In 2021, Michael Addamo dominated the poker world, claiming victory after victory and instilling fear in many of the high stakes tournament players. Among them is Aleksejs Ponakovs, who seems hell-bent on winning this battle of the blinds at the $200,000 Triton Invitational tournament. But can he find a way to win with just 8-high or will Addamo see through his audacious bluff?
When playing tournaments and you are in the small blind playing with 200+ big blinds, you ought to limp more and be cautious with your medium-strength hands, especially when there is a big blind ante.
Michael Addamo ‘imluckbox’ is a 29 year old Australian professional poker player and is a regular at the highest stakes tournaments in the world. He has over $22,000,000 in live tournament earnings, putting him in the top 35 on the all time money list. He has 4 World Series Of Poker (WSOP) bracelets. His biggest cash of $3,402,000 came in the $300,000 PokerGo Tour – PGT Super High Roller Bowl in 2021.
Aleksejs Ponakovs is a professional poker player from Austria. He has over $14,000,000 in live tournament earnings, putting him in the top 80 on the all-time money list. He has 2 WSOP bracelets, one from the 2022 $100,000 No Limit Hold’em – High Roller 8-Handed for $1,897,363. The second came from an online event, the 2021 $7,777 No Limit Hold’em – Lucky 7’s High Roller for $432,491.
This Special Triton Invitational poker tournament is a unique $200,000 NLH buy-in that features high-net-worth individuals (generally businessmen/women) and poker professionals battling for huge amounts of prize money and the coveted title & trophy. This exclusive event kicked off the Triton Poker Super High Roller Series in Monte-Carlo. Some notable players in this event were Jason Koon, Michael Addamo ‘imluckbox’, Chris Brewer, Dan Smith ‘Cowboy Dan’, Paul Phua, Aleksejs Ponakovs, Issac Haxton ‘philivey2694′, Sam Grafton ‘SamSquid’, Erik Seidel, Richard Yong, Tony G, Phil Nagy, Fedor Holz ‘CrownUpGuy’, Stephen Chidwick ‘stevie444’, and many more.
The Triton Monte Carlo Series was held at the Monte-Carlo Sporting / Salle Des Étoiles, and it had 13 poker tournaments with buy-ins from $25,000 up to $200,000 in NLHE and PLO.
1st: Dan Smith – U.S.A – $3,870,000 2nd: Mario Mosbock ‘livinmydream1’- Austria – $2,690,000 3rd: Elton Tsang – Hong Kong – $1,780,000 4th: Jean Noel Thorel ‘JNT’ – France – $1,390,000 5th: Alexander Shelukhin – Russia – $1,125,000 6th: Danny Tang – Hong Kong – $875,000
🔍 Pre-Flop Action In the very early stages of this $200,000 buy-in Triton Invitational, the action folds to Michael Addamo in the small blind. He decides to complete the big blind with Q9o. Aleksejs Ponakovs, in the big blind with 86o, raises to 6,000. Addamo opts for a call, and they head to the flop heads-up.
💸 Flop – Kd Qs 3s The flop comes king-high with a flush draw, giving Addamo second pair. He checks to Ponakovs, who continues his preflop aggression with a continuation bet of 4,500 holding just 8-high. Addamo, holding a pair of queens, decides to call as they both see a turn.
💣 Turn – Ac The ace of clubs on the turn completes the obvious broadway straight and presents another overcard to Addamo’s weakening pair of queens. He checks again to Ponakovs, who opts to fire out a second bullet of 19,000. Despite just holding third pair,, Addamo remains unfazed by this almost pot-sized bet and decides to call to see a river.
🌊 River – Td The board worsens for Addamo as the ten of diamonds falls, completing a potential broadway straight with any jack. Addamo checks for the third and final time. Ponakovs, who since preflop has been telling the story of a big hand, decides to fire out a three-quarters pot-sized bet of 45,000 with just 8-high. Addamo, who is used to being the one putting other professional poker players in uncomfortable spots, faces his own tough decision. Can this poker wizard figure it out and make the hero call to win this battle of the blinds? Watch the entire poker video to find out!
Jonathan Little analyzes live poker hands from TV poker shows such as Poker After Dark, Hustler Casino Live, The Lodge Poker Club & PokerGO. He also analyzes popular poker vloggers such as Rampage Poker, Brad Owen, Jaman Burton, Ashley Sleeth, Wolfgang Poker and others!
You will also find many poker hands on this channel that contain some of the biggest names in the poker world such as; Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth, Phil Ivey, Doug Polk, Garrett Adelstein, Tom ‘Durrrr’ Dwan, Dan ‘Jungleman’ Cates, Fedor Holz & many more!
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