Brian Kim Wins Triton Poker Monte Carlo Kickoff Event

The last Triton Poker stop finished up in late May, with $99.8 million in prize money paid out across its 14-event schedule. The high-stakes tour is back this November, and has kicked off with a bang. The 2024 Triton Poker Super High Roller Series Monte Carlo WPT Global Ultimate Slam $25,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em event drew a sizable field of 170 entries, resulting in a prize pool of $4,250,000. It took two lengthy days to determine a champion, with American poker pro Brian Kim emerging victorious in the end.

The 2024 World Series of Poker main event seventh-place finisher was awarded $941,000 for the win. This was the third-largest score yet for Kim, who hails from Southern California but is now based out of Australia. This was Kim’s first title in a Triton event, having cashed 18 times before on the high-stakes tour. Kim now has more than $10.5 million in career earnings, with more than $6.2 million of that coming from his success in Triton events.

“It’s elusive. With all these great players, it’s possible I could have been coming to Triton for another seven years and not winning one,” said Kim in his post-game interview on the Triton Poker live stream after closing out the victory.

In addition to the title and the money, Kim also earned 1,092 Card Player Player of the Year points for the win. This was his first title and sixth final-table finish of the year. With 4,223 total points and nearly $4.7 million in POY earnings, Kim is now ranked 30th in the 2024 POY race standings presented by Global Poker.

This tournament attracted many of the biggest names in the tournament poker game, with only the top 27 making the money. Among those that ran deep were bracelet winner Isaac Haxton (21st), two-time bracelet winner Artur Martirosian (20th), 2019 WSOP main event champion Hossein Esnan (14th), three-time Triton winner Matthias Eibinger (10th), and 2016 One Drop Invitational champion Elton Tsang (9th).

The final table began with bracelet winner Alex Theologis in the lead and Kim in second chip position. Theologis added to his stack by knocking out Tsang with pocket aces. Ranno Sootla (8th – $115,000) was the next to fall, with his A-9 running into pocket aces for two-time bracelet winner Aleksejs Ponakovs.

Despite scoring that knockout, Ponakovs soon joined Sootla on the rail. He ran pocket eights into the pocket queens of Roberto Perez to finish seventh ($159,000). The Latvian now has more than $21.8 million in career cashes.

A short-stacked Dominykas Mikolaitis got all-in with Q-6 suited trailing the pocket nines of bracelet winner Enrico Camosci. The pocket pair held and Mikolaitis was bounced in sixth place ($218,000). Tom Fuchs then secured $284,000 as the fifth-place finisher when his K-Q was unable to best the A-2 suited of Theologis.

Kim eliminated Perez next in a battle of the blinds. Kim shoved from the small blind with 7-5 and Perez called off from the big blind with Q-9. Kim made a pair of fives on the flop and held from there to narrow the field to three. Perez earned $356,000 for his efforts, the second-largest payday of his live tournament career.

Kim picked off a bluff attempt from Theologis during three-handed play that left the latter short. Theologis was left on fumes, even after scoring a double up. He was soon all-in again Q-2 facing 8-5 for Kim, which improved to a straight on the turn. Theologis took home $436,000 as the third-place finisher. This was the third-biggest recorded payday for the Greek poker pro

Kim held a slight lead going into heads-up play with Camosci. A preflop coin flip with pocket tens against A-Q went in favor of Camosci to turn the tables, but Kim managed to pull back in front and then close out the win. Camosci settled for $634,000 and 910 POY points as the runner-up. This was his 10th final-table finish of the year. He now sits in 15th place in the POY rankings with 4,823 points and more than $2.9 million in to-date POY earnings.

Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded at the final table:

Photo credits: Triton Poker / Drew Amato.

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