Phil Ivey Wins Triton Super High Roller Short Deck Event for First Live Win in 2 Years

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Did you feel a disturbance in the force on Sunday? If so, that’s probably the moment that Phil Ivey won his first poker tournament in two years. Ivey took down the HK$ 250,000 NL Short Deck Event at the Triton Super High Roller Montenegro.

This was the first time in history that a short deck NL Hold’em tournament had been played live and it almost seemed fitting that one of the games greatest players took down the event.

Phil Ivey Stacked Final For First Tournament Victory Since 2016

The HK $250,000 Short Deck NL Hold’em Event kicked off on Saturday and drew a total of 61 entries to create a prize pool of HK$ 14.34 million ($1.82 million USD). The final nine players received a payday and returned on Sunday to play it out.

Among the final nine were Jason Koon, Dan Cates, Gabe Patgorski and 10-time WSOP bracelet winner Phil Ivey. Ivey started the final day of play as the third shortest stack, but it is no surprise that he managed to chip up and make a run for the title.

Ultimately, it was Ivey facing off against Dan Cates for the title. At the start of heads-up play, Ivey was down more than 3:1 in chips with 4.14 million versus the 14.26 million of Jungleman.

However, anyone that has ever watched Ivey play heads-up poker knows that he is a force in heads-up play. Ivey slowly chipped away at Cates until he finally took the chip lead. Jungleman didn’t seem to have any answer for Ivey and ultimately found himself in a highly precarious position in the final hand.

On the turn, Jungleman was all-in with a gutshot straight draw and a flush draw against a made straight for Ivey. Due to the format of the game, Jungleman was drawing thin and he bricked the river to settle for second place money of HK$ 3.19 million ($407k USD).

Phil Ivey wins his first live poker tournament in nearly two and a half years and earns HK$ 4.74 million ($604k USD) in the process.

The last time Ivey won an event was in 2016 when he took down an event at the Triton Super High Roller Series Philippines. He earned $656,500 for that victory. Shortly following that victory, Ivey almost entirely disappeared from the live tournament scene, largely due to his legal battled with a pair of casinos regarding earnings in Punto Banco.

During his absence, Ivey was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame, an achievement that was largely unheralded due to the handling of the Hall of Fame by Caesars.

What is Short Deck NL Hold’em?

For some of you, this may be the first time that you’ve ever heard of “Short Deck” NL Hold’em. The game is almost exactly the same as Hold’em except for the fact that all deuces, threes, fours, and fives are stripped from the deck. Aces also act as a five to make a straight.

In this game, straights are much more common and flushes hit very infrequently. In fact, hand rankings for this game are a bit different and a flush actually beats a full house in this game. As a result, Dan Cates was drawing very thin in that final hand against Ivey.

The fact that Ivey can stay away from poker for so long and come back and dominate in a new tournament variant goes to show just how dominant he really is. Also, it shows that his mind is still just as adaptable to the game as it has ever been. The question now is whether Ivey will continue to grind the live circuit or go back to playing in selected cash games around the world.

Photo Courtesy – PokerNews France