Champion JP Rounce-Sue!

It was all new tonight in Jeju, South Korea, as two Triton Poker newcomers went heads up at the end of the first PLO event ever hosted at a Triton ONE festival. And when the last card was dealt, JP Rounce-Sue, playing his first Triton tournament, had earned the first ever Triton ONE win for New Zealand.

Rounce-Sue is hardly a newcomer to the game itself. His victory tonight, worth $129,000, put his career poker earnings past $1 million. But one week ago, he was not even thinking about playing on the Triton Poker Series under a few friends convinced him to take the trip.

"This was actually a last-minute trip for me," Rounce-Sue said, preparing to pose for a wholly unexpected winner's photo. "My friends just said let's go to Jeju, and I thought why not try to experience the Triton way. We just arrived and ran good."

A fan of mixed games — he plays tournaments in all variants, and typically PLO cash games — he was understandably happy to have been persuaded to come.

"I'm really grateful," Rounce-Sue said. "Words can't describe it right now. I just flew. I try to enjoy myself — I came for a holiday with my friends, and I just really wanted to enjoy the experience of Triton and Triton ONE. And I guess winning, I wasn't even looking at it too intensely, but things just fell my way."

JP Rounce-Sue with the friends who persuaded him to come

He added: "I'm really grateful and happy for my support, all of my friends."

Rounce-Sue had a massive chip lead coming to the final table, but hit a bump in the road during heads-up play against another Triton newcomer Zhihao Zhang. Zhihao, also playing his first Triton tournament, took over the lead when only two were left, but Rounce-Sue was able to dig deep and recover.

Eventually, Rounce-Sue made a better two pair when the chips went in for the last time, and history was made. Zhihao's second place earned him $91,000.

TOURNAMENT ACTION

Everybody is well aware of the appetite for no limit hold'em among mid-stakes players, but Triton ONE decided to test the PLO waters at its second festival, starting with this $6,000 buy-in event.

With 90 entries flying through the registration desk, it seems there's enough interest in the four-card game too.

The prize pool weighed in $499,950, and there was $129,000 for first place. Some renowned PLO sharks swam through the field as they hunted a spot at the final table.

One of them, Eelis Parssinen, duly made it all the way. As did Danny Tang, a talent in any game. However, the dominant player was New Zealand's JP Rounce-Sue, a Triton newcomer, who bludgeoned to an enormous chip lead.

The last seven were as follows:

JP Rounce-Sue - 7,025,000 (117 BBs)

Li Zhongxian - 3,600,000 (60 BBs)

Curtis Muller - 1,935,000 (32 BBs)

Takashi Ogura - 1,715,000 (29 BBs)

Eelis Parssinen - 1,515,000 (25 BBs)

Zhihao Zhang - 1,490,000 (25 BBs)

Danny Tang - 690,000 (12 BBs)

Event 12 final table players (clockwise from back left): Li Zhongxian, Eelis Parssinen, Danny Tang, Zhihao Zhang, Takashi Ogura, Curtis Muller, JP Rounce-Sue

When the final table began, there were still a lot of chips in play. It's just that one man had almost all of them. Rounce-Sue had been crushing during all of the most crucial period, and his momentum continued at the final.

With Danny Tang watching on from behind the short stack, Rounce-Sue polished off Curtis Mullur first. Mullur three-bet shoved from the big blind after two limps and a raise from Rounce-Sue in the small blind. Mullur made his move with A7K10 but ended up second best to Rounce-Sue's AA38.

The case ace fell on the flop, and even though Mullur also had a full house when two 10s appeared, Rounce-Sue's was better. Mullur took $23,000 for seventh.

The chip leader had more than 110 big blinds, while his closest challenger had fewer than 35. That put the other five into ICM handcuffs and allowed Rounce-Sue to dictate everything.

Tang wasn't going down without a fight. He doubled through Rounce-Sue holding J6107 against 5329. Then he did it again on the next hand, this time with A1075 beating 109Q10. They were only flesh wounds for Rounce-Sue, but Tang leapt above Li Zhongxian in the leaderboard.

There was no coming back for Li, however. Down to crumbs, he three-bet shoved all of four blinds holding JJK9 and was picked off by Zhihao Zhang, holding KK26. Li took $30,500 for sixth.

Li Zhongxian was first out

Tang was still short, but Zhihao had slipped to an even shorter stack. And the pair went at it for all their chips after a flop of 3AJ. (It was blind on blind pre-flop, with Tang calling Zhihao's raise.)

Zhihao shoved holding AQ99 and Tang called with Q1064. Tang had a combo-draw but missed after the 2 turn and 6 river. Tang had less than an ante left, and surrendered it to Rounce-Sue on the next hand.

The Triton Poker ambassador got this trip to Jeju up and running with a $38,950 payout for fifth.

Not this time for Danny Tang

No one in the four-card game has a greater reputation than the Finnish crusher Eelis Parssinen, and no one had been surprised to see him at another PLO final table. But Parssinen hadn't managed to get anything going against the Rounce-Sue show, and had slipped to only around 10 blinds.

He saw a flop with Takashi Ogura, but had to fold after Ogura bet the JJ5 board. But then when he got the last of his chips in on the next hand, he lost in a three-way collision that gave Zhihao a major double-plus.

Zhihao limped from the button holding AK104, and Parssinen also called from the small blind with A653. Rounce-Sue raised from the big blind, holding KJ52 and both opponents called. (Parssinen had only three blinds behind.)

The flop came 94K and Parssinen checked. Rounce-Sue made a pot-sized bet, and Zhihao put in everything he had as a raise. Parssinen under-called all-in, and Rounce-Sue called to put both at risk.

The 2 turn and 8 river wasn't enough to save Parssinen. Zhihao's two pair was better than Rounce-Sue's, giving him the pot. Parssinen took $48,500 for fourth.

PLO shark Eelis Parssinen fell in fourth

It was a rare blip for Rounce-Sue, but he bounced back immediately and managed to knock out Ogura on the very next hand. Ogura's AQJ3 looked far prettier than Rounce-Sue's 10963 pre-flop, but both players saw encouragement on the flop of JA8, following by the turn 10 and river Q.

Rounce-Sue had a straight and Ogura's two pair were not good enough. Ogura won $91,000 for third.

Takashi Ogura went out in third

The last two players took a short break before returning to uneven stacks. Rounce-Sue had 80 big blinds, double the 40 that Zhihao had. But 40 blinds is still enough to make a game of it, and Zhihao sat down to try.

And after a couple of small early pots, he got just what he needed: a huge double to take over the chip lead. The pot started innocuously. Rounce-Sue opened with A1073 and Zhihao called with K2K9. The pocket kings were pretty well disguised, but the flop of K7Q was pretty certain to see everything go in.

The heads-up battle begins

Zhihao check-raised his set, but Rounce-Sue was going nowhere with his flush and straight draws. He three bet, Zhihao four-bet jammed and Rounce-Sue called. The Kiwi needed to hit, but whiffed the 4 turn and 3 river.

All of a sudden, Zhihao had more than 90 blinds and Rounce-Sue had only 30.

Zhihao Zhang made a game of it heads-up

But this one wasn't done. Rounce-Sue bounced back when he did manage to hit a flush draw, holding 8286. Zhihao's 7685 made a straight on the run-out of 69Q37 and there was betting on every street.

Rounce-Sue headed to the dinner break with 65 blinds to Zhihao's 25. That became 43 to 17 when they came back and the blinds went up. And it wasn't long at all until all the chips went in.

JP Rounce-Sue stayed focus to close it out

Rounce-Sue had J852. Zhihao had Q966. The board ran 10J9104 to give Rounce-Sue his unexpected win.

"A week ago, I wasn't even thinking about it," he admitted. But now it's real.