Talal Shakerchi Stuns Pros with Triton Vietnam Main Event Victory worth $3,250,000

Talal Shakerchi has proved his poker nickname “Raidalot” is not just for online play, the English amateur launching a daring raid on the Triton Poker Vietnam Main Event and making off with the win from under the noses of the biggest pros for a $3,250,000 payday!

Shakerchi was one of 135 entries (90 unique players) to pay $100,000 apiece for a shot at the flagship title in the Triton Poker Super High Roller stop in Vietnam.

That meant a prizepool of $13,500,000 waiting to be shared out to the top 20 finishers, with the likes of Fedor Holz, Bryn Kenney, Sam Greenwood, Wiktor Malinowski, and Kahle Burns.

The latter, Australia’s number two tournament player by cashes with $13million to his name, took the ignominious but unfortunately necessary role of bubble boy at the hands of Shakerchi...

Burns: Q♣ 8♣
Shakerchi: A♦ 2♦

Board: 3♥ J♣ 3♦ J♠ 9♦

That meant $175k each for the remaining 20 players and a tidy profit (for those who only fired one bullet!). The battle to reach the final table continued apace, with Mike Watson, followed to the rail by Greenwood, Seidel, Kenney and then Sam Grafton.

Malaysia’s Lun Loon fell in 10th spot and the final table was set, Shakerchi holding the chip lead and four places set to pay out $1million+. There were big confrontations aplenty along the way....

Germany’s Daniel Smiljkovic, doing his best to resemble the infamous Teddy KGB character from Rounders, accounted for Fedor Holz in 5th spot, kings not a lucky hand for Fedor last night...

Smiljkovic: A♥ Q♥
Holz: K♣ K♦

Board: 3♦ 2♣ 9♣ A♠ 10♠

Online player Smiljkovic was on his Triton Series debut, an opening event cash followed by a learning curve, but that ended with third place and $1,450,000, losing out to Shakerchi.

That left the English amateur and Michael Soyza heads-up and it didn’t take long before the denouement came...

Victory for Shakerchi, who told reporter Ali Nejad afterwards: “Poker is my hobby and I want to play the best players. That’s how you get satisfaction out of any activity that you do. Challenge yourself and try to do the best you can.”

He insisted he was far from a professional: “Don’t start moving me into the other zone. I’m not a professional player. I spend quite a lot of time playing poker. It’s my main hobby. But I’m definitely not a pro.”

Final results