Michael Watson is now one among simply seven gamers on the planet with 4 or extra Triton Poker Super High Roller Series titles. The World Poker Tour champion and two-time European Poker Tour major occasion winner from Canada secured his fourth Triton title by topping a area of 154 entries within the $30,000 buy-in no-limit maintain’em eight max occasion on the ongoing pageant in Montenegro. Watson was awarded $1,023,000 for popping out on prime, which elevated the 40-year-old Toronto resident’s profession earnings to greater than $27 million.
Watson is now tied with Fedor Holz and Wai Kin Yong for third place on the Triton titles leaderboard. Only ten-time champion Jason Koon and five-time champions Mikita Badziakouski, Phil Ivey, and Danny Tang have secured extra trophies on the tour.
“Every time you come to a Triton stop you want to come away with a trophy,” Watson informed Triton reporters. “You want to get a win. It feels really good to get one in hold’em now, which I hadn’t done either. Just want to keep adding.”
This was certainly Watson’s first victory in a typical no-limit maintain’em match on the tour. His first win got here in a $50,000 brief deck occasion on the 2023 cease in Vietnam. He then took down a $30,000 pot-limit Omaha occasion in North Cyprus later that spring. His third title got here in a $25,000 brief deck occasion on the Triton Jeju cease this March. He now has greater than $10.4 million in Triton earnings throughout 30 in-the-money finishes.
This was Watson’s third total title and ninth final-table end of the yr. This newest win earned him 1,008 Card Player Player of the Year factors, bringing his complete to 4,044. As a consequence, he surged up the rankings and landed in second place on the 2024 POY leaderboard introduced by Global Poker.
The 154-entry turnout for this match constructed a prize pool of $4,620,000 that was cut up amongst Watson and 26 others who made the cash. Among those who cashed had been Mikita Badziakouski (twenty fourth), current kickoff occasion winner Chris Moneymaker (twenty third), Dylan Linde (twenty second), Punnat Punsri (twenty first), Adrian Mateos (fifteenth), Fedor Holz (14th), Patrik Antonius (eleventh), Hossein Ensan (tenth), and Stephen Chidwick (ninth).
The official last desk started with Watson within the lead after sending Chidwick to the rail. Daniel Rezaei (eighth – $125,000) was dispatched by Morten Klein early on the last desk. Leon Sturm quickly adopted, together with his Ok-7 suited operating into the pocket queens of Kiat Lee. The German bracelet winner earned $173,000 because the seventh-place finisher.
Sirzat Hissou (sixth – $238,000) was knocked out subsequent, together with his flopped journeys operating right into a turned straight for David Yan. The New Zealander additionally scored the following knockout, successful a traditional preflop race with pocket nines towards A-Ok to finish Klein’s run in fifth place ($309,000).
Despite forcing these two eliminations, Yan was in the end the following to move to the rail. His A-Ok was unable to carry towards the Ok-Q suited of Lee, who spiked a queen on the flop and held from there to slim the sphere to a few. Yan earned $387,400 for his fourth-place exhibiting.
Lee quickly gained one other key all-in regardless of trailing preflop, together with his A-7 outrunning the pocket jacks of Biao Ding. An ace-high runout despatched the chips to Lee, whereas Ding headed residence in third place ($475,000). This was his seventh POY-qualified last desk of the yr. With 3,542 complete factors, he’s now the seventh-ranked participant within the 2024 standings.
Lee, who had 22 prior cashes in Triton occasions for over $7 million however had but to win a title, entered heads-up play with roughly a 3:1 chip lead over Watson. The Canadian ultimately scored an enormous double-up, getting all-in with a nine-high straight towards the highest pair of Lee to double into an enormous lead. On the very subsequent hand, Lee obtained all-in for his previous few blinds with Q-6 racing towards pocket fives for Watson. Lee flopped an open-ended straight draw, however Watson improved to prime set. The flip gave Lee a flush draw as effectively, however a brick on the top introduced the match to a detailed. Lee walked away with $691,000 because the runner-up finisher.
Here is a take a look at the payouts and POY factors awarded on the last desk:
| Place | Player | Earnings | POY Points |
| 1 | Michael Watson | $1,023,000 | 1008 |
| 2 | Kiat Lee | $691,000 | 840 |
| 3 | Biao Ding | $475,000 | 672 |
| 4 | David Yan | $387,400 | 504 |
| 5 | Morten Klein | $309,000 | 420 |
| 6 | Sirzat Hissou | $238,000 | 336 |
| 7 | Leon Sturm | $173,000 | 252 |
| 8 | Daniel Rezaei | $125,000 | 168 |
Photo credit: Triton Poker / Joe Giron.
