Champion Kayhan Mokri
Kayhan Mokri is now a three-time champion on the Triton Poker Series, and the latest win for the irrepressible Norwegian is the biggest of the lot.
Mokri won $7.725 million after blowing away a record-breaking field in the $250,000 buy-in Triton Invitational Paradise, at the Atlantis Resort, Nassau, in the Bahamas. He was simply unstoppable on the final day as the last 15 from a field of 133 entries played to its champion.
Mokri also earns the first World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet of his career, and continues an enviable and unique record of having won a title at each of the last three full-schedule Triton Series stops he has attended.
"I don’t know what’s going on to be honest," the 31-year-old said. "I’m very perplexed by the whole thing. I don’t know, I keep showing up and I keep turning it into a win somehow. I’m having the year of my life and honestly I’m very happy. I don’t know what to say."
What makes this win even more special is that he played almost all of the tournament alongside the man who had invited him to play. Albert Daher, of Lebanon, accepted an invitation to play in one half of the draw in this specially-curated field, signing up Mokri to join the fray as his nominated pro.
Both players made it to the final, with Daher eventually knocked out in third for $3.49 million. Mokri took the last of his chips and put them to good use, eventually downing another invitee Gabriel Andrade heads-up.
"Albert and me are great friends and I always enjoy playing with him," Mokri said, jokingly adding: "But he got kind of annoying so I kicked him to the kerb in the end."
But Mokri was full of praise for everything about the tournament, in which the elite pros are separated from the invitees for the opening exchanges to allow a more level playing field.
"It's great playing with everybody here," Mokri said. "These tournaments are special in their own way. You get these conversations when you're playing for $8 million. It's pretty funny honestly, and it's great fun."
Partners Albert Daher and Kayhan Mokri
Andrade, a newcomer to Triton, won $5,240,000 from the first tournament he has played on the series. He traded blows with the best of them, and engaged in some top-class chatter in the heads-up stage in particular, giving Mokri a run for his money both with the cards and in conversation. But Andrade came up one place short of becoming Ecuador's first Triton winner.
"Honestly he has a great showing at the table," Mokri said of Andrade. "When you're trying to focus, he can really throw you off your game. He was trying to do that a large portion of the time and all kudos to him for that. He's always a great gentleman, playing his game and having fun. A super nice guy."
Gabriel Andrade all in and at risk
Andrade's success was only one of a number of fascinating sub-plots that made this tournament a classic. There was a near four-hour bubble period that had even seasoned pros on edge. Then, defending champion Alejandro Lococo also made a deep run, with back-to-back hopes only fading with his elimination in 13th.
Furthermore, Mokri and Daher weren't the only partnership to make the final. Thomas Boivin and Tyler Stafman finished in fifth and sixth, respectively, after pairing up to enter the event.
It was, in short, one of the very best. And it was won by a player who fits that billing as well.
Kayhan Mokri celebrates the winning moment
TOURNAMENT ACTION
The Triton Invitational is now a fixture on the global poker calendar, renowned not only for its unique format, but also for the spectacular excitement it generates, right the way from the announcement of partnerships, through the seat draw ceremony and then the tournament itself.
This one was even more of a thrill as it seemed certain to break attendance records: there were 49 confirmed partnerships, and the 98 unique players added a further 35 re-entries. That put the remarkable $33,250,000 in the prize pool and confirmed a new attendance record of 133 entries.
The trophy and bracelet drew a record number of sui
No one could win it on the first day, of course, and the Invitees seemed to be having the most fun, playing big pots and re-entering as necessary. However on Day 2, as the money stages drew closer, every pot became crucial. Every knockout was celebrated somewhere else in the field, albeit with a due amount of respect. Taylor Von Kriegenbergh polished off two dangerous opponents at once, knocking out both Leon Sturm and Alex Kulev, whose A3 and pocket jacks, respectively, fell to Von Kriegenberg's AJ.
That took the field down to 24, one off the money. The stone bubble. The difference between a minimum $389,000 and nothing.
Aleksandr Zubov was one of a handful of players suffering with the shortest of short stacks. He'd played through a day and a half of the toughest competition in the pros' side of the draw, but when 24 players were left he had only a single blind. Worse: the button eventually slid two seats to his right.
It turned out to be Jonathan Jaffe who snaffled that blind. He picked up KQ and turned out to be better than Zubov's 87, the hand with which he was forced all-in.
Aleksandr Zubov's final blind leaves his possession to burst the bubble
With the money bubble now burst, it was all about stack accumulation and a run at the final table. Von Kriegenbergh was one of those who perished quickly. Soon after, Daniel Negreanu picked up his second Triton cash, and second of the week, when he hit the rail in 18th for $418,000.
It wasn't too much longer until the bags came out, with 15 players making it through to the last day. Brazil's Joao Simao had one blind. Kayhan Mokri, at the other end, had more than 90.
When players re-emerged for the final day, it was no surprise to see Simao head to the rail first. The Invitees Joseph Oren and Philip Sternheimer departed too before the final table, and the tournament also bade farewell to Alejandro Lococo who had mounted an exceptional title defence. It was in this room that the Argentinian rapper earned $12 million when he won this Invitational event a year ago, but this time Tyler Stafman won a flip with KQ against Lococo's pocket 10s to take the champ's last 10 blinds.
There were only nine seats at the final, but no space, it turned out, for Mikita Badziakouski. The five-time Triton champion had 16 blinds when he got involved in a scuffle with the chip-leading Mokri.
Mokri opened from under the gun holding pocket nines and Badziakouski left one chip back but essentially jammed for almost all he had left. He had A10 and called for that last chip when Mokri put him in. It was a race for the final spot at the final table.
No room at the final for Mikita Badziakouski
This was a race that Badziakouski did not win. The flop of K25 brought very little. The K turn gave him a few more outs. But the 7 locked up the pot for Mokri and sent all the others to the final.
After a pause to reset the table and get the introductions done, they sat down to the following stacks:
Kayhan Mokri - 9,675,000 (77 BBs)
Gabriel Andrade - 5,750,000 (46 BBs)
Tyler Stafman - 5,250,000 (42 BBs)
Jonathan Jaffe - 4,275,000 (34 BBs)
Albert Daher - 4,200,000 (34 BBs)
Sergio Aido - 3,225,000 (26 BBs)
Thomas Boivin - 3,050,000 (24 BBs)
Monika Hrabec - 2,325,000 (19 BBs)
Cong Pham - 2,150,000 (17 BBs)
Triton Invitational final table players (l-r): Sergio Aido, Gabriel Andrade, Jonathan Jaffe, Cong Pham, Thomas Boivin, Tyler Stafman, Monika Hrabec, Albert Daher, Kayhan Mokri.
Although there was plenty of chatter as the final table got under way, continuing the buoyant atmosphere of the previous two days, things slowly quietened down as the gravity of the situation became more and more apparent, and as the ninth-placed player refused to quit.
They played more than an hour before the next departure. But eventually Monika Hrabec ran into it and busted.
Hrabec, who first played on the Triton Series under her maiden name Monika Zukowicz, recently married her official invited pro to this tournament, Roman Hrabec. Roman is a two-time Triton champion already and Monika's blistering run to this final table gave them the chance to beat the Foxens to become the first couple each with a trophy.
However, with only eight blinds in her stack after never quite finding a spot to chip up at the final, Hrabec found pocket eights in mid-position. She shoved. Tyler Stafman, one seat to her left, immediately then looked down at pocket aces.
Stafman just called in the hope of persuading someone else in. No one else took the bait, so they ran it out. There was no hope for Hrabec and she bust in ninth for a career-best $771,000.
Monika Hrabec secured a career-best result
If the early stages had been cagey, it now became quite the opposite. In very short order, five more players were knocked out as Mokri and Gabriel Andrade in particular ran riot.
First up, a doozy against the emerging Triton force Cong Pham. Pham had quietly built a stack second only to Mokri's at the final table, but he surrendered everything in an enormous flip that included all the requisite drama. Pham opened with AK and Mokri shoved his button, holding pocket nines.
Pham wasn't concerned by the potential ICM implications. He had a monster. He called for every one of his 26 blinds.
It looked good for Pham too when the dealer put the 7AA flop on the table. The Q turn was fine as well. However, the 9 river was a devastating blow, ending his tournament and handing all the momentum to Mokri. "That's disgusting," said Kevin Rabichow in the commentary box. Henry Kilbane, alongside him, was speechless.
Pham won $967,000, the last six-figure payout of this huge event.
A cruel river accounted for Cong Pham
Next up to the guillotine, Sergio Aido. The Spanish pro had led the field for long periods on Day 2, putting a few rough beats on opponents along the way. (On one hand in particular, he won a monster with kings against aces.) But Aido was one of the shorter stacks now and open-jammed pocket sevens. Albert Daher made the call with AJ, hit a jack in the window, and that was that for Aido.
He banked $1,320,000 for seventh.
All smiles, but a seventh-placed finish for Sergio Aido
The financial advisor and day trader Tyler Stafman was next. With his pro partner Boivin watching on, also at the final table, Stafman was sickened to see Gabriel Andrade sitting with pocket eights when the pair saw a flop in of 6K8 in a single raised pot. Stafman had 86 for a flopped two pair, and though they delayed it until the river before they got it all in, the chips did duly fly.
Stafman's hand was good but not good enough. Andrade won a big one as Stafman picked up $1,780,000.
One half of a very successful partnership, Tyler Stafman
Boivin was still fighting the good fight, but Andrade finished off the second half of the partnership very quickly as well. In this one, Andrade opened form early position with pocket 10s and Boivin, on the button, shoved for 11 blinds hlding A10. Andrade didn't think twice before calling, and there was the case ten on the flop.
That was trips for Andrade and a pair for Boivin. The A came on the turn to improve them both, but Boivin was now drawing dead against a boat. The Belgian won $2,290,000 and will someday soon claim his first Triton title.
And the other half, Thomas Boivin
Keeping up the sensational sudden pace, it was the very next hand that accounted for Jonathan Jaffe. And Mokri came back up to the plate to dispense with the brilliant American pro. It was another big flip, with Mokri open-jamming his button holding KQ and Jaffe calling for his last 11 blinds with pocket nines.
A king on the flop and a queen on the river sorted this one in Mokri's favour. Jaffe, a two-time champion just like Mokri, departed in fourth for $2,860,000.
Jonathan Jaffe's elimination in fourth continued a frantic run of bust-outs
Mokri had 103 blinds to Andrade's 58 and Daher's 39. They went on a break, but it was looking ominous.
They returned to the table and Mokri began to turn the screw immediately. He beat Andrade's pocket queens with K5, and soon after turned 85 into a flush to win another. Andrade was feeding off Daher to stay afloat, doubling at one point with pocket eights against Daher's KQ.
That left Daher on fumes, and those fumes eventually went to his invited pro, Mokri.
Daher open-jammed his last eight blinds from the small blind holding Q8. Mokri, with more than 100 blinds, didn't need a hand as strong as AK to make the call. But that's what he had, and he flopped a king to make sure.
Albert Daher left his partner to it
Daher won $3,490,000 for third, which is a pretty tidy share of a more than $10 million haul for the partnership. But he left it to Mokri to take on Andrade for the rest of it. Mokri had 111 blinds to Andrade's 23.
Andrade and Mokri had been enjoying themselves in the late stages, trading good-natured insults between themselves, with Andrade bemoaning the horseshoe that he claimed had lodged itself somewhere inside Mokri at the final table. He swore things would be different if that lucky charm ever worked itself free.
But Andrade couldn't dislodge it. And after some small-pot back and forth, Mokri once again found the best of it at a crucial time.
Andrade had been reduced to only 10 blinds when he raised from the small blind holding 95. Mokri called and the pair took to a flop of Q97. Mokri checked, Andrade made a small bet, and Mokri ripped it in.
Andrade couldn't fold middle pair, but quickly learned some very bad news. Mokri's 97 had flopped two pair, and this game was over.
Gabriel Andrade couldn't dislodge Mokri's horseshoe
Andrade now has the enviable Triton resume of having played just one tournament but earning more than $5 million. Mokri, though, is now a three-time winner, with Triton earnings of more than $13 million.
He was once an Invitee to the Luxon Invitational in London less than three years now. But he's far too good these days to be considered anything but an elite pro.
