Moneymaker Makes Money in Montenegro

Chris Moneymaker is one of the most famous poker players to ever grace the tables. He shot to fame when he won the 2003 World Series of Poker Main Event as a PokerStars online qualifier and then spent the best part of two decades representing the online poker site as a sponsored pro. He is now sponsored by ACR Poker and just two weeks ago he finished 6th in the site’s $12.5m Venom event for a payday of almost $400,000. 

He has now scored even bigger by winning the $25k GG Million$ at the Triton Poker Super High Roller Series Montenegro, for his third biggest live score of $903,000. Moneymaker went into the 9 player final table at the Maestral Hotel and Casino Resort in Budva as the overwhelming chip leader, commanding a stack of over 11m. He had already assumed the chip lead when he ousted fellow American Byron Kaverman in 10th place, calling the short stacks all-in with 10♠10♣ and hitting a set on a flop of Q♠10♥9♠ to leave Kaverman needing a gutshot king to make a straight with his A♠J♣ but the board ran out 2♥9♦to improve Chris’s hand further and cement his chip lead going into the final.

There were many star players in the 163 player field for the GG Poker sponsored opening event ofg the Triton Super High Roller Series Montenegro. Notable players who ran deep and cashed included Patrik Antonius in 17th place, still fresh from his win at the EPT Monte Carlo Super High Roller, Phil Ivey in 14th and and another former WSOP Main Event winner Hossein Ensan, who exited in 13th place.

The final table was also no pushover, including Isaac Haxton (9th), four time WSOP bracelet winner Adrian Mateos (6th) and China’s Biao Ding (4th) who is a two-time Triton Poker Series winner. Chris commented afterwards that he had a similar feeling about this win to his famous 2003 WSOP poker victory at the height of the poker boom. He felt he couldn’t lose and indeed he was saved on several occasions when behind on flips. After Moneymaker dispatched Igor Yaroshevskyy in 3rd place, he took a chip lead into the heads up stage versus American Brian Kim. 

Those hoping for a drawn out battle were left disappointed as it took just three hands for Moneymaker to seal the deal and take his first ever Triton Poker Series title. In the final hand Chris opened with A♣10♣and didn’t take too long to call when Kim shoved all in with A♠8♥ for a sizeable stack of 30 big blinds. The first card out was the 10♠ and although the 8♦fell on the turn to give Kim slim hope of a third eight hitting the river, it wasn’t to be. 

ACR Poker, for whom Chris Moneymaker is now an ambassador is also a sponsor of the Triton Poker Series with their name adorning the tables along with those of GG Poker and PokerStake. Chis Moneymaker had indeed sold some of his actions to fans on PokerStake, however he won the tournament on his second bullet, for which he had not sold any action. As a consolation for those who had bought a piece of his first unsuccessful bullet, Moneymaker refunded their investments.

The $25k GG Millions was the first event of the Triton Poker Super High Roller Series Montenegro, which continues until May 26th featuring an extensive schedule of big buy-in events, attracting many of the top names in high stakes poker. It is the second event of the year for Triton Poker after the highly successful festival in Jeju, which shattered attendance records for the series. The GG Millions event in Jeju saw a field of over 300 players compete for a $7,625,000 prize pool.

The rest of the schedule at the Triton Poker Super High Roller Series Montenegro includes the No Limit Hold’em Main Event, which takes place on May 20-21, with a $125,000 buy-in. This concludes the first part of the series, which focuses on Hold’em events, while second half of the series switches to Pot Limit Omaha. There will however be no short-deck events at the Montenegro edition of the Triton Poker Series.

Here is the full tournament schedule for the Triton Poker Super High Roller Series Montenegro, which includes 14 events in total. Note that due to a popular susperstition in Asia that 4 is an unlucky number, the schedule skips from event 3 to event 5 and from event 13 to event 15.