With poise and confidence, Talal Shakerchi of the United Kingdom navigated one of the toughest final tables ever to win the Main Event at Triton Vietnam.
The victory marks his sixth cash at a Triton event and first title to his name. He takes home 3,250,000, the Shamballa bracelet, and the beautiful trophy.
The series here saw record-breaking turnouts here at Hoiana Resorts and Golf. It's the first time Triton has come here, and it was an overwhelming success. The Main Event saw 135 total entrants take their shot at the prestigious 100k buy-in event, including 45 reentries.
"It really was one of the toughest final tables I've seen," said Shakerchi. "I got good cards and ran well." Shakerchi came into the final table with the narrow chip lead and found a way to close it out against a field of crushers.
Main Event final table results
| Place | Name | Country | Prize |
| 1 | Talal Shakerchi | United Kingdom | 3,250,000 |
| 2 | Michael Soyza | Malaysia | 2,207,000 |
| 3 | Daniel Smiljkovic | Germany | 1,450,000 |
| 4 | Adrian Mateos | Spain | 1,201,000 |
| 5 | Fedor Holz | Germany | 965,000 |
| 6 | Timothy Adams | Canada | 756,000 |
| 7 | Nick Petrangelo | United States | 566,800 |
| 8 | Winfred Yu | Hong Kong | 418,400 |
| 9 | Roman Hrabec | Czech Republic | 324,000 |
Path to victory
Shakerchi started the final table by watching Roman Hrabec and Winfred Yu eliminated in early confrontations with other players. When he did get involved in his first big hand, it was a flip with American Nick Petrangelo. He lost that flip and saw the chip lead disappear with it. Then, he ran pocket tens into the pocket aces of Michael Soyza. Even after flopping an overpair, he was still able to get away without losing too much. It was a tough start for Shakerchi, and it looked like he might have a hard time regaining his chip lead.
Things turned back around when Shakerchi played another flip, this one against Timothy Adams for Adams' tournament life. Shakerchi flopped a set to win that one and send Adams home in sixth place. Shortly after that, in five-handed play, he snap-called a river bet from Daniel Smiljkovic on the ace-high, double-paired board with queen high to extend his chip lead. After Fedor Holz saw his pocket kings go down in flames for fifth place and Adrian Mateos couldn't win a big pot for all of his chips against similarly short-stacked Michael Soyza and then exiting in fourth place, Shakerchi entered three-handed play holding a narrow chip lead, but stacks were close.
One of the most important pots for Shakerchi came three-handed when Shakerchi flopped a combo draw against the flopped two pair of Smiljkovic. They put all the chips in with those holdings, and Shakerchi made a flush on the turn that held up to send Smiljkovic out in third.
Shakerchi held a 2:1 chip lead entering heads-up play, but Michael Soyza made things hard for him early. After check-raising on the flop in one hand, Shakerchi turned a straight. However, there were three clubs on board and Soyza had the ace of clubs in hand. When Shakerchi bet the turn and river, Soyza turned his ace of clubs into a bluff and moved all in. Shaerkchi couldn't find the call and Soyza overtook the chip lead.
The pivotal hand of heads-up play was when Shakerchi held T❤️️ 7♣️ against the J♠️ 3♠️ of Soyza. On the 9♦️️ Q❤️️ 8♠️ flop, Soyza check-raised Shakerchi's open-ended straight draw. The turn brought the J♣️, giving Shakerchi the unbeatable straight. After the turn went check-check, Shakerchi got value from a big river bet that left Soyza with fumes. Shakerchi swallowed up the final few big blinds shortly after and locked up his first Triton title on the biggest of stages.
Other results of the series
If you'd like to dig into all the results of the series so far, check out all results from our media team here. The series saw the exciting stories of Mark Rubbathan turning his 100k ACR package into a Triton victory, Jason Koon continuing his Triton dominance with a win, and local player Dao Minh Phu winning his first title.
That's all for our coverage of the Main Event here in Vietnam. The Triton series will continue with Short Deck events over the next few days. Follow along with coverage of those and all things poker related on our website as well as all of our socials.
Congratulations to Talal Shakerchi on his first Triton title and impressive final table performance!
All photos credit Joe Giron and Triton Poker
