Day 3 of the $100K Triton Main Event brought together some of the world’s best players, all chasing the $4.75 million first prize, a WSOP bracelet, and a Triton trophy.
One of them was also making headlines outside of WSOP Paradise.
Adrián Mateos is already a legend in poker circles. Now the rest of the world is taking notice — he’s been nominated by Spanish tabloid Marca as one of its Top 100 Athletes of the Year.
What’s more, Mateos is crushing the public vote in his category, fresh off becoming the youngest player in history to win five WSOP bracelets. He’s currently got almost half of the total votes in his 10-man category.
Could he make it six here in The Bahamas on Thursday? Mateos max-late-regged the event and spun his 20 big blinds up to a top-three stack after Day 2.
Now, just ten other 'elite athletes’ stood between him and another bracelet, with Latvian pro Aleks Ponakovs leading the way.
Koon and Mateos hit the rail
Triton’s most decorated player — Jason Koon, with an incredible 12 titles — was also in contention. He scored a big double-up early on with kings vs. the queens of Kelvin Kerber, flopping a king to climb to a 50 big blind stack in style. Kerber was eliminated the very next hand.
Then Mateos hit an early hurdle.
On a 
flop, Jean-Noel Thorel bet his 
, then jammed over the top of a raise from Mateos with 
. Unfortunately for Mateos, poker is a sport where a 78-year-old can spike a two-outer on the turn. All Mateos could do was look skyward and regroup.
Koon was then eliminated in 10th spot when he ran 
into Manuel Fritz’s kings to take us to the final table.
Mateos eliminated in huge cooler
Mateos was 5th in chips, but he ended up being the first player eliminated from the final nine. And he couldn’t do anything about the next cooler that came his way. He shoved his 24bb stack over the top of a three-bet from Wang Ye with 
. Unfortunately, Ye had the goods, and his aces held.
After Thorel was eliminated in 8th, Brazilian Pedro Padilha was the new man. He had a big chip lead that got even bigger when he found aces on the button and induced a shove from Wang Yang with 
.
However, after Eelis Paerssinen was eliminated in 6th, play slowed over three hours while the blinds grew, and it was Ponakovs who took control when the final table suddenly snapped back into action with a bang, and a flurry of eliminations.
Ponakovs takes control
Klemens Roiter was his first victim – 
beating his 
.
Two hands later, Ponakovs flopped a set of threes against Ye and sent him to the rail. Six hands after this he got it in with the worst – 
vs. 
– but flopped a five to eliminate Fritz.
The rail was boisterous by Triton standards, and Ponakovs’ friends were more than holding their own against the Brazilians. Their man had a big chip lead, and it didn’t take long for him to seal the deal for his third WSOP bracelet and first Triton trophy.
He called preflop with 
and Padilha shoved with 
. Ponakovs snapped the trap, and Padilha couldn’t catch up on the 
runout.
“To be honest, I don’t know where to start,” Ponakovs said afterwards. “I wasn’t even planning to play, but I’m glad I’m here.”
$100K Triton Main Event results
| Place | Player | Payout |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Aleks Ponakovs |
$4,750,000 |
| 2 | Pedro Padilha |
$3,160,000 |
| 3 | Manuel Fritz |
$2,311,000 |
| 4 | Wang Ye |
$1,865,000 |
| 5 | Klemens Roiter |
$1,462,000 |
| 6 | Eelis Paerssinen |
$1,107,000 |
| 7 | Yang Wang |
$813,000 |
| 8 | Jean-Noel Thorel |
$597,000 |
| 9 | Adrian Mateos |
$495,000 |
