Devan Tang Beats Peter Jetten to Win Triton High Roller Short Deck for $1.2 Million
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The 2019 Triton Poker Super High Roller Series Jeju, which is comprised of six events, saw 45 players account for 24 re-entries in Event #2: HK$500,000 NLH Short Deck Ante Only at the luxurious Landing Casino.
That created an HK$32,430,000 (US$4,132,105) prize pool and saw Hong Kong’s Devan Tang defeat Canada’s Peter Jetten heads up to win the title and accompanying HK$9,730,000 ($1,239,759) first-place prize.
"I'm very, very happy about it," Tang said. "I got very lucky. I was lucky the whole way. It was a tough field, for sure. When you're playing this big and you make the final table, you have to play your best for sure."
The win moved Tang up to more than $6.2 million in lifetime earnings, which puts him second on China’s all-time money list behind Elton Tsang ($12,752,988). It marked the second-largest score of Tang’s career after he won the 2016 Triton Super High Roller Series Philippines Event #3: $200K NLH for $1,405,500.
2019 Triton Poker Super High Roller Series Jeju Event #2: HKD 500,000 Short Deck Ante-Only Event
| Place | Player | Country | Prize (HKD) | Prize (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Devan Tang | China | HK$9,730,000 | $1,239,759 |
| 2 | Peter Jetten | Canada | HK$7,040,000 | $897,010 |
| 3 | Arnaud Romain | France | HK$4,540,000 | $578,469 |
| 4 | Jason Koon | United States | HK$3,435,000 | $437,674 |
| 5 | Isaac Haxton | United States | HK$2,660,000 | $338,927 |
| 6 | Leong Wai | China | HK$2,075,000 | $264,388 |
| 7 | Mikita Bodyakovskiy | Belarus | HK$1,650,000 | $210,237 |
| 8 | Paul Phua | Malaysia | HK$1,300,000 | $165,641 |
Final Table Action
Day 2 saw 14 players return to action, but six would leave empty-handed including Event #1 champ Justin Bonomo, Bryn Kenny, and John Juanda.
On his way to victory, Tang hit a heater in short deck, which is played with a 36-card deck after the removal of all cards lower than a six. His rush included picking up pocket aces at least five times. He also got lucky against Mikita Badziakouski early on when the latter flopped a set of queens and Tang an inferior set of sixes. A six on the turn gave Tang quads and new life.
With four players remaining, Triton Poker Ambassador Jason Koon lost pocket queens to Jetten’s rivered straight. Koon, who is the world’s all-time short-deck money winner with more than $3.5 million in earnings, added another HK$3,435,000 ($437,674) for his performance.
“I play this game a lot, so I’m used to taking nasty beats like that. It happens,” Koon said of his bustout.
In the final hand of the tournament, Jetten got it in with ace-jack but lost when Tang’s ten-jack suited made a straight.
Triton Poker Super High Roller Series Jeju Details
Four more events remain on the 2019 Triton Poker Super High Roller Series Jeju schedule including Event #3: HK$500K NLH 6-Handed, Event #5: HK$1M Short-Deck Ante-Only, Event #6: HK$2M Main Event, and Event #7: HK$1M NLH Refresh.
All the action from Jeju is being streamed live online via YouTube, Twitch and the Triton Series website with expert commentary from Lex Veldhuis and Randy Lew in English, and Celina Lin and Haoxiang Wang in Chinese.
*Images and hand information courtesy of Triton Poker.
