Kicking off on September 5 at the Merit Royal Hotel & Casino in Kyrenia, the 2022 Triton Poker Super High Roller Series Cyprus has wrapped up the first of 13 high-stakes events. The series opener Event #1: $25,000 No Limit Hold’em 8-Handed was a $25,000 buy-in event. A total of 131 entries were made, surpassing the previous record turnout and resulting in a hefty $3,275,000 prize pool. After two days of nosebleed tournament action, Finnish poker star Patrik Antonius emerged victorious to win his career-first title and an impressive top prize of $825,000. He eventually outlasted Bulgaria’s Fahredin Mustafov in the heads-up, with the latter walking away with $557,000 for his efforts.
This was the fourth-largest payday for Antonius. The 41-year-old now has more than $13.4 million in lifetime earnings despite primarily focusing on online and live cash games for much of his career.
This event ran over the course of two days and paid out the top 17 finishers. There were several big names among those who cashed but fell short of the final table, including Triton Poker co-founder Paul Phua (16th for $51,400), Selahaddin Bedir (13th for $59,000), Ivan Leow (12th for $59,000) and two simultaneous eliminations of Artem Vezhenkov (10th for $67,100) and Santi Jiang (9th for $81,800) .
By the time the official final table was reached, Ebony Kenney was atop the leaderboard. Kenney has been a regular on the MTT scene for a while but had never before entered a high roller event.
WPT main event winner Seth Davies was the first to fall, with his A-4 suited failing to best the pocket sixes of Fahredin Mustafov. Antonius began to make headway after earning a crucial double-up with A-K holding against the A-Q of Kenney. He then scored his first elimination at the final table when his pocket fives won a race against the K-Q of Thailand’s Kannapong Thanarattrakul (7th). He continued his surge and eliminated Viacheslav Buldygin in 6th place. The latter had run his K-J into the A-Q of a surging Antonius. Neither player improved on the board and Buldygen was eliminated in 6th place.
In a tournament defining moment, @Patrik_Antonius makes the most INSANE CALL with immense ICM pressure from the chip leader Mustafov. Have you ever seen anything like this in a $25k!?!?
— Triton Poker (@tritonpoker) September 6, 2022
😱😱 pic.twitter.com/fWQxbIB7rt
Kenney found herself near the bottom of the leaderboard during five-handed play. She ultimately shoved all-in with Ah Qd facing Kh Kd of Mustafov. A king-high flop left Kenney in rough shape and she was eliminated in 5th place after no help on the turn and river. She was followed by Danny Tang who was busted by Mustafov who had doubled through O’Dwyer to overtake the lead during four-handed. Steve O’Dwyer’s run in this event ended after his Ks 6d ran ito the Ah 7s of Antonius.
With that hand, Antonius took more than a 2:1 chip lead into heads-up play with Mustafov. The heads-up battle lasted for only three hands. On the final hand, Mustafov limped with pocket jacks on the button and Antonius checked his big blind with 7c 6s. The flop opened 5h 4h 3h giving Antonius a straight and Mustafov a flush draw. Antonius checked the flop and Mustafov fired a bet of 500,000. Antonius check-raised to 1,500,000. Mustafov moved all-in for 5,950,000 total and Antonius called. The turn 3s and the river Ac locked the pot and title for Antonius. He earned the $825,000 top prize.
Final Table Payouts (USD)
- Patrik Antonius – $825,000
- Fahredin Mustafov – $557,000
- Steve O’Dwyer – $362,000
- Danny Tang – $300,000
- Ebony Kenny – $240,500
- Viacheslav Buldygin – $190,500
- Kannapong Thanarattrakul – $145,700
- Seth Davies – $109,500