After three days of high-stakes action against the best poker players in the world, freestyle rapper Alejandro 'Papo MC' Lococo scored one of the biggest prizes in poker history with a victory in the Triton Million at WSOP Paradise.
The Argentinian won $12 million, a spectacular trophy, and a maiden WSOP bracelet in his first-ever Triton event.
The special event invited players to pick a pro-poker-playing partner to join them in putting up $500K for a shot at one of the biggest prizes in poker history. Its format, a first-of-its-kind partnership between the WSOP and Triton, drew 37 duos, and the 74 players tossed in 22 reentries for a total of 96 and a prize pool of $48,000,000. Lococo beat Ben Heath in heads-up play, while Sinan Unlu, Daniel Dvoress, and Elias Talvitie rounded out the top five.
Lococo entered the tournament as an invitee, bringing along Joao Vieira as his pro partner. The groups were split on Day 1, and Lococo battled a field of other invitees before combining with the pros on Day 2 for a fight to the finish.
Confidence is everything
Lococo told PokerOrg he knew he had a chance to win the tournament as soon as he registered.
"A lot of professionals from Europe bought my action to this tournament and It feels really good, you know. It's like, okay, they have confidence in my game. They know me."
Lococo doesn't run solvers and he doesn't study. "I just try to play my best game in every situation, but I'm an energy person, you know. It was feel, I don't know why, but I felt that I could win this tournament. And when I made Day 2, and after that Day 3 — I really was feeling that I would win this tournament."
The $12 million prize is nothing to sneeze at for Lococo, but he's not in it for the money — and he means it. Lococo says he is a professional competitor, and he has the same approach to poker that he had to winning freestyle rap battles.
"I play for the glory. I play for the trophy. I play trying to do my best in every single hand. I know that the ICM is important. But again, I'm not a solver guy, I'm not a professional poker player who is studying eight hours each day. I'm a professional competitor, you know. I'm professionally competing at rap and competing at poker because I try to do my best in every single sport. But my main objective is to win."
Same style, different ending
The high-intensity situation — and the massive pay jumps — might be a newer experience for many players who are playing their first Triton tournament, but not Lococo. His deep run to seventh place in the 2021 WSOP Main Event put him on the poker map, and his exit from the final table was talked about for some time. He had the second-biggest stack when he called Koray Aldemir for the rest of his chips holding pocket tens. Aldemir had a full house and Lococo was out in a dizzying sequence of events.
But that didn't change Lococo's aggressive style at all — if anything he stepped it up a notch. In the time since his Main Event run, Lococo has picked up four wins on the European Poker Tour with his trademark style.
"So when I lost in the seventh position in the (WSOP) Main Event, everybody was like, ICM suicide, he is burning money, you know? And in this tournament, seven people away from the money, I was with a healthy stack and I bluffed my tournament life against Mikita (Badziakouski) and I got an amazing fold. After that, I put a lot of pressure on the final table."
Lococo flows, Heath ladders
The final table melted away — starting with Day 2 chip leader Michael Moncek — but the early favorite was Dvoress, who busted Sosia Jiang, Aleksejs Ponakovs, and Alex Foxen to leave the tournament with five players. The turning point for Lococo came when he eliminated Talvitie in fifth place. Talvitie shoved with top pair on the flop, but a rivered straight doubled Lococo's chip stack and set him up with a dominating lead.
After that, Dvoress went for it all with deuces and Lococo beat him with jacks to send the Canadian pro home in fourth place. Unlu was next with a shove with jack-five, but Lococo was there again with king-six. The board didn't hit either of them, but the king-high carried the day and Lococo was heads-up with Heath with more than 80% of the chips in play.
Heath, who was on fumes six-handed, laddered up to a second-place prize of just over $8 million after Lococo closed the deal in short order.
'I wanted to win a Triton and I did it.'
In a short period of time, Lococo has achieved a lifetime of accolades in poker. But family always carries the day.
"I would love that my son and my daughter feel honor about their father. I think that's my main reason to live in this moment of my life.
I wanted to be champion of my country in rap battles, I did it. I wanted to win a lot of tournaments, rap competitions, I did it. I wanted to make a final table in the Main Event of the World Series, I did it. I wanted to win a Triton and I did it. I'm gonna still try winning everything and I'm gonna play the 100K for sure and I'm gonna play the 25K and I hope winning it but I'm really happy with my life."
Triton Million final table results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alejandro Lococo | Argentina | $12,070,000 |
| 2 | Ben Heath | United Kingdom | $8,160,000 |
| 3 | Sinan Unlu | Turkey | $5,304,000 |
| 4 | Daniel Dvoress | Canada | $4,390,000 |
| 5 | Elias Talvitie | Finland | $3,542,000 |
| 6 | Alex Foxen | United States | $2,795,000 |
| 7 | Aleksejs Ponakovs | Latvia | $2,140,000 |
| 8 | Sosia Jiang | New Zealand | $1,605,000 |
| 9 | Michael Moncek | United States | $1,200,000 |
Photos courtesy of WSOP/Tim Ash
