Arnaud Tops Day 1 of HK$1 Million Triton Hold'em; Ivey Busts Twice
Day 1 of the HK$1,000,000 Triton Hold'em (Short Deck Ante-Only) event drew 41 entries and 16 players found their way through the first six 60-minute levels. Late registration will remain open through one more level so there might be some more players interested in joining or rejoining the action tomorrow.
So far, Romain Arnaud has managed to amass the most chips, having accumulated 1,580,000. Arnaud mostly increased his belongings in the last level. His pivotal surge came when he eliminated Gabe Patgorski with the nut flush. A couple of more additions to his stack helped Arnaud surpass Kenneth Kee in the overnight standings.
Kee was right at the top for a solid part of the day, having built a big stack in the early stages. Kee left his foot firmly on the pedal and kept piling up to eventually cross 1.5 million in chips, trailing only Arnaud.
Wai Kin Yong rounds out the top three with 1,284,000 in his bag. Yong's most significant moment came when he peeled pocket aces and held against Phil Ivey who put his second tournament life on the line with queen-ten suited. Ivey busted for the second time and took a break before play wrapped up for the day. He might have another shot at the title tomorrow when the action resumes.
While Ivey didn't find a bag tonight, some other North American stars were able to navigate their way into Day 2. Those include HK$1 Million Triton Hold'em Montenegro champion Jason Koon who was able to spin his stack up to 837,000, good for sixth place on the leaderboard. Koon sits behind Peter Jetten (1,169,000) and Alan Sass (1,130,000) who have participated in both previous Triton Hold'em events here in Jeju.
Andrew Robl made his debut today, taking to the felt for the first time at the festival and he finished in the middle of the pack with 610,000. The bottom half of the rankings features Tom Dwan (386,000) and Ben Lamb (315,000), among others.
Day 2 kicks off Sunday, July 29 at 2 p.m. local time with the 5,000 ante and 10,000 button-ante. Come back to follow PokerNews live updates as the 2018 Triton Super High Roller Series will crown the fourth champion tomorrow.