Michael Addamo was arguably the hottest tournament poker player on the planet in the final months of 2021. The 27-year-old quadruple World Series of Poker The Aussie bracelet winner made eight high-stakes final tables from September to November, winning six titles and cashing in over $9.4 million along the way. Addamo entered May this year with only one live tournament cash so far in 2022, but quickly found its winning ways. He beat a field of 90 entries in the Triton Madrid Series €20,000 eight-max no-limit hold’em event to secure his 18th career title and top prize of €478,000 ($501,900 USD).

This score saw Addamo increase its recorded revenue to over $22.7 million. He is the undisputed leader in tournament winnings in Australia and now sits 27th overall in poker winnings.

Along with the title and money, Addamo also locked up 648 card player Player of the Year points for victory in this event. It was his first POY-qualified score of the year. It remains outside the top 300 of the POY racing, for now.

The final day started with Addamo leading the leaderboard and a few players in the danger zone. Shortest of all was Morten Klein, who hit the rail in ninth place ($52,920 USD) when his A-10 ran into the AK combination of Paul Phua, who started the day in second chip position.

Fernando Garcia (8th – $69,930) was the first to drop in the money, with his suited 9-6 unable to beat Phua’s A-3. Bracelet winner Danny Tang quickly followed as he was left short after his pocket queens ran into Rob Yong’s pocket kings. Tang finally got the last of his stack in front with A-4 leading Dong Hyun Kim’s suited KJ, but a jack on the flop gave Kim a lead he never relinquished. Tang won $89,880 USD as seventh place. He also scored 162 POY points for his fifth final table of the year. He now sits 43rd in the 2022 rankings.

Yong faced Wayne Heung in the next massive pot. He re-raised with 10-9 on Heung’s open, only to receive a call from AK. Heung’s hand came up and Yong was eliminated in sixth place ($113,400 USD).

Despite his strong start to the day, Phua was eventually the next to run out of chips. The event’s all-time cash leader Triton earned his record 17th in-the-money finish, his run ending when his top pair on the flop were beaten by the nut flush draw and overcards by Michael Soyza. The flush came on the turn and left Phua draw dead. He won $145,425 USD for his fifth place.

Addamo had fallen off the top of the leaderboard earlier in the day and was at one point down to a handful of big blinds. He landed a few double-ups to get back into the mix, then found himself embroiled in a classic preflop run with his pocket queens against Heung’s AK. The queens held and Heung was eliminated in fourth place ($180,600 USD).

Dong Hyun Kim’s strong performance in this event came to an end when his pair of threes lost a run to Soyza’s suited A-6, who made a pair of sixes to pick up the pot and cut the field to two. Kim won $230,475 USD as third place.

With that, Soyza took a nearly 2-to-1 head-to-head lead with Addamo. That momentum was quickly reversed with a preflop run from Addamo’s A7 against Soyza’s pair of sixes. Addamo hit a seven to make the best hand and move up the leaderboard. In the final hand, Soyza pushed with Q-2 suited and Addamo called with A-4. Neither player improved their runout with pocket sevens on board, and Addamo’s ace locked the pot and the title for the Aussie. Soyza won $348,600 USD as a finalist.

Here is an overview of the payments and POY points awarded at the final table:

Winner photo credit: Joe Giron / Triton Poker.