Gregoire Auzoux Wins Triton Cyprus $40,000 High Roller

Gregoire Auzoux achieved a remarkable milestone in his poker career by winning the $40,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em event at the Triton Super High Roller Series Cyprus, securing his first-ever seven-figure live tournament score. Auzoux entered into a heads-up deal with Robert Heidorn, which concluded with Auzoux claiming an impressive $1,050,024 in winnings.

This exceptional triumph propelled Auzoux’s total recorded tournament earnings to over $2.1 million. Moreover, he garnered 924 Card Player Player of the Year points, adding to his success. Auzoux’s outstanding performance in this event marked his second final table appearance of the year that qualified for Player of the Year consideration. Earlier, he secured fifth place in a €50,000 buy-in event at the European Poker Tour Paris festival, earning $280,000. As a result, he now sits at 131st place in the overall Player of the Year standings.

 

The tournament held at the Merit Royal Diamond Hotel & Spa in North Cyprus attracted a substantial field of 125 entries, generating a prize pool of $5 million distributed among the top 17 finishers. At the end of Day 1, 42 players remained in contention. Unfortunately, Maher Nouira’s elimination in 18th place after losing a preflop coinflip to Tom Dwan ensured that the remaining participants would all receive a minimum payout of $78,500.

When the final table was established, poker’s all-time money leader Justin Bonomo held the chip lead, while Auzoux occupied the seventh position among the remaining eight contenders. Tom Dwan, a two-time Triton event winner, secured the first knockout by prevailing with A-10 against Florencio Campomanes’ A-2. Despite this early victory, Dwan’s tournament journey came to an end when he lost a significant portion of his stack in a preflop race with A-K against Auzoux’s pocket queens, ultimately finishing seventh for $222,500.

Auzoux continued to ascend, cracking Artem Vezhenkov’s pocket aces with his pocket tens, leading to the field narrowing down to five players. Shortly after, bracelet winner Daniel Dvoress found himself at risk with pocket nines against the pocket kings of Santhosh Suvarna, the recent Triton Cyprus kickoff event champion. Unfortunately for Dvoress, Suvarna’s kings held up, resulting in his fifth-place elimination with a cash prize of $369,000. Dvoress now boasts a career earnings total exceeding $26.3 million.

Suvarna’s luck took a turn for the worse as he lost a crucial all-in confrontation with pocket jacks against Heidorn’s A-10. The board double-paired with kings and queens, nullifying Suvarna’s jacks and giving Heidorn a significant double-up. In his final stand, Suvarna went all-in with pocket eights, facing Bonomo’s A-K. A king-high flop favored Bonomo, and with no improvements on the turn and river, Suvarna finished in fourth place, securing nearly $1.8 million in cashes for 2023.

As three-handed play progressed, Bonomo faced a downward slide in chip counts. In his final hand, he pushed all-in with an open-ended straight draw on the flop. Auzoux made the call with top pair and successfully avoided Bonomo’s outs, sending the three-time bracelet winner to a third-place exit with $552,500 in winnings. Bonomo’s total recorded tournament earnings now exceed $63.1 million, solidifying his position as the all-time money leader in poker and expanding his lead over second-ranked Bryn Kenney ($57.9 million).

Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded at the final table:

PlacePlayerEarningsPOY Points
1Gregoire Auzoux$1,050,024924
2Robert Heidorn$1,057,976770
3Justin Bonomo$552,500616
4Santhosh Suvarna$457,500462
5Daniel Dvoress$369,000385
6Artem Vezhenkov$291,000308
7Tom Dwan$222,500231
8Florencio Campomanes$167,500154

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