Danny Tang Blitzes His Way to Triton Poker Vietnam Short Deck Title and $427,000

Danny Tang blitzed his way through the $25k Triton Poker Vietnam Short Deck final table, wiping out a star-studded field and defeating Stephen Chidwick heads-up to lift the $427,000 top prize...

The first of the action-packed 36-card events on the triton Vietnam SHR schedule attracted 57 entries (34 unique players) to post a prizepool of $1.425million, with the top eight in the money.

Tang accounted for five of those entries, with Karl Chappe-Gatien – winner of the Triton Cyprus Short Deck last year at his first attempt at the game – another to fire off several bullets.

This time the French businessman would take the unfortunate role of bubble boy, and when Justin Bonomo fell to Chidwick, the day ended with seven players left and $72,500 sewn up.

With all the cards from deuce to five missing from the deck, the hand equities are much closer than usual, and that makes for thrills ands spills aplenty.

Mike Watson saw his hopes ended in 6th when Kiat Lee cracked his kings with jacks, then Ike Haxton fell in 5th spot when his K♥ J♣ lost to Chidwick’s 10♠ 9♣.

When Lee departed in 4th place for $151,000, Richard Yong, the co-founder of Triton Poker who had been having a relatively quiet series, had nursed a small stack all the way to the podium in this event.

He had to settle for that bronze spot and $199,300, though, when he went toe-to-toe with Chidwick for his tournament life...

Chidwick: A♥ K♠
Yong: A♣ Q♦

Board: Q♣ J♦ 8♣ 10♠ 9♠

Heads-up between Tang and Chidwick was described as “one-way traffic” by the triton reporting team, Chidwick unable to land a pot of note.

The finale came only three hours after the players had embarked on the final table...

Chidwick: 9♣ 8♣
Tang: J♠ J♦

Flop: 7♣ K♥ 10♣

Amusingly, one of Tang’s friends on the rail shouted for a “Jack!” Tang having to point out that wouldn’t help his cause at all. Happily for Tang, the board bricked...

Turn: 8♥
River: 7♠

With that, Tang had secured the title and ended what he called “a really rough week,” on a high note. “It’s the first stop I hadn’t cashed at all,” he revealed to Ali Nejad, adding: “I bought into this five times, so I had to finish fourth or fifth, but yes, the monkey is off my back.”

As with Webster Lim after his event 1 win, Tang paid tribute to his good friend Ivan Leow, who tragically died last year at the Triton Cyprus stop.

“I think about him every day,” Tang said. “Every single day…This is definitely dedicated to him.”

Final results

Next up for the Triton crowd are the $50k Short Deck followed by the $100k buy-in Short Deck Main Event. As always, we’ll bring you the best of the action, stories, and results right here, so be sure to check in regularly!