You expect Phil Ivey or Bryn Kenney but this time the winner is a “whale” who, however, has shown that he knows how to do it: the Belarusian businessman Mikalai Vaskaboinikau won theEvent 9 $125,000 buy in, it is no coincidence that the Triton Poker Series Main Event play Budva, Montenegro, in the mode No Limit Hold’em 8 handed.
An under dog in all respects Mikalai. Yes because he is only a casual player in the Triton Super High Roller Series and usually shows up at the table when there is a big invitation to play and when the buy-ins are higher. He typically plays two events per trip, for a total of six events so far in his career. However, he can calmly think about increasing his spending and playing, given that his haul so far is three final tables won. This time, however, he outdid himself since he got his hands on one first coin worth $4,737,000 which if it’s not a record, little is missing for these wonderful series.
After an initial surge at the final table, Vaskaboinikau had to fight playing short-stack and short-handed and eventually managed to prevail especially after beating Dejan Kaladjurdjevic heads up: “It’s a truly incredible feeling – revealed Vaskaboinikau in his first post impressions tournament at the official Triton blog – I had a good feeling about it a few months ago I put this thought in my mind in a dream come true even if this money doesn’t change my life”, lucky him.
Unlike other players at the tables these days, Vaskaboinikau will certainly have played at 100 percent of the buy in or so compared to the regs who usually invest a small part of the spending allocated for series that require investments of hundreds of thousands of dollars . And the winner’s words seem to confirm these assumptions of ours.
In any case Vaskaboinikau played on par with Phil Ivey, Bryn Kenney, Wai Kin Yong and Aleks Ponakovs and with the rest of the truly important field that crowded this tournament with 171 registrations collected for a prize pool of 21.3 million dollars and the first crazy coin won by the Belarusian.
Paul Phua had to fight once again in the bubble zone and with 27 seats to pay, he found himself with Matthias Eibinger and Mikita Badziakouski less than 10 big blinds. An endless skit between the players who ultimately competed for the minimum cash of 214 thousand dollars. The tournament director, our Italian Luca Vivaldi, took the microphone and explained the rules of the game hand for hand, including the fact that if two players are eliminated at two separate tables in the same hand, they would split the prize money of 27th place.
In the end Phua got his chips in the pot holding 66 vs A6 and it was Eibinger who had to go out without the minimum prize: Eibinger’s KhQ was behind Ivey’s AcK. The flop was AhThKc but the turn and river, 5dTc, changed nothing.
At the final table were Elizabeth Chen, Mikalai Vaskaboinikau, Phil Ivey, Wai Kin Yong, Bryn Kenney, Igor Yaroshevskyy, Aleks Ponakovs, Samuel Ju, Dejan Kaladjurdjevic.
For obvious reasons, most poker fans had their eyes fixed on Ivey. The all-time money list leader, Bryn Kenney, was no different. Elizabeth Chen was a pleasant surprise given that there are very few women in the Tritons. Unfortunately, a certain Phil Ivey was the first to knock her out of the final table with KQ in hand.
For her $478,000 with the field narrowed to eight.
Kenney’s exit came almost immediately and, as the shortest player, he drew the 9 and sent it all in, finding Igor Yaroshevskyy’s 10. For him $580,000 for eighth place.
How did it go for Ivey? The Tiger Woods of poker went into the final table knowing that a win would put him just a few Player of the Year points behind Danny Tang as the season draws to a close. But it was Vaskaboinikau who stopped him, that whatever hand Ivey might have been holding, he had a better one.
Vaskaboinikau won a huge pot with A8s in spades when he hit a flush on the river and, not surprisingly, Ivey had Q10s in spades as well. Shot that left Ivey in real trouble, and when he found an ace and a good shoving opportunity, from the button, Vaskaboinikau was lurking behind him with an ace and a better kicker: AK vs A8 and Ivey leaves the tournament in fourth place. For Phil $1,795,000, but he will need a good performance in Pot Limit Omaha to catch Tang.
In the three handed phase Vaskaboinikau had 56 blinds, Ponakovs 34 and Kaladjurdjevic with 16 big blinds. The short didn’t give up without a fight and with AK he called Vaskaboinikau’s three-bet jam with ATs in clubs. An important double up which, however, was not enough against the future winner: Kaladjurdjevic was short again, but he went all-in twice and accumulated chips, before playing an absolutely extraordinary hand against Ponakovs. Kaladjurdjevic had pocket aces, Ponakov had pocket kings and Kaladjurdjevic closed with a royal flush.
At this stage Vaskaboinika
Ponakovs and Vaskaboinikau have become the short stack, but not for long. He doubled up against Ponakovs all in pre-flop A8 vs K5. Vaskaboinikau retook the lead, with Kaladjurdjevic hanging on despite having the bigger stacks. Ponakovs had KJ offsuit against Vaskaboinikau’s A4 offsuit. And although a jack on the flop gave Ponakov hope, the ace on the turn took it away and the Latvian won a whopping $2,200,000.
In heads up Vaskaboinikau had 44 big blinds to Kaladjurdjevic’s 9. But there was only 1 minute left, i.e. very few hands, before the blinds went up again.
Kaladjurdjevic went all-in with J2s in spades and Vaskaboinikau found a pair of 6s with calls, the pair held and the tournament ended with the Belarusian’s success.
The payout and tournament data:
Event 9 – $125,000 – Main Event Nlhe 8 handed
Dates: 19-21 May 2024
Registrations: 171 (of which 69 returns)
Prize money: $21,375,000
1 – Mikalai Vaskaboinikau, Belarus – $4,737,000
2 – Dejan Kaladjurdjevic, Montenegro – $3,196,000
3 – Aleks Ponakovs, Latvia – $2,200,000
4 – Phil Ivey, United States – $1,795,000
5 – Igor Yaroshevskyy, Ukraine – $1,430,000
6 – Samuel Ju, Germany – $1,098,000
7 – Wai Kin Yong, Malaysia – $800,000
8 – Bryn Kenney, United States – $580,000
9 – Elizabeth Chen, China – $478,000
10 – Paulius Vaitiekunas, Lithuania – $406,000
11 – Mauricio Salazar, Colombia – $406,000
12 – Paul Phua, Malaysia – $353,000
13 – Chris Brewer, United States – $353,000
14 – Masashi Oya, Japan – $320,000
15 – Xianchao Shen, China – $320,000
16 – Matas Cimbolas, Lithuania – $287,000
17 – Wang Yang, China – $287,000
18 – Stanley Choi, Hong Kong – $256,000
19 – Jean Noel Thorel, France – $256,000
20 – Yerai Iribarren, Spain – $256,000
21 – Santhosh Suvarna, India – $235,000
22 – Hossein Ensan, Germany – $235,000
23 – Patrik Antonius, Finland – $235,000
24 – Justin Saliba, United States – $214,000
25 – Dan Smith, United States – $214,000
26 – Mikita Badziakouski, Belarus – $214,000
27 – Joe Zou, China – $214,000
