Champion Tom Bedell!

The opening PLO event of the Triton Super High Roller Series trip to Jeju ended tonight in the Landing Casino with some wild short-stack lunacy and a popular champion in the shape of Tom Bedell.

At 64, the Norwegian PLO specialist becomes the third-oldest player ever to win on the Triton Series, behind only the tour's co-founder Richard Yong, who was 65 when he won his second title, and 69-year-old Vladimir Korzinin. Bedell first strolled into a Triton tournament room in Madrid in 2022 and has been a familiar visitor since, especially when the four-card game takes centre stage.

He used all his guile to survive an exceptionally volatile final today, arriving with the big stack, losing almost all of it, but then carrying the momentum back through a brief heads-up duel with China's Shi Ning Dan.

By that point, American Hall of Famers Erik Seidel and Phil Ivey were both back in the hutch, and noted PLO crusher Eelis Parssinen and Richard Gryko had also fallen away. Bedell, beneath his trademark bucket hat, persistent grin and wearing his lucky shirt, was the champion and $709,000 richer.

What it means to Tom Bedell

"I love these tournaments for sure," Bedell told Ali Nejad in his post-game interview. Pausing to reveal that some previous hotel booking issues had stopped him coming to some other Triton events, he added, "Now they are forgiven, and I'm back!"

He lifted the trophy above his head with a roar, and began his life as a Triton champion.

Shi raked in $486,000 for second, which was all the more impressive given that it was his first ever tournament on the Triton Series, and his other documented poker results barely covered the $25,000 buy-in.

Shi Ning Dan made a splash on debut in Jeju

TOURNAMENT ACTION

Over the past couple of days, the halls and cafes at the Landing Casino, Jeju, had been filled with idling poker players. This is unusual because more commonly they're sitting at poker tables. However, this was the PLO contingent, getting their bodies adjusted to the time zone before starting the second phase of this Triton Series festival. They got the chance to put their skills to the test with the start of the $25,000 PLO Event 13.

The 10 levels of registration brought 117 entries, putting $2.925 million in the prize pool and a $709,000 carrot at the top. And while early action was hectic, it slowed to an almighty crawl as the bubble neared, with most pots staying small, else short-stacks repeatedly doubling up.

Ten-time Triton champion Jason Koon lost his last chips with aces, beaten by Tom Bedell's 986, a hand seemingly specifically designed to crack aces. Koon was out in 21st, leaving the field on its stone bubble.

After more than an hour, it was time finally for some more aces to be kicked out. This time Gavin Andrenoff, who won a PLO tournament in Monte Carlo in 2023, picked up AA10 and lost to Dirk Gerritse's . Gerritse finished with a flush.

Sergio Martinez's elimination took the field to the final table

Not only did the hand burst the bubble, it also ended Day 1. Bedell was a massive chip-leader, and the field also still featured American legends Phil Ivey and Erik Seidel, as well as Gerritse (better known as "venividi"), and Monte Carlo PLO Main Event champ Eelis Parssinen. It was quite a line-up.

Through the first two hours of play on the final day, only Gerritse of the players listed above hit the rail. Sam Greenwood, Jeremy Ausmus and Seth Davies also fell short of the final seven, but Ivey, Parssinen and Seidel were still involved.

Bedell's closest challenge came from the British PLO specialist Richard Gryko, with China's Wei Lin and Shi Ning Dan sitting in third and fifth, respectively. There were a couple of very short stacks but plenty of play. The last seven lined up as follows:

Tom Bedell - 7,100,000 (71 BBs)

Richard Gryko - 5,175,000 (52 BBs)

Wei Lin - 3,725,000 (37 BBs)

Phil Ivey - 3,675,000 (37 BBs)

Shi Ning Dan - 2,950,000 (30 BBs)

Eelis Parssinen - 550,000 (6 BBs)

Erik Seidel - 225,000 (2 BBs)

Event 13 final table players (clockwise from back left): Lin Wei, Shi Ning Dan, Erik Seidel, Phil Ivey, Richard Gryko, Eelis Parssinen

As the players walked out to the final table, the biggest cheer was reserved for Seidel. There's not a single person in poker who does not respect his status in the game, as one of the only members of the established pre-boom old guard still competing in the cutthroat contemporary environment.

His stack here, of course, was going to be very difficult to spin into something playable and he duly bust on the first hand of final table play. Seidel's AK9 went down to Ivey's .

Seidel's second final table of the trip ended in the same place as his first: seventh place, this time for $123,000.

Erik Seidel couldn't spin up a short stack at the final

Eelis Parssinen started the final table with not much more than Seidel, but the Finnish PLO expert fared significantly better with his short stack. Parssinen scored two double ups to stay afloat, and even edged close to the average stack line.

Meanwhile, Bedell and Gryko were now trading places at the top of the counts, with every pot that made it beyond a flop usually resulting in a shake-up of the leader board. That was a symptom of a rapidly shallowing tournament, with the average stack hovering at fewer than 30 blinds and nobody busting.

This state of affairs was not sustainable forever, but it was the previously comfortable Lin Wei who ended up breaking the impasse. He had slipped to eight big blinds and got involved in a single raised pot with Ivey, which ended with Wei on the rail and Ivey up top.

Wei opened with AK8 and Ivey called in the big blind with . Ivey checked the flop, having now hit trips, and Wei jammed.

Ivey hit two jacks on turn and river to make a full house, which was plenty good enough to dispense with Wei. This was the first tournament Wei had ever played on the Triton Series, and he left it with $166,000.

Lin Wei is out in sixth

Ivey now had one blind more than Shi Ning Dan at the top of the counts, with Gryko having lost a significant pot to Parssinen, and Bedell also only really managing to tread water. As the tournament ticked into Level 24, the average stack, five-handed, was only 19 big blinds.

Parssinen now made his move. He scored an enormous double through Bedell, with Parssinen's AKJ beating Bedell's . They were all-in pre-flop and Parssinen hit two kings.

All of a sudden, Bedell was now sitting with crumbs, while Parssinen was top of the pack. However, when Gryko then doubled through Parssinen, the Brit pulled level at the summit with Dan, who had taken the overall lead by default having sat out the previous hand. One more pot to Gryko, and he was alone up top again. Average stack update: 16 blinds.

This short-stack shenanigans were all-but impossible to keep up with, and took another turn for the bizarre when Bedell doubled back through Ivey, leaving the American back at the bottom of the counts with three blinds. They took a 15-minute break and returned to the frankly absurd chip counts of 18 blinds for chip-leader Gryko, followed by Parssinen (14 BBs), Dan (13 BBs), Bedell (12 BBs) and Ivey (3 BBs).

It was, in short, anyone's game.

Except, as it turned out, Ivey's. The five-time Triton champion had the chance here to match Jason Koon's achievement of holding trophies in all Triton variants: hold'em, short deck and PLO. But the major hand against Bedell before the break meant he ended up pretty-much forced all-in on the first hand after it.

The good news was that Ivey found KK10, and saw Parssinen raise ahead of him. The bad news was that Shi, sitting behind him, had .

Parssinen got out of the way, but Shi's aces held against the kings, and Ivey was finished. This fifth place earned him $213,000.

Phil Ivey, seated left, busts to Shi Ning Dan

True to the topsy-turvy nature of this tournament, the next chip leader was the man who had the most for most of the day: Bedell again. He won a comparatively small pot from Shi, but with tiny stacks across the board, it was enough to put him ahead. It was also enough for him to take on Parssinen in a big pot, which finally ended the Finn's up-and-down event.

Bedell, on the button, opened J109. Parssinen defended his big blind with and the pair took in the flop.

Both player checked to the 8 turn and now Parssinen committed his last chips. Bedell called with his pair and enormous draw. He hit it when the A landed on the river.

Parssinen, the Monte Carlo PLO Main Event champion, was this time ousted in fourth. He took $264,000 — and the entries list for the $50K PLO event starting in the same room ticked up by one.

This one hurt for Eelis Parssinen

Bedell had more than his two opponents combined, and started to apply the pressure. Only a hand or two after Parssinen departed, Gryko found himself in Bedell's sights. Bedell opened the small blind with 77 and Gryko shoved from the big with . Bedell called and this was basically a flip on equity.

Gryko needed to hit something, but danced around everything on the Q94 flop. The turn changed little, then the gave Bedell a straight.

That was that for Gryko, who earned $320,000 for his third place. He's another lock for the rest of the PLO schedule here, so it's a useful boost to the bankroll for that.

The swings ended in third for Richard Gryko

The tournament paused to reset for head-up. Shi had 10 blinds to Bedell's 37 and although Shi managed to prolong the duel for 20 minutes or so, there was really nothing he could do to stop Bedell.

On the final hand, Bedell had 335 while Shi had . Bedell ended up with a straight after a board of , which he needed to beat the trip sixes of Shi.

Shi was straightened out, and we had our winner.

The moment of truth for Tom Bedell