Champion Gergo Nagy
Gergo Nagy left it late in Jeju, but the Hungarian PLO whiz is now a two-time champion on the Triton Poker Super High Roller Series after winning the $30,000 PLO Bounty Quattro Turbo.
Nagy beat Australia's David Wang in a brief heads-up battle, with Wang making two final tables in the same day and falling narrowly short of a breakthrough success. Nagy also spoiled the hopes of the Triton family by eliminating Triton founding player Paul Phua in third place, but the Hungarian was great value for his $510,000 score.
Nagy played three times and cashed three times during his last visit to Jeju, which included his first title win. And here again he proved his immense skills to hit the top spot again on his third festival cash.
"I was definitely running pure," a humble Nagy told Ali Nejad in his winner's interview. "It was a crazy roller coaster honestly. It was a rough start, I just doubled up one guy, but after that I ran pure basically. I caught quite big hands. I also played OK, so that's all."
Nagy paid tribute to fellow Hungarian PLO crushers, who are also his friends, but admitted he wants to beat them. "At the end of the day we are also competitors, just like with the other guys," Nagy said. "But definitely they are giving me enough motivation to push myself. I would like to be the No 1 in Hungary, honestly."
If he carries on like this, it's only a matter of time.
TOURNAMENT ACTION
The final event on the schedule attracted 54 entries of $30,000 apiece, putting $1,620,000 in the prize pool. Of that, $1,060,000 went in the main prize pool, with $560,000 to be distributed in bounty payments.
The chase began in earnest for the bounty phase of the tournament, and then the push to the money, which kicked in when nine players remained. Cesar Garcia fell in 10th at the hands of Paul Phua, with the Triton founding player vaulting to the top of the chip counts as a result. At that point, "Boss" had three knockouts already, worth $40,000 each, and had the stack to do even more damage.
Artur Martirosian knocked out Phil Ivey to take the field down to eight. And then when Martirosian knocked out Eelis Parssinen in eighth, they had a final table. Martirosian, all a sudden, had two bounties and the chip lead. The last seven had the following stacks:
Artur Martirosian - 2,560,000 (51 BBs)
David Wang - 2,250,000 (45 BBs)
Paul Phua - 1,970,000 (39 BBs)
Gergo Nagy - 1,940,000 (39 BBs)
Lautaro Guerra - 985,000 (20 BBs)
Robert Cowen - 890,000 (18 BBs)
Alex Foxen - 205,000 (4 BBs)
Event 17 final table players (clockwise from back left): Gergo Nagy, Robert Cowen, Artur Martirosian, Lautaro Guerra, David Wang, Paul Phua, Alex Foxen.
Even a player of Alex Foxen's abilities was always going to struggle to turn four blinds into a workable stack, and the American was the first out of the final. After Martirosian called from under the gun, Foxen got his chips in and picked up a call from Gergo Nagy. Lautaro Guerra then three-bet from the small blind, however, and successfully thinned out Martirosian and Nagy.
Guerra's AA76 in a battle against Foxen's A763. The case ace appeared on the flop and Guerra took it down. Foxen was out in seventh for $52,000, plus one bounty prize.
First out from the final Alex Foxen
Robert Cowen is one of the PLO specialists who has popped his head above the Triton parapet here in Jeju. But he after doubling through Nagy, Cowen tumbled out of the door, losing to Phua's AJ87. Cowen's 5J97 flopped two pair on the 2J9 board, but the 6 turn and 5 river filled Phua's straight.
That was another scalp for Phua, with Cowen taking $66,000 for sixth.
A Triton debut to remember for Robert Cowen
Martirosian has been in awesome form this week, in common with the rest of his POY-winning year, but he would come up short in this one. He got the last of 22 blinds in with Q987 after seeing a flop of JQ5, but Gergo Nagy's KJ108 ended with a straight after the A turn and K river.
Martirosian's brilliant series ended in $165,000 for fifth, of which $80,000 came in bounties.
Triton POY Artur Martirosian ends short of another win
Phua then took a massive pot from Lautaro Guerra to leave the Spaniard short, and Nagy hoovered up the bounty on the next hand, when Guerra committed his last 12 blinds with KQJ5 pre-flop, but lost to Nagy's AKQ4.
The run-out on this one was 1037K4.
Guerra ended with $109,000 from the main prize pool and a further $40,000 in bounties.
Lautaro Guerra: Leading the Spainish charge
This Triton Poker Series stop had already featured a win for one of Triton's founding players, Richard Yong, who took down the $50,000 short-deck event. And there were now serious considerations to Phua joining him in what would provide a tremendous bookend to the festival.
But although poker can sometimes provide the occasional fairytale, this one did not quite get there. Nagy made a boat with J1086 to win two thirds of Phua's 30-blind stack. And three hands later, the Hungarian completed the job with 248Q beating Phua's A7910.
It's not really about the money for Phua, but let the record show he earned $305,000 for third place here, including $160,000 in bounties. But he desperately wants that second title.
Near miss again for Paul Phua
Nagy's late charge had given him all the chips. He started heads-up play with 97 blinds to Wang's 11. And they were all in immediately. Wang has had a brilliant festival, and actually played two final tables on the same day, having finished seventh in the $75K won by Joni Jouhkimainen.
But he couldn't overcome that chip disadvantage and perished with 5678 against Nagy's 10QKA. The latter made a straight.
A double final table day for David Wang
It turned out to be the final hand dealt in this Triton Super High Roller Series. And Nagy was now a two-time champion.
