The 2019 Triton Super High Roller Series London kicks off this week with the biggest buy-in in tournament poker history as the highlight. Deemed the Triton Million: A Helping Hand for Charity, the event has a gargantuan £1,050,000 buy-in, of which £1,000,000 goes to the prize pool and £50,000 goes towards charitable causes.

The Triton Million takes place at London Hilton on Park Lane and is sponsored by partypoker LIVE. It is scheduled as a three-day event from August 1-3. Charitable causes to benefit include Caring For Children Foundation, R.E.G., Healthy Hong Kong, Credit One World Charity, and One Drop.

Triton Million Provides Unique Twist

The Triton Million has a freezeout format with a rather unique twist to it. It’s invite-only. Invited players were issued invitations from a committee, and these players are of the recreational or businessman or woman variety. Those fortunate enough to receive invitations can then issue one invitation of their own to a guest player. The guest player can be a professional poker player. This allows for the field to be at least a 50% businessmen.

For the first six hours of tournament play, the two player pools will be separated, such that the recreational/businessmen and women compete against one another and the guests/professionals play against one another. Furthermore, players will be asked to dress in formal attire for the final table.

The Triton Million field has 25 businessmen signed up. Let’s take a look at them.

Paul Phua

Paul Phua has been around the ultra high-stakes poker scene for nearly a decade now, amassing more than $11,400,000 in live tournament earnings and cashing in some of the richest poker events in the world. He has two victories on record, first in the Aspers £100,000 High Roller in 2012 for £1,000,000 ($1,621,297) and second in the Monte-Carlo One Drop Extravaganza €100,000 High Roller for €752,700 ($825,619).

As for his business exploits that have earned him a fortune, Phua has been a well-known junket operator for some of the world’s richest and he’s been in the news as the “world’s biggest bookie,” having his Caesars Palace villa raided in July 2014 for running an illegal gambling operation. The raid came just about a month after Phua was arrested in Macau under similar charges.

Phua’s guest player for the Triton Million is Tom Dwan.

Cary Katz

Cary Katz is the man atop the Poker Central organizational chart, having founded the company in 2015. Prior to that, he was founder and CEO of one of the largest student loan companies in the United States.

On the felt, Katz has nearly $20,000,000 in live tournament earnings, including a career-best score of €1,750,000 ($1,929,203) when he finished fifth in the 2016 Monte-Carlo One Drop Extravaganza €1,000,000 Big One for One Drop. In January 2018, Katz won the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure $100,000 Super High Roller to the tune of $1,492,340, and he placed eighth in the 2014 WSOP $1,000,000 Big One for One Drop for $1,306,667.

Katz’s guest player for the Triton Million is Bryn Kenney.

Rob Yong

Rob Yong is the owner of Dusk Till Dawn Poker & Casino in Nottingham, UK. Under Yong’s watchful eye, Dusk Till Dawn was built into what is considered to be one of the best card rooms in the world, with top-tier brands such as the World Series of Poker, World Poker Tour, partypoker, and UK & Ireland Poker Tour holding events there.

Yong is now heavily involved with partypoker and partypoker LIVE, helping to grow these two brands in the online and live realms, respectively. Although his live tournament results amount to only a little more than $330,000, Yong has been a regular at some of the highest stakes in the world, specifically when it comes to cash games. At the table, he’s an entertaining competitor who doesn’t shy away from risk and will liven up any game.

Yong’s guest player for the Triton Million is Sam Trickett.

Talal Shakerchi

Talal Shakerchi is a player from the recreational/businessmen category that could likely fit into the professional poker player category. He doesn’t have the most live tournament earnings, with more than $7,300,000 won in his career, but make no mistake about it, Shakerchi is a grinder. For quite some time, Shakerchi kept his online poker name a secret so others in the high-stakes community wouldn’t realize his ability or the amount of volume he was putting in.

On the business side, Shakerchi is an investment manager, running Meditor Capital Management Limited, which he founded.

Shakerchi’s guest player for the Triton Million is Igor Kurganov.

Antanas ‘Tony G’ Guoga

Antanas Guoga, who is best known as ‘Tony G’ in the poker world, is another player listed in the recreational/businessmen category that could very well be considered a professional poker player. At least that’s what he used to be. Now a politician and Lithuanian Member of the European Parliament, Guoga is rarely seen on the poker scene these days. He is the founder of PokerNews.com and TonyBet.

Guoga boasts more than $6,000,000 in live tournament earnings and became famous for his brash table talk. His biggest cash came at the European Poker Tour Grand Final €25,500 High Roller in 2009, when he took third for €420,000 ($552,239). He won the 2005 European Poker Championships Main Event for £260,000 ($456,822) and placed second in the World Poker Tour €10,000 Grand Prix de Paris for €339,930 ($414,478) in 2004.

Guoga’s guest player for the Triton Million is Fedor Holz.

Additional Triton Million players from the recreational/businessmen category are listed below, with their guest players in parentheses.

• Richard Yong (Dan Cates)
• Stanley Choi (David Peters)
• Wai Kin Yong (Rui Cao)
• Bobby Baldwin (Jason Koon)
• Liang Yu (Mikita Badziakouski)
• Ivan Leow (Timofey Kuznetsov)
• Alfred DeCarolis (Stephen Chidwick)
• Chin Wei Lim (Wai Leong Chan)
• Chow Hing Yaung (Christoph Vogelsang)
• Pat Madden (Nick Petrangelo)
• Sosia Jiang (Sam Greenwood)
• Qiang Wang (Elton Tsang)
• Zang Shu Nu (Tan Xuan)
• Leon Tsoukernik (Martin Kabrhel)
• Orpen Kisacikoglu (Matthias Eibinger)
• Ferdinand Putra (Justin Bonomo)
• Rick Salomon (Vivek Rajkumar)
• Bill Perkins (Dan Smith)
• Winfred Yu (Danny Tang)
• Andrew Pantling (Andrew Robl)
• Ben Wu (Michael Soyza)

How To Watch the Triton Million

Fans from around the world can watch the Triton Million for free on PokerGO. Ali Nejad will call the action, with professional poker player Nick Schulman alongside to provide expert commentary. Action starts Thursday, August 1, at 8 am ET and PokerGO will have coverage for the entirety of the event.

If you don’t already have a subscription to PokerGO, sign up today using the promo code “POCKET5S” for $10 off the PokerGO annual plan.