Michael Watson wins the Triton Poker Vietnam $50,000 Short Deck event

Michael Watson has won major tournament titles on multiple tours, including wins in World Poker Tour And European Poker Tour main events. The 38-year-old Canadian poker pro can now do one more triton Trophy for his growing collection thanks to his outstanding performance in 2023 Triton Super High Roller Series Vietnam $50,000 buy-in short deck event. Watson led a field of 44 entries in the high-stakes affair to secure the title and $695,000 top prize.

“It feels great,” said Watson triton Reporter. “I played a lot of these events and had a lot of close encounters. These are the biggest tournaments, the best series, so it feels good to finally win one.”

This was Watson’s 20th career title and sixth-highest total on record. This deep run increased his lifetime winnings to nearly $19.2 million, earning him fifth place in Canada’s poker earnings leaderboard.

Watson earned 510 card player Player of the Year Points for being the champion of this event. This was his second title and fourth final table this year. With 1,320 points and $1,537,515 to date POY Result, Watson now sits in 57th place POY Ranking presented by Global Poker.

This event took place on March 11-12 at Hoiana Resort & Golf in Quang Nam, Vietnam. Day 2 started with 10 players remaining, only seven of whom made the money. Watson was in the middle of the field early in the day and was still fifth after Rob Yong’s pocket aces were cracked by an upstart Michael Zhang’s Q-6 on the bubble.

Zhang then managed to score the first knockout at the official final table when his pocket aces held their own against Tan Xuan’s (7th – $116,000) KJ. Mikita Badziakouski followed soon after as his AJ met Phil Chiu’s AK suit. Badziakouski grabbed the nut flush draw and a double gutshot straight draw that went on the river, but a brick on the end earned him $140,000 for sixth place.

Jason Koon, fresh off a win in the $50,000 Turbo event that made him the first-ever five-time Triton champion, took down the last of his stack with the flopped nut straight that led Zhang’s top 2 pair. Koon didn’t win the hand, but not because Zhang jumped up. Instead, he hit Running Hearts to make a backdoor flush. Koon earned $187,000 in fifth place, surpassing his career earnings of $43 million.

Watson scored his first elimination of the final table when his AK won a preflop race against Chiu’s pocket queens. A queen high flop gave Chiu top set and a huge lead, but running straight cards gave Watson a nine-high straight (with his ace playing as the bottom end in this game where all cards were fives and under from the deck were removed). . Chiu earned $242,000 in fourth place while Watson took the lead and went into the three-player game.

Zhang was next to be all in and risky with his Q-10 against Watson’s pocket jacks. Zhang flopped an open-ended straight draw while Watson improved to middle set. The turn was a blank, but the river paired the board to give Watson jacks full of kings to take out Zhang (3rd – $320,000).

Watson was nearly 4-1 in chips over Isaac Haxton when heads-up play began. It wasn’t long before he converted that lead into the title. In the second hand of heads-up play, Watson moved all in with K from the buttonQ and Haxton quickly called with AA. The board ran out of Q1010J9 to give Watson a king high straight for the win.

Haxton walked away with $500,000 and $425 POY Points. This was his seventh final table of the year, winning three titles and $4,491,140 POY income accumulated along the way. His 2,948 POY Points are good for third place in the overall leaderboard as the points race heats up in 2023.

Here’s a look at the payouts and POY Points awarded at the final table:

Photo credit: Joe Giron / Triton Poker.