2018 Triton Super High Roller Series Jeju

Mikita Badziakouski, Ben Lamb and Stephen Chidwick were among the first players who showed up in the spectacular Landing Casino, ready to test their skills in the warm-up tournament of the 2018 Triton Super High Roller Series Jeju event; the HKD $100,000 Short Deck Ante Only.

While all three are renown for their prowess in high stakes waters, the short deck opens a new door for players trying to seek for an edge against established high stakes regulars. With a ton of strategical aspects of the game yet to be figured out, the likes of Badziakouski, Lamb and Chidwick found a new challenge.

They competed in a total 19-entry field on Day 1a which included five re-entries. The format of a 100,000 starting stack and two extra shells available at any time helped to create an environment full of huge exchanges and chip swings right off the bat. Most of the players adapted to the dynamic in a fan-favorite way; the chips were getting splashed around.

Chow Hing Yaung stood out in the battles as he was continuously torturing his opponents on the secondary table. He crossed the 1 million mark midway through the day when he called down Marcus Yi Lim with a king-high straight against queen-high straight. Chow then scored a bunch of knockouts to cruise towards the end of the day with an impressive 1,953,000, good for a chip lead.

Ultimately, only four players would make it through. Alan Sass was the main man responsible for cutting the field at the end of the day. He was landing some vicious hits at the expense of all Lamb, Chidwick and Badziakouski, eliminating the three superstars in the last level. Sass' fine push helped him increase his stack to 1,879,000 to close the opening stage right on Chow's heels. Gabe Patgorski (962,000) and Kenneth Kee (904,000) also found bags and will be back in action on Day 2 on Wednesday, July 25.

Sass and Patgorski have already made it to a short deck final table, they met in the finale of the inaugural short deck event at Triton Montenegro with Sass taking seventh prize while Patgorski walked away in third place.

Those who fell on Day 1a might try their luck once again tomorrow as Day 1b gets underway at 4 p.m. local time. Lamb and Chidwick have now gained their first experience with the game as they had never played a hand of short deck poker before today. Meanwhile, more high stakes grinders are expected to land in Jeju and join the competition so make sure to come back to PokerNews to follow the live coverage of the immense short deck action.

Alan Sass limped in the hijack, Gabe Patgorski overlimped in the next seat and Mikita Badziakouski shoved for 318,000 on the button. Sass repushed to force a fold from Patgorski.

Badziakouski:
Sass:

Badziakouski was up against a dominating hand and he couldn't catch a piece of the . Sass scored an elimination on the last hand of the day and the four remaining players bagged their advancing stacks while Badziakouski will have another chance to fire tomorrow in Day 1b.

Chow Hinh Yaung raised to 60,000 from early positon before Stephen Chidwick moved all in from the hijack seat for 519,000. Alan Sass was next to act in the cutoff and he moved all in over the top for 885,000. Chow folded quickly bringing the two to a showdown.

Stephen Chidwick:
Alan Sass:

The board ran out and Chidwick was eliminated with a worse kicker brining Sass to around 1,500,000 chips.

In a five-way limped pot, cutoff Kenneth Kee decided to stab with on the flop. He received a call from his left-hand opponent Stephen Chidwick who had .

The was disastrous for Chidwick as Kee hit his gutter while Chidwick improved to aces up. Kee fired another 130,000 and Chidwick called again.

Chidwick's nightmare got worse on the river, one of the biggest blanks in the deck.

Kee had just 274,000 behind with 480,000 already in the middle but he decided to go for a small bet of 180,000. He got one more call from Chidwick and scooped the pot with the nuts.

After a streak of limps, Ben Lamb announced he was all in for 293,000 and the first limper Alan Sass reshoved. Lamb was in a good spot to double with against but today wasn't the day for Benba who suffered many bad beats on the way. He couldn't make it through the first starting flight as the board sent him to the rail.

Stephen Chidwick peeled in the hijack and limped in and his neighbor Alan Sass overlimped with before Gabe Patgorski checked with .

Chidwick still held just ace high on the flop but the texture gave him heaps of outs to improve. He led out 25,000 but both of his opponents stuck around for the turn. Chidwick blasted another shell, making it 60,000 and that was enough to convince both Sass and Patgorski to fold their respective beholdings.

Ben Lamb limped from the first position with and Kenneth Kee also placed in 16,000 with . Stephen Chidwick looked down at in the middle position and he raised to 75,000. Lamb got out of the way but Kee matched the bid.

The flop saw Chidwick continue for 150,000 and Kee quickly released his hand.

Chow Hing Yaung limped in under the gun, Stephen Chidwick overlimped and Marcus Yi Lim raised to 66,000 on the button. Only Chow called and the hit the felt. Chow threw in enough chips to cover Lim's remaining 170,000 and Lim made the call.

Chow:
Lim:

Lim trailed and he failed to improve on the and river. Chow scored another knockout and the field was brought down to eight players with Lim's exit. The remaining players were redrawn to one table and the action resumed after a short break.