Champion Chris Nguyen!

Heard the one about the young German pro destroying the final day on the Triton Poker Super High Roller Series? Well, here it is again.

Twenty-four hours after Fedor Holz picked up a fifth career Triton title with a dominant display in Montenegro, Chris Nguyen was similarly untouchable on his cruise to a maiden win on the tour. This time it was in the $50K NLH event, with 132 entries and a $6.6 million prize pool.

But at only 26, and despite the grandeur of the stage, Nguyen was the absolute image of composure under pressure. Nguyen is a former online cash game pro, who only transitioned to live tournaments relatively recently. But he has taken to this format with consummate ease and his first Triton win was only a matter of time.

His win brought with it a prize of $1,535,000, and, remarkably, it's Nguyen's fifth seven-figure score of the past 18 months. He reached the final table with a mid-sized stack but quickly won three enormous pots, eliminating three dangerous opponents. He was never out of the lead from that moment on, and eventually knocked out both Daniel Rezaei and Kristen Foxen in third and second, respectively, to complete the job.

"I'm very happy," Nguyen said. "It was one of the toughest fields. All Tritons are very tough so I'm very happy to win it."

Chris Nguyen talks to Henry Kilbane

Grinning broadly as he collected his spoils, Nguyen nonetheless confessed to feeling some nerves at the final, surrounded by the superstars of the Triton Poker Series. "I think I had a big chip lead for most of the FT, but I was definitely stressed," he said. "There were some big spots for me and a lot of them went my way."

Triton commentator Henry Kilbane asked Nguyen what advice he would give to other prospective players hoping to follow in his footsteps, and Nguyen essentially gave a blueprint of his own success.

"The most important thing is that you truly love poker and truly dedicate your time to it," Nguyen said. "Be curious and if you spend a lot of time on poker, you'll get better, and hopefully one day make Triton."

And if you do, you'll likely find Nguyen here waiting to do battle once again.

TOURNAMENT ACTION

With the buy-ins now climbing rapidly every day in Montenegro, the prize pool for the $50K NLH tournament pushed past $6.6 million and the first confirmed seven-figure prize was in store. In fact, with 132 entries, the top two finishers were set for more than a million bucks, but they would have to work for it.

Only 27 players survived the first day, with the field topped by Kristen Foxen. There were only prizes for the top 23, however, which meant David D'Alessandro's departure in 24th was especially unfortunate. In town primarily to play the Triton Invitational, D'Alessandro had already cashed the Golden Decade event earlier in the week. But this time his AJ was not good enough to beat Kiat Lee's and sent his last nine blinds Lee's way.

The rest of the field quietly celebrated moving into the money.

A tough way to finish for David D'Alessandro

There was nobody at any stage of the tournament so far who had extended anything more than just a moderate chip lead. There were plenty of middling stacks, which left them all in an ICM pickle. The tournament slowly inched to the final rather than sprinted.

When they got there, with Paulius Vaitiekunas and then Santhosh Suvarna finishing in 11th and 10th, respectively, the last nine were rewarded by the levels being wound back to bring the average stack back over 30 blinds. It was now a little stretched as they returned to play to a champion.

FINAL TABLE LINE-UP

Daniel Rezaei - 4,955,000 (62 BBs)

Daniil Kisilev - 4,685,000 (59 BBs)

Alisson Piekazewicz - 4,640,000 (58 BBs)

Chris Nguyen - 3,995,000 (50 BBs)

Thomas Mühlöcker - 3,370,000

Kristen Foxen - 2,325,000 (29 BBs)

Jason Koon - 1,260,000 (16 BBs)

Patrik Antonius - 945,000 (12 BBs)

Joao Simao - 225,000 (3 BBs)

Event 6 final table players (clockwise from back left): Daniil Kiselev, Patrik Antonius, Alisson Piekazewicz, Joao Simao, Kristen Foxen, Daniel Rezaei, Thomas Mühlöcker, Jason Koon, Chris Nguyen.

Joao Simao had it all to do. The winner of the $150K in the Bahamas in December was returning to the Triton Poker Series here in Montenegro and narrowly missed out on the final table of yesterday's Mystery Bounty. He very nearly missed out on this one too when he lost all but two blinds in doubling up countryman Alisson Piekazewicz when the tournament was 12-handed.

However, he squeaked into the final, got an extra blind thanks to the roll-back, and then doubled up almost instantly through Thomas Mühlöcker, with AA[ beating A. But two hands later, Simao picked up pocket jacks at the exact time Chris Nguyen found pocket queens. Simao didn't have a difficult decision with the notoriously tricky hand, but he couldn't beat the queens.

Simao won $153,000 for ninth.

Joao Simao was first out from the final

All of a sudden, things started moving quickly. Jason Koon was the short stack with 12 blinds and he open-shoved the button holding KJ. Nguyen was again the player lurking in the big blind with a better hand, and this time Nguyen's A made a flush to end Koon's tournament.

Koon seems to be in good form in Montenegro, with two final tables already. But he had to settle for eighth place and $192,000 this time.

Jason Koon couldn't manifest the cards he needed

This was also the second final table of the week already for Patrik Antonius, but he lasted only one more hand than Koon. For the third time, Nguyen was the assassin, this time open-jamming the small blind holding AQ with only Antonius still active in the big blind behind him.

Antonius had 14 blinds and A9, which was plenty strong enough in the circumstances. But Nguyen's superior holding hit another queen on the flop and a third on the river. In two hands, the relatively new kid on the block, Nguyen, had sent two of the established greats to the rail.

Antonius won $261,000 for seventh.

Patrik Antonius became the third rapid elimination from the final

This sudden surge from Nguyen put the German pro to the top of the counts. But the average was now 55 blinds and Kristen Foxen's short stack stood at 27 blinds, so there was still lots more intrigue to come.

Most of it still involved Nguyen. He immediately won a big pot from Piekazewicz to extend his lead further, and then he really began to turn the screw. Nguyen had the luxury of being able to raise pretty much every pot and watch the shackles appear around the wrists of each of his opponents. They sat with stacks of between 20 and 40 blinds, while Nguyen had about 130.

Nobody wanted to budge, which led to a couple of hours where chips slowly moved around the table in tiny bundles.

These static phases of play do end eventually, of course, and in this instance in took a hand between Piekazewicz and Rezaei to do the necessary. The pair were all but tied on 12 blinds each when Rezaei opened with pocket 10s in the cutoff and Piekazewicz found pocket sevens in the small blind.

Piekazewicz jammed, Rezaei called and the only card that changed anything was another 10 on the river. Piekazewicz was therefore left with less than a single blind.

He chopped a pot with Nguyen, which actually gave him a full double, but that only meant he lost two blinds to Foxen on his elimination hand rather than one. Foxen's K8 beat Piekazewicz's Q. The dominant bounty hunter of Jeju finished this final table in sixth for $353,000.

Alisson Piekazewicz couldn't get past Foxen

Piekazewicz was the first player at the final who did not fall to Nguyen, but the table dynamic was largely unaltered. Only six blinds separated the bottom five, while Nguyen had nearly as much as the rest of them combined. It was only when Daniil Kiselev found aces and took a chunk from Nguyen that it seemed possible that he could be reined in.

They took a dinner break, but quickly thereafter Thomas Mühlöcker's tournament finished. The Austrian had only seven blinds and opened from under the gun as a virtual jam, picking up a call from Foxen on the button. The flop came 62 and Foxen bet to get Mühlöcker's final chip in the pot.

Foxen had A9 and turned a third nine. Mühlöcker couldn't hit either of his two outs on the river and that was that. He took $456,000 for fifth.

Thomas Mühlöcker bids farewell

For the briefest moment, it now looked as though Nguyen might face challenges from all the way down the field. However, only two hands later, he despatched his closest challenger, Kiselev, with the biggest pot of the final so far.

This one came about when Nguyen opened A6 from under the gun and Kiselev called in the big blind with K. Kiselev would have loved the flop.

Kiselev checked and Nguyen bet with his middle pair and backdoor hearts. Kiselev only called with top pair. The A put Nguyen ahead, and Kiselev kept it small, only check-calling once again. But the K river was a decisive card: it gave Kiselev two pair too, only smaller than Nguyen's.

Kiselev checked and Nguyen went for all of it, putting in his whole, covering stack. Kiselev made the call but quickly learnt the bad news.

Playing for the first time on the Triton Series in Montenegro, Kiselev earned his third cash. At $568,000 it's his biggest, but it came with a fourth place finish.

Daniil Kiselev seemed at one point the man most likely to threaten Nguyen

Nguyen now had 75 blinds, more than double what Foxen (20) and Rezaei (11) had combined.

As is to be expected, Nguyen was essentially all in every hand. When the level went up, the two shortest stacks shrank to around 10 blinds and there was precious little even talents as bright as Foxen and Rezaei could do about the situation, except wait for a spot to get lucky.

Foxen found a spot. She got her chips in with K10 and Nguyen called with A. Foxen hit a king to double. And then Rezaei found one too. Nguyen jammed with and Rezaei's stayed best. Perhaps it wasn't done yet.

King-ten had been the right hand to take up against Nguyen it seemed. And Rezaei must have been delighted to see K10 on the next hand too. Nguyen put in a standard raise from the button this time and Rezaei put in a standard three-bet. But then Nguyen ripped it in.

Rezaei called and learned he was racing Nguyen's pocket sevens. But the king-ten lost this time out as a board of 9J5 missed everyone. Rezaei, who won his first title in Jeju, will have to wait for a second. He took $693,000 for third.

King ten no good for Rezaei at the second time of asking

It was Nguyen versus Foxen for the title, then. Nguyen had 51 blinds to Foxen's 15.

Unfortunately for Foxen, there was not much she could do to halt this charge. Four hands in, Nguyen shoved from the small blind holding 97 and Foxen called for all she had with the dominant K.

A tough beat for Kristen Foxen at the end

However, the runout of 896 gave Nguyen a straight, and that was the end of that.

Foxen has been doing this for many years already, and will certainly carry on at the top of the game for many years hence. But the newcomer Nguyen is already making huge waves. He is a fully formed superstar already, with the potential to become an all-timer. Watch this space.