Phil Ivey busts on final table bubble in Triton $150K

You need to come with the goods when you bet into Phil Ivey.
Mo Afdhal
Mo Afdhal
Posted on: March 6, 2025 13:31 PST

On Thursday, action in Event #9 of the Triton Poker Super High Roller Series stop in Jeju, South Korea continued as the remaining players returned to whittle the field down to a final table. From a field of 124 entrants, only 68 managed to survive the Day 1 onslaught with the continued aim of laying claim to a slice of the $19,200,000 prize pool. 

Amongst the hopefuls was five-time Triton Champion Phil Ivey, who had yet to find his form in Jeju. While Ivey earned a slight return on his investment in Events #3 and #6, a final table appearance – and the substantial prize money that accompanies it – had eluded him. 

Ivey hunts sixth title 

After starting Day 2 on a fresh stack, Ivey managed to spin his 20 big blinds into a workable stack as the field thinned around him. When the money bubble burst, Ivey was one of the 20 players on the right side of the equation. Still, with the blinds on the rise and a ways to go before reaching the last nine, Ivey's stack hovered right around the danger zone and he was far from guaranteed a place at the final table. 

With 10 players remaining, Ivey found himself sitting on a stack of just 2.5 big blinds – one-fifth of which were forced into the middle to pay his small blind. Ivey, facing a raise from Dan Smith and a call from Joao Vieira, looked down at and moved his remaining chips across the betting line to put his tournament life on the line. Ben Tollerene, next to act in the big blind, peeled and moved all-in over the top himself. Smith fled the scene, but Viera had played his slowly and, with a covering stack, decided to run it.