Nick Schulman takes down 2018 Triton SHR Jeju $100,000 HDK Short Deck Event

With no experience at the new variant, the high-stakes pro manages to outlast a field of 61.

"I really don't know what I'm doing, which is fun."

Even though Nick Schulman is a seasoned pro, playing in the highest-stakes games for a very long time now, Short Deck is a format, he never played before.

However, it looked like the rapidly growing new variant of the game favored Nick in all of the key spots, as he was unable to lose any big hand, even when coming from behind. Schulman started the final day only 10th in chips. He scored a successful double-up when his Q-9 managed to beat the A-Q of Ivan Leow's.

Nick reached the final table of eight, where he got a bad seat as chip-leading Ben Lamb was sitting on his left. Even though Ben was dominating the field, busting several players, even he wasn't able to bust Schulman. The two got their chips into the middle with Ben holding Kings, while Nick A-Q. The undergod overcame the favorite and Schulman doubled to the chip lead.

The two played another key pot, when Lamb fired three barrels on a scary board, against the overpair of Schulman's who managed to find a crying call, to take down the sizeable pot.

"He's very capable, he's very aggressive. I decided to look him up. I beat bluffs."

Nick busted Foo Sze Ming in fifth place and then finished off Lamb in fourth. At this point, he had two-thirds of the chips in front of him. He also busted Chow Hing Yaung in third place and started the heads-up with a 9-1 lead over Kenneth Kee.

Despite Kee doubling up once, he busted in a huge cooler when he ran into a top set, with top two pairs. Nick's first-ever Short Deck tournament is probably a great motivation for him to enter additional events in Jeju. With this HKD$2,135,000 ($272,084) score he also has some ammo for a few shots.

Final results