While the Triton Super High Roller Series has become the go-to tour for the most prestigious and highest-stakes tournaments in the world, it’s no secret that Triton’s elite players enjoy the odd cash game on the side. Some of these games take place on the TV set for broadcast after the tournament sessions are over. Some others take place in private rooms, where the pots can get even more tasty.

Over the past week at the Maestral Resort in Montenegro, this passion for cash-game action has been indulged even more lavishly than normal. Some of Triton’s most esteemed figures, as well as a handful of newcomers, have been playing the exclusive Triton Series Cash Game Invitational. And tonight, the first stream of the action went out, allowing us all to find out what they’ve been up to.

The table awaits its players

If you predicted numerous six-figure pots, million-dollar swings, enormous bluffs, and sensational strong-arm poker for hours on end, consider your bingo card complete. It was all there as the likes of high-rolling businessmen Paul Phua, Elton Tsang and Aaron Zang took to the felt alongside just one professional at a time, occupying the so-called hot seat. In this first session, that hot seat was occupied by one of the absolute best: Switzerland’s Linus Loeliger.

There was also a very welcome surprise among the recreational players: a first appearance around the Triton tables of the American high stakes cash-game enigma Handz, whose own Twitter bio describes himself as “Two time loser of the biggest pot on HCL”. That’s a reference to two enormous set-ups on Hustler Casino Live, which cost him more than $1 million each.

Handz found a natural home at the Triton Series, where he was also joined by Elizabeth Chen, Joe Zhou, ST Wang and Andy Ni for this first of seven sessions. There was a minimum buy-in of $200,000 and they played blinds of $1,000/$2,000 with a $2,000 big blind ante.

Here’s the highlights from the opening day’s play.

NI COMES RACING OUT THE BLOCKS

If you thought things might start in a cautious manner, you haven’t watched Triton cash games before. Within a matter of about five minutes, Andy Ni was up more than $100K. That profit came from two pots, the second of which was a good one, and went like this.

Linus Loeliger opened to $5,000 from the cutoff with A 5 and Ni called with K on the button. Joe Zou called too in the big blind with   and the   brought plenty of interest.

Andy Ni came out the blocks fast and stayed in the black

After two checks, Ni bet $8,000 and only Zou called. The latter liked the turn. The Q filled his straight. Both players checked, but the K river swung things back in Ni’s favour. After Zou’s check, Ni bet $24,000. Zou called and the $82,000 pot went to Ni.

ZOU NEEDS A REBUY

The TV broadcast of the cash game action brought with it a neat “Mystery Hand” element. This is where even the viewers were denied knowledge of what a player was sitting with, keeping everyone guessing throughout. Linus Loeliger was the first player to have a Mystery Hand, in a big pot against Joe Zou, who had red pocket kings. But they turned out to be not good enough.

Loeliger opened to $5,000 from the hijack. Zou three-bet to $16,000 from the small blind. Loeliger called.

Zou didn’t connect with the 7 5 6 flop and checked it. Loeliger bet $12,000. But then Zou check-raised to $24,000. Loeliger’s call bought him the  turn. Zou now bet $35,000 and Loeliger called again.

A tough start for Joe Zou

The river was the 3 and Zou checked. He had only $86,000 with the pot sitting at $154,000. Loeliger jammed everything in, which meant Zou had to decide if he wanted to go with it all. He did. He put his last chips in, forcing Loeliger to show down his A 4. The rivered straight felted Zou.

Not long after, Zou had pocket aces and ended up chopping with Aaron Zang’s AK when the rest of the wheel cards came on the flop. Tough going for him in the opening stages.

‘THIS GAME IS LOOSENING UP’

Randy Lew, in the commentary booth alongside Ali Nejad, was pretty much bang-on when he said, “It’s safe to say this game is loosening up”, having watched Andy Ni and Handz get nearly a quarter of a million in pre-flop.

Ni opened the pot to 5,000 from UTG+1 and then saw Handz three-bet to $15,000 from the button. Ni had A 4 to Handz’ A . ST Wang, in the big blind, actually had better cards than both of them, but he binned his pocket nines. Ni wasn’t so reticent. He four-bet to $65,000.

Handz made his debut on the Triton Series

Handz wasn’t going anywhere with his big slick and jammed for $136K. Ni figured out that he wasn’t quite priced in and let it go.

MYSTERY HAND LANDS CHEN A CHUNK

Elizabeth Chen took over the seat and stack of Joe Zou after the first session (an arrangement they had made before getting started) and she did not waste any time in getting embroiled in a monster.

With Chen posting a $4,000 straddle and Elton Tsang posting a double straddle of $8,000 there was plenty in the middle before anyone volunteered anything else. It actually folded all the way around to Chen, who raised it up to $24,000. The contents of Chen’s hand was known only to her at this point. She was playing the “Mystery Hand”, which meant it was hidden even to viewers of the stream.

We knew Tsang’s cards though. He had pocket threes and called. That took them to a flop of K A 10. Chen bet $15,000 and Tsang called with his under pair.

Elizabeth Chen got the maximum with quads

The 3 turn improved Tsang’s hand considerably. Chen checked and Tsang bet $65,000 with his turned set. Chen called, taking them to the 10 river and giving Tsang a boat.

Chen checked again, and Tsang sized his river bet at $215,000, almost full pot. The fact that Chen didn’t snap-call likely gave Tsang some hope that he was good. But then after a quick second check of her cards, Chen shoved for $379,000. Tsang called immediately, but Chen tabled pocket tens for a flopped set, rivered quads. Tsang had never been ahead.

This pot worth $753,000 all went to Chen. A disgusting cooler for the two players in the straddles, but Chen went some way to digging her team out the hole it was left in after Zou’s tough luck in the early stages.

HANDZ PUT TO THE TEST WITH ACES

Linus Loeliger was in the $4K straddle and the TV director opted to give him the mystery hand. He saw something he liked, however, because after Handz opened to $10,000 and Tsang called, Loeliger put in the three-bet to $50,000. Little did Loeliger know that Handz had pocket aces. Tsang had a pocket pair too, but they were only sixes.

Handz laid the trap, however, and only called Loeliger’s raise. That persuaded Tsang in too, and the trio saw a flop of J Q 5.

Linus Loeliger took the first hot seat reserved for a pro

Tsang checked but Loeliger fired $40,000. Handz continued to play it cute with a call. Tsang now got out of the way. The 10 turn made the board even more dicey, but Loeliger kept telling his story. He bet another $75,000. Handz called once more.

The 5 river seemed brick-like, but Loeliger now emptied the clip. He moved in for his last $202,000, bloating the pot to $585,000. Handz asked for a count (he had $343K behind) and burned through a decent number of time bank chips as he made his decision. It was a fold.

That turned out to be very shrewd indeed. Loeliger’s K 9 had made a straight.

CHEN VS TSANG: THE SUB-PLOT

For a short while, this full ring table became more like a heads-up duel between Elizabeth Chen and Elton Tsang, with the pair battling repeatedly in several significant pots. After losing to quads earlier on, Tsang ended up the better in almost all of the subsequent skirmishes, boosting his stack comfortably into big green figures and leaving Chen in the red.

In one of them, Chen opened the button to $12,000 with K Q and Tsang three-bet to $50,000 from the small blind with Q . Chen called.

Impossible to get a read off of Elton Tsang

Tsang bet $50,000 after the J 5 9 flop, which Chen called, but then the  river was brutal for Chen. Tsang now had the nuts; Chen had top pair. Tsang bet $75,000 and Chen shoved for $230K. Tsang snapped her off.

The river was blank and Tsang took down this $670,000 pot. Chen was forced to reload.

CHEN FLOPS THE WORLD, TSANG CATCHES UP

Elton Tsang has pretty much never seen two cards he didn’t like, especially on the button, and the K Q he started off with here was plenty good enough for a raise to $12,000. Elizabeth Chen, his old nemesis, was in the $4,000 straddle and called with her J .

Chen absolutely adored the Q 10 8 flop, and checked the nuts to Tsang. Tsang obliged with a bet of $12,000, which Chen quickly raised to $35,000. Tsang had top pair, so was happy to call, and the  turn was a scare card to both of them. Chen checked again, Tsang continued with his line and bet another $27,000. Chen couldn’t fold to such a small size. She called.

The 8 was another horrible card for Chen’s hand. She checked for a third time. This time, Tsang fired out $111,000 with what was now the top flush, losing only to full house or quad combos.

It was grim for Chen, whose straight was now also a flush. She found a very disciplined fold, sending the pot over to Tsang, but refusing to pay him off the extra.

Elizabeth Chen versus Elton Tsang became one of the best sub plots of the night

It was a rough few orbits for Chen, who picked up pocket queens a little while later. The problem was that ST Wang had pocket kings and they went to battle on the turn, with the board showing 3 6 6  (Handz, sitting with   had come to the flop as well). Wang got his whole stack in at this point, leaving Chen to decide whether to risk her $261,000 with the overpair.

She did. They ran the river twice. But Wang’s kings held both times. Chen was forced to reload.

CHEN CLAWS SOME BACK FROM HANDZ

Elizabeth Chen got things started with a raise to $6,000 from the hijack, sitting with K 10. Andy Ni, one seat along, called with his A  and everything seemed standard so far.

Handz looked down at the button in front of him, and J 10 in his hand, and felt that this was a decent spot for a squeeze. He bumped it up to $25,000, and it might have been over there and then.

However, Chen was going nowhere. She called. That persuaded Ni to the flop as well, with $80,000 in the pot.

The 5 10 7 flop gave both Handz and Chen top pair, and after two checks, Handz bet $30,000. Chen was going nowhere once again. She called, but Ni had now seen enough. He backed out.

A sensational line-up for the opening day of the cash game festival

The A turn was something of a scare card for both, and it brought a couple of checks. But then the 9 river turned Chen’s hand into the nuts. She didn’t conceal the strength of her hand either, shoving $185,000 into the middle, which was more than the size of the pot to that point.

Handz was suspicious. Very suspicious. He burned through several time-bank chips and then made the call, acknowledging, “Good” when Chen turned over the nuts. The $470K pot headed Chen’s way.

ZANG’S MYSTERY HAND TOO MUCH FOR PHUA’S FLUSH

Aaron Zang is best known in world poker for winning the inaugural Triton invitational tournament, which just happened to have a £1 million buy-in. Although he agreed a heads-up deal with Bryn Kenney in that one, with Kenney taking slightly more money, Zang took the trophy alongside his £13.8 million ($16.8 million). That wasn’t too bad.

Zang subsequently won another $1.5 million when he took down a second Triton title in Vietnam in March 2023, so his skills have never been in doubt. And one of the best cash-game hands in this session featured Zang putting Triton co-founder Paul Phua in all manner of difficulty.

London Invitational winner happy at the cash tables too

Blinds were $1,000/$2,000, with a $2,000 big-blind ante, and Linus Loeliger in a $4,000 straddle. Phua was UTG+1, i.e., first to act, and he put in a raise to $10,000 with 5 4. Action folded round to Zang on the button, and he raised to $31,000. Phua deemed his suited connectors good enough to continue.

The contents of Zang’s hand was known only to him at this point. He was playing the “Mystery Hand”. But he seemed to like it. After a flop of 8 8 9, Phua checked and Zang bet $40,000. Phua, with his flush draw, called the bet.

The turn was the Q and Phua didn’t improve. He checked again. This time Zang also checked. The J river completed Phua’s flush, and he decided to lead out for $75,000, leaving $154K behind.

Zang wasn’t ready to give this one up though. He had a near-$500K stack and raised to $250,000, asking Phua to gamble the rest of what he had. Phua agonised. He had hit his flush, but it was far from the nuts. After much anguish he gave up, allowing Zang to take the $476,000 pot.

What did he have? Eventually the TV director let us know. He had J 9 for two pair. Was it a value bet, or had he turned his hand into a bluff? Either way, he raked in the pot.

One important element to this hand that perhaps wasn’t immediately obvious was that earlier in the day, Phua had similarly folded a pretty big hand — pocket nines — to a Zang river bet, on a board of Q 6 . In that instance, Zang had  , which was way ahead. So Phua’s fold was good. However, Zang leveraged that history to make Phua fold the best hand later on.

DAY 1 PROFIT/LOSS

After nine hours, they called this a day. It was a pretty exhilarating scene-setting start, with Elton Tsang the biggest winner. Here’s how they all ended up:

PROFIT
Elton Tsang: +$760,000
ST Wang: $436,000
Andy Ni: + $389,000
Aaron Zang: +$135,000

LOSS
Linus Loeliger: -$268,000
Handz: -$375,000
Paul Phua: -$391,000
Elizabeth Chen/Joe Zou: -$689,000

Photography by Drew Amato