Patrik Antonius’ Insane Call Leads to Triton SHRS $25K Title

The poker Twitterverse exploded on Tuesday after Patrik Antonius defeated Fahredin Mustafov heads-up in the Triton Super High Roller Series (SHRS) Event #1: $25,000 No-Limit Hold’em for $825,000 at the Merit Royal Diamond Hotel & Casino in North Cyprus.

It wasn’t Antonius’ first career victory at a Triton event or the fact that he nearly banked $1 million that had the poker world gasping in amazement as The poker world expects as much from the Finnish poker legend as he has been notching big win after big win for about two decades and has earned almost $14 million in live tournament cashes as tracked by The Hendon Mob.

Instead, it was a viral hand with just three players remaining that could have sent Antonius to the rail that caught the eyes of some of the biggest names in poker.

“It has some special feel,” Antonius said after the victory according to Triton. “Triton is growing … all the top players are playing this tournament, so it’s nice to win, I have to say. And it’s a nice way to start a series like this.”

Amazing Hero Call by Antonius

The hand which could be nominated for a 2023 GPI Best Hand award began simply enough with Mustafov min-raising the button to 800,000 with 10 8 and Antonius defending his big blind with J 2 .

Antonius improved to bottom pair once the 7 2 6 rolled out on the flop and check-called a bet of 700,000. Antonius checked out of position again after the Q followed on the turn. Mustafov fired out a bigger bet of 1,400,000 and Antonius went into the tank before he found a call.

Mustafov was unable to connect with the board after the A came on the river. This didn’t slow the Bulgarian down after Patrik Antonius checked once again. Instead, Mustafov jammed for more than 10 million and Antonius went into the tank for about six minutes.

“Can he make the call for the sickest hand of this tournament!?” asked Triton commentator Randy Lew. 

“The fact that he’s even considering making the hero call here with bottom pair,” co-commentator Henry Kilbane chimed in.

Eventually, Antonius found a call to the shock of the commentators and those watching the action with hole cards exposed on a delay at the TritonPoker Twitch channel.

“Take a bow, sir,” Kilbane respectfully said after the hand.

In a tournament defining moment, @Patrik_Antonius makes the most INSANE CALL with immense ICM pressure from the chip leader Mustafov. Have you ever seen anything like this in a $25k!?!?

😱😱 pic.twitter.com/fWQxbIB7rt

— Triton Poker (@tritonpoker) September 6, 2022

2022 Triton SHRS $25,000 NLHE Final Table Results

Place	Player	Country	Prize
1	Patrik Antonius	Finland	$825,000
2	Fahredin Mustafov	Bulgaria	$557,000
3	Steve O’Dwyer	Ireland	$362,000
4	Danny Tang	Hong Kong	$300,000
5	Ebony Kenney	United States	$240,000
6	Viacheslav Buldygin	Russia	$190,500
7	Kannapong Thanarattrakul	Thailand	$145,700
8	Seth Davies	United States	$109,500

Event #1 attracted a banner field of 131 entries including 34 re-entries to create a $3,275,000 prize pool. The top 17 players banked at least a min-cash of $51,400 with all eight final tablists earning at least a six-figure haul.

Final Day Action

All eyes were on Triton Poker co-founder Paul Phua to start the day as he bagged the overnight chip lead. Fate wasn’t on Phua’s side as he managed to be the first of the 16 returning players to hit the rail.

Santi Jiang, Artem Vezhenkov, Eric Worre, Ivan Leow, Selahaddin Bedir, Viktor Kudinov, and Bruno Volkmann also hit the rail in the money before the final table began.

Triton Poker history was made even before the final table began thanks to Ebony Kenny becoming the first final female player ever to appear at the Cyprus Triton Poker final table. To make things even more interesting, Kenny began the final table with the chip lead while Antonius held one of the shorter stacks in play.

Seth Davies was the first player to hit the rail at the final table when his ace-four suited was unable to get there against Mustafov’s sixes. Antonius then chipped up by eliminating both Viacheslav Buldygin when his ace-queen was good against king-jack and Kannapong Thanarattrakul after his fives won a flip against king-queen.

Shortly after, Kenny found herself short on chips in her quest to become the first female Triton Poker champion. She seemingly got her 10 big blind stack in a good spot with ace-queen but ran into Mustafov’s cowboys to hit the rail in fifth place.

Mustafov continued to roll and easily had the biggest stack in play and added even more chips to start three-handed play when his ace-ten held against queen-nine to oust the short-stacked Danny Tang.

Steve O’Dwyer, who was down to one big blind during four-handed play, managed to ladder up and gain a little bit of breathing room before time ran out. After his viral hand against Mustafov, Antonius was able to snag O’Dwyer’s stack with his ace-seven staying ahead of king-six.

The heads-up battle was nearly over before it began as it lasted just three hands. The chips went in after Antonius flopped a straight with seven-six suited. Mustafov held jacks and was unable to get a runner-runner miracle to hit the rail just short of the title in second place for $557,000.

A massive congrats to one of the nicest guys in poker Patrik Antonius for winning his first Triton Poker title.

_{*Photos courtesy of Triton Poker}