Vladimir ‘Gambledore’ Korzinin continued to turn heads with his unorthodox play and disarming demeanor on Day 2 of the Triton Poker $200K Invitational.
The pro/am tournament attracted 133 entries, the most in Invitational history, and that created a prize pool of $26,600,000 and a $6,180,000 first prize. Korzinin needed to win the whole thing to record his best Triton cash after he took down a $4,350,000 payday in just his fourth ever recorded cash in Monte Carlo in November.
And he played like it was either win or bust today, running his stack up to just under a million in the first level of Day 2. Unlike many of the Triton regulars, he didn’t get his chips by playing GTO. Here are a few hands played the Gambledore way — generally with a big smile.
Vladimir Korzinin vs. Punnat Punsri
- Blinds: 4,000/8,000/8,000
- Punsri 3-bets to 45,000 with
- Korzinin moves all-in for 389,000 from the big blind with
- Punsri tank-folds.
Vladimir Korzinin vs. Adrian Mateos
- Blinds: 4,000/8,000/8,000
- Mateos:
- Korzinin:
- Mateos bets 34,000 into 68,000 on the turn with the board reading
- Korzinin moves all-in for 454,000
- Mateos folds
Vladimir Korzinin vs. The World
- Blinds: 5,000/10,000/10,000
- Korzinin open-jams 817,000 from the cut-off with
and gets it through.
The trouble is, there’s only so far you can push your luck with a live stream showing everyone what you’re doing. And Korzinin finally came unstuck in a monster flip.
Korzinin called preflop with 
, then shoved all-in after Maher Nouira three-bet to 75K. The pot was worth close to two million and almost the entire world, bar Nouira’s friends, family and backers, wanted Korzinin to hold.
Unfortunately the flop came down ace-high, and just like that, Gambledore was gone.
Phil Ivey eliminated on the bubble
The tournament was definitely less fun without Korzinin, and there was another big blow to come for the railbirds.
Nouira played the villain’s role again, taking out Phil Ivey on the stone bubble with jacks against A-K.
The exact same hand did for David Nicholson as well. He lost a massive flip with A-K against the jacks of Javid Ismayilov — the 
board giving Ismayilov the overall chip lead.
Freed by the bubble bursting, Esti Wang, Lim Chin Wei, Brian Kim, Christoph Vogelsang, Paul Phua and Alex Boika all followed Ivey to the rail before the 16 remaining players took their final break of the day.
Play slowed down again, with Linus Loeliger, Wang Ye, Artur Martirosian, Stanley Tang and Sergio Aido taking the last exit spots of the day, leaving 11 players to return on Thursday to battle for the $6,180,000 top prize.
You can watch the live stream of the final on the Triton Poker YouTube channel. Cards are in the air at midday CET, with the stream starting one hour later.
$200K Triton Invitational final 12
| Place | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Javid Ismayilov | 8,525,000 |
| 2 | Aleksa Pavicevic | 7,325,000 |
| 3 | Eric Wasserson | 5,400,000 |
| 4 | Taylor Von Kriegenbergh | 4,550,000 |
| 5 | Maher Nouira | 3,425,000 |
| 6 | Joseph Oren | 2,800,000 |
| 7 | Dejan Kaladjurdjevic | 2,275,000 |
| 8 | Joni Jouhkimainen | 2,025,000 |
| 9 | Ramin Hajiyev | 1,550,000 |
| 10 | Thomas Santerne |
1,210,000 |
| 11 | Seth Davies |
800,000 |
