Ben Tollerene has bagged a $1,070,000 winner’s prize after taking down Triton Monte Carlo Event 13: $50K – PLO 6-Handed.
The American has had a torrid run at the Monte Carlo Casino this last fortnight. He’d cashed only the once and bubbled several events painfully close to the money.
But after bubbling the $150K no limit hold’em event, Tollerene hopped straight into the $50K PLO and will now be heading home with a profit.
In his winner’s interview, Tollerene said:
“It’s great. I was having a terrible trip. A couple of bubbles. I was just excited to play a different game, play some PLO, and there’s not much more to it.”
He mentioned that he knows a lot of the PLO-only specialists who play these major events, and how it’s great for him to learn about new trends in the format.
“I have played with a lot of them but it’s been a little while,” he said. “Some things stay the same and some things change and evolve in the game. But I have a decent feel for what they’re up to.
“My plan is to definitely play Triton. I really enjoy the staff and the people and the way they run everything. I’ll definitely be playing Triton in the future.”
Action Recap
The Triton Monte Carlo Series has been well-supported, even across non-NL events.
The field was made up of 82 entries with 14 players to get paid.
By the time we were getting close to that money bubble line, we saw an unusual pattern of play which is rarely seen.
Many players were short stacked and all-in every hand during hand-for-hand play — but every time for 39 long hands, the short player won the pot, keeping the bubble alive and breaking a Triton record.
Sean Winter was the unlucky player who ran out of good fortune after his J♦ 8♠ 2♥ 6♥ failed to overcome the 10♥ 4♥ 7♦ 9♦ which Ben Tollerene flipped over.
With 14 players left, the players reconvened for Day 2, but six of them had less than five big blinds.
Jonas Kronwitter, Luc Greenwood, Jason Koon came close to making the money but just dipped out before the seven-man final was set.
| Player | Big Blinds (BBs) |
| Joni Jouhkimainen | 85 |
| Ben Tollerene | 74 |
| Maxi Lehmanski | 71 |
| Zhou Quan | 37 |
| Michael Duek | 37 |
| Espen Myrmo | 13 |
| Mads Amot | 11 |
It was noted that only Ben Tollerene and Zhou Quan had played events featuring games other than PLO.
Norway’s Espen Myrmo was in Monaco only for the PLO action in his debut series, and was no doubt happy to make a final table, but could do no better than seventh, leaving the final table first.
The next leaver was another Norwegian, Mads Amot, who followed Myrmo to the rail.
His A♦ Q♦ 7♥ 6♥ ran into Tollerene’s K♣ 10♣ J♥ 10♠ and we were down to the final five.
Joni Joukemainen might have started the final table stage as the leader, but matters were not so simple once play got going.
In the end it came down to calling off his remaining stack against Ben Tollerene where he got crushed by the runout to exit the event and pick up a $314,500 prize.
That was three Norwegians in a row, leaving us with only one Chinese player and a German to challenge the two American favourites.
Tollerene quickly made it clear what his intentions were when he sent Zhou Quan packing a couple of hands later.
On a flop of 7♣ 6♣ J♠, the players were happy to continue with Quan holding K♠ Q♥ Q♣ 2♦ and Tollerene K♣ 9♠ 8♥ 4♠
Quan was happy to see the Q♠ turn but the 10♠ river gave the American a flush and we were down to the podium places.
Germany’s Maxi Lehmanski was hoping he could prevent an all-American heads-up battle but Michael Duek put paid to that after coming out in front with an all-in with the weaker hand.
Tollerene was in front of Duek by 43 big blinds to 23 when the heads-up stage began, but it would take only three hands to end the encounter.
Duek opened A♣ 9♥ 7♥ 3♣ and Tollerene called with K♦ Q♦ 6♠ 4♦
The flop came down 2♦ 4♣ Q♣ and Tollerene check-raised all-in which Duek called off.
Duek’s flush draw did not materialise and Tollerene was the latest Triton champion.
Triton Monte Carlo Event 13: $50K – PLO 6-Handed
| Place | Name | Country | Prize (USD) |
| 1 | Ben Tollerene | USA | $1,070,000 |
| 2 | Michael Duek | USA | $736,000 |
| 3 | Maxi Lehmanski | Germany | $485,000 |
| 4 | Zhou Quan | China | $393,000 |
| 5 | Joni Joukemainen | Norway | $314,500 |
| 6 | Mads Amot | Norway | $244,500 |
| 7 | Espen Myrmo | Norway | $193,000 |
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