Danny Tang Wins Triton Cyprus Short Deck Main Event

Danny Tang is now a three-time Triton Poker champion, having won two titles at the 2023 Triton Super High Roller Series North Cyprus festival. Tang’s most recent victory came just four days after he won the $50,000 no-limit hold’em Turbo event for $545,000. It saw him outlast a field of 44 entries in the $50,000 buy-in short deck main event to earn another $750,000.

This was the fifth-largest score of the Hong Kong’s resident’s career. He now has nearly $15.4 million in tournament earnings to his name, to go along with his three Triton wins and a World Series of Poker bracelet.

Tang overcame a stacked final table, surviving a three-handed showdown with the two title leaders of the Triton tour: seven-time champion Jason Koon and four-time champion Mikita Badziakouski.

“This is my seventh stop, it took me a while to get one under my belt,” said Tang after coming out on top. “I got it in Vietnam, but that was a small field, smaller buy-in. This is the main event, against these two, three-way. It was a very tough final table.”

In addition to the title and the money, Tang also earned 510 Card Player Player of the Year points for the win. This was his fourth title and fifth final-table finish of the year. With 1,854 total points and more than $1.9 million in to-date earnings, he is ranked 59th in the 2023 POY standings presented by Global Poker.

The second and final day of this event began with 17 players taking a seat inside the Merit Royal Diamond Hotel & Spa. Koon held the lead to start, with Tang in eighth chip position.

Michael Watson fell just short of securing his ninth final-table finish of 2023, running pocket kings into the pocket aces of Tang. Both players had hit sets by the turn, but a one-outer was not in the cards for Watson this time and he was sent to the rail empty-handed.

The next big confrontation was a three-way all-in. Kiat Lee was the shortest stack with A-9 suited. Sam Greenwood had pocket kings and a handful more antes than Lee. Danny Tang had both opponents covered and A-Q, which improved to aces and queens by the river to score the double elimination. Lee earned $154,000 for sixth, while Greenwood took home $198,000 as the fifth-place finisher.

This was Greenwood’s seventh final-table finish of the year, with two titles won and more than $6.2 million in POY earnings accrued thus far. As a result, he now sits in 16th place in the POY standings heading into the summer months.

Just a day removed from a win in the $25,000 short deck event, Richard Yong placed fourth in this tournament. Yong got all-in with A-6 suited trailing the A-Q of Koon and was drawing slim after Koon flopped top two pair. A blank on the turn left Yong with no shoot to win the hand, and he was sent to the rail with $253,000. This payday increased Yong’s career earnings to over $16.4 million.

Yong’s departure set up the three-way showdown between Tang, Badziakouski, and Koon. The trio battled it out for nearly an hour and a half. The next knockout came about when Koon ran A-Q into the A-K of Tang, who already held the chip lead by that time. Neither player improved on a paired ten-high board and Koon was eliminated in third place ($330,000).

This latest payday increased Koon’s career earnings to over $47.2 million, keeping him in fifth place on poker’s all-time money list. More than $22.1 million of that has come from Triton events, with 33 cashes and the aforementioned seven titles won on the tour.

Heads-up play began with Tang holding 7,425,000 to Badziakouski’s 5,775,000. It took nearly two hours for a winner to be decided. Tang was able to pull away overtime, holding more than a 5:1 lead by the time the final hand was dealt. All of the chips went in with A9 for Tang and K10 for Badziakouski. The board ran out AJ87K and Tang’s pair of aces earned him the pot and the title. Badziakouski cashed for $515,000 as the runner-up, growing his lifetime earnings to nearly $45.1 million.

Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded in this event:

Photo credits: Triton Poker / Joe Giron.