Champion Jonathan Jaffe!

It was a night of firsts in Monte Carlo as the Triton Series visited this spectacular principality for the first time in its history.

The first event to finish crowned a first-time winner too: America’s Jonathan Jaffe, who tore through the late stages of the $50,000 Turbo Bounty, banking $501,000 and a bagful of bounties, worth $20,000 apiece.

To be specific, he won eight bounties for knocking out eight opponents en route to the victory, and he gets to keep his own bounty token too for becoming the last man standing. That piles a further $180,000 on to his payout and gives Jaffe a $681K payday.

It was no less than his dominant performance deserved, and he capped it all with an excellent call in the heads-up phase of the tournament to end the challenge of Brian Kim. Jaffe was leading at that point, but a Kim double up would have made Jaffe work hard again. However, Jaffe sniffed out a bluff and picked it off, ending the first event of a packed schedule.

TOURNAMENT ACTION

With the $200,000 Triton Invitational taking place in the same room, players eliminated (or not invited) showed up in their droves to play this $50,000 buy-in event. In all, 50 players joined the fray, adding seven re-entries, and putting $2,850,000 in the main prize pool, with $1,710,000 in bounties.

Nine players would be paid, which meant a frantic few start before a pre-money slowdown.

The bubble came hovering into view when two short-handed tables remained, seating the last 11 players. Nine players would be paid, but there were two critical short stacks, with Alex Kulev and Matthias Eibinger.

They watched on as chips went this way and that between their opponents in non-decisive fashion, and then both of them went broke in consecutive hands, falling to the same opponent.

In the cutoff, Luc Greenwood moved all-in, covering everyone behind him. Kulev was on the button and committed the last of his chips (about four big blinds), with both players in the blinds then folding.

Kulev’s A10 was narrowly ahead of Greenwood’s J. But when the  peeled on the turn, Kulev was heading home with a parting, “Good game, everyone.”

Eibinger could share his cab. On the next hand, Greenwood shoved again, this time from the hijack, and Eibinger looked down at pocket eights in the small blind. His last seven big blinds went in, but Greenwood tabled pocket nines and turned a set.

Matthias Eibinger bursts the $50K Turbo bubble

That was the end of the road for turbo specialist Eibinger, and put the remaining nine players in the money, guaranteed their buy-in back. Meanwhile Greenwood added two bounty tokens to his pile.

The final table therefore took shape, with the following nine in with a shout:

Leonard Maue, Germany – 2.5 million
Aleks Ponakovs, Latvia – 2.3 million
Lucas Greenwood, Canada – 1.5 million
Viacheslav Buldygin, Russia – 1.4 million
Ferdinand Putra, Indonesia – 1.2 million
Brian Kim, USA – 780,000
Michael Soyza – 555,000
Jonathan Jaffe, USA – 510,000
Mikalai Vaskaboinikau, Belarus – 475,000

Jaffe was one of the short stacks here, but doubled with kings against jacks pretty quickly, giving him enough chips to be on the right side of the first elimination hand. It was the unfortunate role of Mikalai Vaskaboinikau to take the long walk first, pausing to pick up $50,000 for ninth, but unable to make Q8 beat Jaffe’s K.

Mikalai Vaskaboinikau hit the rail just the right side of the money bubble

The nature of the stacks meant the pot sent Jaffe to the top of the counts, but there wasn’t much wiggle room for anybody.

As if proof were needed, the next player out was Greenwood, only just the right side of the bubble that he alone caused to burst.

Greenwood three-bet shoved over a Jaffe opening raise and Jaffe called off, this time sitting with pocket nines. Greenwood’s A3 couldn’t hit anything and that sent the Canadian out. He took $65,000 plus bounties.

Luc Greenwood notched another cash

Shortly before his elimination, Greenwood had put Ferdinand Putra to the test with a river shove on a paired and flushing board that forced Putra to burn eight time banks before folding. Putra opted to bide his time — possibly until he found a hand as pretty as 99.

That’s what he held after Aleks Ponakovs open-shoved and Putra decided to call it off. However, Ponakovs’ equally pretty QK flopped a pair and rivered another to send Putra out of the tournament.

The Indonesian won $84,000 plus bounties.

Ferdinand Putra made a big fold…but didn’t last much longer

With the main stage now vacated by players in the $200K Invitational, the remaining six in the turbo got some television time. Jaffe was out in front with 48 big blinds, but nobody else had any more than 19, so it might have been a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it showdown.

Certainly it was a brief stay on the stage for Michael Soyza and Aleks Ponakovs, who quickly fell at the hands of Jaffe. Soyza couldn’t beat Jaffe’s pocket nines with A9, and Ponakovs, with the same hand () lost to Jaffe’s pocket deuces.

Michael Soyza smiles his way out the door

Ponakovs had to endure the ignominy of flopping a nine to give him hope, then seeing a deuce roll off on the river. Soyza’s payout was $106,000 plus bounties, while Ponakovs banked $136,000, plus bounties. On the subject of bonus payments, Jaffe was collecting them all.

Aleks Ponakovs departs

Bizarrely, the next elimination, which sent Viacheslav Buldygin to the rail, occurred with the same two hands. This time, Buldygin lost with A9 to Leonard Maue’s pocket deuces, with Maue flopping a deuce this time.

It was a shock to see someone other than Jaffe picking up a bounty, but it was a comparatively small pot and did not threaten Jaffe’s chip lead. Meanwhile, Buldygin picked up $176,000 plus bounties and left three players to it, with the guarantee that there would be a new first time Triton Series champion.

Viacheslav Buldygin’s grimace says it all

Maue had come to Triton London with one of the most exciting reputations in the world game. He was a player on the up after graduating from the online tables and claiming some huge live scores. It turned out to be something of a chastening experience, at least as far as results were concerned. But Maue returned to Monte Carlo and got straight into the cash — although his tournament would eventually end in third.

Jaffe got him, of course. Maue picked up pocket fives in the big blind and watched Jaffe move all in ahead of him. Maue called and Jaffe showed over-cards: K6. True to the way he’d been flipping so far, Jaffe hit a six on the flop and a king on the river.

Maue’s first Triton cash was for $233,000.

Leonard Maue cashes in third

Jaffe took a big lead into heads up play, with 7.8 million to Kim’s 3.6 million. Even so, one double up would switch everything around and potentially keep us playing longer into the night.

For once, however, that’s not how it went down. The first time Kim was all-in and called, Jaffe was the champion. It was, however, a thrilling hand to watch. Kim completed with the small blind and Jaffe, with Q6 checked his option.

They saw the flop of 26K. Jaffe check-called Kim’s min-bet.

Brian Kim’s gutsy bluff failed

The turn was the 3 and the pattern repeated, this time with Kim firing 700,000. The A completed the board and Kim emptied the clip. But Jaffe, with his pair of sixes, made the call and Kim’s 10 was defeated.

With that, Triton Monte Carlo is under way — and Jaffe is now a well-deserved Trion champion.

Jonathan Jaffe collects his trophy from Luca Vivaldi