Triton Poker Vietnam 2023: 15,000 No Limit Hold'Em Eight-Handed results, champion, leaderboard, prizemoney

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Nacho Barbero $15k NLHE 8-Hand champion Triton Poker Vietnam 2023
Joe Giron

Nacho Barbero has won his first Triton Poker title in the 15,000 No Limit Hold'Em Eight Handed event at the Super High Roller Series in Vietnam.

Barbero outlasted Dutchman Jans Arends in heads-up to scoop the 600,000 first-place win from a prize pool of 2.58 million in a record field of 172 entrants.

MORE: Triton Poker Vietnam 2023: Updated schedule, results for Super High Roller Series

The Argentine held a 22 million to 12 million chip advantage over Arends at the start of heads-up and was the clear favourite after dominating the event up to that point.

Barbero immediately put the foot down in heads-up and eventually caught Arends bluffing when an ace came on the turn, with the veteran's ace-two defeating the Dutchman's seven-six suited pure bluff triple-off.

Brian Kim held on for dear in third for a period of time, but he was out unluckily as Barbero spiked a nine on the river with his ace-nine defeating the American's ace-ten.

Blind on blind, Kiat Lee's tournament virtually ended when Arends jammed pocket aces from the small blind, and the Malaysian made the call with ace-six. After Lee failed to get the miracle against aces, he was left with less than a big blind and was knocked out next hand by Barbero.

WATCH: Triton Poker Vietnam 2023 LIVE stream

When Barbero's pocket nines defeated and eliminated Aleksejs Ponakovs' ace-king in fifth, the Argentinian held 18 million chips, with second-placed Kiat Lee only having 6 million.

In an old-fashioned race, Alex Kulev was knocked out in sixth by Kiat Lee with the Malaysian's ace-queen outracing the Bulgarian's pocket nines.

On his second final table in two events after finishing fourth in the GG Super Millions, Seth Davies was out in sixth as his small blind jam with jack-four offsuit was called by Barbero's jack-five offsuit in the big blind, with the dominant preflop hand holding.

Kean Wei Tan saw his tournament end in seventh after his ace-five preflop jam was called by Nacho Barbero, who comfortably covered the Malaysian

After living a charmed life just before the final table with run good keeping him alive, Linus Loeliger was first to bust when his ace-ten was dusted by Barbero's queen-jack, with a straight coming for the Argentine on the turn.

MORE: Triton Poker Vietnam 2023: GG Super Millions results, champion, leaderboard, prizemoney

Spanish star Adrian Mateos saw his pocket nines outraced by Kiat Lee's ace-king to finish 14th, while popular Twitch streamer and ACR Stormer Mark Rubbathan was dismissed on the final table bubble with his pocket three's losing Wei Tan's pocket sevens.

UK player Andrew Leathem was the unfortunate bubble boy as he was forced all-in with 2BBs with nine-four offsuit and couldn't outrun Kiat Lee's king-queen offsuit.

Once the bubble burst, a swag of big names busted who were holding on, including Stephen Chidwick, Steve O'Dwyer, and Phil Nagy.

15,000 No Limit Hold'Em Eight-Handed final results, champion prizemoney

Total field: 172

Total prize pool: 2,580,000

Places paid: 23

Finish Name/Country Prizemoney
Champion Nacho Barbero (Argentina) 600,000
2. Jans Arends (Netherlands) 406,000
3. Brian Kim (USA) 271,000
4. Kiat Lee (Malaysia) 222,000
5. Aleksejs Ponakovs (Latvia) 178,000
6. Alex Kulev (Bulgaria) 138,000
7. Seth Davies (USA) 102,100
8. Kean Wei Tan  75,000
9. Linus Loeliger (Switzerland) 60,000
10. Mark Rubbathan (UK) 50,300
11. Michael Watson (Canada) 50,300
12. Hing Yang Chow (Malaysia) 43,900
13. Tan Xuan (China) 43,900
14. Adrian Mateos (Spain) 39,900
15. Thomas Muehloecker (Austria) 39,900
16. Then Dung Pham (Vietnam) 36,100
17. John So (Hong Kong) 36,100
18. Phachara Wongwichit (Thailand) 32,500
19. Phil Nagy (USA) 32,500
20. Steve O'Dwyer (Ireland) 32,500
21. Markus Leikkonen (Finland) 30,000
22. Stephen Chidwick (UK) 30,000
23. Sebastian Gaehl (Germany) 30,000

Notable eliminated players

Finish position Name/Country Prizemoney
24th (bubble) Andrew Leathem (UK) Nil
37th Sam Greenwood (Canada) Nil
44th Daniel Dvoress (Canada) Nil
45th Erik Seidel (USA) Nil
56th Isaac Haxton (USA) Nil
67th Michael Rocco (USA) Nil
74th Jason Koon (USA) Nil
75th Fedor Holz (Germany) Nil
84th Nick Petrangelo (USA) Nil
83rd David Peters (USA) Nil
89th Patrik Antonius (Finland) Nil
90th Jonathan Jaffe (USA) Nil
93rd Mikita Badziakouski (Belarus) Nil
94th Sam Grafton (UK) Nil
96th Michael Soyza (Malaysia) Nil
103rd Wiktor Malinowski (Poland) Nil
106th Dan Smith (USA) Nil
108th Timothy Adams (Canada) Nil
109th Chris Brewer (USA) Nil
113th Michael Addamo (Australia) Nil
Author(s)
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Kieran Francis is a senior editor at Sporting News Australia.
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