Wai Kin Yong Wins Triton Super High Roller Series Main Event ($2,080,557)
Wai Kin Yong won one of the biggest first-place prizes of the year over the weekend when he took down the Triton Super High Roller Series HK$500,000 Main Event in Manila, Philippines. The buy-in is roughly $65,000 and Yong banked just under $2.1 million for the win.
Yong is the son of well-known high roller Richard Yong, who has nearly $6 million in cashes himself.
Official Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wai Kin Yong | $2,080,557 |
| 2 | Bryn Kenney | $1,401,694 |
| 3 | Sergio Aido | $848,557 |
| 4 | John Juanda | $584,560 |
| 5 | Winfred Yu | $402,275 |
| 6 | Peter Chan | $301,712 |
| 7 | Wai Chan | $245,145 |
| 8 | David Peters | $213,709 |
| 9 | Arnaud Romain | $207,430 |
The tournament got 44 unique entries, with reentries and add-ons pushing the total prize pool to almost $6.3 million. According to the live updates, superstars such as Mustapha Kanit, Fedor Holz, Erik Seidel, Dan Cates and Tom Dwan made the trip to the Philippines but walked away empty-handed. After Pratyush Buddiga busted out on the bubble, the remaining nine players bagged for the final day with Yong in the lead.
French player Arnaud Romain, described as a high-stakes regular in the Macau games, came in with a hefty second-place stack but fell in ninth. He lost a flip to Wai Leong Chan and then ran ace-king into the kings of Sergio Aido for the last of it.
Aido picked up kings again in a monster hand shortly after that, mowing down Chan and 2016 bracelet winner David Peters, who had ace-queen and ace-six, respectively. That pot left the Spanish pro with over 100 big blinds with six players left.
Two short stacks went out next. First, Peter Chan shoved his remaining chips with jack-seven and got looked up by Bryn Kenney, who held ace-king and won. Then, Winfred Yu put his last seven big blinds in on a three-bet jam with Q♦9♦ against button raiser John Juanda, who had 8♦7♥. Juanda flopped two pair on 5♥7♣8♣ and dodged Yu's straight draw.
Aido then busted Juanda with jacks against Q♣10♣, and a lengthy three-handed battle between Aido, Yong and Kenney ensued.
Yong moved back into the lead when he won a race with sevens against Aido's A♥K♥. Aido regained the lead, but then lost a big pot to Kenney where he opted to bet the flop, check the turn and call a river bet on a board of K♣3♥4♠K♦A♠. Kenney mustered only queen-jack high but it was a winner. Aido then got his 7♦4♦ in on a 10♦9♦8♠ flop against Yong's 10♣8♥ and bricked his draws for nearly all of his stack, busting third right after that.
Yong held a 2-1 lead going into heads-up play and Kenney had only a little over 30 big blinds. They were in the pot mere minutes later with K♥9♥, but Yong had a dominating K♦10♦. Yong's hand held up when neither player improved, so while the New Yorker added to more than $10 million in tournament cashes, it was Yong in the winner's circle for the big $2 million cash.
