Loeser Leads Final Eight in Triton Super High Roller Montenegro Main Event
Germany’s Manig Loeser holds a commanding lead in the Triton Super High Roller Main Event, ousting one-time chip leader Wang Qiang after a dramatic three-way all-in.
While Qiang began play as the only player with over 1-million in chips – over 250,000 more than next closest rival Mikita Badziakouski – and dominated much of the early action the Chinese player lost several sizable pots to both Badzikouski and Loeser as the field was whittled down to the last two tables.
The final hand of the day saw a short-stacked Peter Chan move all-in from under-the-gun for a little over 16 big blinds with 
. Chip leader Loeser re-shoved to isolate from the small blind with 
and Qiang (big blind) made a daring call for his tournament life for his last 20 big blinds holding ace-queen offsuit.
All three players failed to hit anything on the flop, turn or river meaning Qiang’s chips were divvied up between Chan and Loeser to burst the bubble and set up the official final table, guaranteeing all remaining eight players an HK$1,712,000 (~$219,256) payday.
Day 2 of the HK$ 1,000,000 (~$128,140) Main Event saw the 25 surviving Day 1 players return to the Maestral Casino Poker room with just one thing on their mind – making the final table.
By the time the re-entry period had closed at the end of level 10 the number of entries had grown to 52 (including 25 re-entries), 28 of whom were still in the running, ballooning the prize pool to a monstrous HK$48,921,600 (~$6,265,332) with the winner taking home a massive HK$16,877,600 (~$2,161,520).
With the format offering unlimited re-entries bothJohn Juanda and Paul Phua re-entered at the start of play and Tom ‘Durrrr’ Dwan entered the tournament arena for the first time. While Juanda was successful in his quest to make both the final table and the money, Dwan and Phua were not so fortunate and departed well before.
Super High Roller regular Steve O’Dwyer became the first official casualty after the re-entry period concluded, busting for the second time in as many levels to Wang Qiang, once before the re-entry period and then immediately after it closed to pad out the Chinese player’s massive stack some more and see Qiang extend his already sizable lead.
Defending champion Koray Aldermir followed O’Dwyer to the rail shortly afterward, departing at the hands of Daniel Cates after running a flush into the US player’s turned full house.
More players began to tumble as the blinds continued their inexorable rise with Sam Trickett, Daniel Cates and German wunderkind Fedor Holz just some of the big names unable to go the distance.
Holz was unable to recreate the run of form that saw him claim his second Triton Super High Roller title just two days prior and his elimination at the hands of fellow countryman Dominik Nitsche set up the last 16 and saw the Nitsche climb to over 1-million in chips before he became short and lost a race with king-queen offsuit against the pocket eights of John Juanda to take play down to the last 11.
Hong Kong’s Tony Cheng departed in 11th place to set up the final table bubble and double ups for Antonios Paschalidis and Peter Chan and a triple up for Richard Yong saw Gabe Patgorski become one of the shorter stacks.
Patgorski got the last of his chips in with pocket tens against the king-four suited of chip leader Loeser but was brutally out-flopped by the German who hit trip fours to bring the US player’s Main Event to a screeching halt. Here’s how the final table is stacking up:
The Final Table
| Table | Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Manig Loeser | Germany | 3,715,000 |
| 1 | 3 | Peter Chan | Hong Kong | 1,250,000 |
| 1 | 4 | John Juanda | Indonesia | 1,760,000 |
| 1 | 5 | Richard Yong | Malaysia | 2,100,000 |
| 1 | 6 | Chan Wai Leong | Malaysia | 1,465,000 |
| 1 | 7 | Antonios Paschalidis | Greece | 705,000 |
| 1 | 8 | Steffen Sontheimer | Germany | 1,145,000 |
| 1 | 9 | Mikita Badziakouski | Belarus | 860,000 |
The eight-handed final table will resume at 1pm CET on Thursday 20 July and the PokerNews live reporting team will be on hand to bring you all the action as it happens so join us then as we see who has what it takes to become the Triton Super High Roller 2017 Montenegro champion.