Champion Dan Dvoress

Dan Dvoress completed his Triton Poker Series hat-trick in Jeju on Tuesday night, doing the seemingly impossible by beating 12-time champion Jason Koon heads up in the $100K Short Deck event.

Dvoress, who has previous titles in both short deck and PLO, added $1.38 million to his ledger and another trophy to his mantle, as he denied Koon what would have been a record-extending 13th win.

By the time the 46-entry field had been whittled to its last three, the stacks were exceptionally shallow and any of Dvoress, Koon, or third-placed finisher Winfred Yu might have gone all the way.

But when the swings stopped, the chips were all in front of Dvoress, a player to whom nobody will begrudge this win, least of all Koon. The pair embraced warmly at the conclusion, drained by the effort but thrilled by seeing one another at either end of the table to close it out.

Congratulations from Jason Koon for Dan Dvoress

Dvoress had been one card from elimiation at one point, but spiked a miracle to survive. After that, he made the absolute most of the good fortune to seal the win.

Koon picked up $997,000 for second. Yu banked $646,000 for third.

Not this time for Jason Koon

"It was a pleasant but unpleasant experience," Dvoress confessed in his winner's interview, admitting that he was not quite as experienced at short deck as some of his opponents. "It was just tough...I try to trust my intuition, But I don't really know what I'm doing and there's several people at this table that know better than me... And that's uncomfortable."

But Dvoress, 37, is a consummate professional, who has been refining and improving his game every year through the first 10 years of the Triton Poker Series. When asked to comment on that first decade of Triton, Dvoress said: "Everything's just gotten better."

He could just as well have been talking about himself.

Dan Dvoress collects his trophy from Luca Vivaldi

TOURNAMENT ACTION

The biggest buy-in short deck event on the schedule brought with it a familiar line-up. In all, there were 46 entries of $100K apiece, but as ever with high stakes short deck, it was played with a jovial atmosphere belying the cost of entry.

Seth Davies made much of the early running, but as the tournament got closer to its bubble, which would burst when eight players were left, Davies was nearer the bottom of the counts and in some danger.

So near but yet so far for Seth Davies

Lo and behold, Davies was one of two players on two separate tables to go out essentially back-to-back, hurrying the tournament into the money. Davies lost with QJ against Ruslan Khadartsev's AJ at the precise time that Ferdinand Putra perished with kings against Jason Koon's queens.

That was a sickener for Putra, who already bubbled another short deck event this week. It sent Koon flying to the top of the counts, which he held still when the final table convened following Michael Zhang's elimination in eighth.

Another nasty bubble for Ferdinand Putra

The last seven were as follows.

Jason Koon - 5,655,000 (113 antes)

Winfred Yu - 3,300,000 (66 antes)

Mike Watson - 2,720,000 (54 antes)

Ruslan Khadartsev - 2,685,000 (54 antes)

Kiat Lee - 2,475,000 (50 antes)

Dan Dvoress - 2,025,000 (41 antes)

Chan Wai Leong - 1,840,000 (37 antes)

Event 23 final table line-up (clockwise from back left): Dan Dvoress, Jason Koon, Chan Wai Leong, Ruslan Khadartsev, Mike Watson, Winfred Yu, Kiat Lee.

A big chip lead at a final table is no guarantee of a win, especially not in short deck. But when the man behind all those chips is Jason Koon, you have a better chance of conversion than normal.

It certainly helped Koon's cause that he picked up aces to bust the ever-dangerous Mike Watson in a massive pot early at the final. Watson had pocket queens and raised after Winfred Yu's limp. Koon three-bet, Yu folded and Watson jammed.

Koon called and the aces held on a low board. Watson was out in seventh for $235,000.

Mike Watson couldn't add another short deck crown

Only one hand later, Dan Dvoress got in on the action and sent Chan Wai Leong out in sixth. This ended with flush over flush, with Dvoress' A9 beating Chan's KJ. But all the money went in pre-flop, so it wasn't quite so gross as it seemed. Chan won $293,000 for sixth.

Chan Wai Leong's downfall started Dvoress' march to the win

A clear divding line appeared among the last five, with Winfred Yu joining Dvoress and Koon at the top, with Khardartsev and Kiat Lee clinging on to survival below them. But it was Khardartsev who lost his battle first, getting his last chips in holding A9 but losing to Yu's AJ, which turned a straight.

Khadartsev has been coming to Jeju since this time last year and the $378,000 for fifth was the biggest prize he's won yet.

Ruslan Khadartsev: Last Russian out in fifth

The pot put the two-time champion Yu into the lead, but this was deep and each of he, Koon and Dvoress still had plenty.

Lee, of course, did not have the chips to survive much more and he soon got his chips in with AJ. He opened and then saw Koon shove behind him, with Lee priced in to call off. Koon had pocket queens, however, and flopped a set. Koon ended up with a boat and that was that for Lee.

Having yesterday won his third career title in the $50K Short Deck, Lee can't be too disappointed with back to back finals. But he still has a way to go to catch the man who knocked him out. Lee won $487,000 from this one.

Another final table for Kiat Lee

Koon led, but Dvoress and Yu were not far behind. And after a prolonged winning streak, albeit of relatively small pots, Wu upended the leaderboard and took over the lead.

He stayed ahead until the first really outrageous pot of the three-handed battle, where Dvoress got all his last 17 antes in pre-flop holding K7. He opened, Yu three-bet with the covering stack and Dvoress call for the last of it. Yu tabled A10 and seemed to have taken a stranglehold on proceedings when the flop fell A107.

The Q gave Dvoress some more outs, and then the J hit the river to fill his straight. Dvoress and Koon chuckled, although Yu was less amused. Dvoress joined the other two with between 30-50 antes.

Yu now found himself on the ropes, but the short deck gods came to his rescue with back-to-back near doubles. That put him back into the lead. But then when Dvoress was on the brink of elimination again, his AK doubled through Koon's 98 and he vaulted back to the top once more.

The average stack was now 17 antes, a minuscule amount for a short deck event. The two North American pros had 19 apiece, while Yu had 14. It was now getting close to being a lottery.

Yu slipped down to four antes, but doubled with the short deck nuts J10. But it still wasn't enough and he fell victim to Dvoress only a couple of hands later. Yu got his chips in with A10 and Dvoress called with 97. The board ran K96JK and Yu's day was finally done.

He fell two places short of a short deck hattrick of titles, instead banking $646,000 for third.

Winfred Yu out in third

The heads-up counts had Koon with 23 antes and Dvoress with 18. And these two good friends agreed to play it out pure, without chopping. Dvoress won the first two hands to move into the lead, and then the inevitably tournament-ending pot occurred.

Dvoress had only one or two antes more than Koon, so when all the chips went in with Dvoress holding AJ and Koon sitting with QQ, the winner was almost certainly going to take the lot.

The dealer put the ace right there on flop, and Koon couldn't catch up. The short deck insanity came to its conclusion with Dvoress top of them all.