Ben Lamb captured his maiden Triton title in Event #9: HK$500K Short Deck NLHE Ante Only of the Triton Poker High Roller Series Montenegro.
- Another packed house for Event #2. At bagging time, France's Romain Arnaud had snatched the chip lead, having increased his 300,000 starting stack to 3.030 million — the kind of stack someone would be happy to take to the final table.
- After watching Triton Poker founder Paul Phua take out Arnaud Romain in third, Cao saw an opportunity for revenge. The two high stakes players have butted heads numerous times in Triton cash games.
The 2019 Triton Poker Super High Roller Series Montenegro is winding down and two more stars of the game have taken down titles. Ben Lamb just missed out on his first Triton Poker win earlier this series but finally broke through on Friday after winning the HK$ 500,000 Short Deck Event.
Meanwhile, Mikita Badziakouski continues his dominance of the high stakes world, this time winning the HK$ 750,000 Short Deck NL Hold'em event for $1.69 million. This is his third Triton Poker title.
Ben Lamb Wins First Triton Title
To casual poker fans, Ben Lamb is best known for his two WSOP Main Event final table appearances in 2011 and 2017. However, he has quite a few impressive scores outside those. This series, Lamb nearly won his first Triton Poker title, finishing second in the HK$ 200k PLO. This time around, Lamb broke through to win his first title by winning the HK$ 500,000 Short Deck NL Hold'em event and a stout $974,634 prize.
This event drew a small, yet elite, field of 42 entries to create a prize pool of $2.55 million USD. Just the final five players made the money with Timofey Kuznetsov finishing fifth, Xuan Tan finishing fourth, and Seng Leow finishing third.
Heads-up play was between Lamb and Arnaud Romain. Romain had the chip lead at the start of heads-up play and the pair battled back and forth for a short time before Lamb retook the lead for good. Lamb steadily chipped away at Romain until he held the lead and ultimately the title.
👑 Congratulations @BenbaLamb 🇺🇸, winner of the 🔱 HKD 500k Short Deck Ante-Only event after an intense and long battle with Romain Arnaud 🇫🇷, collecting HKD 7,650,000 ($994,500)
Full Recap: https://t.co/2VDmqxBkTjpic.twitter.com/rI9AQovc89
— Triton Poker (@tritonpoker) May 17, 2019
Romain finished in second place, earning $639,600. Lamb took down his first Triton Poker title, earning $994.500 in the process. Lamb told reporters that it 'feels good' to win the title and would head back to Las Vegas to play some golf before playing in the 2019 World Series of Poker.
Mikita Badziakouski Wins $750k Short Deck Title
Romain Arnaud Poker Game
Mikita Badziakouski enters a high stakes poker tournament. Badziakouski makes the final table. Badziakouski wins the tournament. That seems to be the formula for the Belarus high stakes superstar and he's done it again at Montenegro.
Badziakouski already has two deep runs this series with over $1.2 million in earnings prior to the HK$ 750,000 Short Deck NL Hold'em Event. He now more than doubled that amount after winning the event.
This was another small field of just 52 players but a nice prize pool of $4.85 million USD. The final six were paid with Xuan Tan making his second straight final table. He finished in sixth. Andrew Robl managed a fifth-place finish in this one. Paul Phua has had an incredible series, cashing in five of the first ten events, including a runner-up finish in the Main Event. He finished fourth this time around.
Qiang Wang was the third-place finisher, earning $726,170. This left Sam Greenwood and Badziakouski heads-up to battle for the title. Both were guaranteed over $1 million. Badziakouski had been on a tear at the final table and had almost a 4:1 chip lead over Greenwood.
Greenwood managed a double after cracking Badziakouski's aces, but it was not nearly enough. In the final hand, Greenwood was all-in and behind with K-J against the A-J of Badziakouski. He was unable to bink a king and finished in second place. Despite missing out on the win, Greenwood still won $1.11 million.
🎉 Congratulations Mikita Badziakousk 🇧🇾i, winner of the HKD 750k Short Deck Ante-Only event after an intense battle with Sam Greenwood 🇨🇦.
The Badz 🦇 is now tied with Jason Koon 🇺🇸 after claiming his third #TritonPoker title!
✒ Full Recap: https://t.co/uFh9qLD7MZpic.twitter.com/U4qvldkYju
— Triton Poker (@tritonpoker) May 16, 2019
Romain Arnaud Poker Game
Mikita Badziakouski enters a high stakes poker tournament. Badziakouski makes the final table. Badziakouski wins the tournament. That seems to be the formula for the Belarus high stakes superstar and he's done it again at Montenegro.
Badziakouski already has two deep runs this series with over $1.2 million in earnings prior to the HK$ 750,000 Short Deck NL Hold'em Event. He now more than doubled that amount after winning the event.
This was another small field of just 52 players but a nice prize pool of $4.85 million USD. The final six were paid with Xuan Tan making his second straight final table. He finished in sixth. Andrew Robl managed a fifth-place finish in this one. Paul Phua has had an incredible series, cashing in five of the first ten events, including a runner-up finish in the Main Event. He finished fourth this time around.
Qiang Wang was the third-place finisher, earning $726,170. This left Sam Greenwood and Badziakouski heads-up to battle for the title. Both were guaranteed over $1 million. Badziakouski had been on a tear at the final table and had almost a 4:1 chip lead over Greenwood.
Greenwood managed a double after cracking Badziakouski's aces, but it was not nearly enough. In the final hand, Greenwood was all-in and behind with K-J against the A-J of Badziakouski. He was unable to bink a king and finished in second place. Despite missing out on the win, Greenwood still won $1.11 million.
🎉 Congratulations Mikita Badziakousk 🇧🇾i, winner of the HKD 750k Short Deck Ante-Only event after an intense battle with Sam Greenwood 🇨🇦.
The Badz 🦇 is now tied with Jason Koon 🇺🇸 after claiming his third #TritonPoker title!
✒ Full Recap: https://t.co/uFh9qLD7MZpic.twitter.com/U4qvldkYju
— Triton Poker (@tritonpoker) May 16, 2019
Arnaud Romain Poker
Mikita Badziakouski added $1.69 million to his bankroll with the win, giving him over $2.91 million in earnings for the series. He now has career earnings of $24.44 million, moving him up to 15th on Poker's All-Time Money List.
Just one event remains on the schedule. A new HK$ 300,000 Short Deck NL Hold'em event was added to the schedule and kicks off on Friday. This will give players one last chance to pad their bankrolls before heading to Las Vegas for the summer of poker that's coming.
Romain Arnaud Poker Room
