Malaysian business tycoon Paul Phua fell in love with poker following his entrepreneurial success, so much so that he was winning tournaments all over the world with 4 titles. Paul is also #1 on the Malaysian All-Time Money List with over $19million. His success in poker fueled another passion, to teach and build a poker community online. Paul Phua Poker The Home of High Stakes Poker. Tom Dwan - I Am High Stakes Poker Watch More Videos. Get Into The Mindset of High Stakes Poker Players. Ever wondered what pro high stakes players' strategies are? Get into their minds as they share tips, pre-game rituals and even strategies. Dive into the world of high stakes poker with our 'I Am.
Poker has an image problem.
When money is your primary source of fuel, you’re going to have some unsavoury incidents, and in 2019, we had one, when the Stones Gambling Hall cheating allegations found its way onto the international press reel.
In the past few days, lawyers defending Stones Gambling Hall, its owners Kings Casino LLC, Mike Postle and Justin Kuraitis, filed a motion to dismiss the $30m lawsuit.
The case is the villain of poker’s story.
Yet, every story also needs a hero.
The Stones incident wasn’t the only time that poker became the talking point of plumbers, gas fitters and chefs around the world in 2019. In the summer, Paul Phua turned his dream of hosting a £1m buy-in charity poker tournament into a reality.
Triton Million: A Helping Hand for Charity enthralled the world.
Triton would wear the cape.
Triton would be our hero.
The morality and ethics of poker are often called into question, helped by the cases like the Stones cheating scandal, and that’s why the Global Poker Awards (GPA) is a much-needed tonic for the industry. There are no unwashed bedsheets. No cigarette butts in the ashtray. No thick fog. Instead, we have a red carpet, tuxedo’s leg-splitting dresses, and cat-cream smiles.
It’s a night when poker’s avengers unite.
Triton Poker Lighting The Lantern
The second annual edition of the GPA took place at the PokerGO Studios at Aria, Las Vegas, on Friday night, and the high stakes stratum featured prominently spearheaded by the tribes most prestigious poker tour.
The Triton brand and its associates appeared in numerous shortlists. Triton co-commentator, Lex Veldhuis, won the Streamer of the Year award, and players competing on Triton tables featured, but lost, in shortlists for Final Table Performance of the Year, and Hand of the Year. But it was the categories of Industry Person of the Year, and Event of the Year where Triton shone brightest.
The Triton Million: A Helping Hand for Charity came up against the PokerStars Player’s No-Limit Hold’em Championships (PSPC), the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event, and the WSOP BIG 50 in the shortlist for Event of the Year.
Fifty-four players paid the £1,050,000 Triton Million buy-in, the highest attended for a seven-figure buy-in event. The £54m prize pool is the highest prizepool outside of the WSOP. The £16,890,509 that Bryn Kenney picked up for finishing second to Aaron Zang remains the most significant single prize ever handed to an individual poker player (Aaron Zang collected £13.7m after a heads-up deal, and went on to win the event).
Outside of those incredible achievements, Triton’s organisers rolled out the innovations including changing shot clock rules, and dividing pros and non-pros for the first six levels, and raised £2.7m for charity.
But it was not enough to win the GPA.
Instead, the honour went to the PSPC, which in itself created history by becoming the largest attended $25,000 buy-in event the world had ever seen, when Ramón Colillas won the $5.1m first prize. Like Triton, PokerStars also pulled out the innovations, giving away 300 free seats, with the largest contingent having never before competed in a $25,000 buy-in event.
Two very different events.
Only one winner.
Close, but no Ghurka cigar.
Paul Phua Wins Industry Person of the Year
PokerStars is a private company.
Triton is the dream of two men, and one of them reached the short-list of the coveted Industry Person of the Year award.
Paul Phua didn’t start playing poker until his 40s, but like everything that Phua does, it didn’t take long for him to want to become the best. Only Phua took extraordinary steps to realise his dream.
Instead of travelling the world competing in other people’s games, Phua created his own. Triton Poker is a reflection of the values and beliefs of Phua, and his partner Richard Yong. A tour that rumbles around the world, stopping at the most salubrious of locations, with world-class service, world-class players and world-class production.
Triton has brought back the old nostalgic air of high stakes magnificence but paraded it around the world like never before, culminating in that magnificent £1m buy-in event.
It’s no coincidence that Phua and Katz were both short-listed. Both have done so much to elevate high stakes poker to a whole new stratosphere, and the poker community needs that exposure, and the influx of money if it is to continue to thrive and thrive it does.
Phua managed to do what Triton Million did not, and took the award, ahead of his esteemed competition. It was a fitting moment for a man who has finished in the money (ITM) in Triton events more than any other, without having anything to put into his trophy cabinet. Even for a man of Phua’s drive and determination, one doubts he thought this would be the first piece of silverware to grace the Phua home.
Ironically, on the night that poker celebrated its heroes, its current villain still managed to find its way into headlines, when Joe Ingram collected the award for Best Media Content (Video), for his investigation into the Stones cheating scandal.
But there was no last stand between the heroes and villains.
Merely a celebration of everything that makes this game great.
GPA Awards: The Results in Full
GPI Breakout Player of the Year
Robert Campbell (Winner)
Ramón Collilas
Ben Farrell
George Wolff
Final Table Performance of the Year
Phillip Hui – $50k Poker Player’s Championship (Winner)
Hossein Ensan – WSOP Main Event
Alex Foxen – WPT Five Diamond
Bryn Kenney – Triton Poker Super High Roller Series, Montenegro
Twitter Personality
Jamie Kerstetter (Winner)
Barny Boatman
Kitty Kuo
Kevin Mathers
Toughest Opponent
Stephen Chidwick (Winner)
Michael Addamo
Kahle Burns
Ali Imsirovic
Streamer of the Year
Lex Veldhuis (Winner)
Hristivoje Pavlovic
Ben Spragg
Matt Staples
Vlogger of the Year
Andrew Neeme (Winner)
Jaman Burton
Daniel Negreanu
Brad Owen
Podcast of the Year
The Grid by Jennifer Shahade (Winner)
DAT Poker Podcast
Poker Life Podcast
The Fives
Industry Person of the Year
Paul Phua (Winner)
Phil Galfond
Cary Katz
Matt Savage
Tournament Director of the Year
Matt Savage (Winner)
Jack Effel
Paul Campbell
Tony Burns
Event of the Year
PokerStars Players Championships (Winner)
Triton Million
WSOP Main Event
WSOP BIG 50
Mid-Major Tour/Circuit
RUNGOOD Poker Series (Winner)
WPTDeepStacks
Road to the PSPC
WSOPC
Journalist of the Year
Joey Ingram (Winner)
Lance Bradley
Haley Hintze
Nick Jones
Broadcaster of the Year
Nick Schulman (Winner)
Joe Stapleton
Jeff Platt
Jamie Kerstetter
Media Content (Written)
Poker and Pop Culture by Martin Harris (Winner)
A Fight for Fatherhood by Lance Bradley
Kevin Roster Spread Sarcoma Awareness by Aleeyah Jadavji
The Unabridged Story of the Hendon Mob by Paul Seaton
Media Content (Photo)
Drew Amato (Winner) – Dario Sammartino at the WSOP
Antonio Abrego – Ryan Laplante
Joe Giron – Frank Stepuchin
Hayley Hochstetler – Doyle Brunson and Jack Binion
Paul Phua Casino
Media Content (Video)
Investigating Mike Postle – Joe Ingram (Winner)
Legends of the Game Stu Ungar – PokerGO
The Big Blind with Jeff Platt
Who Makes Money From Professional Poker – Sam Rega for CNBC
Poker Personality of the Year
Jonathan Little (Winner)
Joey Ingram
Ryan DePaulo
Lex Veldhuis
Hand of the Year
Ryan Riess Makes 10-High Call at EPT Monte Carlo (Winner)
Bryce Yockey v Josh Arieh
Sam Trickett v Stephen Chidwick
Thi Xoa Nguyen v Athanasios Polychronopoulos
Poker ICON Award
Johnny Chan (winner)
The Hendon Mob Award
John Cernuto
Outcome
Preflop, with three players remaining and blinds of 50,000-100,000 with a big blind ante of 100,000, Paul Phua raised to 250,000 from the button. Webster Lim called from the big blind. On the flop Lim checked. Phua bet 175,000. Lim check-raised all-in for 1,180,000 total. Phua called.
Paul Phua Birthday
Analysis
Paul Phua Wei Seng
World Series of Poker bracelet winner Webster Lim made an all-out aggressive play in this hand that put chip leader Paul Phua to the test. Phua picked up A-5 offsuit on the button and raised to 2.5 big blinds from his stack of over 45 big blinds. Lim began the hand with just more than 15 big blinds. He looked down at 7-5 suited in the big blind and made the call. The two saw a flop of 4-3-3 rainbow, which gave both players gutshot straight draws and two overcards each. Lim checked to Phua, who bet 175,000 into the pot of 650,000. Lim check-raised all-in for 1,180,000, likely trying to draw folds from some of the unimproved ace-high and king-high hands that Phua would continuation bet with. Phua’s A-5 would be in pretty rough shape if he were up against a flopped full house or trips, but the hand performs surprisingly well on this flop against a number of hands that Lim could have played this way. As it was in this particular instance, he was a 71 percent favorite to win against Lim’s actual holding of 7® 5®. Against 5-2 Phua would be roughly a 3:1 favorite to win. A hand like K-4 that made fours and threes with a king kicker would be ahead of Phua at the moment, but he would still have around 38 percent equity against that holding. If Lim had 6-5 offsuit, Phua would have 56 percent equity to win the hand and another 3.8 percent chance of chopping the pot. With 2,005,000 in the pot and 1,005,000 to call, Phua needed 33.3 percent equity against Lim’s range in order for the call to be a break-even play. Phua ultimately made the call and managed to hold up from there to send Lim to the rail in third place. Lim took home $672,000 as the third-place finisher, while Phua took a sizable lead into heads-up play with Matthias Eibinger. Phua went on to win this event for $1,512,000.