Champion Joao Vieira!

On a poker tour where everything is almost always the biggest and the best, the Portuguese pro Joao Vieira tonight hit a new career high in the richest $150,000 buy-in poker tournament the Triton Super High Roller Series has ever seen.

Vieira finished runner-up to Alex Foxen in the Main Event of Triton’s December trip to the Bahamas, but came back to the tour here in Jeju, South Korea and went one place better. Vieira outlasted a final table of sublime quality, also featuring the aforementioned Foxen, to take the top prize of $4.61 million.

It had been his game-plan all along.

“When I left home, my dad told me, ‘There’s only one place to improve’,” Vieira said as he reflected on his success. “So I just listened to what he said and I tried to go for the win.”

He added, “Obviously it was a great score, the second place to Alex Foxen. But obviously I wanted to improve, but I didn’t expect it to be right away.”

His final opponent tonight was the Latvian No 1 Aleks Ponakovs, and Vieira will be the first to admit that one fortunate hand in particular helped him past Ponakovs. Vieira won an enormous heads-up cooler with  AJ coming from behind to beat A, and that propelled Vieira back into a dominant chip lead.

Joao Vieira begins life as a champion

But Vieira, 40, had also been the dominant force during the first two days of this event in the Landing Casino, and he carried the chip-lead into the final table of eight, with the rest of the 128-entry field defeated.

“We’ve been doing this a long, long time,” Vieira said, adding that he started playing poker with “not very much” and built up his bankroll and reputation that he could play on the leading series in the world. “Sometimes it goes your way and sometimes it doesn’t. This was one of those days when things just went my way.”

He added: “Sometimes all you can do is work really hard. Just do your best and try to get into the position to get lucky. If the deck likes you, the deck likes you. If the deck doesn’t like you, just go home and try again.”

Vieira was hugely complimentary of Ponakovs’ game, admitting that he knew he would be up against it with the aggressive Latvian to his left. “I know he plays really well,” Vieira said. “When you’re a chip leader and you’re trying to bully, he won’t let you.”

But the dealer was tonight on Vieira’s side. “I just got quite lucky in the key spots.”

he formidable Aleks Ponakovs

Few will begrudge Vieira this victory. And Ponakovs’ day will surely come. He has a runner-up prize of $3.139 million as consolation.

TOURNAMENT ACTION

The biggest buy-in event on the schedule might have meant a smaller, more exclusive field. But it doesn’t work like that on the Triton Poker Series, where the policy is strictly the bigger, the better. With registration open to the start of the second day, a remarkable 128 entries came through the registers, building a prize pool of $19.2 million.

The corresponding event here in Jeju last year brought 117 entries, so once again a new mark was set.

There was high drama as the bubble approached, with Samuel Mullur taking an enormous tumble from sixth in chips to just one big blind with 22 players still involved.

Sam Mullur tumbled from a prominent position to the stone bubble

The money kicked in at 20th, but Mullur took a solver-approved stand with A5  in a five-bet pot against Wang Ye. That final bet, which came from Muller, applied maximum pressure on Ye. But the Chinese player was at the very top of his range with aces. He called, Mullur missed, and the Austrian pro was now in grave peril.

On a neighbouring table, Stephen Chidwick, the other sub-10 blind stack in the room, got his chips in with AJ and ran into Danny Tang’s A. Tang won that to leave the field now on the stone bubble, but Mullur’s solitary blind was already in the middle next door.

A painful bubble for Stephen Chidwick

Attention therefore switched back to him, and he was in danger with K4 against Orpen Kisacikoglu’s pocket tens. Kisacikoglu flopped a set and Mullur was out. The rest of the field was in the money.

This was especially good news for Kisacikoglu because he was still a short stack, despite busting Mullur. He lasted only a couple more hands before losing everything to Kiat Lee. This one was Kisacikoglu’s AK running into Lee’s aces. The min-cash added $249,000 to Kisacikoglu’s ledger.

With a buy-in so large, anyone even playing the event was likely to be one of the world’s best, which inevitably meant that those players busting would be household names as well. Patrik Antonius, Isaac Haxton, Dan Dvoress and Danny Tang took a tumble in the money but before the final, and then as the field constricted even more, fan favourite Phil Ivey was one of the players at real risk.

Phil Ivey, empty handed (until the inevitable Photoshoppers fill the hands)

Ivey survived a couple of skirmishes that might have ended his tournament, but he then lost 70 percent of his stack by doubling up Ben Tollerene ( losing A8 to Tollerene’s A), before the two got their stacks in again.

This time, there was a third wheel: Joao Vieira, who had both Tollerene and Ivey comfortably covered. Ivey’s A9 and Tollerene’s A were both trailing Vieira’s red pocket tens when all the money went in pre-flop. They never caught up and Vieira sent both of them packing. Ivey was officially 10th and Tollerene ninth. It meant the last eight were heading to the final table.

Ben Tollerene finished ninth, but never actually took a seat at the final table

Final table line-up:

Joao Vieira — 5,275,000 (53 BBs)
Aleks Ponakovs — 3,350,000 (34 BBs)
Ding Biao — 3,275,000 (33 BBs)
Kiat Lee — 3,150,000 (32 BBs)
Ye Wang — 3,100,000 (31 BBs)
Dan Smith — 2,900,000 (29 BBs)
Fedor Holz — 2,875,000 (29 BBs)
Alex Foxen — 1,675,000 (17 BBs)

Event 9 final table players (clockwise from back left): Aleks Ponakovs, Dan Smith, Joao Vieira, Ye Wang, Alex Foxen, Fedor Holz, Kiat Lee, Ding Biao.

It was, by any standards, a mouthwatering final table line-up, with Triton TD Luca Vivaldi happy to introduce a table featuring four previous Triton winners with 10 titles between them, plus three of the highest ranking players who have never quite got over the line. China’s Ye Wang was the only player without a scintillating resume, but his growing list of results here in Jeju suggested he would soon be changing that.

As chip leader, Vieira began the final in relentless fashion, steadily extending his lead through the first 10 hands. He cracked Fedor Holz’s aces with 98, a pot that began something of a downward spiral for the German phenom. Alex Foxen doubled through Holz, with  beating Holz’s pocket 10s, and all of a sudden, Holz had only a handful of blinds.

He picked up pocket eights and got the last of his chips in. Wang Ye found AQ, made the call, and flopped a queen. That was the end of the line for Holz, who won $595,000 for eighth but continues the hunt for a fifth title.

Fedor Holz felted first from the final

Vieira and Aleks Ponakovs started the final table as the two biggest stacks, and that remained so through these opening exchanges. When Ponakovs won the next significant skirmish, the Latvian pulled up alongside the Portuguese at the very top.

The hand in question turned out to be the first that Ding Biao really played at the final table, as well as the last he would play in the tournament. Biao found pocket tens and three-bet Ponakovs’ UTG open. With the rest of the field folding, Ponakovs shoved and Biao called off.

Ponakovs had found pocket queens to put Biao in a world of hurt. The Q on the turn put him out of his misery for good. Biao took $807,000 for seventh, the last prize of less than $1 million.

Ding Biao out in seventh

Foxen was now the tournament short stack, and he lasted only a few more hands. Once again, the coup that forced an elimination featured pocket tens, but this time they were with Ponakovs. Foxen had  AK and opened from early position. Ponakovs shoved the small blind with his tens and the covering stack, and Foxen called for all of it.

Once again, the dealer only helped Ponakovs. There was a ten on the flop and Ponakovs finished with a boat. Foxen departed in sixth for $1.076 million. He was aiming for a third title in a third consecutive Triton stop, but fell only a few places short.

Triton Bahamas champion Alex Foxen falls short of a back-to-back-to-back streak

Ponakovs was now a significant leader, and he only got richer. On the very next hand, he picked up pocket sevens on the button and, with two short stacks behind him in the blinds, open jammed. Kiat Lee found AK and must have loved his spot. He got his 15 blinds in, but again watched Ponakovs flop a set. Lee hit his ace, but it wasn’t enough.

Lee had celebrated his 33rd birthday yesterday as he battled to the 16th Triton final of his career, but just like the previous 15, he departed without a title. He won $1,372,000 for fifth.

Gracious as ever, Kiat Lee departs

Dan Smith came to this tantalising final table as the highest ranked player among all the assembled crushers, but card distribution didn’t give him a whole lot of options to build a stack. And then, when he was the short stack of the four left and Smith tried to get things moving, he found Wang Ye refusing to give him a break.

In three consecutive hands, Smith’s 12 blinds went to Ye. The last of them when Smith had the dominating A4 but Ye’s 4  turned a straight. Smith headed away from the table with a $1.708 million payout, not the third Triton title he was looking for, but enough to move him into fifth place in poker’s all time money list ahead of Jason Koon.

Smith was also the last former Triton champion to depart, ensuring yet another new winner on the Triton Series, the 117th on the tour.

Dan Smith’s run ended in fourth

Ponakovs had the stack now to start turning the screw. As Wang slipped to below 15 blinds, Vieira will have started feeling a little bit of ICM pressure. The pay-jump between second and third was more than $1 million, which meant Vieira’s 40 blind stack could be attacked by Ponakovs.

Wang, of course, was looking for a spot to get everything in and he managed to double up twice in fairly quick succession. He had 12 blinds when he got his stack in again, but this time got unlucky to bust when a third double would have made him a challenger.

Ponakovs, with 34 blinds, shoved the small blind holding Q10 . Wang woke up with A in the big blind and made the obvious call. But the queen on the flop was a dagger blow to Wang. He couldn’t recover and left the tournament looking for a career-best $2,074,000 payday.

Wang Ye hits a new career high, even with a bust in third

The last two players left were the two who had topped the counts at the beginning of the day. They were two very familiar figures in world poker, with great results on the Triton Series too. But crucially neither had ever got their hands on a trophy.

Ponakovs led by 46 blinds to 39 and sat down to play it out without even the slightest consideration of a deal. And maybe they both ended up regretting that decision as the heads-up duel got off to an explosive start.

On the very first hand of heads-up, Ponakovs found AQ and opened. Vieira then looked down at A and put in a three-bet. Ponakovs four-bet jammed and Vieira called off, with the potential for an immediate end to the tournament.

But the best hand this time did not hold up. Vieira spiked a jack on the flop (as well as an ace) and rivered another one, going from worst to first. All of a sudden, the dynamic was on its head. Ponakovs had nine blinds to Vieira’s 77.

Heads-up between Aleks Ponakovs and Joao Vieira

Ponakovs gave himself a fighting chance with an almost immediate double back, when his KJ this time stayed best against Vieira’s K . Vieira still had more than a three-to-one lead, but there was hope for the Latvian.

It didn’t last all that long, however. The next time they were all in, it was when Ponakovs had J7 and had flopped middle pair with a board of K. But Vieira had pocket nines and faded any danger through turn and river.

It was good for that sensational $4.6 million payday.

Adrian Mateos and Juan Pardo celebrate with their friend Joao Vieira