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**In the third of a 10-part series on the World Series of Poker, the Paul Phua Poker School explores how the tournament phrase “a chip and a chair” was born**

You may have heard the poker expression, “as long as you’ve got a chip and a chair…” It means that no matter how few chips you have left in a poker tournament, you always have a chance. But you may not know that this saying was born at the World Series of Poker (WSOP) in 1982.
It’s not just the greatest underdog story in poker, but it’s hard to think of a bigger comeback in any sport. It all starts with Jack “Treetop” Straus…

Who was Jack “Treetop” Straus?

Jack Straus, nicknamed “Treetop” due to his imposing 6’6″ frame, was one of the old-school “road gamblers” who would criss-cross Texas in search of a good game. With a fearlessly aggressive playing style, his speciality was heads-up poker, and when he played full ring he was never scared to get all his chips in.
Straus is known for one of the greatest bluffs in poker, during a high-stakes Texas Hold ‘Em cash game. Despite being dealt the worst starting hand in poker, 7-2, he bet out, and was rewarded with a flop of 7-3-3 for top pair. Of course he bet again, but his opponent re-raised him: surely a larger pocket pair.
Straus called anyway, and the turn was a 2. Three pair of course is not a poker hand, so this was no help to Straus, but nevertheless he fired out a huge bet. His opponent tanked. What could such a big bet mean? Trips? A house? Now came the speechplay.
“I’ll show you whichever one of my cards you choose if you give me $25,” said Straus.
His opponent couldn’t see the harm in gaining more information, and tossed over a $25 chip. He selected a card, and Straus turned it over: a 2. The genius of this move was that, whichever card his opponent selected, he would think that hole card was paired for a full house. After all, Straus couldn’t be betting big with just two pair, could he? The higher pocket pair reluctantly folded.

The 1982 WSOP Main Event

At the 1982 WSOP Main Event, Jack Straus put his creativity and aggression to good use. On day two, after he’d lost a big hand, he seemed to have been knocked out. But as he was standing up from the table he noticed a single 500 chip hidden under a napkin. It had not been included in Straus’s shove, and he hadn’t announced “all-in”, so he was allowed to sit back down and play.
The next hand was folded round to his big blind. He then doubled up his increased stack. Before long, he had the most chips at the table.
By the end of day two, Jack Straus had 90,000 chips. By the end of day three, he was chip leader with 341,500. Before long, Straus had single-handedly eliminated most of the final table until only he and Dewey Tomko were left.
Their heads-up contest lasted just ten minutes. Straus got it in good with A-10 against Tomko’s A-4. Tomko hit the 4 on the flop, but Straus triumphed when the 10 hit on the river, winning a then record payout of $520,000. And all from a single chip and a chair.

Who was Jack “Treetop” Straus? Poker player profile

In 1982, Jack Straus came back from a single chip to win the World Series of Poker, giving birth to the saying “a chip and a chair”
He was nicknamed “Treetop” on account of being six and half foot tall
One of the old-school “road gamblers”, Jack Straus once said: “If they had wanted you to hold on to money they’d have made it with handles”
A keen big-game hunter, Jack Straus wore a lion’s paw inscribed with the motto: “Better a day as a lion than one hundred years as a lamb”
In 1988, aged 58, Jack Straus died as he had lived, sitting at a high-stakes cash table, having suffered an aortic aneurysm

Read part 2 of our 10 part World Series of Poker mini series and discover how 10-2 or the ‘Doyle Brunson Hand’ got it’s name.
Or come back tomorrow for Johnny Chan’s winning hand that was immortalised in the movie ‘Rounders’.

**In the second of a 10-part series, the Paul Phua Poker School recalls how 10-2 became the luckiest hand in World Series of Poker history**

With the sheer number of hands that have been played during all the successive World Series of Poker (WSOP) tournaments, you would think that anything could happen. But of all the unlikely strokes of fortune over nearly 50 years of the WSOP, there cannot be anything to rival Doyle Brunson taking down the championship two years running – with the very same lucky hand!

Who is Doyle Brunson?

Doyle Brunson, nicknamed “Texas Dolly” or “The Godfather of Poker”, is one of the last of the old poker greats still standing – or at least sitting, since you’ll often see him in a motorised chair these days. He’s 83 years old, and has been plagued for most of that time by the bad knee that ended his youthful dream of becoming a professional basketball player.
Basketball’s loss is poker’s gain. Brunson has won 10 WSOP bracelets, and his poker strategy book Super/System, originally self-published in 1978, became the bible for a whole generation of poker players. In 2006, after Super/System 2 was published, Brunson was voted by Bluff Magazine the most influential force in the world of poker.

1976: Doyle Brunson wins the WSOP Main Event

In the 1976 WSOP Main Event, Doyle Brunson was heads-up with a player called Jesse Alto. Unlike Brunson, Alto was a keen amateur rather than a professional: his day job was as a car dealer. As a result, he had not fully learned to keep cool in tight spots, and Brunson said he was looking to exploit that weakness.
Jesse Alto bet out with A-J, an excellent starting hand when heads-up. Brunson called with 10-2 suited. The flop came A-J-10, giving Alto two pair. Brunson went all-in with the weaker hand, Alto of course called.
The story of the 1976 WSOP could have been about how an amateur car dealer bested the world’s top pros… but the poker gods decided otherwise. In one of the worst bad beats in Main Event history, Brunson caught runner-runner 2s on the turn and river to make a full house!

1977: Doyle Brunson wins the WSOP Main Event again – with the same hand!

They say lightning never strikes twice. Perhaps it does in Texas. The very next year, Doyle Brunson was defending his title heads-up against Gary “Bones” Berland when he looked down at 10-2 – again. Berland was dealt 8-5.
Yet again Brunson found himself behind when the flop of 10-8-5 gave him a pair, and his opponent two pair. Yet again, the 2 hit on the turn to give Brunson two pair, and this time he was ahead. When Berland pushed all-in, Brunson gladly called. Incredibly, Brunson yet again made a full house on the river when a 10 hit, and he was crowned world champion for the second year in a row.

The “Doyle Brunson hand”

There are many colourful names for different poker hands. Aces are nicknamed “bullets” or “pocket rockets”; pocket Kings are nicknamed “cowboys”; J-5 is known as “Jackson Five” or just “Motown”.
To this day, if you show 10-2, another player around the table is likely to nod wisely and say, “Ah, the ‘Doyle Brunson hand’”.

Who is Doyle Brunson? Poker player profile

Born in 1933, Doyle Brunson is nicknamed “Texas Dolly” or “the Godfather of Poker”
He is second equal in WSOP bracelets, with 10
He won back-to-back WSOP Main Events in 1976 and 1977
Doyle Brunson is the author of several books on poker including Super/System and Super/System 2

Read the first blog in our World Series of Poker mini series on how the World Series of Poker was born, and how “the Grand Old Man of Poker” earned his name.

Or come back tomorrow and read about how the tournament phrase “a chip and a chair” was born at the WSOP.

**In the first of a 10-part series, the Paul Phua Poker School looks at how the world’s biggest poker tournament began**

The World Series of Poker (WSOP) has witnessed extraordinary dramas and created huge stars. In a 10-part mini-series, the Paul Phua Poker School picks 10 key events from the WSOP’s rich history, from Phil Hellmuth becoming world champion aged 24 to internet poker coming of age. We start with the humble origins of the WSOP, and how “the Grand Old Man of Poker” earned his name.

1970: the very first World Series of Poker

When you see the palatial ballrooms of the Rio casino in Las Vegas filled with hundreds of poker tables, and hear the constant clatter of chips filling the air, it’s hard to picture the World Series of Poker’s humble beginnings back in 1970. In those days, Binion’s Horseshoe Casino didn’t even have a poker room. But its publicity-savvy owner, Jack Binion, scented an opportunity when he saw the top poker players of the age gathered at a Texas Gamblers’ Reunion in 1969.
The next year, he invited them to play at Binion’s. Doyle “Texas Dolly” Brunson was there, along with Jack “Treetop” Straus, “Amarillo Slim” Preston, “Titanic” Thompson and “Puggy” Pearson. But there was no tournament, just several days of mixed cash games, after which they were all invited to choose the best all-round player. Legend has it that each man voted for himself! So Binion then asked them to vote for whoever they thought was second only to themselves: Johnny Moss was crowned champion.

Who was Johnny Moss?

Born in 1907, Johnny Moss had been gambling since he was a boy, and as a teenager was hired by a saloon in his hometown of Dallas, Texas to spot anyone trying to cheat. His legendary five-month heads-up poker marathon against Nick the Greek in 1949 – legendary, in that Moss told the story, but it has not been fully substantiated – was thrillingly documented in Al Alvarez’s classic book The Biggest Game in Town. It was no surprise that Johnny Moss could command the respect of his peers.

1971: the first World Series of Poker tournament

In 1971, after a Los Angeles Times reporter told Jack Binion that he needed more of a competition if he wanted press coverage, the World Series of Poker took on the format we would recognise today: a freezeout tournament. Seven players paid the $5,000 buy-in. Though the individual hands have not been documented, it is known that after two days Johnny Moss won fair and square.
“It does show we voted for the right guy,” said Doyle Brunson later.

The Grand Old Man of Poker

Earning the nickname “The Grand Old Man of Poker”, Moss played at every WSOP until the year of his death in 1995, aged 88, winning nine bracelets in all. In one of his final interviews, at a poker table in Binion’s that year, he said: “I’ve been playing since I was 10 years old. I guess I know what I’m doing by now.”

Who was Johnny Moss? Key facts

Born in 1907, Johnny Moss learned to gamble as a boy
Beat Nick the Greek for a rumoured $2m in a five-month heads-up poker marathon
Nicknamed “the Grand Old Man of Poker”
First World Series of Poker champion, and winner of nine WSOP bracelets

Come back tomorrow to read part 2 in our 10 part series on the World Series of Poker. Tomorrow we will revealing how the “Doyle Brunson hand” got its name.

**In the latest in a series of video interviews with the Paul Phua Poker School, poker pro Dan Colman talks to Paul Phua about AI, tells, and the trouble with online poker**

In the latest in the Paul Phua Poker School videos featuring top pros, I am delighted to have Daniel Colman sharing his frank views on poker. Dan is an exceptional player. He made headlines when he won the 2014 Big One for One Drop for a $15m payday, but it was no accident: he had already won $2m in the Monte Carlo Super High Roller Grand Final that year, and he has won many more since. With earnings of $28m in all, he is the second most successful live tournament player in the world.

But enough about money! The point I am making is that Dan knows his poker. And what is even more remarkable is that he began as an online player, in his teens.
All this makes him the perfect person to ask about the difference between online and live play. Dan Colman is not afraid to speak his mind: “I think the way the online poker game works,” he says in the video interview with me, “is that it puts recreational players at a severe disadvantage.”
The problem is, he says, that professional players are equipped with all kinds of software and online trackers: “They mine hands from the days and weeks before to get a database on players they’ve never even played with to understand how they play.”
I agree with Dan. I have always preferred to play live. It’s more sociable, more fun than staring at a screen. And, as well, there is more psychology involved. You get a feel for how your opponents play. You may even get a read on them, which tells you what cards they are holding.
There can be a big adjustment for online players looking to move into live games. “When you go from the online realm and cross over to live poker,” says Dan Colman in the video interview, “you’re always uncomfortable at first. [Young players] might know ‘I have to bluff right here’, but then they think about it and they think ‘Oh, maybe they’re on to me, I check’. You have to get confidence to be able to follow through with your game plan in live poker.”
Here is a funny story, which I also talk about in the video interview. I have played for many years in what poker players call The Big Game, which is a cash game at extremely high stakes. Some of the world’s top poker players would fly into Macau, or Manila, and play for huge pots in this Big Game. One of them was Dan “Jungleman” Cates.
I can say this because now he has successfully plugged that leak in his game, but as a very experienced and skilled online player moving to live games, Jungleman had tons of “tells”! We so often knew exactly what his cards were, and when he was bluffing!
Finally, there is one other aspect of online play that both I and Dan Colman are concerned about, and which we discuss in the video. AI programs are now beating even the world’s best players. I have written about this before. How will that affect online poker?
This is what Dan Colman has to say in the video interview: “I think online poker will die down as a result of computers and machines playing. I think this will come in the next one, two, three years.”
So, all you online players, if you don’t want to bow down to our AI overlords, maybe you should try a little more live poker! Play some home games with your friends. Visit a casino that offers cash games. Enter some live tournaments. Who knows? You may well find it makes poker more fun.

Unpredictable poker players in live poker games

Poker used to be thought of as a game mainly of flair and emotional intelligence. A good bluff, or the ability to peer into your opponent’s mind were considered the primary characteristics for a Texas Hold’em pro.

This was the era of the “live” player. One who thrived off the occasion. The face-to-face. Reading their opponents’ tells. The pressure. The emotion.
Now though, if you fast forward a few decades, the poker world has changed beyond recognition. Players analyze betting patterns, they discuss bet sizing and scrutinize fold equity and expected value. Investment bankers and engineering graduates from the world’s best universities now flock to poker. Instead of trading volatility in the world of finance, they are exploiting “thin value for maximum pay-off” in high stakes games, often online.
Poker has transformed into a game of rigorous calculation. It has automated, you could say. It has taken a leap towards the world of math and away from old-fashioned emotional intelligence. A lot of the world’s best and most successful players play percentages and probability.
However, that doesn’t mean that all those players who thrive on the cut and thrust of face-to-face, live play have had to cash in their chips and leave the table. They have had to learn to play differently. And some have found a technique that works – using the unconventional and unpredictable, to confound the percentage and probability based systems used by so many players nowadays.
Unconventional live players tend to play the player, not the numbers, and work outside the rules of betting charts. It’s like they are playing in a separate world from the more mathematical players. They are able to weave in and out of convention. It is often a difficult style to play against because it’s so unpredictable.
Most young pros would say that this “out of the box” approach isn’t the best way to play in the long run (partially because it falls so far outside their own models). That’s a good argument. But one thing is for sure. The unconventional players are great to watch!

Here’s a great example of where unconventional play can overcome an opponent. Take Henry Tran in the WSOP 2016 Main Event — one of our all-time favourite hands at Paul Phua Poker.

Tran is dealt three of clubs and two of hearts and his opponent, Ben Alcober, is dealt King of diamonds and eight of diamonds.
Before the flop, Tran opens middle position to two times the big blind. Alcober reacts to this by three betting out of small blind to 25k. The pot has now grown to 43.5k, but the action does not stop here. Tran then makes an astonishing four bet which Alcober calls. The pot is now at 94.5k and the flop has not even been dealt.
The flop is nine of clubs, four of diamonds and seven of spades (a “rainbow” flop). Alcober leads out of position bluffing for 32k. Tran responds by re-bluffing and making it 65k. Alcober calls.
The turn peels off and it is the nine of spades. This gives the players a paired board and also puts two spades up there. Once the players see the turn they check to each other.
The river is the two of diamonds which completes no flushes and makes it unlikely that either player has a full house. But it does give Tran a pair of twos, together with top of the pair of nines on the board. Not enough you would think to win a big pot.
Alcober seizes the moment and bets 165k (which is over two thirds the size of the pot) even though the fans watching on TV know that all he has are the nines on the table.
Tran thinks for a moment and instead of folding, he then calls with his pair of twos and nines. Totally unexpected. Surely he couldn’t.
Alcober shows his King eight of diamonds, with a slightly meek expression on his face. Tran shows two, which makes his two pairs. Footage of the moment shows Tran hopping around the table, and other players open mouthed at what has happened. The commentators can hardly believe what they have seen either. Bluff, counterbluff, big raises followed by checks followed by raises. Unpredictable play. Great to watch.
Tran’s call wins him a huge pot at a critical juncture of the tournament. But the new generation of poker player would feel pretty uncomfortable making the sort of call Tran makes here, because the price is simply not right to be calling on the river. You are simply wrong too often for it to be a profitable call in the long run.
Looking a little closer it’s important to recognize that these guys have deep stacks in a multimillion dollar first-prize tournament. The amount of three-betting bloats the pot in a lot of ways which means that these guys are destined to play a huge pot from the start.
There are also a lot of mind games going on. These guys know each other’s style and they are trying to exploit that. Fortune favours the brave and in this case the bravest won the pot. Tran saw something in his opponent that did not add up and he acted on his read.
Tran’s big pot approach seems risky. But it demonstrates the enormous value of taking people out of their comfort zones and using it to the player’s advantage. Did Tran’s play affect Alcober’s decision-making and bet-sizing?

Another great example of where unconventional meets conventional in poker is Qui Nguyen at the World Series of Poker Main Event 2016.

Qui stunned the poker world with his play. Phil Hellmuth compared it to his own “white magic” style of play. Qui (like Hellmuth) is able to see beyond the realms of probability and pricing, and through to the core of the opponent, what they are thinking and how they are behaving. Poker wizardry.
This style has won Hellmuth 14 World Series of Bracelets. Hellmuth and Qui prove how effective emotional intelligence combined with deep understanding of the game can be highly lucrative.
The likes of Qui Nguyen, Henry Tran and also Scotty Nguyen are examples of traditional players who have adapted to modern-day poker, to take down titles or win cash whilst using less conventional methods and placing emphasis on playing the player, not just the cards.
On the one hand, yes, poker is at heart a game of math and science. Math, for obvious reasons, and science too because science simply asks the question: “Why?” Something we should all be doing at all times in poker. Keep evaluating, as Paul is always saying. And yes the top online players have a mathematical orientation, it is true. You have to understand probability and hand computations to a certain level.
But it is a mistake to forget the other half of the brain. Poker is holistic and the likes of Tran, Hellmuth and Nguyen show that. It is the blend of the old style pros (who love the ebbs and flows of the live game and who play out of the box poker), and more math orientated online pros that make Texas Holdem poker in 2017 such an exciting game to watch and play.

Poker tournaments are exciting, but also long and exhausting.

On TV you will see the bright lights and bundles of cash on the table with a bracelet or a trophy for the winner. But behind the victories lies a lot of dedication. Getting there requires discipline, patience, and usually a lot of practice.

The major difference between a tournament and a cash game, from the players’ perspective, is the amount of control you have over the conditions. In a cash game, you can leave any time: Feel hungry or tired? Grab a snack or a nap. Did all the bad players just leave the game and get replaced by pros? Go find another game. Notice that you are not focusing very well? Take a break. Did you play a hand perfectly but get a bad beat? Buy back in. Whatever else happens, you are on your own schedule, and you get to control which games you sit in and how long you stay.
In a tournament, you have essentially none of that control. The tournament organizers choose where you sit and who sits with you (usually by random draw). And the tournament organizers decide the schedule and when the breaks are. Moreover, you have to play until you are eliminated or you win the entire tournament—which can sometimes take a week or more, playing ten hours a day. And of course, once you are eliminated, you are out—no matter how unlucky it was (unless the tournament offers rebuys).
To make it in the tournament world, then, you not only have to be a skilful poker player, but you have to maintain your focus over the course of the entire tournament. You also have to keep at it: in any given tournament, you may play very well and be eliminated due to misfortune—but over time, in tournament poker as in cash game poker, the skilful players succeed.
To do this well, you have to treat poker like any other sport. Tournament poker is about mind, body and soul. All three need to work in rhythm and sync in order to make those key high pressure decisions over and over again. You may hear of players paying attention to mindfulness, meditation, exercise, and nutrition. These are all very important when you are playing days of poker with little rest.

7 tips on poker tournament strategy

For anyone who thinks they might want to play in a tournament (rather than just games with friends or at the casino):

Don’t get over excited in the first levels. The blinds are relatively very small. If you pick up decent hands or you think you can win a big pot with low suited connecters, then go for it. But be careful not to get too excited. The upside isn’t so big that it is worth taking a lot of risk early.
Tournaments are long. You are going to get some bad beats. See the bigger picture. It will put the bad beats into context. Your tournament strategy can survive a couple of bad moments if you don’t lose your head.
Try and spot weak players to play against. By the same token, stay clear of the really good players until you can figure out their play.
Always try to mix things up. Be very aware of your table image. For example, you’ve been playing for an hour and you have good hands. So naturally, you have been raising pre-flop a lot without having to show your cards. However, to mix things up try raising on some weaker hands too, and keep your opponents guessing. I myself did just that half way through my poker career. And once your opponents spot that you have loosened up, play tight again to get them to make mistakes.
Table assignment is something you need to be aware of. Which table you are on, and which players you are playing with, is out of your hands. Sometimes you can be with some very good players, sometimes less so.
Remember your position at the table. That will change over the course of the tournament when you change tables as you progress through the levels.
And be aware that because you will be playing against so many different players over the course of a few days, often players you have never been up against before, you need to be reading their tells, their bluffs and their traps.

5 tips for surviving the length of a poker tournament

On the human level:

Give yourself time before the tournament starts to sit quietly, collect your thoughts, and gather your energy.
Try and create some sort of playing ritual, so whenever you win or lose you are steady and focused. This could be inhaling to three, exhaling to six and repeating three times.
Come prepared. Bring healthy food and if needs be energy drinks, (but be wary of too much caffeine, it can make you impulsive and too aggressive at the table).
Try and find food groups that stimulate your brain. And remember to stay hydrated. It sounds obvious but the brain needs to be fed and water is vital in that process.
Make sure you know where the restroom is because if you are playing long levels with few breaks there will be times when you might need to rush out.

These are just a few of the things I have come across playing tournament poker. If you can include them in your game both in terms of health and playing style then you will be on your way to becoming a winning player.
Poker is not just flopping hands and winning chips, it is everything that goes on behind the scenes. A healthy lifestyle gives you an edge at the table and in life.

As we wrote about, many of the best players in the poker world arrived in Manila to play the Triton series in February.

The first tournament played over the first two days was the smaller of the two when it came to prize money. But it had a great field and a really exciting finish between two of the best players in the world. The third day though saw the start of the big one. There were 39 buy ins (from 29 players) into the HK$1,000,000 (approx. USD 128,800) main event. Would Dan Colman be able to repeat his good performance? Or would we see different faces at the final table than the ones we saw at the 6 max in the first couple of days? The answer was – as so often in poker – the latter. Different days, different outcomes.

The Main Event was a three-day affair. The first two days were all about getting to the money – whittling the 29 players down to the final six.

And some big names didn’t survive the process. 6-Max champion Dan Colman, poker legend Phil Ivey and the 2016 one drop winner Elton Tsang all didn’t make the final six.
There were two clear chip leaders, and therefore favourites, at the start of the money levels: Sergio Aido from Spain with 2,490,000 and Germany’s Koray Aldemir with 2,420,000, both a long way ahead of their four rivals. Would they be the last two standing? In third was Wai Kin Yong (1,705,000) who won the November 2016 version of this same tournament. Dan Cates (1,475,000) was also there (as he so often is), as were Devan Tang (1,045,000) and Bryn Kenney (615,000), who finished second in 2016 to Wai Kin.
With those sorts of numbers Bryn Kenney was clearly the most vulnerable with his smaller stack. He had just 20 big blinds. Would he play safe or go for broke? But, actually, he wasn’t the first player at the final table to go to the rail. That, very surprisingly, was Wai Kin Yong, previous winner and third chip leader.
Yong had been playing a lot of hands – losing pots as often as winning them – so he was unable to make much ground on Aido and Aldemir who were pulling away from the rest of the field. And he came out on the wrong side of a couple of hands with Bryn Kenney, who was valiantly getting his way into the game despite starting at such a huge chip disadvantage to the rest of the finalists.
In fact, he wasn’t the next person to fall away either. That was Devan Tang. He flopped two pairs, but was blown away by Aldemir who made an Ace High straight with a ten on the turn.
Bryn Kenney’s run did end, however: he was the next to go. Having started the final table with just 615,000 chips he had done incredibly well to get his way up to over a million. But he lost out to Cates on a close hand.
That win for Cates meant the last three players all had similarly sized stacks – 3.5m for Aldemir, 3.2m for Aido and 2.9m for Cates. Cates had done very well to pull his way back to almost level terms with Aido and Aldemir. And he was feeling confident enough to reject a prize money sharing deal between the last three at the start of the 3-way hands, proclaiming “I feel like a gamble!!”
He may have regretted that a few moments later, coming out second best in a series of hands, first to Aldemir, then in a big one and a half million chip pot to Aido. Cates then did agree a deal with the other two – which meant that he would take 28% of the winnings, Aldemir 35% and Aido the remaining 37% no matter the result from then on. Good work for all. But there was still the trophy and HK$400,000 the three players kept aside to make things interesting.
Just as well that Cates struck the deal, as he busted out a few hands later, as his king jack off suit lost out to Aido’s king queen suited with the kicker.

So we were left with Aido and Aldemir, the two chip leaders when the final table started.

Aido had a 6 million to 3.7 million chip lead at the start of the heads-up, but that didn’t end up being the insurmountable advantage it appeared to be. Aldemir soon caught up – taking two pots in the first ten minutes of heads up play. He never looked back, taking pot after pot from Aido – and within the hour the trophy was his. What a comeback! An amazing hour of play from the German. Though he has had a string of good results since the summer of last year, this was Aldemir’s first major title in his career. We’re sure there will be more.
It was really exciting action, with some of the top players from around the world. And although we saw some big bets and pots, it wasn’t just about the winnings. Like the One Drop, the Triton Poker Series has a charity aspect too. The series donates a percentage of the prize pool to a number of charities, including: women’s cancer support group, project pink and the Red Cross. Giving in poker is something that players are increasingly passionate about. Players really want to do something outside the poker community, and to donate to causes that they feel strongly about. Winning means a lot to these players – but it isn’t everything.