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Bringing the curtains down at the 2018 Triton Super High Roller Series Montenegro was the HK$1,000,000 Short Deck Ante-Only Event that concluded on Friday. The event witnessed participation from 103 entries that helped form a massive HK$96,902,400 prize pool, the highest-ever in Triton Series till date!
Jason Koon (cover image) eventually emerged victorious taking home the biggest cash of his career amounting to HK$28,102,000. With the win he is now placed at seventh position on the overall POY leaderboard. Xuan Tan from China was the runner-up finisher in the event while Phil Ivey finished third.
Post his victory, Koon said, “I am so tired; my body, it’s been tired for four days. I mean, it’s good stress, but these stakes take a toll on you. Especially being on a final table like this. It was a challenge for me, physically and mentally. I probably won’t be able to sleep for another five hours, you know how that is, so wound up on adrenaline, but once I fall asleep, I don’t know when I am gonna wake up. I am really happy we got that done.”
Thirteen players survived for the final day where re-entry was open for the initial two levels.The eventual champion Koon jammed pocket-aces on a king-high flop sending Tom Dwan with his king-queen to the rail on the money bubble.
The player field whittled down to eleven players with Marius Torbergsen busting to Ivey’s ace-king. Wai Leong Chan, Devan Tang and Paul Phua also fell out successively to get action down to the final table.
Final Table Recap
The seven-handed unofficial final table went on for eight hours. Sean Dempsey fell first when his short stack all-in with queen-jack was called by Xuan Tan holding pocket aces.
Peter Jetten who was short on chips as well then flipped with his pocket queens against ace-king of Koon who turned a full house, eliminating Jetten in sixth place.
With only five players left, Rui Cao fell when he flopped trips with ace-seven but Ivey turned a full house busting the former. Koon then took control completely starting off by eliminating Winfred Yu in fourth place. Koon then hit nut straight with his jack-ten beating Ivey’s pocket jacks that eliminated the latter in third place.
Coming into heads-up play, Koon held a huge chip advantage over Xuan Tan.
The final hand saw Koon hit a full house with his :12d on the board against Tan’s for a turned straight. The river completed the community and just like that Koon was crowned the champion.
Final Table Results (HKD)
1. Jason Koon – HK$28,102,000
2. Xuan Tan – HK$18,121,000
3. Phil Ivey – HK$13,082,000
4. Winfred Yu – HK$9,206,000
5. Rui Cao – HK$6,299,000
6. Peter Jetten – HK$5,039,000