After a super-high-speed final table, Timothy Adams has triumphed at the Triton Super High Roller Series London to take down his second Triton Main Event title and the biggest chunk of the $18,875,000 prize pool.
The $125,000 buy-in event drew 151 entries, smashing the previous record of 137 set in Vietnam earlier this year, and including an impressive 56 re-entries. Among the field were Phil Ivey, $250k Luxon Invitational runner up Talal Shakerchi and bearded wunderkind Steve O'Dwyer, although all three failed to make the money. Those who did cash included Nacho Barbero, Espen Jørstad and world #1 Bryn Kenney, as well as Erik Seidel and Luxon Invitational bubbler Wiktor Malinowski, whom Jean-Noel Thorel eliminated in a single massive hand late on Day 2 to briefly hold a massive chip lead.
By the end of Day 2, 18 of the 27 prizes had been paid out and the nine-handed final table was set, with Daniel "Jungleman" Cates in the lead after Seth Davies bubbled the final in 10th place.
With the average stack at the final table a relatively meagre 34BB, the short stacks had some work to do early on. Media superstar Doug Polk was the first to bust after he doubled up short stack Isaac Haxton and then, in a sign of things to come, smacked into Jean-Noel Thorel's pocket kings.
Jaw-dropping run for JNT
Thereafter, in a jaw-dropping run of big pocket pairs, French businessman and Triton regular Jean-Noel Thorel proceeded to run over the table. With the exception of Malaysian businessman Lun Loon, who busted to Stephen Chidwick in eighth place, every elimination up to three-handed was at the hands of JNT.
Of particular note was the elimination of Juan Pardo in sixth place. With JNT holding half the chips in play with six players remaining, Pardo correctly folded his pocket kings preflop against JNT's aces (Chidwick holding ace-king suited and Cates holding pocket jacks). Nevertheless, Pardo ran into another pair of JNT's aces a few hands later, thus failing to be rewarded for the fold of the Series with even a single extra rung up the pay ladder.
Chidwick fell victim to Thorel in fifth; Haxton in fourth. Eventually a player other than Thorel found a big pair, though. Dan Cates ran his queen-jack into Adams' pocket jacks, and the start-of-day chip leader had to settle for third place while the Adams and Thorel went heads up, Thorel with a 2:1 chip lead.
Heads up, the chip lead switched hands several times between Adams and Thorel before JNT, at a slight chip disadvantage, finally had his pocket nines outdrawn on the river by Adams' pocket eights. It was all over, and although he missed out on his first Triton title, Thorel picked up his second Triton payday and career best cash.
Final table payouts:
Meanwhile, Event #13 - $60,000 NLH 8-Handed drew 106 entries including 36 re-entries, generating a prize pool of $6,360,000. Seventeen places will pay out in amounts from $100,000 to $1,600,000.
After 11 levels of play, 35 players remained (Erik Seidel busting on the very last hand of Day 1) with Mikita Badziakouski in the lead with 1,425,000. Steve O'Dwyer, Daniel Cates and Jason Koon are all still in the running. They will resume at 1pm tomorrow, when they will play right down to a winner.
Here's what the top end of the chip counts looks like:
