Tollerene’s Triton SHRS Cyprus $808K Haul Overshadowed by Kudinov’s Unbelievable Ten-High Call

Until yesterday, American poker pro Ben Tollerene was silent the past few years on the live felts with his last recorded cash coming before the COVID-19 pandemic when he shipped the British Poker Open Event #10: £103,000 No Limit Hold’em for £840,000.

That all changed in a big way yesterday with Tollerene coming up with yet another victory after agreeing to a heads-up deal with Brazilian crusher and partypoker Ambassador Yuri Dzivelevski in the Triton Super High Roller Series (SHRS) Cyprus Event #2: 30,000 No-Limit Hold’em to bank $807,927.

Yesterday’s victory at the Merit Royal Diamond Hotel & Casino catapulted Tollerene to more than $10 million in live tournament earnings tracked by The Hendon Mob but this only tells half the story. Tollerene is a notorious nosebleed Omaha cash game crusher under “Ben86” at PokerStars and other screennames elsewhere.

“I’m very tired,” Tollerene said after the victory to Triton. “I was sort of stressed because I haven’t played poker in a while and I was struggling to remember everything.”

Despite the big win by Tollerene in just his second career Triton event, this event might be remembered by many poker enthusiasts for something else thanks to a huge call with just ten-high by Viktor Kudinov early at the unofficial final table.

Sick Call by Kudinov with Ten-High

Yesterday, we reported an amazing call by Patrick Antonius with three players remaining in the inaugural event. Antonius went on to win the Triton SHRS Cyprus Event #1: $25,000 No-Limit Hold’em for a whopping $825,000.

A perhaps even sicker call took place with eight players remaining by Kudinov. Although Kudinov was unable to get too far at the final table, this hand will go down in poker history as one of the most epic calls of all time.

• Read more about Patrick Antonius’ amazing call and victory in the Triton SHRS Cyprus Event #1: $25,000 NLHE.

The blinds were at 50,000/100,000 along with a big blind ante of 100,000. The hand began simply enough with GGPoker Ambassador and Pokercode founder Fedor Holz opening for 240,000 from the small blind with the 6 4 and Kudinov defending his big blind with the 10 9 .

It didn’t appear at first that much would develop with both player opting to check the Q 2 K flop. Holz then barrelled for 175,000 with air after the K turn paired the board and Kudinov called with his gutshot. Both players bricked the A river but this didn’t stop Holz from trying to steal the pot with a bet of 340,000.

“Flatting with ten-high would literally be the sexiest thing I’ve seen in a Triton (event) so far, and we’ve seen some very sexy plays,” Triton Poker commentator Ali Nejad said as Kudinov used a time bank card.

Somehow, Kudinov managed to find a call with just ten-high to the amazement of the commentators and poker fans.

“Oh my god,” Nejad said from the booth after the call. “Did he just call with ten-high?”

“Wow, show everyone,” Triton commentator Randy Lew added. “This ten-nine high is sick.”

If you thought the now LEGENDARY @Patrik_Antonius call from yesterday was big…. Kudinov shows that he also has super HERO-calling powers in this hand against @CrownUpGuy 🤯💥 Is everyone just massively over-bluffing in the Triton Super High Rollers?! pic.twitter.com/GD5W21Gnb6

— Triton Poker (@tritonpoker) September 7, 2022

Triton SHRS Cyprus Event #2: $30K NLHE Final Table Results

Place	Player	Country	Prize
1	Ben Tollerene	United States	$807,927*
2	Yuri Dzivielevski	Brazil	$749,073*
3	Stephen Chidwick	United Kingdom	$408,000
4	Alex Keating	United States	$337,500
5	Fedor Holz	Germany	$272,300
6	Ignacio Moron Chavero	Spain	$215,000

*Reflects heads-up deal

The Triton Event #2: $30,000 No-Limit Hold’em attracted a banner field of 123 entries including 46 re-entries to generate a $3,698,100 prize pool. The top 17 players each took home at least a min-cash of $58,000.

Triton SHRS Cyprus Event #2 Final Table Recap

Kudinov began the final day with the chip lead among the 17 hopefuls shooting for the title. Meanwhile, both eventual winner Tollerene and eventual runner-up Dzielevski began the day near the bottom of the pack.

Wai Kin Yong, Sam Greenwood, Kannapong Thanarattrakul, Razavi Melika, Jason Koon, Artur Martirosyan, Nicolas Chouity, 2022 World Series of Poker Main Event champion Espen Jorstad, Pedro Garagnani, and Triton Poker co-founder Paul Phua were all among the players to advance to the second and final day in the money but were unable to appear at the official final table.

Although Kudinov managed to ladder up one spot after making an amazing call with ten-high, he wasn’t able to get any further after his suited big slick was unable to win a flip against Dzivielevski’s jacks. This catapulted Dzivielevski into the chip lead to begin the official final table of six players with Tollerene in the middle of the pack.

It was all Dzivielevski and Tollerene at the final table. Dzivielvski ousted Ignacio Moron Chavero before Tollerene took care of both Alex Keating and Holz. Dvielevski was quickly back at it against and picked off a bluff with just ace-high on a queen-nine-four flop and sent British poker baller Stephen Chidwick packing in third place after his opponent’s jack-eight didn’t get there.

Tollerene held the chip lead during heads-up play before the duo agreed on a deal that guaranteed Tollerene at least $777,927 and Dzivelevski at least $749,073 with $30,000, the trophy, the Shamballa Jewels bracelet, and, of course, bragging rights still on the line.

It wasn’t all smooth sailing for Tollerene during heads-up action as Dzivielevski found a double when his queen-jack was good against queen-five. This title could have easily at this point gone to Dzivielevski if the poker gods were on his side but instead, he doubled Tollerene when his ace-seven failed to hold against king-queen.

The final hand was a bit of a cooler for Dzivielevski. It began with Holz limping the button with ace-queen and Dzivielevski checking back his option from the big blind with queen-eight suited.

Both players improved to top pair on the queen-six-deuce flop with Tollerene still in the lead in the hand with the top kicker. Dzivielevski check-raised and Tollerene called. An eight on the turn improved Dzivielevski to two pair and he fired out for about one-third of his remaining stack. Tollerene called and hit Yahtzee with a better two-pair after an ace spiked the river.

Dzivielevski bet out about half his stack and called off for the other half after Tollerene raised only to get the bad news. Despite missing out on the title, Dzivielevski should still feel good about the deal softening the blow.

Congrats to Ben Tollerene for another amazing win!

_{*Photos courtesy of Triton Poker}