Chris Moneymaker Wins Triton Super High Roller Series Montenegro Kickoff Event

Nearly 21 years after his win within the 2003 World Series of Poker major occasion helped set off the poker increase of the early 2000s, Chris Moneymaker as soon as once more discovered himself hoisting the {hardware}. This time across the 48-year-old topped a discipline of 163 entries to emerge victorious within the 2024 Triton Poker Super High Roller Series Montenegro $25,000 GG Million$. He walked away with the trophy and the highest prize of $903,000.

This was the third-largest payday on Moneymaker’s resume, trailing solely the $2,500,000
he secured as the principle occasion champion and the $2,030,000 he was awarded for a fifth-place end within the 2023 $250,000 Triton London Luxon Invitational. The Poker Hall of Famer now has practically $7 million in lifetime match earnings below his belt.

“I wasn’t going to lose today. I could have put it in with any hand and I would have won. I ran pure,” he advised Triton reporters after popping out on prime. “I hit a three-outer, a six outer. I thought to myself, ‘You know what, this is going to be 2003. I’m not going to lose any more hands today.’”

In addition to the cash and the title, Moneymaker additionally scooped up 1,092 Card Player Player of the Year factors with this win. This was his second POY-qualified rating of the 12 months, having additionally positioned sixth in a $500 thriller bounty occasion on the Moneymaker Poker Tour Palm Beach cease in February. He additionally lately ultimate tabled the ACR Poker Venom on-line occasion, ending sixth out of a discipline of 5,045 complete entries, incomes $382,007 for that deep run.

The sizable turnout for this occasion constructed a prize pool of $4,075,000 that was cut up amongst the highest 27 finishers. Plenty of huge names made the cash, together with Aram Oganyan 923rd), Nick Petrangelo (twenty first), Patrik Antonius (seventeenth), Phil Ivey (14th), Hossein Ensan (thirteenth), Justin Saliba (twelfth), and Byron Kaverman (tenth).

The ultimate desk started with Moneymaker within the lead and Biao Ding in second chip place. Isaac Haxton ran pocket nines into Ding’s pocket jacks to complete ninth ($91,300). Morten Klein then ran Q-J into the A-7 suited of Brian Kim to hit the rail in eighth place ($110,500).

The subsequent two eliminations each featured pocket threes. Lewis Spencer held them towards Moneymaker’s pocket nines within the first conflict, with the bigger pair holding to ship Spencer packing in seventh place ($153,000). Four-time bracelet winner Adrian Mateos then received all-in with pocket jacks main the pocket threes of Brian Kim. A 3 on the river gave Kim a set and the knockout.

Mateos earned $209,500 because the sixth-place finisher. This was already his seventh final-table end of the 12 months, with greater than $2.3 million in POY incomes accrued throughout these scores. The Spaniard now sits in seventh place within the 2024 POY rankings offered by Global Poker.

One hand after eliminating Mateos, Kim received one other massive all-in with A-Q racing towards the pocket jacks of Danilo Velasevic. An ace on the flip was sufficient to ship earn Kim one other knockout, whereas Velasevic took residence $272,000 because the fifth-place finisher.

Moneymaker doubled into the chip lead when his Okay-9 suited bested the pocket queens of Kim because of a king on the river. Kim bounced again a bit when his A-Okay held towards the A-10 suited of Ding, who earned $341,000 for his fourth-place exhibiting. This was his sixth ultimate desk of the 12 months, with practically $4.6 million in POY earnings and a pair of,870 factors collected alongside the way in which. He now sits in twelfth place on the POY leaderboard.

Igor Yaroshevskyy bowed out in third, getting his final 4 massive blinds in with Q-3 dealing with Moneymaker’s A-8. Moneymaker held to enter heads-up play towards Kim with roughly a 5:3 chip lead. Yaroshevskyy was awarded $419,000 for his podium end.

It took simply three fingers for Moneymaker to shut out the win. He opened with A10 from the button and referred to as Kim’s three-bet shove for simply shy of 30 massive blinds. Kim was in hassle with A8. The board ran out 109384 to offer Moneymaker prime pair, prime kicker for the win. Kim cashed for $609,000 because the runner-up. This was his second ultimate desk of the 12 months, having additionally positioned third in a $50,000 occasion on the Triton Jeju cease in March for $954,000. He now sits inside the highest 50 within the POY rankings.

Here is a have a look at the payouts and POY factors awarded on the ultimate desk:

Photo credit: Triton Poker / Joe Giron.