The Malaysian high-stakes reg is one of the most liked characters on the tour and you’ll be hard pressed to find a more popular winner over the next couple of weeks.
The event attracted a total of 47 entries, with 18 of those being re-entries to build a prize pool of $2,350,000. Yong took home $705,000 for his victory with Michael Zhang banking $510,000 for his runner-up finish.
Yong was typically excited after earning his third Triton trophy, but for him it’s all about the game and not the money. Easy to say when you have $17,871,842 in live tournament winnings, we’d say.
“I want to play poker until I’m 80 years old! It’s a very good feeling. It’s very difficult to become a Triton champion because so many super pros are here. I was very lucky. Gamble, gamble, gamble.”
Indeed it is tough to become a Triton champion, and this is possibly the most impressive of Yong’s three Triton wins. The first came in Montenegro in 2018, followed by another in Northern Cyprus in 2023.
Today’s win, though, saw Yong having to face down short deck specialist Michael Zhang who is absolutely one of the worst opponents you could have to overcome in this dynamic format, even if he is still waiting for that maiden title.
Action Recap
Usually the Short Deck part of the Triton stops comes at the end of the schedule, but this time they’re kicking off with it, hence the #18 tag for the opening tournament.
It didn’t seem to matter that the timing was unusual because the line-up was still stacked with top talent and multiple champions, let alone Short Deck specialists.
Winfred Yu and Dan Dvoress were the final table bubble boys, knocked out in tenth and ninth to leave a final eight that would share the prize pool.
China’s Wang Jun was the first prize winner to leave, bagging up $94,000 for his efforts. This left an official final table of seven.
Kiat Lee has already won a pair of Triton titles this year but even with the third largest stack when the action resumed he was unable to avoid elimination.
After losing a flip with pocket tens versus A♣ Q♠ his stack was crippled. Five-time Triton champion Mikita Badziakouski then finished the job with pocket queens beating Lee’s A♦ 10♠.
Rene Van Krevelen did get a boost from taking most of Lee’s chips but the dynamic nature of Short Deck NL soon claimed another victim as the Dutchman took home $150,000 for sixth.
Denmark’s Martin Nielsen and Zhang were now pulling clear of the field as Triton debutant Ruslan Khadartsev ran out of steam, exiting the playing area in fifth for $193,000.
Nielsen was on a run and when he looked down to see pocket kings he was no doubt thinking this was all looking good. And then there was an UTG open and three-bet in front of him.
With no real decision left to make, the Dane jammed all-in and got a call from Yong who flipped over A♥ K♣.
The flop came down Q♥ 6♦ 9♣ which changed nothing but when the A♦ landed on the turn Nielsen groaned in despair. The 8♥ ended the hand and took the event to three-handed as Martin Nielsen went to collect his $249,000 winnings.
Zhang now had more than half of the chips in play and just to smooth the path in front of him, Badziakouski and Yong went to war.
Yong three-bet his Q♣ Q♦ and got a call from Badziakouski with his K♣ Q♥.
The flop was a tasty 10♥ 7♥ J♥, giving plenty of hope to the Belarusian. But a turn and river of 10♦ and 8♣ ended his run as he scooped up his dinner from the table and went away to get his $329,000 third place prize.
Heads-up play began with equal stacks but it was all one-way traffic, really. Yong ground down Zhang by steadily picking off pots which didn’t see a showdown, and then it was almost all over before the Malaysian’s A♣ Q♣ lost to Zhang’s 10♣ 9♣.
Now the tables had turned and it was Zhang contemplating victory, but that changed soon enough when Yong doubled in successive hands.
Yong soon found the run that he needed when his K♦ Q♣ beat A♦ J♦ and then 10♠ 6♥ beat K♥ 10♦ to get over the line.
A thrilling start to the series after the warm up of the well-supported Triton One Series.
$50,000 – Event #18 Triton Short Deck Ante Only PLPF Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
| 1st | Richard Yong | Malaysia | $705,000 |
| 2nd | Michael Zhang | England | $510,000 |
| 3rd | Mikita Badziakouski | Belarus | $329,000 |
| 4th | Martin Nielsen | Denmark | $249,000 |
| 5th | Ruslan Khadartsev | Russia | $193,000 |
| 6th | Rene Van Krevelen | Netherlands | $150,000 |
| 7th | Kiat Lee | Malaysia | $120,000 |
| 8th | Wang Jun | China | $94,000 |
