Nacho Barbero has won his first Triton Poker title in the 15,000 No Limit Hold'Em Eight Handed event at the Super High Roller Series in Vietnam.
Barbero outlasted Dutchman Jans Arends in heads-up to scoop the 600,000 first-place win from a prize pool of 2.58 million in a record field of 172 entrants.
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The Argentine held a 22 million to 12 million chip advantage over Arends at the start of heads-up and was the clear favourite after dominating the event up to that point.
Barbero immediately put the foot down in heads-up and eventually caught Arends bluffing when an ace came on the turn, with the veteran's ace-two defeating the Dutchman's seven-six suited pure bluff triple-off.
Brian Kim held on for dear in third for a period of time, but he was out unluckily as Barbero spiked a nine on the river with his ace-nine defeating the American's ace-ten.
Blind on blind, Kiat Lee's tournament virtually ended when Arends jammed pocket aces from the small blind, and the Malaysian made the call with ace-six. After Lee failed to get the miracle against aces, he was left with less than a big blind and was knocked out next hand by Barbero.
WATCH: Triton Poker Vietnam 2023 LIVE stream
When Barbero's pocket nines defeated and eliminated Aleksejs Ponakovs' ace-king in fifth, the Argentinian held 18 million chips, with second-placed Kiat Lee only having 6 million.
In an old-fashioned race, Alex Kulev was knocked out in sixth by Kiat Lee with the Malaysian's ace-queen outracing the Bulgarian's pocket nines.
On his second final table in two events after finishing fourth in the GG Super Millions, Seth Davies was out in sixth as his small blind jam with jack-four offsuit was called by Barbero's jack-five offsuit in the big blind, with the dominant preflop hand holding.
Kean Wei Tan saw his tournament end in seventh after his ace-five preflop jam was called by Nacho Barbero, who comfortably covered the Malaysian
After living a charmed life just before the final table with run good keeping him alive, Linus Loeliger was first to bust when his ace-ten was dusted by Barbero's queen-jack, with a straight coming for the Argentine on the turn.
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Spanish star Adrian Mateos saw his pocket nines outraced by Kiat Lee's ace-king to finish 14th, while popular Twitch streamer and ACR Stormer Mark Rubbathan was dismissed on the final table bubble with his pocket three's losing Wei Tan's pocket sevens.
UK player Andrew Leathem was the unfortunate bubble boy as he was forced all-in with 2BBs with nine-four offsuit and couldn't outrun Kiat Lee's king-queen offsuit.
Once the bubble burst, a swag of big names busted who were holding on, including Stephen Chidwick, Steve O'Dwyer, and Phil Nagy.
15,000 No Limit Hold'Em Eight-Handed final results, champion prizemoney
Total field: 172
Total prize pool: 2,580,000
Places paid: 23
| Finish | Name/Country | Prizemoney |
|---|---|---|
| Champion | Nacho Barbero (Argentina) | 600,000 |
| 2. | Jans Arends (Netherlands) | 406,000 |
| 3. | Brian Kim (USA) | 271,000 |
| 4. | Kiat Lee (Malaysia) | 222,000 |
| 5. | Aleksejs Ponakovs (Latvia) | 178,000 |
| 6. | Alex Kulev (Bulgaria) | 138,000 |
| 7. | Seth Davies (USA) | 102,100 |
| 8. | Kean Wei Tan | 75,000 |
| 9. | Linus Loeliger (Switzerland) | 60,000 |
| 10. | Mark Rubbathan (UK) | 50,300 |
| 11. | Michael Watson (Canada) | 50,300 |
| 12. | Hing Yang Chow (Malaysia) | 43,900 |
| 13. | Tan Xuan (China) | 43,900 |
| 14. | Adrian Mateos (Spain) | 39,900 |
| 15. | Thomas Muehloecker (Austria) | 39,900 |
| 16. | Then Dung Pham (Vietnam) | 36,100 |
| 17. | John So (Hong Kong) | 36,100 |
| 18. | Phachara Wongwichit (Thailand) | 32,500 |
| 19. | Phil Nagy (USA) | 32,500 |
| 20. | Steve O'Dwyer (Ireland) | 32,500 |
| 21. | Markus Leikkonen (Finland) | 30,000 |
| 22. | Stephen Chidwick (UK) | 30,000 |
| 23. | Sebastian Gaehl (Germany) | 30,000 |
Notable eliminated players
| Finish position | Name/Country | Prizemoney |
|---|---|---|
| 24th (bubble) | Andrew Leathem (UK) | Nil |
| 37th | Sam Greenwood (Canada) | Nil |
| 44th | Daniel Dvoress (Canada) | Nil |
| 45th | Erik Seidel (USA) | Nil |
| 56th | Isaac Haxton (USA) | Nil |
| 67th | Michael Rocco (USA) | Nil |
| 74th | Jason Koon (USA) | Nil |
| 75th | Fedor Holz (Germany) | Nil |
| 84th | Nick Petrangelo (USA) | Nil |
| 83rd | David Peters (USA) | Nil |
| 89th | Patrik Antonius (Finland) | Nil |
| 90th | Jonathan Jaffe (USA) | Nil |
| 93rd | Mikita Badziakouski (Belarus) | Nil |
| 94th | Sam Grafton (UK) | Nil |
| 96th | Michael Soyza (Malaysia) | Nil |
| 103rd | Wiktor Malinowski (Poland) | Nil |
| 106th | Dan Smith (USA) | Nil |
| 108th | Timothy Adams (Canada) | Nil |
| 109th | Chris Brewer (USA) | Nil |
| 113th | Michael Addamo (Australia) | Nil |
