Phil Ivey Beats Daniel "Jungleman" Cates in Heads-Up Battle To Win Crown

Published on May 13th, 2018 3:19 pm EST

The 2018 Triton Super High Roller Series Montenegro received a big boost when Phil Ivey sat down to play in a HKD $250,000 Short Deck event.

The tournament format is unique, as all of the Deuces, Threes, Fours and Fives are removed from the deck and the game is played seven-handed. For action junkies like Ivey, this made the tournament a can't-miss event.

The tournament ended up receiving a total of 61 entries, which created a total prize pool of over 14.3 million HKD. This meant that the eventual winner would walk away with a little over $600,000 USD.

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After Gabe Patgorski was eliminated by Daniel Cates in third place, "Jungleman" had a significant chip advantage of Ivey and looked to be in good shape to win. Heading into heads-up play, Cates had 14.265 million in chips, while Ivey had just 4.14 million.

Cates' chip lead wouldn't last for long, however, as Ivey frustrated Cates and slowly took his chips.

The final hand of the tournament came when Cates committed with the nut flush draw with the board reading Kd-Js-10d-9s. The two players flipped over:

Ivey: Qc-Jc
Cates: Ad-7d

The board brought the 6c, which changed nothing. Ivey, with his straight, took home the first place prize of over $600,000, while Cates walked away with a little over $400,000.

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Ivey, who has played sporadically on the live poker tournament circuit over the last couple of years, likes to pop up now and again, seemingly just to remind us that he is still the best poker player in the world.

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Filed Under: Tournament Results