Stephen Chidwick wins Triton Madrid Short Deck Main Event for €1,800,000

England’s Stephen Chidwick joined the list of Triton Poker champions by scooping the Madrid Short Deck Main Event, the trophy coming with a €1,800,000 payout!

After a back and forth heads up match, Stephen Chidwick has defeated Tony G to win the €100k Short Deck Main Event for 💰 €1,800,000! This is Chidwick’s first 🔱 Triton Tournament win and 12th cash.@casinogranvia@GGPoker #poker pic.twitter.com/HNoZnId7CI

— Triton Poker (@tritonpoker) May 24, 2022

The €100k buy-in saw a total of 60 entries to the action-filled 36-card poker variant, almost half of those re-entries as the monster payouts seduced some of the biggest names in the game to have a second shot.

Phil Ivey, Jason Koon, and Chris Brewer all departed early on day 2 as the money bubble approached, 8 spots paid and a huge €240,000 as the min. cash. Eventually it was Webster Lim who fell, although having pocketed €855,000 for winning event 8 he can’t complain too much.

The official final table was set when Michael Soyza departed in 8th spot, Tony G wielding a large chip lead but the likes of Mikita Badziakouski and Ike Haxton still in the mix.

Short Deck is a brutal game at times, as Seth Davies and Danny Tang found out, both getting it in good but finding the winning margins much smaller than playing with a full deck.

With Haxton hitting the rail in-between that duo, some see-saw 4-handed play ensued, until Tony G hammered Triton co-founder Richard Yong with a one-two KO, the first blow below...

Guoga: K♣ K♥
Yong: A♦ Q♦

Flop: 8♠ 10♣ 8♦
Turn: 10♦
River: J♠

Belarus crusher Mikita Badziakouski already holds the Triton record for title wins at 4, but his hopes of a 5th victory were scuppered when he lost a series of hands, busting out in 3rd for an €840,000 payday.

Heads-up between Tony G and Stephen Chidwick began with the much-loved Lithuanian loudmouth announcing “Tune in to Triton Poker for the greatest heads-up battle!”

It wasn’t quite that, but it was fun for the viewers, who eventually saw two big hands clash, with Guoga at risk...

Guoga: A♦ J♠
Chidwick: A♠ Q♦

Flop: 6♦ Q♥ 9♥
Turn: K♠
River: J♥

♠ ♣ ♦ ♥

With that, the Englishman had scooped the title, the €1,800,000 top prize, and the exclusive Jacob & Co watch that only Triton Main Event champs receive, and which Chidwick described as “beautiful!”

Final results

“It feels incredible,” Chidwick said afterwards. “Such a big event. It feels amazing.”

He continued: “It was a super long final table and I was short for a lot of it,” adding: “I lost count of the all-ins I won.”

The Triton Madrid action continues today with events 13 and 14 of the 13-tournament series (if you can’t work out why this makes sense, hit us up on social media for the answer!)

We’ll be back with all the best of the action tomorrow, so stay tuned!