The $100K Triton Main Event at WSOP Paradise was huge. It wasn’t the biggest in history – that honor belongs to the Triton Main in Jeju this year – but 237 entries created a prize pool of $23.7 million, with 39 players getting paid at least the min-cash of $164,000. The winner will get $4,750,000 when he's crowned on Thursday.
But talking of records, it might have been the loudest. Martin Kabrhel made a run towards the money and talked pretty much non-stop. Triton regulars aren’t used to that but took it with pretty good grace.
Kabrhel: 'This is so embarrassment I can't even breathe'
Here’s a brief snippet of his table talk following the elimination of Ben Tollerene in 96th place.
"Now, you can feel the energy, guys. Much better table now, yeah?" Kabrhel said. "More comfortable, better energy, and this guy [the dealer] is smiling, and he shouldn’t because he should be professional. Every hand you need to move the button by one position, every hand, like clockwise. But don’t worry. I’m here for your assistance, and it will all be over soon, like for Benny boy.
"Oooh, somebody’s on fire. [sings] ‘This guy is on fiiiire.’ [To another player on the table] Can you sing? [‘No.’] But like, you’re a good singer? Let’s do it together. ‘This guy is on fiiiiire.’ I think you are really bad, maybe worse than me. What do you think? People have told me I’m terrible but I don’t know – I can’t hear it.
"[To the dealer] Can I get two aces, please? Not this hand, but the next hand. Is it possible? [‘It’s definitely possible.’] No, I need guarantee. [‘I can’t give you any guarantees.’] Ah man, this is so embarrassment I can’t even breathe here.
"This guy is smiling like my daughter. Really similar. Same cute, maybe even better. Is it possible to wear sunglasses at the TV table? [‘Yes.’] No, I would like them to put it down, especially the aces guy. Can you put them down for the spectators? Maybe there are some girls in the chat – it’s always possible.”
The other players didn’t have to put up with it through the bubble, at least. Kabrhel went out in 65th. Kayhan Mokri – the $7.725 million Triton Invitational winner – crashed out soon after.
Ponakovs wins a monster, eliminates Lonis
At this point, the five shortest stacks in the room would also have made up one of the toughest sit & gos ever:
- Daniel Negreanu
- Alex Foxen
- Juan Pardo
- Shannon Shorr
- Adrian Mateos
Negreanu was the first out from this elite group. (The other four would all go on to make the money and Mateos would end with a top-three stack.)
Elsewhere in the room, Aleks Ponakovs took a huge chip lead when he played a monster pot with Jesse Lonis.
Ponakovs raised from the cutoff with 
and Lonis 3-bet to 180K with 
. Ponakovs called to see a very dangerous 
flop.
Ponakovs called a bet on the flop, a bigger one on the turn, and hit his flush on the 
river. Ponakovs checked for the third time, and Lonis, perhaps surprisingly, moved all-in. Ponakovs checked his cards, made the call, and dragged in a monster pot for a 4,365,000 stack – almost 2 million more than Javid Ismayilov in second. Lonis had started that hand with a top-ten stack.
Bubble bursts in a hurry
By the dinner break we were down to 47, just eight players from the money bubble bursting.
This was the moment we expected things to start slowing down. No one had sub-10bbs – Tamas Adamszki was the shortest with 410K and blinds at 20K/40K/40K.
Masato Yokosawa was healthier with 18bb. Nick Schulman, Adrian Mateos and Stephen Chidwick all had less than average stacks. Ike Haxton was just above average.
It took just over 45 minutes to get to the stone bubble, and when we got there, it was mercifully brief – although not for Nick Schulman. He was 30th in chips with 40 players left but lost a cooler against Chidwick to bust on the bubble.
- Nick Schulman:
- Stephen Chidwick:
The board ran out 
to send the Poker Hall of Famer to the rail.
He was the last player to leave with nothing, and Schulman had also soft-bubbled the $250K in a week to forget in The Bahamas. "A terrible last few days," as Randy Lew said on the Triton livestream. He was followed out of the door by Talal Shakerchi, who left with $164,000 in his pocket.
The $250K Triton Invitational bubble went for three hours. The $100K bubble lasted less than 30 minutes, including a short break for table balancing.
Day 2 ended with 11 players, including Jason Koon, and Mateos. Ponakovs had let his monster lead slip, but he still bagged the biggest stack of the night. Yokosawa went out in 14th for a solid $327,000 score.
$100K Triton Main Event stacks
- Aleks Ponakovs: 12,950,000
- Pedro Padilha Chaves: 12,250,000
- Adrian Mateos: 7,475,000
- Wang Ye: 5,900,000
- Kelvin Kerber: 4,450,000
- Jean-Noel Thorel: 4,150,000
- Eelis Paerssinen: 4,025,000
- Jason Koon: 2,100,000
- Manuel Fritz: 2,050,000
- Klemens Roiter: 2,000,000
- Yang Wang: 1,925,000
The $100K Triton Main Event will conclude on Thursday. From Friday, all attention (and the live stream) will turn to Day 2a of the $25K Super Main Event.
