Quads, bubbles and bathroom etiquette in Triton Million Day 2

Posted on: December 9, 2024 05:56 PST

When it came to the big draw for Day 3 of WSOP Paradise it was hard to look past the Triton Million. The event that cost over $500K to enter, and which attracted most of tournament poker’s biggest ever winners, started its Day 2 with 67 remaining from 74 (plus 20 re-entries), with ‘Texas Mike’ Moncek holding the most chips in his stack of 3.8 million.

Payouts were soon announced, with an eye-watering $12,070,000 up top and a min-cash of $755K awaiting the player who sneaked past the bubble in 17th, while 18th would leave with nothing but a story. That dubious honor fell to Ryan Feldman, the Hustler Casino Live producer who entered the Triton Million in a pairing with Daniel Negreanu. Feldman defended his big blind holding and flopped potential, if not a made hand, when the arrived on the board.

What Feldman didn’t realize, however, was that two players at another table - Nick Petrangelo and Artur Martirosian - had just bust out in the same hand, and the tournament was suddenly on a very costly stone bubble.

It was therefore more a case of ‘OMG’ than ‘ICM’ when Feldman committed his stack on the flop and got called by Alejandro Lococo’s . Feldman needed to hit to avoid going out on a bubble worth over three quarters of a million dollars. He didn’t. You can read the full story of Feldman’s nightmare bubble here.

By this point Feldman’s pro partner Daniel Negreanu had already hit the rail thanks to a cooler delivered by back-to-back EPT Barcelona Super High Roller winner Kayhan Mokri. Negreanu’s looked pretty when he called Mokri’s preflop shove for the last of his stack, but Mokri’s was prettier. Negreanu got no help from the board and his day was done - in the Triton Million, at least: like many casualties of the $500K event, Negreanu took the opportunity to head over to the $100K PLO Super High Roller.

Ryan Feldman busted on the stone bubble of the Triton Million.

The unfortunate bubble-boy, Ryan Feldman.

Coming up

Heading into Day 3 of the Triton Million, just 14 remain chasing the megabucks. Among them are ‘Texas Mike’ Moncek, whose 12.5M chips see him retain the chip lead with which he started the day, followed closely by Daniel Dvoress with 12.3M. Also still kicking are the likes of Adrian Mateos (4th, 9.9M), Stephen Chidwick (5th, 8.6M), Alex Foxen (10th, 4.6M) and Chance Kornuth (11th, 3.8M).

You can stay up to speed with the chipcounts, along with all the best sights, sounds and stories from WSOP Paradise, over on our Instant Live feed.

Away from the bright lights of the Triton Million, yet more flights of the Mini Main Event took place (there are three per day, leading up to Tuesday’s Day 2) and the $100K PLO Super High Roller got its start. That’s expected to play to a winner today, with Jason Mercier carrying the chip lead ahead of a field including Jared Bleznick, Daniel Negreanu and Josh Arieh. Also kicking off later today is Day 1 of the $26K Dealers Choice Championship.

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Quads for Chidwick knocks Badziakouski out with a min-cash

Mikita Badziakouski is a name that strikes fear into opponents everwhere (not to mention poker journalists - that’s a lot of letters), but one player who’s a little harder to ruffle than most is Stephen Chidwick.

With the bubble burst in the Triton Million the two elite poker masters got their stacks in, with Chidwick’s flipping against Badziakouski’s .

Chidwick instantly flopped top set and improved to quads, sending his rival to the rail.

Badziakouski immediately started screaming and banging the table in frustration, while Chidwick took his shirt off and waved it around his head, then ran a lap of the room in celebration.

Just kidding. These guys have been here plenty of times, and each took their opposing fortunes in their stride just as you might expect: a wry smile from Badziakouski, and not even that from Chidwick. These guys really are cooler than the other side of the pillow.

Best of Instant

With the PokerOrg team present and correct at the Atlantis Resort in The Bahamas, the best place for behind-the-scenes fun and games from WSOP Paradise is still our Instant Live feed.

Where else could you find the inside scoop on topics such as… is it OK to use all your time chips at once when nature calls?

Shifting to less grubby topics, each table at the Triton Million featured many of the players from the upper echelons of the all-time money list. Can you imagine sitting down to mix it with these sharks?