Kahle Burns wins $1.7 million in $75,000 buy-in Triton Mediterranean Poker Party High Roller
Source: cardplayer
Two-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner Kahle Burns recorded the largest score of his tournament poker career on Friday, Sept. 9. The Australian defeated a field of 88 total entries in the 2022 Triton Mediterranean Poker Party $75,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em event, capturing the title and the massive $1,730,000 first-place prize.
This marked the third time that Burns had cashed for seven figures in a poker tournament. He now has nearly $14.3 million in lifetime earnings. This victory has helped secure his hold over the second-place spot on the Australian all-time money list. Burns only surpassed 2005 WSOP main event champion Joe Hachem ($12.4 million) as a result of this score and two other high-roller cashes he’s made in recent weeks. Burns now trails only Michael Addamo ($25.2 million), the only player from down under with more recorded tournament earnings to his name.
The strong turnout for this high buy-in event resulted in a prize pool of $6,600,000, which was paid out among the top 13 finishers. Sean Perry was the last player eliminated outside of the money, with his flopped top pair of queens running into the pocket aces of Burns. Several big names hit the rail inside the money on the road to the final table, including Triton Madrid event winner Lazlo Bujtas (13th), Triton winner Michael Soyza (12th), Brazilian tournament star Bruno Volkmann (10th), and World Poker Tour champion Jonathan Jaffe (9th).
Santosh Suvarna (8th – $245,000), was the first to fall at the final table, with his A-8 failing to beat out the K-Q of Swiss high-stakes online star Linus Loeliger. Artem Vezhenkov was next to that the rail, with his K-J being beat by the J-9 of Burns. Vezhenkov earned $315,000 as the seventh-place finisher.
Despite Loeliger scoring the first knockout at the final table, he was ultimately sent home in sixth place. Loeliger earned $400,000 for his deep run. He now has more than $3.3 million in live tournament earnings to his name, with reportedly millions more won online under the screenname ‘LlinusLLove’.
Hedge-fund manager Talal Shakerchi lost a classic coin flip to finish fifth, with his pocket deuces failing to outrace the A-Q of bracelet winner Sam Greenwood. Despite not being a professional player, Shakerchi has now recorded more than $8.8 million in career cashes.
Two-time bracelet winner Yuri Dzivielevski got his stack in with A-9 dominating the A-4 of Burns, who barely had him covered. Burns rivered a straight to send the Brazilian packing in fourth place. This was Dzivielevski’s second deep run of the series, having also finished as the runner-up in the $30,000 buy-in six-max event just days earlier for nearly $750,000. With 11 final-table finishes, one title, and more than $3.3 million in year-to-date POY earnings, Dzivielevski is now ranked eighth in the 2022 POY standings.
WPT champion Seth Davies has been sent home in third place ($815,000), increasing his lifetime earnings to nearly $16.4 million with this strong showing.
The Canadian Sam Greenwood was able to close the gap considerably in the early going, but Burns remained solidly ahead by the time the final hand was dealt. Greenwood shoved from the button for just shy of 15 big blinds with 4 4 . Burns called with A 7 and the board came down 9 6 5 7 5 to lock up the pot and the title for Burns.
Greenwood secured $1,210,000 as the runner-up finisher, the fifth-largest score of his career. He now has more than $26.7 million in lifetime earnings, making him the third-highest earning Canadian behind only Daniel Negreanu ($45.5 million) and Timothy Adams ($30 million).
“I guess I’m just lucky,” Burns said in the post-victory interview, explaining his recent absence from the SHR scene: “I took some time off, spent some time with my girlfriend, my family. When you travel a lot, you start to miss some things. I was missing my friends, missing my family. But then I started to miss the poker, so I came back. If you enter a tournament, you know you’re not really supposed to win it,” Burns said. “So you always have to get lucky…I do what I think is good. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.”
