Champion Aleks Ponakovs
After four and a half years of near relentless cashing on the Triton Poker Super High Roller Series, most players have managed to snaffle at least one title. But tournament variance is such that sometimes the very best seem to remain empty handed long past the point that it seems likely or even fair.
The good news for poker fans who want the top stars to get the rewards they're due is that one of the last undecorated Triton megastars finally has his prize.
Latvia's Aleks Ponakovs is, at long last, a champion on the Triton Poker Series, winning the $100K NLH Main Event at Triton Paradise. It was his 32nd career cash, from his 20th final table appearance. Ponakovs, have no doubt, was due.
Ponakovs now has his third World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet, while his $4,750,000 payout takes career earnings close to $35 million. But this Triton win at the umpteenth time of asking clearly means a whole lot to the 34-year-old from Riga.
"I don't know where to start," a relieved Ponakovs told Marianel Pereyra in his post-game interview. "I waa not even planning to go here, and I'm glad I'm here."
He paid tribute to his wife who has been through thick and thin with Ponakovs, travelling across the globe with him, and now their newborn child as well.
"I'm glad my wife is here to support me," Ponakovs said. "The curse is broken. We had a laugh that when your partner comes to support you, no chance. But now it's great...I also heard that if you have baby, you get a good run. And eventually I get it."
The curse lifts for the Ponakovs
Ponakovs survived a turbulent final table at the end of a three-day $100K buy-in tournament featuring a breathtaking 237 entries. He had an intense battle with China's Wang Ye, who eventually bust in fourth. Then Ponakovs' final opponent was the Brazilian pro Pedro Padilha, who was a total newcomer to the Triton Series.
"It's very hard to play against him," Ponakovs said of Wang. "He's a very advanced player. He put me in a lot of blenders and I was not sure what to do to be honest."
He added: "After that, I was preparing for a heads-up against a very strong player, Pedro from Brazil. I'm happy that it last three hands or something. It's a great feeling."
Pedro Padilha enjoyed a tremendous Triton Poker Series debut
Having cashed his first tournament, finishing 10th in the $125K event this week, Padilha nearly managed to raise the trophy on only his second try. But Ponakovs managed $3,160,000to slam the door on Padilha. He'll have to try for a third time, at least. Padilha has a $3,160,000 boost to his bankroll to keep on coming back.
Hats off, though, to Ponakovs, the very definition of persistence.
Referring to previous final tables he has played, Ponakovs said: "I definitely remember mistakes I did. I thought of them, and I prepared not to do them again. Experience gives a lot of confidence, and motivates you."
Finally, it paid off.
Worth the wait for Aleks Ponakovs
TOURNAMENT ACTION
The Main Event got started when the Invitational was still under way, which meant players arrived steadily, and then in an awful hurry as the end of late registration approached. The final number of 237 entries was another staggering tally for a $100,000 buy-in event, but the kind of number we're growing used to on the Triton Poker Series.
Of course, all the superstars were present. And then many of them fell by the wayside in characteristically uncompromising action through the first day and a half. When the bubble bobbed into sight — 39 players were due to be paid — the prospect of a Triton Main Event cash tightened things up for some. Others, on the other hand, just played their game.
Take Nick Schulman, for example. Sitting with 22 blinds, Schulman three-bet shoved AQ into Stephen Chidwick's AK. And just like that, the bubble came and went.
Nick Schulman, seated left, busts on the bubble
They bagged for Day 3 with 11 left, with a gallery of superstars remaining. But in a protracted pre-final period of play, even the 12-time champion Jason Koon could not survive. Koon slipped down and eventually out, losing with K10 to Manuel Fritz's pocket kings.
They were belatedly at a final table, with stacks as follows:
Aleks Ponakovs - 15,375,000 (77 BBs)
Manuel Fritz - 9,800,000 (49 BBs)
Pedro Padilha - 9,200,000 (46 BBs)
Jean-Noel Thorel - 6,525,000 (33 BBs)
Adrian Mateos - 5,500,000 (28 BBs)
Wang Ye - 5,300,000 (27 BBs)
Klemens Roiter - 3,150,000 (16 BBs)
Eelis Parssinen - 2,275,000 (11 BBs)
Wang Yang - 2,150,000 (11 BBs)
$100K NLH Main Event final table players (clockwise from back left): Eelis Parssinen, Klemens Roiter, Pedro Padilha, Manuel Fritz, Adrian Mateos, Wang Ye, Jean-Noel Thorel, Aleks Ponakovs, Wang Yang.
After photographs and introductions, the last nine sat down and prepared to slug it out. There were short stack and there were not-so-short stacks, but in a volatile opening level, things got all shaken up.
Most significantly, Pedro Padilha flopped the nut flush with AQ and gleefully watched Aleks Ponakovs try to bluff him off of it, holding 109. It was only the matter of a paired board that stopped Padilha going for the full double when Ponakovs fired for almost everything on the river. But it was a massive pot nonetheless and moved Padilha into the lead.
Meanwhile, the only player to bust turned out to be the man with arguably the biggest reputation of anyone at the final. Adrian Mateos was hunting a sixth career WSOP bracelet in this one, and a third Triton title. But he saw his entire middling stack passed to Wang Ye when the two tangled in a massive pre-flop confrontation.
Mateos had AK but Wang had AA, and picked off Mateos' four-bet jam for 24 blinds in total. There was a king on the flop but it wasn't enough. Mateos was out in ninth for $495,000.
No sixth bracelet for Adrian Ma
Three of the eight players remaining had stacks of 12 big blinds or fewer. But the next player out wasn't one of those at all. Instead the fearless Jean-Noel Thorel demonstrated (if such a demonstration were needed) that he's not a player to be pushed around with a gutsy hero call for all he had.
The only problem is that this was a hero call at the wrong time.
Thorel defended his big blind to a standard raise from Manuel Fritz. Thorel had 56. The flop brought plenty of potential to his suited connectors. It was 8QQ. Thorel check-called Fritz's continuation bet.
The turn was the 4 and Thorel added an inside straight draw to his potential. He saw that as reason enough to call again when Fritz fired another bullet. That brought them to the 6 river.
Thorel checked for a third time, even though he now had a pair. Fritz went for all of it, shoving everything into the middle and covering the 12 blinds Thorel had back. Thorel knew he could now beat Fritz's bluffs and thought he had the best of it. He tossed in the call. Fritz tabled KK. He hadn't been bluffing at any point.
Thorel was forced to take the walk from the stage and pick up $597,000 for eighth.
Another final for the legend that is John-Noel Thorel
China's Wang Yang had come to the final table with the shortest stack, but had already locked up the biggest win of his fledgling career. He'd been all-in and at risk earlier in the final, but won a flip to double through Aleks Ponakovs, and that had helped Wang to ladder up two spots.
It was, however, as far as he could go and he had the misfortune to slam into the big-stacked Padilha when the Brazilian had a hand to match his chip dominance. Padilha open-raised his button and Wag three-bet shoved 15 blinds from the big blind holding A9.
But Padilha had AA and couldn't be shifted. Wang was out in seventh for $813,000. Everyone else moved in line for a seven-figure payout.
Wang Yang ran into
Padilha and Fritz were now rubbing shoulders at the top of the chip counts, apparently taking it in turns to sit at the very summit. Though the elimination of Wang put Padilha back up there, Fritz soon reclaimed top spot and knocked out Eelis Parssinen in the process.
The four-card wizard Parssinen had the chance here to join a highly exclusive club of players who had won both a PLO and a NLH Main Event. But Fritz ended those dreams for Parssinen when he three-bet/called off holding KK after Parssinen four-bet jammed his 20 big blind stack with AQ.
Fritz was never in jeopardy through a low flop, turn and river. It meant Parssinen had to settle for $1,107,000 and a sixth-place finish. He played three events here in the Bahamas and cashed two of them. He should go home happy.
Eelis Parssinen came up short in the search for a two-card title
Pity Wang Ye. He was now sitting directly to the left of first Fritz and then Padilha, the toughest spot at a phenomenally tough table. But Wang found a spot and he made the most of it, winning a flip with KQ through Fritz's pocket 10s, doubling up and assuming the chip lead.
It was all getting incredibly difficult now, with the levels going up and gobbling up the blinds. The average stack dipped below 25 blinds, and then when another level passed without an elimination, it dipped below 15. Any pot was essentially for the chip lead.
This was now Aleks Ponakovs' moment. He had taken something of a back seat as Padilha and Fritz rose to ascendancy, but the Latvian found the accelerator pedal when it meant the most. Although he folded the best hand to some river aggression from Wang Ye, he doubled soon after through the same player with aces holding against AQ.
Ponakovs then eliminated Roiter in a blind-on-blind confrontation. Roiter open shipped his last seven blinds from the small blind holding K7. Ponakovs woke up with AK in the big blind and snapped. Roiter couldn't catch up.
Roiter's latest final table appearance ended in a fifth-place finish and a $1,462,000 cash.
Klemens Roiter: the first under the Ponakovs steamroller
Only two hands later, and Ponakovs got it all from Wang. This pair had had a titanic battle between the two of them, with honours just about even. But Ponakovs had the last laugh when he jammed his button with a covering stack and Wang found an ahead-of-range AJ and called.
Ponakovs had pocket threes and flopped a set. That was that for Wang, who picked up $1,865,000 for fourth.
Fourth for Wang Ye
It was now a critically short-stacked tournament, but after Padilha pinched some from Ponakovs, Fritz was left in a distant third. He then found an ideal set-up to potentially double back to something workable, but instead found himself on the rail.
After Padilha folded the button, Ponakovs moved all-in holding A5 from the small blind. Fritz found the delightful AQ with which to commit his last nine blinds, but a five appeared on the flop.
That was all Ponakovs needed to account for Fritz at last. Fritz's new career high tournament score is the $2,311,000 he took for third place in this one.
Manuel Fritz laid down a marker of intent with a third-place finish
They were now heads-up. Ponakovs had the lead, with 47 blinds to Padilha's 28. It still wasn't much, but it was enough to think there might yet be a battle to be fought. Once again, however, this heads-up was brisk.
After no talk of a deal, they quickly played on. And it was not long at all before Ponakovs looked down at pocket nines when Padilha had A9. Ponakovs just completed from the small blind. Padilha shoved 19 blinds. Ponakovs called and there was nothing shocking on the board.
Latvia finally had its first champion. It was, of course, the country's long-standing No 1, shaking the Triton monkey off his back at last.
