Champion Sam Soverel
Florida's Sam Soverel made quick work of the unscheduled third day's play in the $100K PLO Main Event at Triton Poker Series Paradise on Sunday night, taking only seven hands to polish off Andras Nemeth and win his first Triton title.
What an event to choose, as well. This enormous tournament, the showpiece of the four-card phase of the Triton Paradise festival, brought the 35-year-old a first prize of $2.594 million, a new career high. It takes his total poker earnings beyond $30 million and marks a sensational debut on the Triton Poker Series.
He also earns a fourth career World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet, having previously won WSOP silverware in 2016, 2023 and earlier this year.
"It's a good start," Soverel dead-panned in his winner's interview.
One of America's leading pros, Soverel had been persuaded to make his splash on the Triton Series here in the Bahamas, and having whiffed the first $75K PLO event, he made no mistake in the second.
"It was great," he added. "I love to play. Happy I came down here now. I came two years ago, and I didn't really enjoy it. It was rainy every day and stuff. But now that Triton's here, all the tournaments have been run amazing and it's been a good experience so far."
He brought a narrow chip lead to the seven-handed final yesterday, riding out the characteristically volatile early stages of final table play. He then won a pivotal hand against the odds to oust Richard Gryko in fourth place, then blazed into an enormous heads-up lead by knocking out Dan Dvoress in what proved to be the final hand of Saturday.
But Soverel acknowledged it was an unusual final table that might have gone in any direction.
"The chip lead is really big in PLO," he said. Of the hand against Gryko, he said, "I felt pretty good right after it happened. But I think I very quickly lost [the chip lead], so it was back to a battle. It was a pretty weird final table. Normally someone gets the chip lead and kind of runs everyone over. But this was all back and forth the whole time with everyone."
Sam Soverel tells Marianela Pereyra how he did it
Not so during heads-up, where Soverel's lead proved insurmountable. On the seventh hand of the unscheduled third day, Soverel picked up KK53 and limped from the small blind. Nemeth, the Hungarian pro, found AJJ9 and raised. Soverel sprang his trap with a three-bet and Nemeth committed his final chips.
The run-out of 71062K changed nothing and sealed the deal for Soverel. Several times yesterday, players had bust from the final table holding pocket kings, including Dvoress in that blockbuster late hand. But tonight, the kings were enough to crown Soverel as PLO Main Event champ.
Nemeth won $1.751 million for second, but missed the chance to win a second title on the Triton Poker Series.
Andras Nemeth watches the final run out
WHAT CAME BEFORE...
As stated, the tournament was originally scheduled to play to its conclusion on Saturday, but the sheer size of the field — 103 entries — meant the day ran all the way to 3.30 a.m., local time, at which point local gaming regulations meant it had to stop.
Soverel and Nemeth, both of whom had had the chip lead during various stages of play, were therefore required to return a day later to play the heads-up phase and crown the champion. Read how the rest of the tournament played out.
Soverel returned with a significant chip lead. His 20.75 million equated to 83 big blinds, a near four-to-one advantage over Nemeth's 5 million, or 20 blinds. Furthermore, there were only four hands left in the level, so the blinds were quickly going up.
Heads up in PLO Main Event
There was little of note through the first six hands of heads-up play, with tiny pots shifting one way and then the other. But then Soverel found those kings at precisely the right time, namely at the same time Nemeth had jacks. Nemeth's stack was only 14 blinds at that stage and he was happy to get the chips in.
Soverel, however, just had better.
It remains to be seen whether Soverel will now be tempted away from the United States and its close neighbors to play more on the world's leading high stakes poker tour. Suffice to say he'd be welcomed — and feared — wherever he went.
