Champion Aleksa Pavicevic
There are some absolute crushers who play on the Triton Poker Super High Roller Series. But all of them would give their right arm for the tournament record of Aleksa Pavicevic.
In May, the Montenegrin took down the Triton Invitational at the Maestral Resort, in Budva, at the only tournament he played at the stop. It came with a $6.18 million prize. And now here in Jeju, in the first tournament he has played since coming to South Korea, he has won again, adding a further $1.261 million.
That's two wins from his past two tournaments. Back to back. And even though he also played two tournaments in Monte Carlo and whiffed them, it's still pretty stunning to have played four and won two.
"Incredible," he said as he began celebrating his latest win. "What are the odds of that? I don't know. I'm blessed, blessed I guess."
Aleksa Pavicevic's winning moment
The tournament was the single-day $50K Bounty Quattro turbo, an event that inevitable sees some ludicrous action with tiny stacks as players go hunting for bounties, worth $60,000 each. It usually means crazy outdraws and unpredictable outcomes, but Pavicevic's presence perhaps should have tipped everyone off to what was coming.
"I've mostly been playing cash games and today we had a slow day so I decided to jump in a tournament and I ended up winning it," he said, explaining why he suddenly opted to fire this event.
He added: "I like the structure. It's a one-day tournament, so it's about gambling, short-stacks. Lots of all-ins, bounties, it's a perfect structure. I definitely like the swings of it."
And there were certainly plenty of those. The final table finished at around 3.15 a.m., when there were only about 30 blinds between two players. One was Pavicevic and the other was long-time Triton beast Mikita Badziakouski. It was the latter's second final table in two days, but he fell narrowly short of a sixth win again.
Mikita Badziakouski is first to congratulate Pavicevic on the win
Pavicevic, however, is now among the multiple champions. What price the hat-trick if he plays the Main Event tomorrow?
TOURNAMENT ACTION
From a starting field of 87 entries, only 15 players would be paid. But there was not much wiggle room on the bubble — or at any period, really — although the hand that took them into money seemed to be from a tournament with a buy-in a fraction of the $50K it cost to sit down here.
Armin Ghojehvand, playing his first Triton Poker Series event, had 26 blinds left and opened from under the gun. Hasan Onay, with 20 blinds, found AQ on the button and moved all-in.
Ding Biao had 26 blinds and looked at pocket 10s in the big blind. He jammed. And then the "decision" was back on Ghojehvand, although it was no such thing. He had the absolute best of it, AA, and got everything he had in there as well.
It's a cruel game, poker. The flop came 7410 and suddenly the pocket 10s were ahead. The Q turn and 3 river completed Ding's victory, and sent Onay out on the stone bubble. Ghojehvand had one blind left and 29 couldn't do much for him on the next deal. He was out in 15th, winning $52,000 (plus $60,000 for one bounty). But he could have been leader if his aces had held.
A complicated bubble 1/
A complicated bubble 2/2
The tournament hastened quickly towards its final table, with the highlight being a blockbuster four-way all-in featuring Sergio Aido's 107 (he had three blinds), Santhosh Suvarna's KJ (he had eight), Yan Jingyao's AK (he had five) and Alex Boika, with pocket threes and the covering stack.
Yan flopped a king, which of course also helped Suvarna, and the dealer was preparing for a complicated allocation of the many side-pots until they put the 3 on the river and gave Boika the scoop. All of Aido, Yan and Suvarna were swept away in one, while Boika took three bounties.
A few hands later and Steve O'Dwyer's elimination took it to its final.
The last nine were as follows:
Ding Biao - 3,245,000 (54 BBs) - 3 bounties
Long Cao - 3,000,000 (50 BBs)
Aleksa Pavicevic - 1,780,000 (30 BBs) - 2 bounties
Alex Boika - 1,775,000 (30 BBs) - 4 bounties
Poseidon Ho - 1,755,000 (29 BBs)
Isaac Haxton - 1,690,000 (28 BBs)
Duan Bin - 1,665,000 (28 BBs) - 1 bounty
Jun Li - 1,390,000 (23 BBs)
Mikita Badziakouski - 1,100,000 (18 BBs)
Event 8 final table players (clockwise from back left): Aleksa Pavicevic, Poseidon Ho, Isaac Haxton, Mikita Badziakouski, Duan Bin, Alex Boika, Jun Li, Ding Biao, Long Cao.
Jun Li was the second-smallest stack coming into the final, but the first to lose it. Li was in the small blind and had 11 blinds when action folded all the way to him. It was kind of an instant shove situation, and Q10 was plenty good enough to move in. The problem was Alex Boika in the big blind with A3, who made the call and won.
Boika banked his fifth bounty as Li went out in ninth for $79,000.
Jun Li was first out from the final
Boika was booming, but it soon went close to bust. Aces versus a suited ace-king can often mean a huge pot in any circumstances, and Boika ended up on the wrong end of precisely this situation. Aleksa Pavicevic had the aces and Boika AK and the case ace on the river (after a paired flop) gave Pavicevic a boat.
Not long later, Boika's A10 lost to Pavicevic's pocket nines, and Boika was done in eighth. He took $107,000 from the main prize pool and $300,000 in bounties. It was a very decent score, but his own bounty went to Pavicevic.
Alex Boika took a bundle of bounties before busting
Pavicevic was still in the chip lead, but might have had even more had he won a flip against Badziakouski shortly before Boika's bust. In this pot, he three-bet after Badziakouski opened, asking for the rest of Badziakouski's nine blind stack. Badziakouski backed his pocket sevens and turned a set to beat Pavicevic's KQ.
Long Cao then doubled. He had AK against Pavicevic's J6 and shot into the chip lead. It was already that kind of final table, where one major pot shakes everything up. As if to prove the point, Cao was duly brought back down to size when he doubled up Isaac Haxton not long after. Haxton's pocket threes faded Cao's AQ.
Poseidon Ho was in a desperate spot with only two blinds, but he was bullish. He announced to the table that he was only four double-ups from the chip lead (true enough), and got the comeback started in a big three-way all-in. Ho committed his last blinds from early position and, after Duan Bin called, Haxton saw the chance to hoover up some dead money. He jammed from the small blind.
Right move, wrong time. Pavicevic woke up with pocket kings in the big blind and called, which set up the possible double elimination. Ho had A3 and Haxton had J2.
Both were underdogs to Pavicevic's huge pair, but the 885103 run-out gave Ho a flush to triple. Haxton meanwhile perished at the hands of Pavicevic.
Isaac Haxton: Still hasn't found what he's looking for
Haxton latest near miss won him $141,000 for seventh.
With a tournament break imminent, Ho doubled again. His A4 beat Pavicevic's 93, but when they returned to a new level, he still had only five blinds. And it wasn't enough. He open-jammed from under the gun with pocket fives and Pavicevic, again, called from the small blind.
Pavicevic had 107 so they were technically flipping. Pavicevic did it the unconventional way, however, by rivering a straight. Ho was out in sixth for $179,000.
Poseidon Ho nearly managed to mount a comeback
The very next hand was the last one Long Cao saw. He open-shoved his small blind with five blind and couldn't beat Ding's A10 with K6. Cao's roller coaster ended in fifth and a payout of $229,000.
Long Cao couldn't get back into contention
Things were now moving on at a rapid pace. It was only to be expected with an 18-blind average stack between the last four. But these turbos are anything but predictable and the next major hand underlined it spectacularly.
Pavicevic, Badziakouski and Duan were all-in pre-flop with the former holding a comfortably covering stack. And he also had a dominant hand against both opponents. Pavicevic had AQ against Badziakouski's A3 and Duan's Q8. But the board of 34845 flipped everything on its head: first was worst, worst was first, and the middle doubled too.
Duan now had seven blinds, Badziakouski had 12 and Pavicevic still had 25. But it might have been heads up.
The blinds went up and it became even more unpredictable. Duan doubled his four blinds with A10 through Badziakouski's 98. But then Badziakouski doubled his short stack through Ding with AJ against A8.
Ding's bounty was now up for grabs as he had only one blind and had to post the big blind next. It went to Bin, whose 107 made two pair on a board of AQ979. All the others called too and checked down, but missed. Ding's 85 didn't get any better either.
That put Ding on the rail with $285,000 from the main prize pool and a further $240,000 in bounties.
Ding Biao couldn't get his third win
The average stack was now 15 blinds and Badziakouski was narrowly ahead. He was the only player of the last three who had not collected a bounty to this point, but had his eyes on a sixth trophy nonetheless.
When the blinds went up again, and after a few more small pots, all three players had the same sized stack, bang on the average of 12 big blinds. But Pavicevic won the first couple of small pots, which set him up to knock out Duan Bin in third.
Duan got unlucky. He found AQ and was all-in and up against Pavicevic's A7. Two sevens on the flop spun it around for Pavicevic and earned him yet another bounty. Duan earned $351,000 from the main pool and $120,000 for his two bounties.
The game is up for Duan Bin
"So I'm going to get second with no bounties?" Badziakouski said as they settled in to play heads up. He had nine blinds to Pavicevic's 26.
"You might get mine," Pavicevic said.
He didn't. It didn't take very long for all the chips to go in, and no surprise. Badziakiouski had A9 and Pavicevic had JJ. The pocket pair held, and that was another in the bag for Montenegro.
Another final for Mikita Badziakouski
