Some of the biggest names took to the felt to play the $100,000+$6,000 Triton Main Event at WSOP Paradise. After attracting an incredible 237 entries, including 156 unique entries, a jaw-dropping $23,700,000 prize pool was formed. In the end, only one player could take home the $4.75 million first prize, a WSOP bracelet, and a Triton trophy.
Following three days of play, Latvia’s Alexis Ponakovs earned the victory, earning his third WSOP bracelet and his long-awaited first Triton title. In fact, Ponakovs is eighth on Triton’s all-time money list, with $24.3 million of his career earnings coming in the illustrious high-roller series.
As with any $100,000 buy-in tournament, Ponakovs had to defeat the world’s best, topping the likes of Pedro Padilha, Manuel Fritz, Klemens Roiter, Eelis Pärssinen, and Adrian Mateos on the final table.
Big names fall early on Day 3
11 players came into Day 3, hoping they could lay claim to one of modern-day poker’s most prestigious titles. Kelvin Kerber and Jason Koon were the first to go, falling short of the final table and each taking home $415,000.
Adrien Mateos then suffered a cooler of coolers early on in final-table play, jamming his 24 big blinds with ace-king of diamonds into Wang Ye’s pocket aces. He finished in ninth for $495,000.
After Jean-Noel Thorel incorrectly hero-called and finished in eighth for $597,000, Wang Yang jammed ace-nine offsuit from the big blind straight into Padilha’s pocket aces. He received no help and finished in seventh for $813,000. Following Pärssinen’s elimination in sixth for $1,107,000, play would go on for three more hours before another player would hit the rail.
Ponakovs goes wild
Ponakovs would take full control of the tournament in a very short time, sending three players to the rail in record time. After taking out Klemens Roiter ($1,462,000) with ace-king against Roiter’s king-seven suited, he flopped a set of threes against Wang Ye just two hands later to send him packing in fourth place for $1,865,000.
Just six hands later, Ponakovs would get heads-up with Padilha, sucking out with ace-five off against Fritz’s ace-queen suited, flopping a five to send the Austrian out with an impressive $2,311,000.
A quick heads up
Ponakovs went into heads-up play with an impressive 47-28 big blind advantage over Padilha, though the Brazilian rail was awfully intense, especially for Triton standards. However, the rail wouldn’t be enough as Ponakovs would make quick work of the young superstar.
After the blinds went up, on the fifth hand of heads-up play, Ponakovs limped in with pocket nines. Padilha jammed ace-nine suited for his last 18 big blinds, and Ponakovs snapped him off.
The board ran out 4-7-3-Q-T, and Ponakovs was finally able to celebrate his first-career Triton title.
The curse is broken
After the win, Ponakovs admitted he wasn’t planning to come to WSOP Paradise. But on his 20th-career Triton final table, he can finally breathe as the monkey is officially off his back.
“I don’t know where to start,” Ponakovs told Triton after the win. “I was not even planning to go here, and I’m glad I’m here. I’m glad my wife is here supporting me.
“The curse is broken, I guess. We had a laugh that whenever your significant other comes to support you, there’s no chance to win. Now, it’s great.”
The Triton trophy typically comes with a very expensive and exclusive watch. However, this one came with a WSOP bracelet. The Latvian still wants his timepiece.
“I’m not getting a watch?! Now I need to win another one.”
Ponakovs now has over $34 million in career live tournament earnings, according to The Hendon Mob.
