Ike Haxton Bags Maiden Triton Title in Jeju PLO Main Event

The American was easily the best regular tournament player to never have landed a Triton trophy. And, incredibly, he’s been playing these events since the first one almost a decade ago.

But now that monkey’s off his back after he denied WPT Global ambassador Nacho Barbero a back-to-back win in Jeju.

Nobody will be shocked by Haxton finally taking down a Triton tournament but they might be when they learn that he has cashed 64 times and made 34 final tables with six runner-up finishes.

Haxton was clearly happy with the result, but he’s never been the most emotional character at the tables.

“It feels pretty good, yeah. This is the outcome I was hoping for. There’s a lot of noise in poker. I’ve won in other places, obviously. I’ve made a lot of final tables, it was bound to work out eventually.

“I was kind of waiting for spots, keeping pots small, hoping I could find some good spots I could navigate and it kind of worked out.

“The future looks bright. This is a great festival, a great venue for it. And seeing Triton ONE take off it’s pretty cool.”

Action Recap

When registration opened we saw 50 players ponying up the $100,000 to play, and another 66 re-entries went into the pot until late registration ended.

That gave the players a prize pool of $11,600,000 to play for, breaking the record for a six-figure buy-in PLO tournament at the Triton Super High Roller Series.

That was a lot of money to fight for, and it would be dished out to only the top 19 finishers.

High-stakes heads-up match specialist Ossi Ketola came close but busted in 22nd. Four-time Triton winner Nacho Barbero found a much-needed double-up on the stone bubble.

Liu Shixia was the fall guy, heading to the rail after his two pair was outdrawn by Gergo Nagy.

The chip counts showed a strange configuration of a table split into two — pretty much the Haves and the Have-nots.

With Jesse Lonis and Ike Haxton leading the way, it would be easy for the rest to mentally give up. But this is still tournament poker and anything can happen.

And indeed it started off with the form book getting turned upside down as tailender Klemens Roiter pulled off close to back-to-back double-ups as the action restarted.

But you shouldn’t get too excited in a PLO event because you’ll soon find yourself on the receiving end of bad news.

And so Roiter, going for a third straight double-up, went with his A♣ K♥ K♣ J♠ in a pre-flop raising war with Barbero’s A♥ A♦ 10♠ 5♣. The Austrian missed completely and he walked to the rail out in seventh for $489,000.

Danny Tang is one of the most feared Triton regs but there was little he could do when his stack dwindled down to 14 blinds. Barbero finished him off and the reigning Ivan Leow Player of the Year left to collect his $655,000 for sixth.

India’s Rahul Byrraju was fighting for his first ever Triton cash, and now found himself increasingly close to the big money.

It was Jesse Lonis, who’s winning everywhere he plays right now, who ended the Indian’s dream. Byrraju’s K♣ Q♦ 6♣ 5♦ failed to improve enough against K♠ K♥ 3♥ 2♥ and he’s taking $838,000 home for his first Triton score.

Online specialist Robert Cowen is a recent addition to the Triton line-up, no doubt confident his pair of WSOP bracelets in PLO events will stand him in good stead.

Haxton knocked the Brit out and we reckon the $1,037,000 prize money will soon have Cowen coming back for more.

Haxton now had around 70% of the chips and was in imperious form. That left Lonis and Barbero to clash to sort out who would go up against Haxton in the heads-up battle.

Barbero soon decided that when his tens flopped as an overpair and held to take Lonis’s last 10 blinds.

Haxton now had a three-to-one lead with 144 blinds to Barbero’s 50, leaving plenty of room for some play. It was a big lead but by no means was it insurmountable.

Barbero did play some great hands but in the end Haxton was not to be denied.

The turning point at the end was Haxton holding 10♦ 7♣ 6♦ 5♣ to the Argentine’s A♣ K♠ 9♠ 5♥.

The board ran out 5♠ 7♠ 7♦ A♠ A♥ for Barbero to overcome less than 5% equity. But when Haxton put in what he assumed was a value raise, Barbero folded, assuming he was up against quads!

Haxton took his last 12 blinds in the very next hand to become a first-time Triton champion.

Event #12: Triton Jeju $100K PLO Main Event Final Table Results

Mark Patrickson

Professional Poker Journalist

Mark Patrickson is a poker journalist with over ten years of experience. He writes for VIP-Grinders.com, sharing his deep knowledge of poker. He creates interesting content about poker strategy, trends, and news for poker fans worldwide. [more]