Kayhan Mokri – Photo Credit: Triton Super High Roller Series
Kayhan Mokri is the latest big winner at the Triton Super High Roller Series hosted at Sporting Monte-Carlo on Nov. 3. This was the second tournament of 14 scheduled over the next two weeks in one of the most exclusive enclaves in Europe.
Mokri is no stranger to tournament poker success with this being his second seven-figure score (he also won a high-roller event at the European Poker Tour Barcelona stop earlier this year in September), and the resident of Norway now has five tournament victories overall. Mokri has also now jumped to 36th place in the Card Player Player of the Year standings.
“Today was my day, it’s a momentum thing. I had the best cards today and that’s how it is,” said Mokri. “I finally won one. Now I can relax a bit more.”
The $30,000 buy-in eight-max no-limit hold’em event drew a talented field of 144 runners that created a prize pool worth $4.32 million. The top 23 players all cashed for at least $50,500.
Notables that made a deep run in the event and cashed in the money before the final nine were quickly set and included final table bubble boy Quan Zhou (ninth), Wai Kin Yong (14th), Artur Martirosian (15th), Daniel Dvoress (17th), Juan Pardo (18th), Webster Lim (19th), Dan Smith (20th), Fedor Holz (21st), and Kristen Foxen (23rd).
With the average stack set at 25 big blinds when the final table began the action was brisk. Mokri was actually last in chips when the final table began, but he went on an impressive run to take out seven of his opponents among the final nine on the path to victory.
Mokri won the early pots that he needed to survive, and then Dimitar Danchev fell in eighth, and he was quickly followed by another Bulgarian player when Krasimir Neychev was out in seventh.
Marius Kudzmanas hit the rail next in sixth, and fifth-place honors went to the local Monaco resident and recent Poker Hall of Fame inductee Patrik Antonius. Antonius added $298,000 to his career totals, giving him $23.8 million lifetime in live tournaments.
Mokri continued to steamroll the field when he took out Orpen Kisacikoglu in fourth, and Alex Kulev in third to take a 2:1 advantage into the final match against Paulius Vaitiekunas. Mokri then won both of the major hands that took place between the final two players to bring the tournament to an end.
Vaitiekunas limped with 5
4
in the hole, and Mokri checked his option holding 63 before the flop fell 6
53. Mokri checked, Vaitiekunas bet, and Mokri raised. Vaitiekunas then committed the last of his chips, and Mokri called.
The turn and river changed nothing, and Mokri was crowned as the champion. It wasn’t all bad for Vaitiekunas with a runner-up payout worth $680,000 to take the career earnings for the Lithuanian above $3.8 million.
Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Payout | POY |
| 1 | Kayhan Mokri | $1,005,000 | 1,008 |
| 2 | Paulius Vaitiekunas | $680,000 | 840 |
| 3 | Alex Kulev | $454,000 | 672 |
| 4 | Orpen Kisacikoglu | $371,000 | 504 |
| 5 | Patrik Antonius | $298,000 | 420 |
| 6 | Marius Kudzmanas | $231,000 | 336 |
| 7 | Krasimir Neychev | $171,000 | 252 |
| 8 | Dimitar Danchev | $125,000 | 168 |
The Triton Super High Roller Series in Monte Carlo has only just begun, with tournaments running from Nov. 1-14 on the shores of the Mediterranean. Stay tuned to Card Player for recaps throughout this marquee tournament series featuring the best poker players in the world.