Teun Mulder Wins Triton Poker Cyprus $100,000 High Roller For $1,940,000

Dutch poker pro Teun Mulder is on a live tournament hot streak this Spring. The proven online high-stakes star’s break out at brick-and-mortar venues began with a trio of final-table finishes at the European Poker Tour Prague festival in March, including a win in a €25,000 buy-in high roller. Mulder backed up that performance by securing the largest score of his career at the 2022 Triton Poker Cyprus high-stakes festival. Mulder defeated a field of 69 entries in the $100,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em eight-max event to earn the massive top prize of $1,940,000.

Mulder’s only prior seven-figure payday came when he placed second in the 2020 World Poker Tour Online Championships main event for just shy of $1.4 million. With this latest win included, Mulder has more than $4.5 million in recorded tournament earnings, with many millions more reportedly won online.

In addition to the title and the money, Mulder also earned plenty of rankings points for his victory in this nosebleed-stakes tournament. The 720 Card Player Player of the Year points he secured were enough to move him into 14th place in the 2022 POY race, which is sponsored by Global Poker. He has two titles and four final-table finishes on his resume this year, with nearly $2.4 million in POY earnings locked up thus far. Only Nick Petrangelo ($2,649,307 in year-to-date POY earnings) has more.

Mulder also took home 450 PokerGO Tour points with this win, enough to move him inside the top 30 on that leaderboard.

The strong turnout of 69 players for this event built a $6,624,000 prize pool that was paid out among the top nine finishers. Andras Nemeth, fresh off of his win in the $50,000 buy-in six-max event that kicked off this series, was the last player eliminated outside of the money. Holland’s Tom Vogelsang (not to be confused with German poker pro Christoph Vogelsang) made a jack-high straight to send Nemeth home empty-handed in this event.

2016 Big One for One Drop Invitational winner Elton Tsang got all-in with J-8 suited and flopped a flush draw against Mike Watson, who hit top pair and top kicker with his A-10. Tsang added an open-ended straight draw on the turn, but missed everything on the river to finish ninth ($192,000).

Reigning Card Player and PGT POY award winner Ali Imsirovic was the next to fall. He three-bet shoved A-4 suited from the small blind facing a hijack open from Mulder. Vogelsang re-shoved with A-K from the big blind and everyone else got out of the way. Imsirovic picked up a wheel draw, but it failed to come in and he was eliminated in eighth place ($251,700). This was Imsirovic’s 13th POY-qualified final-table finish of the year, the most of any player on the circuit. With four titles, more than $2.2 million in POY earnings, and 2,932 points, Imsirovic now sits in second place in the overall POY standings. He is just 60 points behind current leader Jeremy Ausmus. The 76 PGT points he secured were enough to see him surpass Isaac Kempton for the outright lead in that race.

Paul Phua’s run in this event came to an end when his pocket tens were beaten by the J-10 suited of a surging Vogelsang, who had doubled into the chip lead a few minutes before this hand. Vogelsang flopped a jack to take the lead and dodged Phua’s flush draw to narrow the field to six. Phua took home $324,500 as the seventh-place finisher, increasing his career earnings to more than $21.8 million in the process.

The next player to hit the rail was Michael Soyza. He lost the vast majority of his stack with A-9 facing the K-10 suited of Mulder. He was able to pick up a big hand to shove what remained of his stack, but his pocket tens failed to outrace the Q-J of Vogelsang and Soyza settled for $410,500 as the sixth-place finisher.

Canadian poker pro Daniel Dvoress. was ultimately knocked out in fifth place. The bracelet winner and 2019 Super High Roller Bowl Bahamas champion got the last of his 11 big-blind stack in from the button with A-4 and ran into the pocket jacks of Jake Schindler. The pocket pair held up and Dvoress was eliminated (5th – $529,000). He now has just shy of $19 million in recorded tournament earnings to his name after this latest six-figure score.

WPT and EPT main event winner Michael Watson called all-in on a 6Heart Suit5Club Suit4Diamond SuitKClub Suit5Diamond Suit board with KSpade Suit2Spade Suit after Jake Schindler bet enough to put him at risk. Schindler revealed the ASpade SuitKHeart Suit for kings and fives with a superior kicker. Watson was awarded $683,300 as the fourth-place finisher.

Schindler was on the rise thanks to his two recent knockouts, but that momentum was halted when his pocket jacks were beaten by the pocket fours of Mulder. All of the chips went in preflop, with Mulder four-bet shoving from the button after Schindler had three-bet out of the big blind. A two-outer on the river gave Mulder a winning set and the huge double up, while Schindler was left on fumes. He was able to rebuild initially but ultimately finished in third place ($903,000) when his A-3 was beaten by the Q-J suited of Mulder. Schindler flopped aces up, but Mulder picked up a flush draw. The flush came in on the river to give Mulder the chip lead heading into heads-up play. Schindler surpassed $30 million in career earnings thanks to his score, becoming just the 14th player in poker history to hit that milestone.

It didn’t take long for Mulder to convert his lead over his fellow Dutchman Vogelsang into the title. Vogelsang limped in with 10Club Suit6Spade Suit and Mulder checked the big blind with KDiamond Suit10Spade Suit. The flop came down JHeart Suit8Heart Suit2Spade Suit and Mulder check-called Vogelsang’s half-pot bet. The turn brought the QSpade Suit and Mulder again check-called another half-pot bet. The 9Diamond Suit on the river gave both players a straight, with Mulder’s king-high straight being best. He led out with a quarter-pot bet and Vogelsang moved all-in. Mulder snap-called with the nuts to take down the pot and the title. Vogelsang earned $1,390,000 as the runner-up finisher.

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

Place Player Earnings (USD) POY Points PGT Points
1 Teun Mulder $1,940,000 720 450
2 Tom Vogelsang $1,390,000 600 400
3 Jake Schindler $903,000 480 271
4 Mike Watson $683,300 360 205
5 Daniel Dvoress $529,000 300 159
6 Michael Soyza $410,500 240 123
7 Paul Phua $324,500 180 97
8 Ali Imsirovic $251,700 120 76

Photo credit: Joe Giron / Triton Poker.