Although players from Finland are often the champions of PLO tournaments, now players living in Spain have taken over. The first was Tom-Aksel Bedell, who is originally from Norway but lives in Madrid, Spain. He dominated the first PLO tournament of the Triton Jeju series, which earned him his first title and a $709,000 prize. Two other Spaniards went on to win the following tournaments.
Record-breaking PLO Main Event
The $104,000 buy-in PLO Main Event of the Triton Jeju Series became the biggest PLO tournament ever held. With 91 entries, the prizepool here reached $9,100,000, leaving the winner with a prize of $2,340,000, the largest ever awarded in a PLO tournament. Triton Jeju has broken yet another record.
Spanish player Sergio Martinez sat at the PLO Main Event final table as the chipleader, holding a stack of over 100 blinds. He maintained a stack over 100 blinds for most of the time.
Heading into heads-up play against Martinez was Chinese player Bing Diao, who had a stack worth 56 blinds and was the chipleader. Martinez was down to a 20 blind stack at that point. However, things eventually turned around and the winner was Sergio Martinez, who won a record PLO reward of $2,340,000, his first Triton title, and a Jacob & Co. luxury watch. Bing Diao wanted to win his third Triton title, but in the end he took second place, which was worth $1,610,000.
Another Spanish winner
The last PLO tournament on the Triton Jeju schedule was the Bounty Quattro with a buy-in of $31,200, $10,000 of which went into the bounty prizepool. Straight 100 entries took care of the $3,000,000 prizepool.
Names like Alex Foxen, Nacho Barbero, Danny Tang, Stephen Chidwick and Lautaro Guerra made the final table, and the chipleader was Sam Greenwood with a stack of 4,795,000 (38 bb).
Sam Greenwood eventually made it to the final heads-up where he played against Spanish player Lautaro Guerra. Lautaro was the clear chipleader with a 45 blind stack, while Sam only held 5 blinds. Heads-up play lasted just one hand, after which Lautaro Guerra was crowned champion. He took home $503,000 for first place, an extra $280,000 in bounty prizes and his first Triton title. Sam Greenwood took home $340,000 plus $40,000 in bounty money.
1 - Lautaro Guerra, Spain - $783,000 (inc. $280,000 in bounties)
2 - Sam Greenwood, Canada - $380,000 (inc. $40,000 in bounties)
3 - Alex Foxen, USA - $381,000 (inc. $160,000 in bounties)
4 - Gavin Andreanoff, UK - $343,000 (inc. $160,000 in bounties)
5 - Danny Tang, Hong Kong - $187,000 (inc. $40,000 in bounties)
6 - Stephen Chidwick, UK - $156,000 (inc. $40,000 in bounties)
7 - Nacho Barbero, Argentina - $89,000
The first Short Deck tournament has kicked off
The first Short Deck tournament kicked off yesterday, which had a buy-in of $30,000 and produced 56 entries, which means a prizepool of $1,680,000. Cash prizes awaited 9 players and the smallest prize of $49,000 went to Winfred Yu. After his elimination, the last 8 players wrapped up their stacks and advanced to today's final table. The chipleader is Mike Watson with a stack of 4,515,000, but there is also Daniel Dvoress, Paul Phua, Jason Koon, Stephen Chidwick and Danny Tang at the table. The winner will get $492,000.
Source - Triton Poker, Youtube