, therefore, part of the bluffs I will send it there. Okay, I got a little upset after this surrender, since everything was literally on the ointment. Then a redraw, Victor with a big stack on me in position, I can’t do anything and shouldn’t do anything, but there were some micro-attempts to get loose, which could have been abandoned and saved 300-500 thousand, in general, I played without big mistakes, but I definitely made a couple of inaccuracies, tomorrow I will play the most important stage more cheerful and with a fresher mind, I will do my best, I hope luck will be on my side.
Tournament leaders with three players to the money:
Right after the redraw, Victor played an incredible hand against Jean-Noel Thorel.
Thorel defended the BB preflop, check-raised on the flop, then bet on the turn and gave up facing the shove, after much deliberation.
“I have never seen anything more insane in my life!” exclaimed Randy Lew.
Viktor Kudinov was eliminated in 16th place, his AT falling against Hecklen's AQ for his last 12 blinds.
Thorel left the tournament in 15th place.
Horace Wei doubled on the bubble.
Curiously, he wore the exact same sweatshirt as Sean Perry and Morten Klein in the $200,000 tournament.
The bubble boy was Stephen Chidwick with 5 blinds left.
13 players made it to the final day. They determined the winner in just 5 hours.
In the first half hour, short stacks busted out – Ike Haxton (Jason Koon's A7>QJs), Laszlo Buitas (Hecklen's Q3s>77) and Paul Phua (Hecklen's AT>KJ).
The bubble boy of the final table was Seth Davis.
Chip counts of finalists:
In 9th place ($280,000) Horace Wei was eliminated, against whom Punnat Punsri scored four of a kind.
Henrik Hecklen found one of two outs on the river against Artem 'Lena900' Vezhenkov ($366,000).
Artem achieved his best live result, but he was hardly satisfied.
Artur Martirosyan was also eliminated by Henrik in 8th place ($470,000).
The charming Frenchman Gregoire Auzoux ($595,000) became the 6th place finisher.
The day before the start of the main event, Gregoire took 5th place in the $25,000 PLO and successfully reinvested his $72,000. Prior to this series, he had almost never played tournaments for more than a $1k buy in.
Henrik Hecklen lost 75% of his stack against Punnat Punsri.
Jason Koon finished in 5th place for $762,000.
Hecklen was next out ($946,000).
Midway through the episode, Henrik posted a selfie with Linus Loeliger with the caption "The $50/$100 Stars Lobby 2015".
As Linus continues to destroy opponents at the highest limits, Henrik finally will give up online and switch to high stakes live tournaments.
Wayne Heung, who started the shortest 3 handed, doubled up twice against Wictor. Both times he was the underdog.
While Wayne had 22 blinds, his opponents decided to flip for 140bb.
Victor has 1.5 blinds left after this collision. On the button, he folded his cards, after which he ended up automatically all in from the BB.
For 3rd place, he received $1,210,000.
The heads-up ended on the third hand.
When the tournament ended, Henrik Hecklen addressed the organizers:
“Everyone should know that Punnat Punsri won the main tournament, got a seven-figure sum and just went to bed at one in the morning. Triton, in my opinion, this is enough to ban him from the next tournament.
The $30,000 short deck tournament was won by Phil Ivey .
In the $40,000 buy-in event, where players totalled 45 entries (21 re-entries), Karl Chappe-Gatien was running rings around his opponents.
Prior to this series, Karl had never played short deck at all, but Danny Tang (who was invited by Karl to the $200,000 tournament) briefly explained the intricacies of the game to him. In the evening, Karl warmed up in a high stakes cash game, and the next day he won the tournament.
At the end of the first day at the Gatien table, the following unique picture emerged:
In 9th place with seven prize money, Karl knocked out Nikita Badziakouski.
Nikita 3-bet 70% of his stack preflop and Chappe-Gatien called. On the flop, Badziakouski shoved the rest, but kept one ante for himself.
“I want to leave a little hope,” Nikita smiled.
On the turn, Karl, having 32% to win, bet, and Nikita called.
The bubble boy was Rui Cao, who lost almost his entire stack to Michael Zhang.
Michael as a result overtook Chappe-Gatien, but only for a while.
On the final table, Zhang did not succeed, he gradually lost his stack and was eliminated in 4th place. And Chappe-Gatien, on the contrary, went exclusively up.
In the top 5, Karl flopped a set against Koon.
Jason's outs didn't materialize.
The next hand he hit a set again, Michael Zhang shoved the turn with no outs.
In the top 3, Chappe-Gatien came up against two short deck regulars from Malaysia.
Because of the depth, the 3-max turned out to be long, and Karl even lost the lead for a while. But in the key hand against Lim, the cards stood up for him again.
A raise-call was played preflop, Chappe-Gatien raised a c-bet on the flop, and shoved on the turn. A blank came on the river.
Lim handed the rest of his stack to Kiat Lee.
Chappe-Gatien started heads-up with a lead of 82 blinds to 62. Lee managed to close the gap, but it was not enough to win.
In the deciding pot, they shoved the flop with even chances to win, but the river was a ten.
– ''Of course, I will return for the series, when will the next one be?'' the happy Chappe-Gatien asked immediately after the victory.
In the $50,000 short deck freezeout, players totalled 30 entries. On the first day, we played to the top 7, 5 places to be paid. But due to the death of Ivan Leow, they did not finish playing, and the participants received payments based on ICM.
The final two short deck events – the $100,000 Main and the $25,000 Turbo – were cancelled.
The series had a tragic ending. On the morning of September 17, Ivan Leow died.
One of the Reddit users, citing friends from China, wrote that the cause of death was a heart attack while exercising in the gym.
Many friends and acquaintances of Ivan honored his memory with good memories.
“This is one of the saddest days of my life. Sleep well, brother. We will love and remember you forever.
“I have lost a great friend. See you in another time and in another life. Thank you for helping so many people in your life.
– Ivan was one of the most intelligent, witty and kind of all my friends. He was truly special. I will forever keep the fondest memories of our interactions both at the poker table and beyond. RIP Ivan 😔♥️🙏
You held a special place in my life. At times he bullied like an older brother, but in disputes with others he always supported me. Thanks for everything you taught me. I hope you win all the all-ins there ❤️
– R.I.P. Ivan was always positive and glowed with happiness, let's remember him that way.
– On this episode, Ivan and I were joking at the table, when suddenly he said to me: “You know, I love you very much.” I was embarrassed and mumbled something in response, which I immediately regretted. A couple of days later he was gone. Life is short. Whenever possible, tell your loved ones how dear they are to you.
It was always warm and joyful around him, and I never heard a bad word from him about others. He was the personification of Triton Poker. We will all miss him. R.I.P.
– I met Ivan in Macau, and communication with him was a continuous positive. He always smiled and was friendly with everyone without exception. He will be greatly missed. Rest in peace, friend.