Jeju, South Korea (March 4, 2019) — For the second time in two days at the Triton Poker Series, Jeju, the final stages of a multi-million dollar tournament came down to an east versus west heads-up duel between two elite poker talents.
But unlike yesterday, when Justin Bonomo took first place for North America, this time Hong Kong’s Devan Tang bested the Canadian Peter Jetten to secure a HK$9.7 million (US$1.24 million) first prize and the second title in this six-event high roller series.
There were 69 entries to a tournament costing HK$500,000 to enter, with eight players today dividing the HK$15.275 million prize pool.
Tang hit a remarkable run of cards — including pocket aces at least five times and four-of-a-kind when he was faced with early elimination — to secure the spoils. It consolidates his standing as second on China’s all-time money list, and brings career earnings to more than US$6 million.
“I’m very, very happy about it,” Tang said. “I got very lucky. I was lucky the whole way.” He added: “It was a tough field, for sure. When you’re playing this big and you make the final table, you have to play your best for sure.”
Jetten earned HK$7.04 million for second place, with France’s Romain Arnaud third (HK$4.54 million). Triton Poker Ambassador Jason Koon recorded another major score in a short-deck event, finishing fourth for HK$3.435 million. Koon leads the global money list for short-deck hold’em tournaments — a relatively new variant in which the usual 52-card deck is reduced to 36 by the removal of all cards lower than a six.
SIX-MAX SETS NEW RECORD
Event #3 of the Triton Series, Jeju, festival became the richest ever Six-Max live poker tournament ever played. The 81 entries, of HK$500,000 apiece, produced a total prize pool of HK$38.07 million. The winner, crowned tomorrow, will take HK$11,150,000.
Erik Seidel, Patrik Antonius, Steve O’Dwyer, Christoph Vogelsang, Nick Petrangelo, Matthias Eibinger, and reigning WSOP Main Event champion John Cynn were among those to make their 2019 Triton Series debuts in the event.
Live Stream
All the action from Jeju is being streamed live online, on YouTube, Twich and the Triton Series website, with expert commentary from Lex Veldhuis and Randy Lew, in English, and Celina Lin and Haoxiang Wang in Chinese.
