Five Things You Might Have Missed at Triton Monte Carlo

Fourteen events, more than $144.5 million in prize pools, and 30 seven-figure scores won.

The numbers produced by the recently wrapped Triton Poker Super High Roller Series are as staggering as ever, as a collection of poker’s elite and a handful of the world’s wealthiest thrill seekers spent the better part of two weeks battling for small fortunes in the lap of Monte Carlo luxury.

And with the stakes being so high, and so much on the line, there are stories that are simply too big to ignore. So, let’s dive into what you might have missed coming out of the 2024 Triton Monte Carlo Super High Roller Series.

Bryn Kenney Smashes $70M

The Hendon Mob’s All-Time Money List leader Bryn Kenney put some serious monetary separation between himself and the rest of the poker-playing public while in Monte Carlo after reaping more than $6 million in tournament earnings on the trip. With that, he became the first player to leap beyond the $70,000,000 mark in live tournament earnings.

It mostly came down to the fact that Kenney took down Event #10 ($125K NLH Triton Monte Carlo Main Event) by besting a field of 159 entries for a score of more than $4.4 million. It currently sits as the third-largest cash of his career, and it marks his 10th career seven-figure score.

Kenney didn’t have to wait long to earn his next million-dollar cash, finishing in fourth place in Event #12 ($150K NLH High Roller) for another $1.6 million. In total, Kenney has now amassed more than $73 million in earnings, roughly $9 million more than the second-place player on the All-Time Money List , Justin Bonomo.

With the frequency of Triton events and at the rate which Kenney collects million-dollar scores, he’s put himself as the current runaway favorite to be the first player to hit $100M in poker earnings.

The Wizardry of Vladimir ‘Gambledore’ Korzinin 

It’s always great to see the best players in the world in action during a Triton series. But sometimes, it’s the players you haven’t heard of that steal the show. Case in point is Estonia’s newcomer Vladimir Korzinin. Korzinin picked up the nickname ‘Gambledore’ in no small part to his striking long white hair and beard and his resemblance to Harry Potter’s Professor Dumbledore (he passed on ‘Gambolf,’ we’re guessing).

But it wasn’t just the fact that he’d hired actors who were dressed as elves to sit on the rail behind him that had people paying attention to him. It was the fact that Korzinin, who arrived to Monte Carlo with only two recorded live scores totaling less than $80,000, went back to his castle with more than $7.8 million in earnings.

It was on the back of two massive scores that pushed Korzinin into a pile of poker winnings. The first was a runner-up finish in Event #8 ($200K NLH Special Triton Invitational) for $3.47M (Korzinin was the invitee and brought Aleks Ponakovs as his invited pro). Days later he parlayed that score into a victory in Event #12 ($150K NLH High Roller) for $4.35 million – besting a table full of poker wizards including Kenney, Stephen Chidwick, Dan Smith, and Fedor Holz among the final table.

Who knows when the next time we’ll see Korzinin again as ‘Gambledore’ refused all interview requests and even turned away the Triton trophy of the event he won, passing it back simply saying, according to Triton, “I have no room for that.”

A Hall of Fame Worthy Win

It would have been a double victory for Korzinin had it not been for Patrik Antonius, the eventual winner of Event #8 ($200K NLH Special Triton Invitational).

Antonius has been on a heater, amassing (at the time of writing) $11.8 million in earnings this year alone. He sits second in earnings for the 2024 calendar year (just $50,000 behind current leader Adrian Mateos) but, more importantly, the Invitational payday of $5.13 million is now the biggest score of the newly-minted Poker Hall of Famer’s 20+ year career.

According to Triton, upon receiving the Triton trophy Antonius leaned into his love of the game, indicating that even after all these years he has no intention of slowing down.

“I’m living my dream life,” he said after the win. “And I want to keep living like this.”

Lonis Returns To The Top

More than a year since he last made waves at a Triton Super High Roller Series, Jesse “The American Gangster” Lonis made the trek to Monte Carlo to, once again, put himself to the test. Once again, Lonis passed…and surpassed plenty of his competition in the process.

Lonis cashed four times in Monte Carlo for a total of $2,274,500 which included a victory in Event #9 ($50,000 NLH 7-Handed High Roller) for just over $1.5 million, the second-best score of his career. When all was said and done for Lonis, he headed back to the United States having propelled himself into the top 100 of The Hendon Mob’s All-Time Money List as well as retaking the #1 spot on the Global Poker Index.

How does Lonis keep getting it done? Maybe like this:

Odds and Ends

Russian crusher Artur Martirosyan was the only player to take home two Triton titles in Monte Carlo. He first took down Event #7 ($20,000 + $10,000 NLH Turbo Bounty) for $531,000 and then closed out the series with a win in Event #16 ($17,500 + $7,500 PLO Turbo Bounty) for another $345,000.

More than five years since Alex Foxen made an appearance at a Triton festival, he showed up in Monte Carlo to rack up four cashes including his first Triton title in Event #5 ($50,000 NLH High Roller) for $1.47 million. Foxen currently sits with just under $36 million in lifetime live earnings and sits just outside the Top 20 on the All-Time Money List, at 21.

With four cashes, including a sixth-place finish in Event #8 ($200,000 Special Triton Invitational), Mikita Badziakouski stepped into the All-Time Money List Top 5. At just 32 years old, and a player who seemingly never misses a Triton event, Badziakouski is poised to be one of the players to push the aforementioned Kenney for the top spot in years to come.