Triton Poker Vietnam 2023: 50,000 Short Deck Ante-Only Day 1 leaderboard, payouts, prizemoney

Stephen Noh

Triton Poker Vietnam 2023: 50,000 Short Deck Ante-Only Day 1 leaderboard, payouts, prizemoney image

The 50,000 Short Deck Ante-Only event at the Triton Super High Roller series in Vietnam saw Michael Zhang as the chip leader after Day 1. Zhang, who traveled to the tournament only to play the short deck events, has amassed 3,285,000 chips. He has nearly doubled the total of Jason Koon, who is in second place with 1,740,000 chips.

Zhang has been impressive throughout the first day of the tournament. Rob Yong noted, "You're too good, kid," after battling with Zhang midway through the day.

Koon built that second-place stack on the heels of a massive four-way all-in preflop that had his pocket kings hold.

After Koon's record-setting fifth Triton win in the 50,000 No Limit Hold'Em Turbo Event earlier in the week, he's in good position to pick up title No. 6 on Sunday.

Isaac Haxton has also put himself in great position to win, with only seven less antes than Koon in his stack. Haxton is coming off a fifth-place finish in the previous event, the 25,000 Short Deck Ante-Only Event. He built that big stack late in the day by jamming ace-jack suited and getting called by Kiat Lee's pocket queens. An ace on the flop gave Haxton the pot.

Ten players in total remain to vie for the 695,000 top prize. With the inherent volatility of short deck, any of them could reasonably win the tournament.

The remaining contestants will resume play on Sunday at 1 p.m. local time and play down to a winner.

HOW TO PLAY SHORT DECK POKER: Origin, rules & basic strategy from high stakes pro Linus Loeliger

50,000 Short Deck Ante-Only leaderboard after Day 1 

Field remaining: 10/44

Places paid: 7

Average stack: 1.3 million (66 antes)

Ante level at end of day: 15k/30k

Place Name/Country Chips Antes
1. Michael Zhang (United Kingdom) 3,285,000 164
2. Jason Koon (USA) 1,740,000 87
3. Isaac Haxton (USA) 1,590,000 80
4. Tan Xuan (China) 1,340,000 67
5. Phil Chiu (Hong Kong) 1,190,000 60
6. Michael Watson (Canada) 1,120,000 56
7. Lun Loon (Malaysia) 950,000 48
8. Rob Yong (United Kingdom) 795,000 40
9. Mikita Badziakouski (Belarus) 605,000 30
10. Leo Qin (Hong Kong) 585,000 29

Notable eliminations

Place Name/Country Prizemoney
12. Daniel Dvoress (Canada) 0
14. Paul Phua (Malaysia) 0
18. Stephen Chidwick (United Kingdom)  0


Payouts for 50,000 Short Deck Ante-Only Event 

Total prizepool: 1,425,000

Position Prizemoney
Champion 695,000
2nd 500,000
3rd 320,000
4th 242,000
5th 187,000
6th 140,000
7th 116,000

Stephen Noh

Stephen Noh Photo

Stephen Noh started writing about the NBA as one of the first members of The Athletic in 2016. He covered the Chicago Bulls, both through big outlets and independent newsletters, for six years before joining The Sporting News in 2022. Stephen is also an avid poker player and wrote for PokerNews while covering the World Series of Poker from 2006-2008.