Wai Kin Yong Wins Triton Super High Roller Series Main Event ($2,080,557)
Wai Kin Yong won one of the biggest first-place prizes of the year over the weekend when he took down the Triton Super High Roller Series HK$500,000 Main Event in Manila, Philippines. The buy-in is roughly $65,000 and Yong banked just under $2.1 million for the win.
Yong is the son of well-known high roller Richard Yong, who has nearly $6 million in cashes himself.
Official Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wai Kin Yong | $2,080,557 |
| 2 | Bryn Kenney | $1,401,694 |
| 3 | Sergio Aido | $848,557 |
| 4 | John Juanda | $584,560 |
| 5 | Winfred Yu | $402,275 |
| 6 | Peter Chan | $301,712 |
| 7 | Wai Chan | $245,145 |
| 8 | David Peters | $213,709 |
| 9 | Arnaud Romain | $207,430 |
The tournament got 44 unique entries, with reentries and add-ons pushing the total prize pool to almost $6.3 million. According to the live updates, superstars such as Mustapha Kanit, Fedor Holz, Erik Seidel, Dan Cates and Tom Dwan made the trip to the Philippines but walked away empty-handed. After Pratyush Buddiga busted out on the bubble, the remaining nine players bagged for the final day with Yong in the lead.
French player Arnaud Romain, described as a high-stakes regular in the Macau games, came in with a hefty second-place stack but fell in ninth. He lost a flip to Wai Leong Chan and then ran ace-king into the kings of Sergio Aido for the last of it.
Aido picked up kings again in a monster hand shortly after that, mowing down Chan and 2016 bracelet winner David Peters, who had ace-queen and ace-six, respectively. That pot left the Spanish pro with over 100 big blinds with six players left.
Two short stacks went out next. First, Peter Chan shoved his remaining chips with jack-seven and got looked up by Bryn Kenney, who held ace-king and won. Then, Winfred Yu put his last seven big blinds in on a three-bet jam with Q?9? against button raiser John Juanda, who had 8?7?. Juanda flopped two pair on 5?7?8? and dodged Yu's straight draw.
Aido then busted Juanda with jacks against Q?10?, and a lengthy three-handed battle between Aido, Yong and Kenney ensued.
Yong moved back into the lead when he won a race with sevens against Aido's A?K?. Aido regained the lead, but then lost a big pot to Kenney where he opted to bet the flop, check the turn and call a river bet on a board of K?3?4?K?A?. Kenney mustered only queen-jack high but it was a winner. Aido then got his 7?4? in on a 10?9?8? flop against Yong's 10?8? and bricked his draws for nearly all of his stack, busting third right after that.
Yong held a 2-1 lead going into heads-up play and Kenney had only a little over 30 big blinds. They were in the pot mere minutes later with K?9?, but Yong had a dominating K?10?. Yong's hand held up when neither player improved, so while the New Yorker added to more than $10 million in tournament cashes, it was Yong in the winner's circle for the big $2 million cash.
