The final event of Triton Million London is in the books, and while the 52-entrant turnout proved to be the smallest field of the week, nobody was sneering at the £777,000 first prize.
After the horns and bugles had sounded, the winner of Event #7: £50,000 No-Limit Hold’em Short-Deck was Xu Liang, an unknown entity to most of the poker world, but with enough shrapnel in his piggy bank to compete in the £1m buy-in Triton Million earlier in the week.
As was the case in the £100,000 No-Limit Hold’em Short-Deck Main Event, the £50,000 ended with a classic duel between East & West. David Benefield achieved notoriety as an online cash game star, and it seems he’s reinvented himself as a Short-Deck tournament specialist making four final tables this year.
Benefield won the $25,000 Short-Deck event a few days ago, but try as he may, he couldn’t find a way past Liang to make it title #2. Let’s see how the whole thing went down.
The Bubble
Seven players would finish in the money, and after two players hit the rail simultaneously, the Tournament Director hawed the seventh-place prize money down the middle. As Triton co-founder Richard Yong was shoving Tong Siow Choon over the rail AK>AQ, Benefield took a dominating chip lead into the final table after eliminating Mike Watson. It was a tragedy for the Canadian who was second in chips with nine remaining when he ran QQ into Benefield’s A8, the only man with a superior chip stack.
Final Table Results
1 – David Benefield, 5.98 million
2 – Richard Yong, 2.585 million
3 – Yu Liang, 2.08 million
4 – Romain Arnaud, 1.41 million
5 – Chin Wei Lim, 1.41 million
6 – Stephen Chidwick, 815,000
The Nutshell Action
Stephen Chidwick found it tough going in this one, firing four bullets to the tune of £200,000. The man from Deal dealt with it in his usual aplomb, making the final table. Wai Kin Yong was his executioner when A8 beat AK, sending him to the cash desk to pick up his £160,200 prize. It looks like a loss until you remember that Chidwick has cashed for more than £6.2m during this trip.
Yong continued his tear, eliminating the Frenchman Romain Arnaud AK > AQ, and Benefield’s pocket tens beat the AK of the highly-rated Chin Wei Lim. The Benefield v Lim hand had Short-Deck written all over it as Benefield flopped a set, Lim turned a straight, and Benefield rivered a boat.
Three-Handed Play
Three-handed play was slow as stacks deepened, and an exciting dynamic emerged with Wai Kin Yong competing three-handed for the £100,000 Short-Deck Main Event title on the next table. Father and son periodically checked on each other’s progress, until Yong Senior hit the rail after Liang’s KQ beat QT when all-in pre-flop.
Heads-Up
Despite Liang beating Yong, Benefield still entered heads-up with a big chip lead. Then Liang scored a big double-up when they got it in on J86 with Benefield holding two-pair versus the open ender, which duly arrived on the river.
The final hand saw Benefield all-in for his tournament life holding AQ on Q77, only for Liang to overturn T7 for trips.
Final Table
1 – Xu Liang, £777,000
2 – David Benefield, £560,500
3 – Richard Yong, £357,000
4 – Chin Wei Lim, £271,300
5 – Romain Arnaud, £209,500
6 – Stephen Chidwick, £160,200
7= – Mike Watson, £64,750
7= – Choon Tong Siow, £64,750