Triton And Pokergo to Start 2022 With High-stakes Poker

Rose Varrelli | December 27, 2021 | Updated on: December 27th, 2021

What is high-stakes poker? For some poker players (like me!), a poker tournament with a buy-in of several thousand dollars constitutes high-stakes poker. For many professional players, they can’t call a tournament a high roller until the buy-in soars to $25K or higher. That last group includes some wealthy businesspeople as well, people who want to play poker but only for stakes that make it worthwhile to them.

Poker players entering into 2022 with those means have numerous options to quench their high-stakes thirsts. Those are on the calendar thanks to Triton Poker and the PokerGO Tour, two brands that cater to those players.

What is Triton Poker?

One of the aforementioned poker players who are also businessmen is Richard Yong. He has long played in high-stakes poker games when they are available, but he often sticks to high-stakes cash games in Macau.

The Malaysian poker aficionado founded Triton Poker in 2015. He hosted the first event as a part of the Cali Cup in Paranque, Philippines. Of the 52 entries, Fedor Holz won the HK$200K (approximately A$35K) buy-in event for several million dollars.

From there, the Triton Poker Super High Roller Series traveled to Manila in the Philippines, Macau, Budva in Montenegro, Jeju in South Korea, and London in the UK. And famous winners of Triton events include Daniel “Jungleman” Cates, Koray Aldemir, John Juanda, Justin Bonomo, Tony G, and Phil Ivey.

Yong and many of his high-stake poker friends are also known for their philanthropy. To date, they have partnered with One Drop, Caritas Macau, REG (Raising for Effective Giving), Malaysian Red Crescent Society, Sarawak Children’s Cancer Society in Malaysia, Credit One World Charity Foundation, Healthy Hong Kong, and Overcoming Multiple Sclerosis (OMS).

Bali in February

The pandemic put a pause on many of the events that Triton had planned for 2020 and 2021. But the business is ready for a big event, and they set if for 17 February to 1 March in Bali, Indonesia. The Triton Poker Super High Roller Series 2022 is subtitled “A Helping Hand for Charity.” Specific beneficiaries and donation amounts will presumably be available at a later date.

“We are thrilled to finally be back,” said CEO Andy Wong, “and continue our efforts in creating awareness and to give back to the less fortunate communities. This is still very much a part of our business initiatives, and we will be taking it a notch further with on-ground involvement.”

Wong also noted that there will be more ways for fans to follow along with the Triton series this year, including 10 hours of live coverage over the course of 13 days. They also brought on a sponsor; Jacob & Co, an American luxury jewelry, will be the Exclusive Official Timekeeper of the Triton Bali series.

Triton Bali Schedule

Listed in American dollars, the schedule of tournaments is listed as follows:

Event 1 (17-18 Feb): $30K buy-in No Limit Hold’em 8-Handed (200K chips)
Event 2 (18-19 Feb): $60K NLHE 6-Handed (200K chips)
Event 3 (19-20 Feb): $100K NLHE 8-Handed (200K chips)
Event 4: unlisted
Event 5 (20-21 Feb): $40K NLHE 6-Handed Turbo (200K chips)
Event 6 (21-23 Feb): $200K NLHE Main Event (250K chips)
Event 7 (23-24 Feb): $40K Pot Limit Omaha (100K x3 chips)
Event 8 (24-25 Feb): $30K Short Deck Ante-Only (150K x2 chips)
Event 9 (25-26 Feb): $60K Short Deck Ante-Only (100K x3 chips)
Event 10 (26-27 Feb): $100K Short Deck Ante-Only (100K x3 chips)
Event 11 (27 Feb – 1 Mar): $200K Short Deck Main Event (100K x3 chips)
Event 12 (1 Mar): $40K Short Deck Ante-Only Turbo (100K x3 chips)

PokerGO Tour Wraps Season One

Formerly known as Poker Central, PokerGO is based in Las Vegas and hosts some of the most popular online poker shows – High Stakes Poker, Poker After Dark, etc. – in its own PokerGO Studio at the Aria on the Las Vegas Strip. But PokerGO has become known for hosting high-stakes poker tournaments, both at its studio and around the world. So, in 2021, they put it all together into a schedule for the first annual PokerGO Tour.

(The tour signed on a sponsor, a top retail mortgage lender in the US market. As a part of the sponsorship deal, the poker tour became the PokerGO Tour Presented by Guaranteed Rate.)

That first season of the PokerGO Tour Presented by Guaranteed Rate is in the books now. Rok Gostisa of Slovenia won the PokerGO Tour Championship this month in Las Vegas, and Ali Imsirovic of Bosnia won the PokerGO Tour Player of the Year award.

PokerGO Tour Season 2

Without delay, PokerGO is ready for the second season to get underway. It will start in Las Vegas with four Venetian High Roller tournaments 5-8 January. Then, a new series will begin at the PokerGO Studio called the Stairway to Millions. This is a new concept that allows players to start with just $1K and play up to the high stakes. Those with big bankrolls can just buy in at any level, though. That schedule is:

Stairway to Millions Event 1 (12 Jan): $1K buy-in NLHE
Event 2 (13 Jan): $2K NLHE
Event 3 (14 Jan): $4K NLHE
Event 4 (15 Jan): $8K NLHE
Event 5 (16 Jan): $15K NLHE
Event 6 (17 Jan): $25K NLHE
Event 7 (18 Jan): $50K NLHE
Event 8 (19 Jan): $100K NLHE

After that, the PokerGO Cup will play out with eight events 2-9 February at the PokerGO Studio, followed by the PokerGO $25K Heads-Up Championship. Four Aria High Roller tournaments will follow 24-27 February. From there, they leave Las Vegas for a Super High Roller Series in Sochi, Russia. The schedule of events for Casino Sochi is:

SHRS Event 1 (4 Mar): $25K buy-in PLO
Event 2 (5 Mar): $25K Short Deck
Event 3 (6 Mar): $25K NLHE
Event 4 (7 Mar): $25K PLO
Event 5 (8 Mar): $50K Short Deck
Event 6 (9 Mar): $50K NLHE
Event 7 (10 Mar): $100K Short Deck
Event 8 (11 Mar): $25K PLO
Event 9 (12 Mar): $50K NLHE
Event 10 (13 Mar): $50K NLHE

There is a bonus tournament in that schedule, one that begins on 11 March called the Super High Roller Bowl Russia. That will require a $250K buy-in.