Belgium’s Pieter Aerts was celebrating last night after taking down the Triton Poker Monte Carlo $100k 8-max title, a win worth $2,234,587 after a 4-way deal and epic finale.
Pieter Aerts (courtesy of Triton Poker)
Event #6 on the schedule was the first of the six-figure buy-ins, an eye-watering $100k to play but still pulling in 131 entries, with 46 of those re-entries. The prizepool? A whopping $13,100,000 with more than $3million up top.
Daniel Dvoress, Ben Tollerene, Brian Kim and Alex Foxen were among those who fell before the paid spots, as did Chris Brewer, who made a sweet $250k payjump earlier this week without lifting a finger.
When the bubble burst, it was Thomas Mühlöcker on the wrong side of the fence, his open shove with K♠ Q♦ failing to connect and Alex Kulev’s A♦ J♣ ending the agony. The remaining 23 player had just locked up $152,000.
Next stop was the final table and we lost some huge names along the way:
- Stephen Chidwick (17th for $183,000)
- Artur Martirosian (15th for $203,000)
- Orpen Kisacikoglu (12th for $223,000)
- Phil Ivey (11th for $255,000)
There was no shortage of star quality for those who made it though, ranging from short stack Christoph Vogelsang, through Steve O’Dwyer and Fedor Holz, to chip leader Kiat Lee.
Remarkably, is was Andy Ni, one of the middling stacks who fell first and for no discernible reason, punting his stack in two hands for 9th place and $304,000.
Vogelsang’s ladder up to 8th was worth $77,000 and Roland Rokita, the other short stack, found himself with a 7th place finish and $519,000. Meanwhile, Kiat Lee’s tournament hopes were all-but-dashed by Malaysian compatriot Michael Soyza, which just so happened to be the one of the WPT Global ‘Mystery hands’ on the livestream…
Lee couldn’t get away from his set and that crippled him, a couple of hands later bowing out in 6th spot for $701,000.
Ireland’s Steve O’Dwyer soon joined him on the rail, most of his stack falling to Aerts. O’Dwyer got it in good…
O’Dwyer: A♥ K♠
Aerts: J♦ 10♦
…but the flop had other ideas…
Flop: 7♣ 9♣ 8♥
Turn: 10♥
River: 2♣
Almost ridiculously, O’Dwyer’s last remaining chips, worth one big blind, also went to Aerts, the Belgian’s 9♠ 6♠ outdrawing yet another big slick.
With four players left, a 20-minute discussion saw a deal struck, Soyza – with more chips than the rest combined – taking the lion’s share of the money.
- Soyza $2.305million
- Aerts $1.924million
- Mosbock $1.544million
- Holz $1.528million
The remaining $310,000, the trophy and the title were still to be played for, and it was a race against time, with the $200k buy-in Triton Invitational set to kick off.
Mosböck, the Austrian ex-soccer pro, eventually fell to his friend and training partner Holz, and then the German former ‘wunderkind’ met his fate…
Holz: A♥ 4♥
Soyza: A♣ A♦
Flop: 4♦ 3♥ J♦
Turn: 5♣
River: K♥
The heads-up; affair that followed between Aerts and Soyza was described as “one for the purists”, the lead changing hands multiple times during the two-hour battle.
When something finally gave, it took three double-ups for Peter Aerts to secure the title, the last of these below after Soyza’s shove was called:
Soyza: J♣ 10♣
Aerts: A♦ 10♦
Flop: 3♣ Q♠ 7♠
Turn: 3♠
River: 7♦
“Good game sir!” was Soyza’s gracious resignation as Aerts was then hugged and kissed by his wife, Charlotte.
EVENT 6: $100K – NLH 8-Handed
1 | Pieter Aerts | Belgium | $2,234,587* |
2 | Michael Soyza | Malaysia | $2,305,000* |
3 | Fedor Holz | Germany | $1,528,097* |
4 | Mario Mosböck | Austria | $1,544,316* |
5 | Steve O’Dwyer | Ireland | $904,000 |
6 | Kiat Lee | Malaysia | $701,000 |
7 | Roland Rokita | Austria | $519,000 |
8 | Christoph Vogelsang | Germany | $381,000 |
9 | Andy Ni | China | $304,000 |
“It was definitely really long,” said Aerts afterwards. “We made a deal four-handed, then the play changed a lot because we’re playing just for that first prize…I was down to five big blinds four handed and four big blinds heads up, but I came back. That’s how it goes sometimes.”
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