WATCH: Million Euro Buyin Cash Game in Montenegro With Dwan, Antonius, Ivey
Game starts 56 minutes into this video
Poker action junkies watching the Triton Super High Roller Series Montenegro Live Twitch Stream were treated to something truly special in the early hours of Thursday. Something not seen since the halcyon days of the televised cash tables of "High Stakes Poker," where players like Phil Ivey, David Benyamine, and Guy Laliberte bought in for $1 million and battled over six-figure pots. Something that dwarfed even partypoker's The Big Game that took place earlier this month at Playground Casino Montreal.
The live stream of the HKD 1,000,000 (~$127,390) Triton Super High Roller Main Event was cut short as the 10 remaining players approached the bubble because feature table was needed for something else – a €1,000,000 buy-in no limit hold’em cash game where the blinds started out at €1,000/€2,000 with a €1,000 running ante. The stakes soon escalated, however, quickly becoming €2,000/€4,000 and then €2,000/€4,000 with a €10,000 running ante.
It has been close to a decade since poker aficionados been treated to televised cash action of this magnitude, and it felt almost as though a freak space-time accident had transported the room back to 2009.
The lineup featured players of the caliber of Ivey, Patrik Antonius, Tom Dwan, and Jason Koon alongside Malaysian businessman Paul Phua, French-Chinese player and Triton SHR Montenegro Main Event final tablist Rui Cao, 2016 One Drop Monte Carlo Extravaganza winner Elton Tsang, China’s 'Shaghai' Wang Qiang and Zuo Wang. Players rotated in and out, with Dan "jungleman12” Cates, Mikita “fish2013” Badziakouski and poker caster and semi-pro player Kane Kalas also taking part in the action.
Randy Lew and Gabe Patgorski kicked off with the commentary. At one point, Dwan and Tatjana Pašalić took over to give some unique insights.
Millions of euro changed hands, sometimes in a single hand, and the action was high-octane from the start.
Multi-Million Euro Pots
There were several seven-figure pots played, but by far the largest were the two hands involving U.S. pro Koon, who dropped over €900,000 in one hand, only to win it back with interest to finish the game in the black.
Kane Kalas Wins a €1.8 Million ($2,121,765) Pot off Jason Koon (€2,000/€4,000/€1,000)
The first of the monster Koon pots started off not long after poker caster Kalas entered the game. Phua straddled to €8,000 and Koon raised with A♥Q♣ from the hijack. Badziakouski made the call with 8♣9♣ from the small blind, and Kalas looked down to see 10♠10♥ in the big blind and squeezed to €55,000.
Phua folded, and Koon slid out a chunky reraise to €120,000 which Kalas smooth-called to swell the pot to €263,000.
The flop came down 5♦3♥6♠. Koon continued the aggression with a sizable €128,000 continuation-bet to send Kalas deep into the tank before he slid out the call to grow the pot to €519,000.
The 10♣ turn gave Kalas top set, which he checked over to Koon, who barrelled again, this time for €160,000. Kalas called once again, making the pot €839,000. The A♦ river spelled disaster for Koon, with Kalas baiting the trap with another check. Koon fell right into it, moving all-in for over €500,000 and Kalas snapped the jaws shut, calling immediately to win a pot of over €1.8 million.
Jason Koon Wins a €2 Million ($2,357,517) Pot from Elton Tsang (€2,000/€4,000/€1,000)
This happened less than an orbit after the Kalas-Koon confrontation and Koon, who was stuck over €800,000, had reloaded for another €1 million.
Koon raised to €13,000 from under the gun with 6♥5♥, Phua called from the cutoff with 8♠6♠, Dwan called the button with A♣10♦, and Tsang called with K♦7♦ in the big blind.
The flop came down an extremely wet 8♥A♦7♥ to give Tsang bottom pair and a backdoor diamond draw, Koon an open-ended straight flush draw, Phua middle pair and Dwan top pair.
With €64,000 in the pot, the action was checked around to Dwan, who bet €24,000. Tsang called before Koon check-raised to €100,000, Dwan folded, and the action was back on Tsang, who then re-raised to €324,000, which Koon called.
The Q♦ turn gave Tsang the nut flush draw to go with his bottom pair, and he bombed it for €390,000 and Koon made the call to swell the pot to €1,516,000, leaving himself €574,000 behind.
The 4♣ river gave Koon the straight, and after Tsang checked Koon pulled the trigger to swell the pot to €2,090,000 and a dejected Tsang forlornly slid his cards into the muck.
Winners and Losers
Kalas was the biggest winner, the majority of his profits coming from that huge pot with Koon, and the Philadelphia native walked away €771,000 in the black. Phua was the next biggest winner, cashing out for €433,000. Cao (+€241,000) could have made more had he not had to call it a night early to play the Triton Super High Roller Final Table, and Koon made an amazing comeback to cash out for a profit of €186,000 with Dwan (+€176,000) Antonius (+€101,000) the other winners.
Of course, poker being a zero-sum game where there are winners there must be losers, and Ivey dusted off the $604,992 he won in the Short Deck Ante Only Event to finish €717,000 in the red. After losing that monster pot to Koon, Tsang went from one of the biggest winners to the second biggest loser dropping €582,000, with Wang (-€217,000) and Qiang (-€216,000) losing close to the same. Badziakouski (-€136,000) and Cates (-€50,000) were the other players who finished down.
You can watch the full million euro cash game, on Twitch.tv at the top of this article.
The Triton Poker High Roller Series is going on right now in Montenegro. PokerNews has a team on the ground with live updates from the Main Event and Short Deck Hold'em event. Head over to the Live Reporting hub for all the Triton Poker Montenegro live updates.
