In the wake of Kristen Foxen's historic finish in the Triton Super High Roller Series Event #10: $125K NLH 7-Handed on Thursday, Phil Ivey looked poised to etch his own chapter into the tour's narrative on Friday as only the second player to accrue six titles.
In the lead up to Event #11, Ivey stood as one of only six players with five Triton SHRS titles – alongside Danny Tang, Punnat Punsri, Bryn Kenney, Mike Watson, and Mikita Badziakouski.
On Friday, he took his seat at the final table of Event #11: $30K PLO/NLH with the chance to break free from the pack. While he entered the final frame of play with the chip lead, Ivey had to contend with a stacked final table, which included the likes of Ignacio 'Nacho' Barbero, Dan Dvoress, Dylan Linde, and Eelis Parssinen, in pursuit of victory.
Barbero takes it down
The $30K PLO/NLH tournament was the first of its kind on the Triton SHRS, mixing no-limit hold'em and pot-limit Omaha into a singular event.
Parssinen fell first, running smack dab into Dvoress' quad aces in a pot-limit Omaha orbit, followed in short order by Igor Yaroshevskyy. Ivey scored the next elimination when his 
out-flopped Linde's 
on a 
board. Neither the turn nor river brought the requisite three-outer for Linde and his run came to an end in fifth place.
As the blinds increased, stack sizes grew short and Barbero caught a run of cards to eliminate both Dvoress and David Wang. When play reached the heads-up stage, Barbero held a commanding chip lead over his opponent – his 65 big blinds to Ivey's 16 big blinds – and it didn't take long for the tournament-deciding hand to arrive.
It was the third hand of heads-up play that saw Ivey raise from the small blind with 
. Barbero defended his big blind with 
and the two players watched on as the dealer spread the 
flop. With his flopped straight, Barbero checked in flow to Ivey who opted for a check back to bring in the turn.
Barbero took the betting lead on the turn and Ivey, now armed with a flush draw to compliment his overpair, moved all-in over the top for the rest of his chips. Barbero called instantly and, with one card to come, Ivey needed to get lucky. The river 
was a complete brick, however, and Ivey's sixth Triton title would have to wait as Barbero took down the pot and the $646,000 first-place prize.
"For me, Phil Ivey is the best ever – he's the GOAT," Barbero said in the wake of his victory.
"It's insane, it's like a dream come true," he continued. "Here it was super tough. I wasn't in the best mood. I was getting really bad sleep. Even today I slept three hours. It's been a rough series mentally, and very physically draining. But finally I got it done and I'm super happy about it."
