England’s Sam Grafton has taken down the $200k buy-in Triton Poker Coin Rivet Invitational tournament, scooping the $5.5 Million top prize by defeating non other than LLinusLLove heads-up.
Greatness personified. 🇬🇧 @SquidPoker is our winner of the $200k @coinrivet Invitational at #TritonCyprus2022, taking home a staggering USD 5,500,000 against 🇨🇭 LLinusLLove and collecting his first 🔱 Triton title! @GGPoker @secretlabchairs @_Jacobandco #TritonPoker pic.twitter.com/U9Ik0lxZHO
— Triton Poker (@tritonpoker) September 12, 2022
A massive field of 90 players had forked out the $200k entry fee, with rich amateur players/businessmen inviting the pro of their choice, some 25 re-entries seeing the prizepool jump to $23million, with $5.5million up top.
Phil Ivey was among those who availed themselves of the single re-buy option, and he wasn’t scared to put his second bullet on the line, calling off a stone-cold bluff for his tournament life
Ladies and Gentlemen… PHIL. IVEY. @philivey gets put in the tank by Christoph Vogelsang in the $200k @CoinRivet Invitational Day 2! pic.twitter.com/DTlNmZgmSB
— Triton Poker (@tritonpoker) September 11, 2022
Somebody had to fall on the money bubble, and this time it was Chris Brewer, the US pro distraught after spewing most of his chips to Ebony Kenney.
In the cash and now into day three, there were plenty looking to spin it up, with King’s Casino boss Leon Tsoukernik falling as he tried to overcome the flat payout structure.
The second bubble of the tournament, for the final table of nine, and it was Kenney again who was involved, battering Tony G twice with AQ to KO the Lithuanian legend.
My giirrrrlllll!!! @Ebony_Kenney playing in the biggest tournament buy-in of her CAREER!!! $200k
ON THE FINAL TABLE after knocking out Tony G!!
Guaranteed > $600k, $5.5 MILLION to first 😍 https://t.co/LdeMe9Gztn pic.twitter.com/r6uK7QGa8g
— Pamela Maldonado (@pamelam35) September 12, 2022
The top seven would find themselves with a $1million+ payout and chip leader at this point was one of the field’s amateurs, Karl Chappe-Gatien, a French fund trader with a love for poker. That $millionaire money-list would exclude Tom Vogelsang and Seth Davies, who feel in 9th and 8th respectively, but include Fedor Holz, Linus Loeliger and Sam Grafton.
Elias Talvitie’s exit in 7th spot was a painful one, a victim of Chappe-Gatien’s unorthodox but dangerous play…
Chappe-Gatien: A♥ 2♦
Elias Talvitie: 6♠ 6♥
Board: A♦ 3♦ Q♦ 8♠ 3♣
Ponakovs then hit the rail in 6thcourtesy of Holz, leaving the remaining five with $1.7million sewn up, but for those hoping Kenney would take it down there would be disappointment after a cruel bad beat…
Kenney: J♠ J
Chappe-Gatien: 9♠ 9♦
Board: A♦ 8♠ Q♥ 9♥ 5♠
For Kenney it was her second 5th spot of the Triton SHR Cyprus Series and the 5th biggest cash ever by a female.
Fedor Holz is no stranger to monster cashes, with a $6million runner-up cash at the $1million buy-in Big One for One Drop at the 2018 WSOP, but he’d have to settle for 4th place and $2.1million…
Today has been a day of crazy elimination runouts and @CrownUpGuy has also fallen victim to the cruel poker gods.
Sad to see him go but Fedor took it on the chin and will walk away with 💰$2,100,000 for his 4th place finish in the $200k @CoinRivet Invitational! pic.twitter.com/mRZXLL10xf
— Triton Poker (@tritonpoker) September 12, 2022
For Chappe-Gatien, who had led, bullied and enthralled the final table in equal measures for many hours, it was to end in 3rd place, eventually running big slick into Grafton’s pocket tens.
That left Grafton and Loeliger heads-up, the Swiss player rivering a king to stay alive early on and then doubling twice more to make a match of it.
The comeback was impressive but eventually Grafton got his share of the run-good and finished off the battle with the following hand…
Sam Grafton: A♣ 7♥
Linus Loeliger: K♦ 6♠
Board: 5♣ 5♦ A♦ 6♣ 9c
For both players it was the biggest score of their lives, Grafton’s $5.5million score leap-frogging him into 4th spot in the England all-time money-winners list. Meanwhile, Loeliger cemented his top spot in the Swiss all-time list.
Final Result and Payouts:
- Sam Grafton – $5,500,000
- Linus Loeliger – $3,900,000
- Karl Chappe-Gatien – $2,600,000
- Fedor Holz – $2,100,000
- Ebony Kenney – $1,700,000
- Aleksejs Ponakovs – $1,350,000
- Elias Talvitie – $1,050,000
- Seth Davies – $770,000
- Tom Vogelsang – $620,000
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