Since
2018, The Triton Poker Super High Roller Series has slowly crept to the
forefront of the poker community’s mind when it comes to world-class
high stakes poker action.
2019
was something else, and 2020 bore high expectations, especially when
its founder Paul Phua received the vote for Industry Person of the Year
at the Global Poker Awards (GPA).
Then
a new virus crept out of the inkpot and splattered itself across the
world’s newspapers. COVID-19 started as a Chinese problem, but quickly
became everyone’s problem.
In February, Triton Poker felt compelled to postpone the Triton Poker Super High Roller Series in Jeju. In March, the unthinkable happened, as Triton scrubbed the event from the calendar altogether, leaving fans wondering – ‘what about Montenegro?’
More Than 197 Countries and Territories
At
the time of the Jeju cancellation, COVID-19 had infected 93,131 people
and taken 3,023 lives. Today, there are 378,041 confirmed cases and
16,365 deaths.
With
more than 197 countries and territories afflicted by the virus, world
leaders have taken the unprecedented step of ordering their citizens to
stay at home.
As
world cowers in a corner, nobody is thinking about the fate of live
tournament poker. It’s an afterthought as we all deal with an unfamiliar
feeling of fear.
Scheduled
for May 4 – 18, the event didn’t even have a schedule. Still, the draft
is in the bin. That leaves, Triton London (29 Jul – 13 Aug) as the last
remaining bastion of what promised to be a scintillating season for the
best high stakes poker tour in the business.
You Can Take the Poker Out of Triton, But You Can’t Take Triton Out of Poker.
The
poker world has two black eyes and a punctured lung. Bubbles collect in
the corner of mouths. Fingers tap temples. Lisps develop where perfect
speech bubbles lived.
It’s
true, there is no live tournament poker, and it’s a killer. Still, once
COVID-19 returns to the bats it came from, the world will remerge
stronger and more united than ever, and that includes our beautiful
game.
Now, it is time for patience.
Once Triton cancelled its Super High Roller Series in Jeju, tour operators in that region had no option but to do the same. The pandemic has since spread across the globe, with Europe the epicentre, and those spores found beneath the microscope are now forcing live tour operators to fold away their tables and ditch their filthy chips.
The
Coronavirus is highly adaptable, making the leap from Pangolins and bats to
humans. It will continue to evolve, and we place our hope in the brightest
scientific minds in the world, that we develop at a faster rate.
Companies
that rely on live tournaments for EBITDA will also have to evolve, and right
now, the best possible solution is to shift their flagship events online. The
law makes the switch more challenging than a decade ago, but it’s more than a
viable move for online poker operators; it’s a valuable opportunity.
Not
only can the likes of PokerStars and partypoker pivot by creating online
alternatives of their beloved live brands, but live tour operators with no
ability to offer an online product will be keen to partner with the best in the
business.
It’s
also a long term positive for the online poker community as the live tour
operators have to include in their risk assessment mitigation for future
pandemics of this nature, and that could lead to a more competitive online
poker landscape.
partypoker: The Role Models
partypoker
is currently leading the way when it comes to creating a virtual world that we
can call home, and is an inviting prospect for live tour operators.
The
online poker operator excels when it comes to creating value-laden partnerships
thanks to its sterling work with partypoker LIVE, putting them in a fantastic
spot to leverage those relationships post COVID-19.
One of
those partnerships is with the World Poker Tour (WPT), and for the first time,
that partnership is moving into the virtual realm in a big way. The pair have
coupled-up to host online satellites to live events in the past, but the
forthcoming WPT Online Championships is the first sense that Adam Pliska and
the gang are prepared to put a whole leg into the virtual waters, and not
merely dab a toe.
The
series runs on partypoker, May 10-26, with $30m in GTD prize money. The $3,200
buy-in, $5m GTD WPT Online Championship is the blaze in this fire, but there
are plenty of other hot coals.
The
WPT500 brand hits the online market for the first time when between May 10-18,
players invest $530 per bullet throughout ten Day 1’s in this $1m, GTD feast of
fun. The WPTDeepStacks brand also moves online for the first time with a $1,600
buy-in, $1m GTD event scheduled for May 25-26.
As you
would expect, high rollers get to have some fun with a $25,000 buy-in, $3m GTD
WPT Super High Roller Challenge on May 21, a $10,300, $2m GTD High Roller, May
24-25, and a wide variety of $5k buy-ins to boot.
The
series also traverses the live world with the winner of the WPT Online
Championships Main Event earning a seat into the $15,000 Tournament of
Champions should the event go ahead as planned.
Another
partypoker alliance involves the Irish Poker Open. The oldest event outside of
the World Series of Poker (WSOP) celebrates its 40th year on the partypoker
platform with a €1m GTD Main Event. The schedule will follow shortly.
Then Future
If the
WPT Online Championships is a success, then why not allow it to breathe once
COVID-19 is in the rearview mirror? While it doesn’t make sense to do this for
the Irish Open. It does make sense for the WPT to have an online leg, with the
winner securing a seat to the TOC, and there’s no reason why a coveted WPT
Champions Club spot shouldn’t also be in the goodie bag.
partypoker
recently held their first MILLIONS Super High Roller Series in Sochi, Russia.
If we have seen the end of live tournament poker this side of 2021, then Rob
Yong’s already indicated his willingness to replicate that event online, and
that’s in addition to the MILLIONS Online leg that is currently in situ.
PokerStars
are keeping their powder dry for now. But, what would stop them adding themed
online European Poker Tour (EPT) stops to their online offerings, or expand the
World Championships and Spring Championships of Poker idea to fill in the
blanks.
Elon
Musk wants to terraform Mars, knowing that at some point, human beings will
make Earth uninhabitable. Maybe, we don’t have to venture that far. Perhaps,
the movie ‘Ready Player One’ has the answer, and humanities future exists in a
virtual world. If that’s the case, then online poker isn’t dying; it’s
preparing for all-out domination.
Santa Claus bought me a Ōura sleep ring for Christmas. After this morning’s sync, I can see that I woke up at 3 am and remained awake for an hour. I didn’t see a ghost or have a wet dream. My mother-in-law woke me up, coughing and spluttering so severely that I started to think she had Coronavirus.
She’s heading to the doctors tomorrow, and we expect the GP to diagnose her with the flu. But there’s not a person in the world (unless you live on the North Sentinel Island in the Indian Ocean), that’s not wondering if that coughing and spluttering is the new virus shaking up the world.
We’re taking a chance, by not insisting that she visits her GP today.
Ho Iat Seng is taking no such chances.
The Chief Executive of Macau earned his stripes for a fifth-term in December, and for the first time during his reign, he has had to tell the 41 land-based casinos in Macau to shut up shop for a fortnight.
The move is more precautionary than reactionary, with only ten reported cases in the special administrative region of China. However, one of them is an employee of the Galaxy Macau casino.
Ho didn’t take the decision lightly,
In 2019, Macau’s gross gaming revenue hit $36.5 billion, six-times more profitable than the Las Vegas Strip, and four-fifths of Macau’s total revenue.
Gambling consultant, Matthew Ossolinski estimated the fortnight shutdown would cost Macau’s casinos between 5 and 15% of their 2020 gaming revenue. Ho said Macau could handle the losses.
A fortnight ago, Macau swelled with an army of people coming to the island to celebrate the Lunar New Year holiday, but so far, no new cases have emerged as a result of the deluge.
And it’s not only the casinos that are causing Ho concern, after he shut down all public amenities, and told his people to remain indoors unless they had to leave to get food.
The Triton Poker Super High Roller Series
So no poker in Macau, and none on the Triton Poker Super High Roller Series in Jeju, after the Triton team decided to postpone the event pending further news on the World Health Organisation (WHO) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) plan of attack.
An announcement is expected on Feb 10.
Coronavirus
The death toll is currently 563, with more than 28,000 confirmed cases. All but three of those deaths have come in China, the source of the outbreak. However, there has recently been a case in Singapore with a 41-year-old man who has no connection with China.
On Wednesday, China suffered the worst day since the outbreak began with 73 deaths, and close to 4,000 more cases coming to light. Most deaths are from the Chinese city of Wuhan, and the surrounding province of Hubei where 60 million people are now under quarantine.
Symptoms are fever, cough and shortness of breath, precisely what my mother-in-law has – the same symptoms as influenza, a viral infection we don’t bat an eyelid at that’s so far killed 10,000 Americans this season alone.
So that’s why all of these Asian poker players wear masks.
Poker is about to mystify and mesmerise us for another month. January animated 2020 with splashes of brilliance from three continents and February maintains that trend.
After the Aussie Millions, the high roller fraternity took a flight to Queensland to compete in the Australian Poker Open (APO). That new series ends with the inaugural Super High Roller Bowl (SHRB) Australia.
Australia becomes the fifth country to host an SHRB when the players descend on the Star Gold Coast in Queensland, 2-4 Feb for the AUD 250,000 No-Limit Hold’em (NLHE) extravaganza.
Here are the previous winners.
Las Vegas
2015: Brian Rast beats 43-entrants to win $7,525,000*
2016: Rainer Kempe beats 49-entrants to win $5,000,000
2017: Christoph Vogelsang beats 56-entrants to win $6,000,000
2018: Justin Bonomo beats 48-entrants to win $5,000,000
2018: Isaac Haxton beats 36-entrants to win $3,672,000**
The buy-in was $500k before dropping to $300k in ensuing years.
** Poker Central held dragged the 2019 event into Dec 2018, creating two SHRB games in a single calendar year to align with their new Player of the Year setup.
China
2018: Justin Bonomo beats 75-entrants to win $4,823,077
London
2019: Cary Katz beats 12-entrants to win $2,610,317
Bahamas
2019: Daniel Dvoress beats 37-entrants to win $4,080,000
It’s the third Triton Jeju event. The first comprised of five games. Mikita Badzuakouski starred by becoming the first player to win back-to-back No-Limit Hold’em Main Event titles, and Kenneth Kee won the Short-Deck Main Event. The series returned in 2019 with seven events. Jason Koon won two of them, including the Short-Deck Main Event, and Timothy Adams won the NLHE Main Event.
The action takes place between 9-22 Feb at the Landing Casino in Shinwa World, Jeju, South Korea with an 11-event series. There are two Main Events, both priced at HKD 1m (NLHE & Short-Deck), and it’s the first time at this price point for the NLHE Main Event having previously been HKD 2m.
Running simultaneously with the Triton Poker Super High Roller Series is partypoker’s MILLIONS South America event.
The series runs from 6-16 Feb, from the Enjoy Conrad Resort & Casino, Punta del Este, Uruguay, and the main feature is a $10,300, $5m GTD NLHE Main Event.
As has become standard, there is a $25,500 NLHE MILLIONS Super High Roller, and that takes place 10-11 Feb and a $10,300 NLHE MILLIONS High Roller Finale.
It’s the second MILLIONS event of 2020. Dusk till Dawn (DTD) in Nottingham hosted MILLIONS UK in January, and the in-form Kahle Burns took down the $25k Super High Roller, Joao Vieira took down the $10k High Roller Finale, and Anton Suarez won the $10k Main Event.
In 2019, MILLIONS South America hailed from the Belmond Copacabana Palace Hotel in Brazil. Marty Mathis won the $10k Main Event, Guillaume Nolet won the $10k High Roller, and there were two $25k events with Jonathan Depa owning one. Pablo Joaquin Melogno Cabrera took down the other.
And that’s a wrap for the February high roller action.
The world’s top poker pros battled for the coveted Triton SHR Series Main Event title. Paul Phua was in the thick of the action
The Triton Super High Roller Series in beautiful Montenegro ended in a heads-up battle between German poker pro Manig Loeser and my good friend, Richard Yong. After an hour of ups and downs, Richard’s stack was crippled when he ran his pocket sevens into Manig’s flopped two pair. The very next hand sealed Richard’s fate: with A-4 against Manig’s J-2, the Jack came on the flop to give Manig the first prize of HK$16,877,600 (US$2.16m).
What a poker tournament this was! The high buy-ins, and the attractions of the recently reopened Maestral Resort and Casino, brought in some of the world’s top poker pros – as you can see from my photograph!
The $100m poker selfie
In the top row, left to right, are Andrew Robl, Fedor Holz, Dan “Jungleman” Cates and Wai Kin Yong.
In the middle row, left to right, are Sam Trickett, Steve O’Dwyer, Koray Aldemir, Timofey “Trueteller” Kuznetsov.
In the bottom row, left to right, are Winfred Yu, myself and Richard Yong.
Someone added up the combined live tournament earnings of the players in the picture. They told me it came to about $100 million.
The only pity is that my good friend Tom Dwan came just a few minutes too late to join the group shot!
Tom Dwan, Jungleman and Sam Trickett
I don’t believe you would find such a high concentration of poker pros anywhere in the world as we had at the Triton SHR Series. At one stage Tom Dwan was seated directly across the table from Jungleman, with England’s No 1 poker player, Sam Trickett, in between them!
I myself had the US pro Steve O’Dwyer on my left at the beginning of the tournament; then I had John Juanda, who ended up in fourth place; and then the chip leader at the time, “Shanghai Wang” Qiang. I had to rebuy twice, but still did not manage to make the final table against such stiff competition!
The good thing about poker is that there are always cash games when you bust out of tournament, and those were going strong well into the night.
And there is always another tournament, too! Another Triton SHR Series is being planned for Macau this October, and I know it will not be long before it returns to Montenegro.
Interviews for Paul Phua Poker
I hope you have enjoyed the tournament photos and updates on my Twitter feed, @PaulPhuaPoker. My video crew have also been shooting some fascinating strategy interviews with the poker pros here. Some of them, like Jungleman and Tom Dwan, have featured in previous Paul Phua Poker School videos. Many more will be new to my website, including some very famous players. I can’t wait to share them with you, once the hours of film have been edited.
But for now, this is goodbye from the Maestral Resort and Casino in Montenegro, with its wonderful beaches, glorious sunsets and warm, shimmering sea. Plenty of fish in there – not so many in the Triton SHR Series poker tournaments!
Sam Trickett is among the top pros sitting pretty after Day One of the Triton SHR Series Main Event. Others have had to rebuy. The Paul Phua Poker team reports
Day One of the Triton Super High Roller Series Montenegro Main Event has just gone, and what a day it was! Some of the biggest names in poker were among the 47 (including re-entries) so far who have stumped up the HK$1m (US$128k) entry fee, making for some exciting poker tournament action and some very difficult tables.
At one point Paul Phua found himself seated in the most unfortunate position of all: with the young internet legend Timofey “Trueteller” Kuznetsov to his left, and veteran five-time WSOP bracelet winner John Juanda to the left of that! Perhaps it’s not surprising that Paul Phua was knocked out twice during the day. Undaunted, he has bought in a third and final time for Day Two! Top pros who suffered an early knock-out, and then bought in again, include Steve O’Dwyer, Wai Kin Yong and David Peters. Even the recent Triton SHR Series 6-Max Montenegro champion, Fedor Holz, busted out and rebought. And despite the tournament experience born of two bracelets and more than 33 cashes at the WSOP, Dominik Nitsche was forced to buy in three times just as Paul Phua was.
Qiang Wang, the million-chip man
There is just one million-chip man going into Day Two: Qiang Wang. Top pros with significantly bigger stacks than the 250k they began with include Mikita Badziakouski (825k), Sam Trickett (715k) and Steffen Sontheimer (600k). Montenegrin local hero Predrag Lekovic, who came third in the Triton SHR Series 6-Max warm-up event, is sitting in tenth place with 357k. Lekovic busted Timofey “Trueteller” Kuznetsoz out of the tournament on the very last hand of the day!
Registration remains open until the beginning of Day Two. The big question is, will Tom Dwan make a last-minute appearance? Or is he too caught up in the exciting side action of high-stakes cash games at the Maestral Resort and Casino?
Interviews for the Paul Phua Poker School
Once the tournament broke up for the night, the Paul Phua Poker team filmed even more video interviews with the top pros. We’re really excited by the great strategy advice they have given us, as well as their insights into the life of a professional high-stakes poker player. We can’t wait to get all the footage edited so we can share it with you in the Paul Phua Poker School.
In the meantime, follow @PaulPhuaPoker on Twitter for updates on the Triton SHR Series Main Event.
No one can tell the future, least of all in poker. But there is one thing we can say for sure: with some of the world’s top poker pros competing, it’s going to be a thriller.
Fedor Holz, Dan “Jungleman” Cates and Sam Trickett are just some of the poker pros playing in the exclusive Triton Super High Roller Series in Montenegro. The Paul Phua Poker team reports
Is it really just a year and a half since the first Triton Super High Roller Series took place? Already it has become a key fixture in the top poker pros’ calendars, and Day One of the Triton SHR Series in Montenegro shows why.
The Main Event, starting on July 18, is expected to bring out the very brightest stars in poker. We’re now only just on the warm-up tournament: the 6-Max Texas Hold ’Em, with an entry fee of “only” HK$250,000 (US$32,000). And yet some of the world’s finest poker pros are playing already.
The great, late Fedor Holz
Fedor Holz, the likeable German poker prodigy who at 23 has already amassed $23m in live tournament earnings, arrived fashionably late – by three hours! Even so, true to form, he wasted no time in building a commanding stack. He finishes Day One in sixth place, with more than double his starting stack of 50,000.
Three places above him, with 129,000, is Steve O’Dwyer. The US high-stakes specialist, who has $18.5m in live tournament earnings, is now poised to notch up another big win. Pity the Canadian pro Lucas Greenwood, who started the day with the fearsome Steve O’Dwyer to his left – and then, having busted out and rebought, drew the legendary Dan “Jungleman” Cates to his left instead!
Greenwood has a comfortable 64,600 as he enters Day Two. He’s not sitting pretty, however. Who’s that two places to his left? It’s Steve O’Dwyer, yet again!
Other huge poker names who have survived to Day Two include John Juanda, Sam Trickett, Richard Yong, Winfred Yu and Mikita Badziakouski.
Paul Phua Poker interviews the poker pros
The Paul Phua Poker team was at the Triton SHR series too, with cameras at the ready, to bring you live action on Facebook and Twitter (follow @PaulPhuaPoker). We also conducted exclusive interviews with Fedor Holz, Dan “Jungleman” Cates and the British No 1 Sam Trickett – we’ll add those videos to the Paul Phua Poker School in due course – and there will be many more to come as the Triton SHR Series unfolds.
Wish you were here? You can have the next best thing: tweet your question for the Triton poker pros to #PhuaTriton, and Paul Phua will do his best to get them answered.
Maestral, Montenegro, magnificent
Another reason to love this particular Triton SHR Series is the idyllic location. The five-star Maestral Resort and Casino where the tournaments are being held has been comprehensively refurbished over the last few months, and the Montenegrin Prime Minister himself cut the ribbon on its reopening last week. The Maestral now has 183 rooms and 22 suites, all finished to the highest design specifications, with superb cuisine and a Wellness & Spa Centre that already in 2016 had been named Montenegro’s best. It also offers a private beach and an expansive terrace bar overlooking the sea. Montenegro has some of the most beautiful coastline in Europe, with dramatic hills rising above perfect sandy beaches in tranquil coves. But even by Montenegrin standards this particular stretch is prized as one of the best. In the immediate vicinity of the unique island resort of Sveti Stefan, near Budva with its Old Town and modern nightlife, it is well worth visiting – even without Fedor Holz enjoying a post-tournament dinner on the Maestral’s sea-view terrace a few tables to your right! For more Triton SHR Series action, follow @PaulPhuaPoker on Twitter, like and follow Paul Phua Poker on Facebook, and tweet your questions for the Triton pros to #PhuaTriton
The Paul Phua Poker team will be filming interviews with top pros at the Triton Super High Roller Series in Montenegro on July 16-20. Paul Phua explains how you can be part of the action
Some of the world’s top poker pros will be travelling to Montenegro on July 16-20 for the Triton Super High Roller Series, and Paul Phua Poker will be bringing you tournament news and interviews from this key event.
At the Triton SHR Series Manila in February, the Paul Phua Poker School secured video interviews on poker strategy with Phil Ivey, Dan Colman, Dan Cates, Wai Kin Yong and Rui Cao.
The Paul Phua Poker team will again be filming at the Triton SHR Series Montenegro. And this time, we are giving you the chance to put your own questions to the pros!
Would you ask Phil Ivey about his stone-cold bluffs? Would you ask Tom “Durrrr” Dwan about heads-up strategy? Or have you a general question about poker strategy to ask the experts?
You tell us!
Follow me on Twitter at @PaulPhuaPoker to keep up with the action, and join in with our Twitter chat at #PhuaTriton. To ask questions of the pros, Tweet your question with the hashtag #PhuaTriton. We don’t yet know exactly who will be playing, but availability permitting, I’ll make sure some of the best get answered.
Top pros play the Triton Poker Series
This is one of the pros’ favourite tournaments – mine, too. Whereas the Main Event of the World Series of Poker has become so crowded that some wonder if any top player can win it again, the Triton Series has high buy-ins that give the pros a chance to shine. For instance:
Fedor Holz won the Triton SHR Series Cali Cup in 2006 for $3m.
Daniel Colman won the Triton SHR Series Paranaque 6-Max Event in 2017 for $3.6m, after a heads-up battle with Erik Seidel.
Koray Aldemir won the Triton SHR Series Paranaque Main Event in 2017 for $1.3m, with Dan “Jugleman” Cates coming third.
Phil Ivey placed fifth in the Triton SHR Series Paranaque $200k NLH in 2016 for $656,000.
Wai Kin Yong has taken down two titles and a sixth place finish in different Triton tournaments for more than $3m.
And I myself, Paul Phua, have cashed in three Triton SHR Series tournaments for more than $800,000.
About the Triton Super High Roller Series
The Triton poker series started in January 2016 with the Triton SHR Cali Cup. The Main Event broke WPT records as its highest ever buy-in, with 52 players buying in for £200,000 each.
Ever since, the high buy-ins to the Triton poker series have attracted some of the top pros, as well as high-rolling businessmen who want to measure themselves against the world’s finest. At these high levels of poker, most of the players know each other. The recently revamped Maestral Resort & Casino, on the shores of the Adriatic Sea in Montenegro, will be full of animated conversation and lively cash side-games.
In addition, the Triton SHR Series raises a lot of money for worthy causes. All proceeds from the tournaments, after expenses (many of which are defrayed by sponsors), go to a named charity. Past beneficiaries have included The Red Cross and Project Pink.
We know that most poker players can only dream of affording the buy-in for these tournaments. Joining in with the Twitter chat at #PhuaTriton is the next best thing.
