Seven Crazy Hands from the Triton Poker Series Montenegro

By Jonathan Raab

23 May 2024

Jonathan Raab 23 May 2024

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Seven crazy hands from the Triton Poker Super High Roller Series Montenegro
Moneymaker's Big Bluffs
One of the Worst Folds You'll Ever see
Patrik Antonius Hero Calls Again

Moments before Viacheslav Buldygin makes the worst fold of his life

Seven Crazy Live Poker Hands from the Triton Poker Super High Roller Series Montenegro

The Triton Poker Series is the world’s most elite poker tour, featuring tournaments with the highest buy-ins in the world. The current Super High Roller Series in Montenegro features many of the biggest players in the world, battling it out in poker tournaments with a minimum buy-in of $25,000, rising to $125,000 for the main event and topping out at $200,000 for very super high roller.

But regardless of the buy-in, crazy hands can happen at any level of the game and there have been a fair few of them already at the current series in Montenegro. PokerWired takes a look at seven big hands that took place during the No Limit Hold'em part of the Montenegro series.

Aces v Kings

Bulgarian Alex Kulev was having a great series. He’d made the money in two events earlier in the schedule, finishing 8th and 22nd and then took down the title in the $100,000 No Limit Hold’em for a payday of over $2.5m, slightly more than Chris Moneymaker won for his 2003 World Series of Poker Main Event victory. When he sat down to play the $125,000 Triton Poker Series Main Event, his luck seemed to be continuing in the same vein, when he was dealt pocket aces against Chris Brewer. He was up against pocket kings and in very good shape, until the flop…and if that wasn’t bad enough, the river was a killer.

Worst Fold Ever?

This hand has already attracted attention, with some saying it ranks amongst the worst folds ever. Other commentators have been less harsh, noting the possible hands that he could be losing to and the high stakes, close to the bubble nature context of the hand as mitigating factors. Nevertheless, Russian Viacheslav Buldygin turned down odds of 9-1 with a full house when already short stacked against Stephen Chidwick, who jammed on Buldygin's river bet. Despite having already committed most of his remaining stack on the river bet, the Russian somehow found a reason to fold his hand.

Most agree that in such a situation you’re best to just go for it and if they do have you beat, good luck to them!

Bubble Time!

It’s never nice to exit on the bubble of a poker tournament, but it’s even worse when the difference between winning and losing is $167,000 or nothing. That’s exactly what happened to Michael Watson in the $100,000 No Limit Hold'em event at Triton Poker Series Montenegro and to make matters worse, the decisive card of course only appeared on the river, as it always does...

MoneyMaker River Bluff

When Chris Moneymaker won the Main Event at the 2003 World Series of Poker he did so by outplaying more experienced players in several spots, which involved some high risk bluffs, which would have altered the course of poker history if they had failed to get through. Twenty-one years later he is still at it, putting chips on the line with vulnerable hands and for this week at least, it seems to have been successful for him.

With 36 players left in the $40,000 Mystery Bounty event at Triton Poker Series Montenegro, the ACR sponsored pro found another big bluff with 9-high on missed straight draw against Xianchao Shen, who had him beat with top pair, but could he find the call?

Moneymaker K9 Bluff Oops

But not all of Chris Moneymaker’s bluffs have the finesse of the previous hand. With four players left in the $25,000 GG Poker Million$ event that Chris went on to win, Moneymaker made a badly timed pre-flop bluff, moving all-in for over 10m chips against Brian Kim, who had opened with a min raise. Kim, holding pocket queens called instantly and was in good shape against Moneymaker’s Ks9c. Kim was still in the lead with just the river to come..

Even Moneymaker seemed a little embarrassed at the outcome, pursing his lips and walking away from the table when the K♦ landed on the river.

While Moneymaker might have felt a little bad for his opponent, the same cannot be said of Bryn Kenney, who found himself in a similar situation against WSOP Main Event Champion Hossein Ensan. In this hand Kenney held A♦Q♣ to Ensan’s K♣K♦and he moved all in on a flop of 3♠Q♠7♦. The A♠ on the river shipped the pot to Kenney, after which he commented “that’s how you do it,” with a wry smile, rubbing Ensan’s face in it.

Adrian Mateos Attempts to Bluff Patrik Antonius, will he call?

Patrik Antonius has been involved in many famous hands in his long and successful career as a cash game pro. However he’s also pretty decent at tournaments, winning the €100,000 Super High Roller event at EPT Monaco in 2024 for a payout of €2.1m. He’s been in action every day at Triton Montenegro and cashed in six of the first eight events at the series, but didn’t make any final tables. He was involved in a hand against Adrian Mateos mid way through the $25,0000 NLH GG Million$ event in which the Spaniard attempted an audacious bluff on the river. Will Patrik make the call or fold his hand?

Andy Ni Nut Low Bluff

One of the beautiful things about poker and something that certainly attracts a lot of people to the game is the ability to win a pot with the worst hand. Bluffing is an art and not everyone can pull it off successfully. Even the most skilled bluffers won’t get away with it all the time, but we can admire their skills and gasp in appreciation when they do get one through.

In this hand, which also took place during the $25,000 GG Million$ event, Andy Ni found himself in a hand with 3♦2♦ after calling a preflop raise by Stoyan Madanzhiev. His Bulgarian opponent held A♠2♥ and bet the flop, only find himself check-raised. He called and when the Q♣ fell on the turn, Ni check raised again! Did it get through?