Record €2 million Poker Hand Played at Triton Poker Series
May 18, 2018 12:06 pmThe Triton Poker High Roller Series, created by Malaysian businessman Richard Yong, features some of the biggest tournaments in the world and each year holds events in Macau, the Philippines and Montenegro.
$2.5M Main Event Top Prize
Last year, for instance, Germany’s Manig Loeser won its HK$ 1 million (US$127,385) Main Event at the Maestral Resort & Casino in Budva, Montenegro for a massive HK$16,877,600 ($2,162,644).
This year’s festival in Montenegro has also lived up to expectations, with Belarusian pro Mikita Bodyakovskiy claiming the HK$ 1 million Main Event title for HK$19,618,400 ($2,499,185), after first overcoming a field of 63 players, including France’s Rui Cao heads-up, to win the biggest score of his professional career. As a result, Badziakouski now boasts $9,232,182 in live winnings, placing him even further above Ihar Soika ($2,841,411) on his country’s ‘All Time Money List’.
€1m Buy-in High Stakes Game
As part of the Triton Super High Roller festival, a €2,000/€4,000 televised cash game was also organized with those entering having to fork out €1 million each in order to participate. Naturally, some of the game’s most recognizable pros were in full attendance, including the likes of Phil Ivey, Patrick Antonius, Tom Dwan, Paul Phua, Elton Tsang, and Jason Koon, with poker fans subsequently treated to two of the biggest pots ever publicly seen via a livestream.
Furthermore, Jason Koon was involved in both massive back-to-back pots, worth €1.8 million and €2 million respectively. In the first hand, Koon dumped around €900,000 to Kane Kalas, the son of legendary baseball broadcaster Harry Kalas, after his bluff turned into top pair on the river, but still faltered against the set of his opponent.
Jason Koon then opted to rebuy, meaning he had now bought in for a whopping €2 million over the space of just a few hours. Luckily for him, on the next hand a doozy of a river card managed to turn his fortunes around, and even return the partypoker sponsored pro back to profit.
Preflop and Flop
In the hand in question, Koon (6h-5h) raised to €13k, with Paul Phua (8s-6s), Tom Dwan (Ac-10d), and Elton Tsang (Kd-7d) making the call. The 8h-Ad-7h flop which ensued then saw the action checked around to Dwan on the button, who bet €24k with his top pair, prompting a call from Tsang, followed by a check-raise to €100k by Koon holding an open-ended straight flush draw. While Phua and Durrrr folded their hands, Tsang decided to semi-bluff and raise to €324,000, perhaps suspecting Koon to be on tilt after losing the previous massive pot. Nevertheless, Tsang failed to shake off his opponent, with Koon’s call bumping the pot up to €736,000.
Turn
A Qd then arrived on the turn, giving both players flush draws. Continuing his aggression, Tsang led out for €390,000 and after Koon made the call, Tsang and Koon had a little less than €1 million left between them for the river.
River
Tsang had already committed €743,000 to the pot by the time an unhelpful 4c was dealt on the river, while his opponent, on the other hand, could not have hoped for a better card having made the stone-cold nuts. Deciding to give up the ghost, Tsang then check folded to Koon’s all-in bet, with the US pro then collecting the €2,090,000 pot, worth precisely €90,000 more than the money he had invested in the game thus far.
2 Hour Livestream
The players at the table rotated throughout the game’s two hour allotted livestream, and by the time the action continued without cameras Kalas was out in front with €700,000 in profit, while Dwan, too, managed to lock up an impressive win worth €200,000. Ivey was not so fortunate, though, having lost €800,000, or almost €300,000 more than he won after taking down the Triton Super High Roller Series Short Deck event for $604,977 (€512k)