Santhosh Suvarna Wins Triton North Cyprus $25,000 GG Super Millions

Santhosh Suvarna is the first champion to be decided at the 2023 Triton Super High Roller Series North Cyprus festival. The high-stakes player from India outlasted a field of 158 entries in the $25,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em ‘GG Super Millions’ event, earning $700,000 and his first live tournament title for the win.

“I’m so happy,” Suvarna told Triton reporters after it was all over. “Finally, I won this tournament.”

This was the largest cash yet for Suvarna, topping the $628,000 he secured for a fourth-place finish in a $75,000 buy-in event at the Triton Vietnam series earlier this year. He now has nearly $1.5 million in recorded earnings to his name.

In addition to the title and the money, Suvarna was also awarded 1,008 Card Player Player of the Year_ points after coming out on top. This was his second final-table finish of the year. With 1,416 total points, Suvarna now sits inside the top 90 in the 2023 POY race standings presented by Global Poker.

This event ran over the course of two days at the Merit Royal Diamond Hotel & Spa in North Cyprus. The final day began with 29 remaining and 23 set to cash. Karim Rebei started the day atop the leaderboard, but ultimately ended up finishing 11th for $77,000. Plenty of other notables made the money, only to fall short of the final table, including four-time bracelet winner Adrian Mateos (23rd), World Poker Tour champion and bracelet winner Dylan Linde (22nd), Patrik Antonius (21st), 2020 WSOP Online main event champion Stoyan Madanzhiev (20th), 2022 Triton Madrid main event champion Henrik Hecklen (12th), and 2023 Triton Vietnam $75,000 event winner Orpen Kisacikoglu (10th).

Christopher Putz (9th – $91,600) was the first to fall at the final table, with his A-5 running into the A-Q of 2010 EPT Grand Final main event winner Nicolas Chouity. Alex Boika soon followed, with his pocket threes losing a preflop race to the A-K suited of Sam Greenwood. Boika took home $115,000 as the eighth-place finisher.

The next big showdown was a three-way all-in with Sam Greenwood shoving from the button with A10, Tobias Schwecht calling from the small blind for four big blinds with K8 and Salahaddin Bedir waking up with KK in the big blind and calling all-in for his last 10 big blinds. The board double paired and Bedir’s kings held to earn him the whole pot, eliminating Schwecht in seventh place ($156,400) in the process.

Robert Heidorn’s run in this event concluded when his A-J was overcome by the K-Q suited of Greenwood. The chips went in after the flop with Heidorn hoping for an ace or a heart to complete his flush draw, while Greenwood held top pair. Heidorn received no help on the later streets and was knocked out in sixth place ($211,300).

Greenwood was left critically short after his A-5 suited lost an all-in confrontation against the pocket eights of Suvarna. Greenwood had Suvarna covered by just a single big blind, and was sent to the rail moments later when his A-9 high ran into the trip sevens of Chouity. Greenwood was awarded $272,500 as the fifth-place finisher. He now has nearly $32.3 million in lifetime tournament earnings, good for second on the all-time money list for his home country of Canada. Earlier this year, Greenwood was awarded $3,276,760 as the champion of the $250,000 buy-in high roller at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. With two titles, five final-table finishes, and $4.1 million in to-date POY earnings, Greenwood is now the 55th-ranked contender on the POY leaderboard.

Igor Yaroshevskyy spent much of day 2 as one of the big stacks, but he slid down the leaderboard late at the final table and was ultimately sent packing in fourth place ($339,500). He got his last 12 big blinds in with pocket sixes racing against the K-J of Suvarna, who was starting to run away with the lead. A jack on the flop gave Suvarna the lead, and a king on the turn left Yaroshevskyy one yard away from elimination. The river was a blank Suvarna extended his chip advantage heading into three-handed play.

After a few hands, the final three agreed to discuss a chop. Eventually, a deal was reached that redistributed the remaining prize money as follows:

Santhosh Suvarna – $700,000
Nicolas Chouity – $636,000
Selahaddin Bedir- $620,000

The agreement also stipulated that Suvarna, as the chip leader, would secure the title and the trophy. Chouity was officially the runner-up finisher, while Bedir placed third. They played on briefly, but a three-way all-in closed things out, with Suvarna making the nut flush to scoop all of the chips and bring the tournament to a close.

Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded at the final table:

Photo credits: Triton Poker / Joe Giron.