Champion Sergio Martinez!
Sergio Martinez Gonzalez is the latest champion on the Triton Super High Roller Series — and what an event he chose to come out of the shadows.
Though he's made several deep runs through two years on the tour, Martinez landed the top prize tonight in the biggest six-figure buy-in PLO event ever held, by Triton or any other operator.
It was a $100K buy-in with 91 entries and Martinez' title came with a $2.34 million winner's cheque and an extra large trophy. That's the biggest prize anybody has ever won in a PLO tournament, anywhere, ever. He can also now strap an exclusive Jacob & Co timepiece around his wrist, an honour bestowed only on those players who have won a Triton Main Event.
Martinez seemed to be absolutely cruising to the title for long periods of the day, amassing a chip stack that frequently sat at more than 100 blinds and was almost always more than all of his opponents' stacks combined.
The winning moment for Sergio Martinez
But a spirited fightback from two-time Triton champion Ding Biao threatened to loosen Martinez' stranglehold on the event. It ended in a really gritty heads-up fight with Martinez himself having to bounce back from the point of elimination.
"I had a huge chip lead," Martinez said in his post-game interview, "and all of a sudden it disappeared."
He explained that he even told his confident girlfriend, who wanted to watch his victory moment, to go back to sleep because "tournaments can go the other way sometimes."
She ignored him and was there as this 33-year-old former aerospace engineer flew to new heights thanks to the Triton Poker Series.
Sergio Martinez and his girlfriend make sure his winning hand is correct
Ding took $1.61 million for second, but was clearly bitterly disappointed to go so close to a third win and fall short. He just couldn't quite get the job done against Martinez.
TOURNAMENT ACTION
For seemingly the umpteenth tournament in succession, this event quickly became a record-breaker. As 91 entries traipsed past the buy-in desk (including 44 re-entries), Triton's own record for the biggest six-figure buy-in PLO tournament was eclipsed. It meant $9.1 million in the prize pool and a scheduled $2.34 million for the winner. The four-card game will never catch hold'em, but it's doing a fair imitation here on the Triton Series.
Registration only actually closed at the start of Day 2, also the last day of competition, so organisers knew immediately that it was going to be a long one. But with leading players including Dylan Weisman, Jeremy Ausmus, Isaac Haxton and Gruff Jones busting short of the money, the bubble quickly approached and burst with equal haste.
The extra large trophy and Jacob & Co timepiece
For the second time this trip, Dan Dvoress landed just the wrong side of the payout line. He had a comparatively comfortable stack of 38 blinds, and picked up single-suited aces, specifically AA104. After Zhikang Dai opened, Dvoress three-bet and Zhikang's call took them to the 734 flop.
Zhikang bet and Dvoress got the rest in. Zhikang was sitting with 2543, which was all over this flop. He finished with a straight after the 6 came on the river.
Dvoress bust in 16th, which was especially timely for his countryman Mike Watson and Triton Ambassador Jason Koon, who were the short stacks. They went out in 15th and 14th respectively, but earned $160,000 each.
Crowds gather to see Dan Dvoress (seated, in black hat) bubble the PLO Main Event
The next target was the final, and it was clear remarkably early that this one would be without a single Finn. Yesterday's runner-up Joni Jouhkimainen bust in 11th, just after yesterday's winner, Gergo Nagy. Gavin Andreanoff, after two painful bubbles, cashed in 10th, then Ben Tollerene and Dirk Gerritse were knocked out, to complete the final table lineup as follows.
Sergio Martinez - 6,345,000 (106 BBs)
Ding Biao - 4,280,000 (70 BBs)
Zhikang Dai - 4,025,000 (67 BBs)
Huang Wenjie - 3,070,000 (51 BBs)
Tom Vogelsang - 2,210,000 (37 BBs)
Mads Amot - 1,755,000 (29 BBs)
Lin Wei - 1,130,000 (19 BBs)
Event 16 final table players (clockwise from back left): Ding Biao, Huang Wenjie, Mads Amot, Sergio Martinez, Zhikang Dai, Lin Wei, Tom Vogelsang
More than half the players at the table were from China, including the remarkable Huang Wenjie, who had already won the NLH Main Event this week. But by far the biggest stack sat with Spain's Sergio Martinez, who was tearing through the field.
The first major skirmish of the final ran these two players into one another, with Martinez emerging with an even tighter stranglehold on proceedings and Huang's two-time ambitions in tatters.
Martinez opened with JJ96 and called Huang's pre-flop three-bet. That took them to a flop of A810. Huang bet out, Martinez jammed and Huang called.
Huang had hit this flop pretty hard. His 10887 looked pretty pre-flop and it was now a set of eights. But Martinez also liked what he saw with his enormous draws. The Q on the turn gave him a winning straight. Huang was out in seventh for $423,000.
Huang Wenjie's quest for a stunning double came up slightly short
Mads Amot is no stranger to the deep stages of PLO tournaments, but he'd be the first to admit he is usually surrounded by other fellow Nordics. In this instance, the Norwegian pro was alone. He lost a significant pot to Ding Biao's flush and ended as the short stack, which he promptly got in the first time he saw a decent spot.
Amot had AQ74 and open/called off after Vogelsang three-bet the big blind. Vogelsang's AK108 started best and stayed that way through a board of 105J28. Amot was free to join the bounty event, with $536,000 added to his account.
The red light of doom lands on Mads Amot
Martinez was still an enormous chip leader at this stage withe nearly three times the average stack. Only Ding had the chips to potentially do any damage, but the other three players were all scratching around the 30 blinds mark—or 20 when the levels went up once again.
The next pot only succeeded in making the rich richer, this time at the expense of Tom Vogelsang. This has been a strong return to the Triton Series for the Dutchman, with two moderate cashes from the NLH portion of the schedule, then two final tables in the PLO. However, he couldn't progress past fifth thanks to a really gross elimination at the hands of Martinez.
All four aces were out pre-flop, two in Vogelsang's hand and two in Martinez'. They got all their chips in before the dealer showed them any more cards, but the flop of 265 suddenly brought their kickers into play. Vogelsang had two fours -- blockers in this instance -- but Martinez had 4 and 3, which was good for a straight.
Vogelsang took it well and departed, earning $686,000. When you're hot, you're hot. Martinez now had more than 70 percent of the chips in play.
A gross way to bust for Tom Vogelsang
There was a Spaniard sitting atop three Chinese, but when Zhikang bust next, his chips stayed with a countryman. Ding Biao got a boost to his stack when his J10J2 bettered Zhikang's AQ106.
Zhikang started the hand with seven blinds and they got the last of it in on a flop of 864. Ding's jacks couldn't be caught and Zhikang left with $854,000 for his troubles.
Zhikang Dai, standing, with a huge first cash on the Triton Series
The last three were now guaranteed seven figures and Martinez still had more than double his opponents' stacks combined. But things can change quickly, and a double for Lin Wei through Martinez put the former as the closest challenger to the European, with Ding the shortest in the room. (It was aces holding against queens, for the record.)
However, Ding battled back, nosed ahead of Lin and then won a big one from Martinez. Ding's AA84 stayed better than Martinez' J364 all the way through a flop, turn and river that brought draws that never materialised for Martinez. The 3 million-chip pot produced a 6 million swing and put Ding all of a sudden in the lead.
The formidable Ding Biao
With the levels increasing again, Lin slipped to 11 blinds once more. And then seven. And then four. Through all this, he must have been gleeful to see Ding and Martinez continue to play pots against one another, usually ending with more chips padding Ding's stack.
Lin doubled back to eight blinds, through Ding, but his next attempt wasn't so successful. Lin's final hand was AKQ10, which looked pretty. But it never caught up against Martinez' KJJ10.
Lin ended with another career best of $1,055,000.
Lin Wei waits for the help that never came
Two players remained and vowed to play it out pure, even though it was getting late in Jeju and Luca Vivaldi was close by with his ICM calculator if they wanted it. Ding had 56 blinds now to Martinez' 20. There was still the prospect for a long one.
Ding widened the gap in small increments, until Martinez doubled to bring them level again. Ding had 66108 and flopped a flush draw to go with his over pair. But Martinez had K91010 and his better pair held. They had exactly 38 blinds apiece.
Martinez took another big dip again, however, which then required another double up to remedy. He had only 14 blinds to 43 but picked up aces and got the double, and they were even once more.
The game's up for Ding Biao
To this point, it had been Ding winning the small pots and Martinez doubling up. But Martinez then went on a tear and won five back-to-back hands to leave Ding with just three blinds.
Ding found a great hand to get those chips in. He had AKKJ and was up against Martinez' K545. But a five flopped and Ding got up to leave.
The turn and river didn't help him. This one belonged to Martinez.
As Ali Nejad stated to the popular Spaniard: "You can't hide anymore, Sergio.
A celebratory fist-bump from Ali Nejad
