It’s still very early days, but we are excited. Anyone who set foot today in the banqueting suite of London’s Park Lane Hilton knew they were witnessing history: the biggest buy-in poker tournament ever held, costing £1 million to play and promising to award its winner £19 million.
That will be the biggest purse ever won by a tournament poker player, and is a more lavish reward than would be earned by a golfer or a tennis player if he won all four majors in a single season. It’s big money. The biggest. And today it all landed on the table.
“Thanks for turning my dream into a reality,” said Triton co-founder Paul Phua as he welcomed the players to the tournament room. He then made a point of stressing the additional benefit to this event, that the £50,000 admin fee was heading directly to charity. With 54 players in the field, that’s a £2.7 million charitable donation before a card was even dealt.
“Poker is more than just a game to me,” Phua said. “It unites people from all walks of life and we have proven that.”
By the time the entrants had then played ten one-hour levels, only 36 were still remaining. All of Rick Salomon, Tom Dwan, David Peters, Fedor Holz, Leon Tsoukernik, Dan Cates, Talal Shakerchi, Sam Trickett, Elton Tsang, Andrew Pantling, Benjamin Wu, Pat Madden, Wai Kin Yong, Bobby Baldwin, Haralabos Voulgaris and Michael Soyza saw their chips sent elsewhere. Salomon’s 
didn’t hit its flush draw against Andrew Pantling’s flopped set of queens. His £1 million buy-in bought him less than two hours of action, but it set us on our way.
Phua too was toast by the conclusion, having lost with 
to Vivek Rajkumar’s 
. He went out amid much cheering, having turned a straight but losing to a rivered full house. There are no re-entries in this tournament, but Phua will be certain to return for the remainder of this eight-event series. The same likely applies to Richard Yong, the other Triton co-founder. He was also knocked out late in the day but will not have played his last.
The chip-leader at this early stage is Bill Perkins, pictured top, who overcame the early frustrations of the card dead to go on a late-night heater. “Someone told me just calm down, be patient,” Perkins said. And it worked for him.
Perkins won a massive pot after midnight when he flopped top set of tens. He was doubly blessed because Tsang, who won the previous biggest event held on European soil, had flopped bottom set of threes. Baldwin had top pair, top kicker. Perkins won the three-way skirmish, then doubled up again through Rajkumar, and built his stack to 3.56 million, the biggest in the room.
“Now I’m tired, but it feels great,” Perkins said.
Though he’s a regular poker player, Perkins is best known and most successful as a hedge fund manager and has amassed a fortune that allowed him to speculate £1 million on a poker tournament, and also to invite Dan Smith to play. Smith had a good day too, bagging 2.81 million and sitting in the top three of the overnight counts.
Only Timothy Adams, a last-minute addition to the line-up for this tournament, has more than Smith. Adams, who won the Main Event at Triton Jeju earlier this year, has 3.095 million.
To remind you of the format: half the field are invited amateur poker enthusiasts and the other half are their guests, balancing the total field between pros and recreational players. The two factions were kept apart for the most part today, but the seat draw is random from now on, with the only manipulation coming if a recreational/pro partnership lands on the same table. They will then be separated.
The full chip counts will appear below soon, with their seat allocation for tomorrow’s second day. We’ll also start the £50,000 buy-in Event #3 as the Triton Million field thins.
Rest well, we have a lot of poker still to play.
DAY 1 END CHIP COUNT
| Name | Country | Chips |
| Bill Perkins | United States | 3,560,000 |
| Timothy Adams | Canada | 3,095,000 |
| Dan Smith | United States | 2,810,000 |
| Rui Cao | France | 2,700,000 |
| Nick Petrangelo | United States | 2,700,000 |
| Aaron Zang | China | 2,185,000 |
| Justin Bonomo | United States | 2,050,000 |
| Wei Lim Chin | Malaysia | 2,050,000 |
| Igor Kurganov | Netherlands | 2,015,000 |
| Hing Yaung Chow | Malaysia | 1,975,000 |
| Sam Greenwood | Canada | 1,865,000 |
| Ferdinand Putra | Indonesia | 1,830,000 |
| Stephen Chidwick | England | 1,815,000 |
| Christoph Vogelsang | Germany | 1,765,000 |
| Vivek Rajkumar | India | 1,715,000 |
| Bryn Kenney | United States | 1,645,000 |
| Rob Yong | United Kingdom | 1,625,000 |
| Tony G | Lithuania | 1,445,000 |
| Qiang Wang | China | 1,430,000 |
| Danny Tang | Hong Kong | 1,390,000 |
| Wai Leong Chan | Malaysia | 1,235,000 |
| Martin Kabrhel | Czech Republic | 1,155,000 |
| Sosia Jiang | New Zealand | 1,150,000 |
| Jason Koon | United States | 1,120,000 |
| Ivan Leow | Malaysia | 1,080,000 |
| Andrew Robl | United States | 1,075,000 |
| Mikita Badziakouski | Belarus | 815,000 |
| Xuan Tan | China | 765,000 |
| Yu Liang | Vanuatu | 750,000 |
| Winfred Yu | Hong Kong | 730,000 |
| Alfred Decarolis | United States | 675,000 |
| Orpen Kisacikoglu | Turkey | 475,000 |
| Matthias Eibinger | Austria | 375,000 |
| Stanley Choi | Hong Kong | 320,000 |
| Timofey Kuznetsov | Russia | 320,000 |
| Cary Katz | United States | 275,000 |
DAY 2 CHIP COUNT/SEAT ASSIGNMENT
| Name | Chips | |
| Table 1 | ||
| 1 | Mikita Badziakouski | 815,000 |
| 2 | Bill Perkins | 3,560,000 |
| 3 | Sam Greenwood | 1,865,000 |
| 5 | Stanley Choi | 320,000 |
| 6 | Martin Kabrhel | 1,155,000 |
| 7 | Xuan Tan | 765,000 |
| 8 | Alfred Decarolis | 675,000 |
| Table 2 | ||
| 1 | Hing Yaung Chow | 1,975,000 |
| 2 | Rob Yong | 1,625,000 |
| 3 | Tony G | 1,445,000 |
| 5 | Cary Katz | 275,000 |
| 6 | Stephen Chidwick | 1,815,000 |
| 7 | Winfred Yu | 730,000 |
| 8 | Orpen Kisacikoglu | 475,000 |
| Table 3 | ||
| 1 | Yu Liang | 750,000 |
| 2 | Matthias Eibinger | 375,000 |
| 3 | Ferdinand Putra | 1,830,000 |
| 5 | Timofey Kuznetsov | 320,000 |
| 6 | Justin Bonomo | 2,050,000 |
| 7 | Jason Koon | 1,120,000 |
| 8 | Wai Leong Chan | 1,235,000 |
| 9 | Bryn Kenney | 1,645,000 |
| Table 4 | ||
| 1 | Dan Smith | 2,810,000 |
| 2 | Rui Cao | 2,700,000 |
| 3 | Nick Petrangelo | 2,700,000 |
| 5 | Sosia Jiang | 1,150,000 |
| 6 | Vivek Rajkumar | 1,715,000 |
| 8 | Wei Lim Chin | 2,050,000 |
| 9 | Danny Tang | 1,390,000 |
| Table 5 | ||
| 1 | Igor Kurganov | 2,015,000 |
| 3 | Timothy Adams | 3,095,000 |
| 5 | Aaron Zang | 2,185,000 |
| 6 | Ivan Leow | 1,080,000 |
| 7 | Andrew Robl | 1,075,000 |
| 8 | Qiang Wang | 1,430,000 |
| 9 | Christoph Vogelsang | 1,765,000 |
PAYOUT INFORMATION
Triton Million for Charity
Dates: August 1-3, 2019
Buy-in: £1.05 million
Players: 54
Prize-pool: £54 million
1 – £19 million
2 – £11.67 million
3 – £7.2 million
4 – £4.41 million
5 – £3 million
6 – £2.2 million
7 – £1.72 million
8 – £1.4 million
9 – £1.2 million
10 – £1.1 million
11 – £1.1 million
ABOUT OUR PARTNERS
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Photography by Joe Giron/PokerPhotoArchive