Three months into taking poker seriously, 24-year-old Reda Achnit was preparing to play a $25,000 Triton Poker event in Jeju.
His route there started at home in Morocco, where he mainly played micro-stakes online and watched Triton streams. During one of those broadcasts, Achnit learned about a CoinPoker freeroll promotion. He opened an account, entered the promo code and played through the satellites until he was the last player with chips.
The prize was a trip to Jeju and a $25,000 buy-in for a tournament on the Triton Poker Super High Roller Series.
It would also be Achnit’s first live poker experience and his first trip by plane.
CoinPoker Qualification Sends Achnit to Jeju
Poker had largely remained private for Achnit before the qualification. He had recently started a new job, and many of his friends and family knew little about his involvement in the game.
That made explaining the Jeju trip difficult at first. Achnit said some people thought he had won a lottery when he told them he was traveling to South Korea to play a $25,000 poker tournament.
He also found himself explaining how he approached poker, including the mathematics behind the game and the use of study tools such as GTO solvers.
Before traveling, Achnit spoke with Mario Mosböck on a video call about the details of the package. His first flight then took him through Doha in business class before he checked into a luxury hotel in Jeju.
Achnit Sets His Goals for the $25,000 Event
The jump in stakes was significant. Achnit said he had been playing seriously for only three months, while the Triton field would include players he had previously watched online.
“I’m treating it as a professional opportunity, not a holiday,” Achnit said.
He set reaching the money as his minimum target and said he would try to win if the opportunity came. He was also realistic about the experience gap he faced.
Beyond the result, Achnit wanted to play as well as he could, avoid mistakes he already knew how to prevent and learn from competing in the Triton environment. He also said representing Morocco and CoinPoker well mattered to him.
Mehdi Chaoui Was Achnit’s Link to Triton
Achnit first became interested in Triton because of fellow Moroccan Mehdi Chaoui.
He had watched Chaoui compete on the series for several years and began following Triton because someone from Morocco was playing at that level. It was while watching Triton that Achnit eventually heard about the CoinPoker promotion that brought him to Jeju.
The two met after Achnit arrived.
Chaoui welcomed him during his first visit to the casino, and Achnit later watched the Triton champion reach the final table of the second event on the schedule. Chaoui finished fourth.
Achnit said seeing a Moroccan player on the Triton stage had shown him the series in the first place. Years later, he arrived at the same stop with his own $25,000 tournament entry.
A First Live Tournament at Triton Jeju
Before winning the CoinPoker package, Achnit’s poker experience had been centered on micro-stakes online play from Morocco. In Jeju, his first live tournament would take place on one of poker’s highest-stakes series.
He entered the Triton tournament room having never played live poker before, now preparing to compete alongside players he had previously known only from watching online.
