Lee Davy brings you another round-up of all the news from the Triton Poker Series in Jeju, South Korea, this time focusing on Nick Schulman’s victory in the HKD 100,000 (USD 12,500) buy-in Short-Deck, Ante-Only tournament.
At breakfast, I sat with Lex Veldhuis and his partner, chowing down on some bean sprouts and kimchi, when the conversation turned to babies. Well, I have quite an interesting baby story. You see, my Amazonian wife gave birth to our daughter in a paddling pool.
For two days, I sat with her as she went through her most painful experience. I held her hand. I mopped her brow. I helped her retain focus when it felt like Ripley’s alien was about to shear her in two.
And.
Then.
There.
She.
Was.
The perfect baby.
Not a single sound.
Serenity personified.
After a quick drink of booby juice, I cut the cord (which feels like severing a finger) and held her while my wife gave birth to the placenta.
And I gave Lex, a look.
“No. You didn’t. Not the placenta.”
“Yup.”
And I proceeded to tell Lex how I cleaned the thing, removed all of the blood clots, steamed it, carved a piece to eat (it tastes like liver), dehydrated it, reduced it to dust in the Nutribullet, and then encapsulated them in vegan-friendly gelatine capsules.
“Wow.” Said Veldhuis.
I know, right.
It’s the first time I had ever cooked and eaten a part of my wife.
But that’s nothing compared to Nick Schulman’s first foray into the world of Short-Deck, Ante-Only poker.
Nick Schulman Wins The Triton Poker Jeju HKD 100,000 buy-in Short-Deck, Ante-Only Event
I’ve never seen Nick Schulman before.
Before I arrived in Jeju, I had only ever seen him playing poker.
How does he hide those legs?
I felt like Jack staring up at the beanstalk as I posed a few questions at the end of his victory in the tournament stated in the subtitle of this post, right up there.
“I played my first hand of Short-Deck this tournament,” said Schulman.
I hate it when the sideline reporter asks the winner how it feels to be the champion because the answers are always as riveting as the shine on a clean white bed sheet.
But it slipped out of my mouth.
Damn you cultivation theory!
“Always really grateful for a win,” says Schulman. “I’ve been going at it a long time, and I’ve had my share of ups and downs, so I am used to the swings. Grabbing a win feels great. I am very happy and thankful for it.”
There is a moment in every tournament when your poker senses start tingling; you know you’re going to take it down.
I ask the leading man to describe that moment.
“Maybe when I called Ben Lamb with kings on Jc8s6s8c9s,” describes Schulman, “It was a pivotal pot, a big pot. He put me in a difficult spot, I called and won it, so they are always nice momentum builders.”
I ask him to describe what was going through his head after Lamb had fired three pretty hefty nuclear warheads at him.
“That hand there was a classic spot where he has a wide range and is representing a good hand,” says Schulman. “You have to make decisions in those spots. A lot of things went through my mind, but when I called, I wasn’t sure what was going on. I just decided to look him up.”
If you love your poker and have been following this tournament on the live stream or via PokeNews live updates, you would look at the final table and think that Lamb is the one man that Schulman would want out of his way.
But this isn’t NLHE.
Or PLO.
It’s a game that neither Lamb nor Schulman had ever played until this week.
So who did Schulman pick out as his number one threat?
“I’m not confident in my Short-Deck game,” Schulman says, humbly. “I don’t know who is who? I felt like everyone knew what they were doing. I am the beginner here and got lucky to win. I don’t worry too much about the opponents, not in the sense that I don’t respect them, I know people are better and more experienced, I am trying to gauge where they are at, where I am at and the cards on the board.”
The event attracted 61-entrants.
Schulman beat Kenneth Kee, heads-up, to take the HKD 2,135,000 (USD) 272,119 first prize, his most significant win since winning Event #1 of the Poker Masters for $918,000, back in September.
Here are the ITM finishers
1. Nick Schulman – HKD 2,135,000 (USD 272,119)
2. Kenneth Kee – HKD 1,319,369 (USD 168,169)
3. Chow Hing Yaung – HKD 874,801 (USD 111,502)
4. Ben Lamb – HKD 619,272 (USD 78,932)
5. Foo Sze Ming – HKD 466,233 (USD 59,424)
6. Lim Chin Wei – HKD 371,917 (USD 47,404)
7. Ivan Leow – HKD 313,418 (USD 39,946)
