Over the course of 15 events in just over two weeks at the Triton Super High Roller Series London, big-name players descended upon the JW Marriott Grosvenor House London and played for a staggering amount of money. The total prize pools across those tournaments awarded $104,685,000 to players, and as the poker world heats up after a post-summer hangover, there were some fascinating stories coming out of this series.
Phil Ivey and Jason Koon each doubled up with a pair of wins. 2022 World Series of Poker Main Event champion Espen Jorstad posted his first victory since taking home that title, and posted a $2.7 million cash in another event. And as you might expect with three individual tournaments posting prize pools of $29.5 million, $18.875 million, and $16.2 million, the all-time money list looks significantly different than it did three weeks ago.
So as we dig into what we learned at this series, the natural place to start is with the biggest winners of all.
Bryn Kenney Hits All-Time No. 1 (Again) With $250K Luxon Invitational Win
In 2019, Bryn Kenney made a heads-up deal before eventually finishing second in the Triton £1 Million for Charity event, taking home $20,563,324 – the biggest individual tournament prize in poker history. Four years later, Kenney returned to London and won the second-largest sum of his poker career – hoisting the trophy and collecting a mere $6.86 million for taking down the $250,000 Luxon Invitational.
Kenney cleared $65 million in lifetime earnings by the end of the Triton London series, putting him more than $3 million clear of previous No. 1 player Justin Bonomo. The order of the top 10 on the all-time money list looks significantly different than it did six months ago, especially after this series. Stephen Chidwick now sits third, with six cashes and four final tables in London. Koon sits fourth after his efforts (more on that momentarily), and Adams’ win helped him climb up to 15th.
The all-time money list now largely serves as a measuring stick for the players who most often mix it up in high roller events, but succeeding at that level is a significant accomplishment. Kenney and Bonomo are more than $10 million clear of the rest of the list, and while any of the players below them could go on a run akin to Koon’s recent success and catch them, they have each established themselves as the players to beat moving forward.
London Double for Koon and Ivey
It would be hard to have better performances than the ones Koon and Ivey had over the course of the Triton London series
Koon had a pair of wins – in the $60,000 7-Handed event and the $60,000 Short Deck Main Event – for a combined $2.3 million. That extended Koon’s career total to nine Triton titles – five of which he’s won in 2023 alone. As if that wasn’t enough, he also finished fourth in another $60K event and, on top of that, managed to survive the bubble of the $250K Luxon Invitational with 1.5 big blinds.
Ivey won his fourth and fifth Triton career titles, in a $60K Turbo and a $25K Short Deck event, respectively. Ivey also had a runner-up finish to Jorstad in the $40K Bounty event, and took sixth in the $60K 7-Handed tournament eventually won by Koon. With $2 million in cashes during, Ivey eclipsed $40 million in lifetime earnings and held tight onto the No. 10 spot on poker’s all-time money list.
Koon and Ivey each proved different things during this series. Koon has $8.8 million in tournament earnings over the last six months, and currently sits in a virtual three-way tie with Chidwick and Daniel Negreanu in third. Given his current run of form, he appears to be as well-positioned as any poker player to challenge the current Kenney-Bonomo status quo for No. 1.
Ivey just keeps proving his staying power. In a tournament poker world that has continuously changed, especially over the last 20 years, Ivey continues to compete at the highest possible level for the highest stakes in the world.
Timothy Adams Wins 2023 Triton London Main Event
It takes a significant result at this point in Adams’ poker career to register as significant, and yet he did so twice in a matter of a few days in London. After taking fourth in the $200K event for over $1.5 million, Adams took home a career-best $4.185 million by winning his second career Triton main event later that week. With three cashes worth over $5.8 million, Adams jumped to No. 15 on poker’s all-time money list and passed Sam Greenwood for No. 2 among all Canadians behind only Negreanu.
Adams established himself early in his career with millions in online tournament earnings and popped up on a lot of radars with a WSOP bracelet in 2012. But after a career-defining run of results in London, Adams has proven that the best may yet be to come.
David Yan, Nacho Barbero and Espen Jorstad Make Big Money Deal in $200K
In the first (chronologically) of the three signature events at the Triton Super High Roller Series, an 81-entry field in the $200K 8-Handed event played down to a final table stacked with players on absolute tears. Chris Brewer bowed out in seventh, but not before making a tremendous fold against Jorstad. After Adams went out in fourth place, Jorstad, Nacho Barbero, and David Yan made a three-way deal, with Barbero’s position earning him the biggest piece.
Yan ultimately took down the tournament and over $3 million for the victory. It was his second seven-figure result of 2023, following a third-place finish in the 2023 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure $250K for $1.47 million. It was Yan’s first Triton title, but this score may be a forerunner for more successes to come.
Barbero’s year started with a fourth-place finish in the $25K PSPC Main Event, and has since seen him win a Triton title, a PokerGO Tour title, and an Aria High Roller. While he technically took second place in this $200K tournament, the $3.4 million more than doubled the career high-water mark Barbero set at the PSPC earlier this year. Add in a first career WSOP bracelet in 2022, and Barbero’s trajectory is also on the rise.
Finally, for Jorstad, London proved clearly what was already pretty evident when he won the 2022 WSOP Main Event. Jorstad is no flash in the pan Main Event winner who will fade into the background in the years to come. Four final tables and over $3.9 million in winnings at Triton London serve as a clear reminder that Jorstad is a player to be reckoned with in any field.