Wai Kiat Lee Conquers Mystery Bounty After Four-Way All-In

Canadian poker player Jamil Wakil will likely never want to see Wai Kiat Lee in a Triton Poker Series event ever again. Doubling up Lee on the stone bubble was frustrating, but nine hours later, the pair met heads-up. In defeating Wakil, Lee denied his opponent a first Triton Poker Series title, and in doing so won his fourth event for a top score of $619,000.

Three Bust in One Amazing Hand

The $40,000-entry Mystery Bounty Event #7 in Jeju attracted 133 players and 49 re-entries, amassing a prize pool of $5.32 million. Only 23  of those players made it into profit and after a crazy four-way all-in, Wai Kiat Lee took control of the final stages. The money was reached on Day 1 of the event, with stars of the felt such as Pedro Padilha (23^rd) and Aliaksei Boika (21^st), who both won $31,000.

Over the past few days, Boika won his first Triton title and the Canadian player Daniel Dvoress claimed his seventh, but neither man was present at the business end of this event. After players such as Jean-Noel Thorel (14^th) and Finnish star Eelis Parssinen (12^th) both departed with $44,000, a stunning four-way all-in left three men heading to the rail and the other eight forming the final table.

Seth Davies (11^th) Samuel Mullur (10^th) were both eliminated for $52,000, while Phil Ivey claimed $62,000 in ninth place, as the eventual winner Lee took them all out in one sensational hand of poker. Davies moved all-in for just three big blinds with an offsuit king-nine. Mullur reshoved for 27 bigs with king-nine of hearts. Then Phil Ivey, with either one of the best reads of all-time or one of the most fortunate dominating spots, called. But wait! Or rather ‘Wai’. Lee looked at his hole cards and two black aces looked back at him. He reshoved, Ivey was priced in to call and after he did so, a board that was as clean as the Triton set played out, eliminating three superb opponents and making Lee a massive favorite to claim the title.

Coleman Hit by Cold Deck

With eight players left, David Coleman held ace-four and went to a flop of A-Q-8. Up against the eventual winner Lee, who held ace-six, Coleman check-called the flop and six on the turn. When a four landed on the river, Lee moved all-in and having rivered two pair, Colmean called only to find that his opponent had already turned a superior two pair to leave him on the rail with $77,500.

With seven players left, Lee’s stack of 110 big blinds was more than treble his nearest challenger, Alex Anton. That changed in short order, however, as Anton snatched the lead after some loose-aggressive play from Lee saw him fail to win all-ins against at-risk players. Joe Hindry was unable to survive when he shoved all-in with ace-jack and ran into Jamil Wakil’s ace-king, busting for $105,000 in seventh place.

The Norwegian player Kayhan Mokri was the next player to bust. All-in with pocket sixes, he ran into the pocket aces of Wakil, which survived to send Mokri home with $142,000. Soon, just four players remained, as the German player Sirzat Hissou was knocked out for a score of $184,000. The German Triton regular shoved for just six bigs with king-jack and Lee took him out with six-three which improved to a straight.

Lee Turns Legend

“Without Triton, nobody would know me. Triton is like my home.”

Four-handed play saw Wakil with a big lead, and Punnat Punsri was the short stack. All-in for just over 10 big blinds with ace-nine, Alex Anton re-shoved with ace-king, but Wakil called it off with king-jack and a miraculous board of K-J-8-9-5 to bust Punsri for $229,000 and Anton for $279,000 in fourth and third place respectively.

Heads-up, Wakil had a massive stack of 89 big blinds to Lee’s 18. The bubble situation was revisited, but just as Lee survived then, he thrived now. Playing fearless poker, he doubled with pocket sixes after a third arrived on the flop. That put play in the territory of both men having a chance at the win and over the next hours, the lead changed hands on multiple occasions. Wakil was shorter when he shoved with ace-six but couldn’t hold against the jack-ten belonging to Wai Kiat Lee. A ten on the flop gave Lee the title and $619,000 as the runner-up Wakil earned $419,000 in second place.

“To be fair, I was pretty lucky most of the time,” said Lee afterwards. “I got all the hands and the board was running over me. I just got lucky. Clearly I’m not very good at heads-up because I’m defeated in heads-up so many times!”

Lee credited the co-founder of the Triton Poker Series, Malaysian player Paul Phua, as a huge influence on his success on the tour.

“Without Triton, nobody would know me. I started my career at Triton, and Mr Paul helped me a lot in my career. I appreciate Triton, Triton is like my home. Having my rail there, you try harder, you don’t want to make them down. You try harder to win it.”

After a stunning latest win, no-one could try harder than Wai Kiat Lee, who successfully bagged his fourth title of the series.