17 days of play, 25 High Roller tournaments and nosebleed cash game action - the world's most prestigious poker series is back, and this time it's anchored in the British capital. London's JW Marriott Grosvenor House is hosting the Triton High Roller Series until August 10, and the packed schedule promises great day-to-day action. For all the essentials about the whole festival, check out the events section.
The whole parade kicked off with a two-day $25k NLH GGMillion$ event. It produced a total of 162 entries, which meant a prizepool worth $4,050,000. Of course, since the festival began, the organizers have also prepared a marathon of daily live streams, and you were able to watch yesterday's final of the first event live as well:
After the first day, 33 players had made it through to the final day, with ITM waiting for the top 27.This meant that the opening day was a bubble, which Jonathan Jaffe burst after 90 minutes. He sent his 10bb into play withA Q , but he found an opponent in Manuel Zapf, who with A Kallowed no surprises and moved the tournament into the money.
As the clock ticked down, the field gradually narrowed until we reached the final table, where the top nine was led by Germany's Manuel Zapf by a huge margin:
- Manuel Zapf – 90 BBs
- Luc Greenwood – 48 BBs
- Sam Grafton – 44 BBs
- Pablo Brito – 31 BBs
- Henrik Hecklen – 25 BBs
- Oliver Bithell – 24 BBs
- Kiat Lee – 23 BBs
- Aleks Ponakovs – 21 BBs
- Juan Pardo – 20 BBs
The massive chipleader Zapf eventually pushed his advantage from the opening final table all the way to the final heads-up, which can definitely be considered a great success given the namesake of this table's participants. He was only one player away from the coveted trophy and a huge cash prize at the end - Canadian pro Lucas Greenwood.
The deep structure promised a great show, which was further enhanced by the fact that the players did not find common ground in the deal debate and thus finished according to the original payout structure. Heads-up play started with Zapf holding an 82bb to 53bb advantage under Greenwood, but in the end it was a member of the Greenwood family who took home the title, the trophy and $897,000.
"I feel incredible! I remember coming here for the first time with my girlfriend and seeing all the faces of the champions on the posters on the ceiling. I thought to myself, I'm not there yet, and honestly, I didn't expect it to change so quickly. I didn't expect it but I'm honestly glad it did!"
Final results of #1 event:
- 1 – Luc Greenwood, Canada – $897,000
- 2 – Manuel Zapf, Germany – $605,500
- 3 – Oliver Bithell, UK – $416,700
- 4 – Kiat Lee, Malaysia – $339,800
- 5 – Henrik Hecklen, Denmark – $271,000
- 6 – Aleks Ponakovs, Latvia – $208,200
- 7 – Pablo Brito, Brazil – $151,500
- 8 – Juan Pardo, Spain – $109,800
- 9 – Sam Grafton, UK – $91,000
Source: Triton-Series, YouTube
