Timothy Adams Wins Triton Poker London Main Event, $4.185 Million

Timothy Adams has won the second Triton Main Event of his career, taking the title in the $125,000 buy-in Triton Poker London Main Event on Monday for $4,185,000. His previous victory was at Jeju (South Korea) in 2019, where he won $3,536,550; he is just the third player to win two Triton Main Events.\

Adams went into the final table about in the middle of pack in chip counts, well within reach of the chip leaders. It was Jean Norel Thorel, though, who had a substantial chip lead going into heads-up play, 24 million to Adams’ 13 million. And Adams was only that close thanks to eliminating Daniel “Jungleman” Cates in third place.

Adams doubled-up fairly quickly, when both he and Thorel flopped top pair, but Adams had the better kicker.

On the final hand, Adams had a slight lead, 20.250 million to 17.525. And then he, by his own admission, got lucky. All the chips got in the middle pre-flop, Thorel with Nines and Adams with Eights. Thorel’s tournament life was on the line, but he was a huge favorite to cripple Adams. The flop was 7-K-Q, the turn a 6, and the river…an 8.

Adams looked stunned, almost like he was about to cry either from joy or sorrow that he pulled such a gut-punch card on Thorel. In fact, Thorel looked happier than Adams (Thorel seems like a hell of a good sport – he even posed in the winner’s photo with Adams and his friends).

“When we got it in it was a bit of a cooler,” Adams said in his post-tournament interview. “I thought that would be it for me. I couldn’t believe it when I smashed the eight on the river.”

“I’m just lost for words because that was insane that I won this one. It was a battle heads-up. Jean Noel, hats off to him. He is an insane competitor, super tough to play against.”

“JNT is so unpredictable,” Adams added. “That’s how he plays. He put me in so many tough situations. I don’t know if I made the right fold or a bad fold.”

That last hand wasn’t the nuttiest one of the final table, though. Juan Pardo, who finished sixth, raised to 400,000 pre-flop with Kings. Thorel three-bet to a million with Aces and then Stephen Chidwick, who ended up fifth, four-bet to 2.3 million with A-K. Cates then woke up with Jacks, but seeing all the action before him, he decided someone had to have a monster (he was right) and folded. It was Pardo’s turn, but Thorel announced he was all-in for 7 million out of turn, which prompted Pardo to fold his Kings.

Chidwick called, having Thorel covered, and could not catch up with his dominated A-K.