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!