Timothy Adams Earns Nearly $4.2 Million As Triton London Main Event Champion

Canadian poker pro Timothy Adams hit a new high score on Monday, Aug. 7 when he took down the 2023 Triton Poker Super High Roller Series London $125,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em main event for a staggering $4,185,000 payday and his second Triton main event trophy.

This huge win surpassed Adam’s previous top cash of $3,608,865 that he earned as the champion of the 2019 Triton Jeju main event, which sported a $254,000 buy-in when rendered in USD. That payout was only slightly larger than the $3.6 million he secured for winning the 2020 Super High Roller Bowl Russia. The Burlington, Ontario native now has more than $38 million in lifetime tournament earnings, with over $13 million of that coming from his 11 cashes in Triton events.

On top of a multi-million-dollar payout, Adams also received 1,440 Card Player Player of the Year points after dragging the final pot in this event. This was his first title and seventh final-table finish of the year. With 2,987 total points and more than $7 million in to-date POY earnings, Adams has climbed to 45th place in the 2023 standings presented by Global Poker.

In the end, it came down to a heads-up battle between Adams and Jean-Noel Thorel, a businessman and poker enthusiast from France.

“I’m just lost for words because that was insane that I won this one,” Adams told Triton reporters. “It was a battle heads up. Jean-Noel, hats off to him. He is an insane competitor, super tough to play against.”

This event drew 151 entries to the JW Marriott Grosvenor House Hotel in London, creating a prize pool of $18,875,000 that was ultimately split up amongst the top 27 finishers. Big names like bracelet winner Alex Kulev (26th), all-time money leader Bryn Kenney (21st), bracelet winner Dan Smith (20th), nine-time bracelet winner Erik Seidel (19th), 2022 WSOP main event champion Espen Jorstad (16th), two-time Triton winner Webster Lim (15th), top POY contender Jose Barbero (14th), Triton co-founder Paul Phua, four-time bracelet winner Nick Schulman (11th), and World Poker Tour champion Seth Davies (10th) all made the money, but fell short of the final table.

Dan ‘Jungleman’ Cates held the chip lead at the time the remaining nine contenders converged on a single table to play down to a winner, with Thorel in third and Adams in fourth chip position when cards got back in the air.

Three-time bracelet winner and popular YouTuber Doug Polk slid to the bottom of the counts during full-ring play. He eventually ran K-Q into the pocket kings of Thorel to finish ninth ($422,500). This score increased his career tournament earnings to just shy of $10.5 million.

Lun Loon (8th – $510,00))soon followed, with his pocket deuces unable to overcome the pocket fives of two-time POY award winner Stephen Chidwick.

Bracelet winner James Chen recorded his second major cash of the series, finishing seventh for $705,000 just a couple of days after placing ninth in the $250,000 Luxon Invitiational for $680,000. Chen’s run in this event ended in brutal fashion, with his pocket kings clashing against the pocket aces of Thorel in a preflop raising war that ended with all of the chips in the middle.

A wild hand arose during six-handed play that dramatically shifted the complexion of the final table. Juan Pardo opened for a min-raise from under the gun with KK, only to have Thorel three-bet to five big blinds from the hijack holding AA. Chidwick woke up with AK and put in a cold four-bet to 11.5 big blinds. Cates quickly folded JJ from the big blind and it was back around to Pardo. As he considered his options, Thorel announced that he was all-in out of turn. Pardo got away from his two kings and Thorel’s action stood. Chidwick called, having Thorel covered, and a 96458 runout saw the Frenchman take a massive lead. Check out a replay of the hand below via a social media post from Triton Poker.

Triton Main Final Table. $4.5m for 1st. Then this hand… Speechless…

Follow our socials for more interesting highlights. pic.twitter.com/y4Z9UI4RZP

— Triton Poker (@tritonpoker) August 7, 2023

Thorel picked up pocket aces again, this time facing the K-Q suited of Pardo. The pocket pair held up and Pardo was sent to the rail in sixth place ($970,000).

Chidwick ran into yet another big pocket pair for Thorel, with his pocket sevens in rough shape against two queens. An unhelpful board saw Chidwick eliminated in fifth place. The $1,260,000 he earned for his latest deep run increased his career earnings to $51.8 million, good for third place on poker’s all-time money list. He had come into this series in fourth but has cashed four times in London for nearly $2.1 million to surpass Daniel Negreanu ($50,296,291) on the earnings leaderboard.

Chidwick, who is the reigning POY award winner, now sits in fifth place in the 2023 race with 6,462 points. He has made 15 final tables and won four titles so far this year.

Isaac Haxton is also among the top POY contenders in 2023. He finished fourth, getting all-in with an open-ended straight draw against the ace high of Thorel. Haxton was unable to improve and was sent home with $1,582,000. This was his 17th final table of the year, with six titles won and more than $9.6 million in to-date POY earnings. He currently occupies the third-place spot on the POY leaderboard with 7,527 total points. This score also saw him surpass Fedor Holz ($41.1 million) to move into 10th place on the money list with nearly $41.8 million in earnings.

Cates was the next to fall, with his Q-J running into the pocket jacks of Adams. The pair held up and Cates was eliminated in third place ($1,940,000). This was the largest tournament score yet for the two-time WSOP $50,000 Poker Players Championship winner. It increased his total earnings to over $14.1 million.

Heads-up play began with Thorel holding just shy of a 2:1 chip advantage over Adams. The Canadian bracelet winner managed to battle his way into the lead in time for a crucial clash. Thorel picked up pocket nines and raised from the button. Adams three-bet with pocket eights from the big blind, and called when Thorel four-bet shoved. The larger pair remained ahead through the flop and turn, but the 8 on the end gave Adams a winning set to lock up the pot and the title. Thorel earned a career-best payday of $2,830,000 as the runner-up.

Here is a look at the payouts awarded a the final table:

Photo credits: Triton Poker / Joe Giron.

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