Champion Aleks Ponakovs!

The Latvian No 1 Aleks Ponakovs landed another superb win on the Triton Poker Super High Roller Series in Montenegro on Sunday night, taking down the $150K Anniversary Special for $3.027 million.

Remarkably, it's Ponakovs' third score of more than $3 million in only a little over a year, having earned a similar amount for finishing second in the equivalent event in Jeju last March, before taking down the $100K Main Event in the Bahamas in December. He has long been known as one of the best in the business, and now, aged 34, he is reaping the rewards in some style.

As is only to be expected, the level of competition in an event with such a buy-in was extremely high, with the final table featuring 32 Triton titles among the nine players left. Four of them, including Ponakovs, had won at least one Triton Main Event, and the structure allowed for deep stacks and plenty of play.

It suited Ponakovs to the ground.

"This is definitely one of the best final tables I've played in because we were playing kind of deep and if you want to show your skill level, it's definitely in a deep structure," Ponakovs said. "But, yes, I've been facing so many good opponents. We've been battling for so many years. We had four watches [of Main Event winners] at the table. Pretty sick. I was happy to participate in this final table."

(Ponakovs actually understated the number of Jacob & Co. timepieces at the table: two of his opponents had won two each.)

Another one for Aleks Ponakovs

Much feared as one of the most aggressive talents in the world game, Ponakovs actually said he intended to play more conservatively at the final, watching titans such as Jason Koon, Punnat Punsri, Matthias Eibinger and Jonathan Jaffe, who finished as runner up for $2.1 million, lock horns with the unpredictable brilliance of Jean-Noel Thorel, among others.

But Ponakovs lay in wait to punish any missteps and hoover up any loose chips.

"It worked out," Ponakovs said. "I wouldn't say I had many bluffing opportunities. Really just mostly get really big hands when someone put all in before me. I was pretty lucky. Thanks everyone who railed me. It was great."

Ponakovs' win pushes his total earning past $40 million, and extends one of the most dominant leads in any country's money lists. His closest challenger for the Lativian top spot has less than one tenth of Ponakovs' total. But Ponakovs said he doesn't take anything for granted, despite a blistering rise to the top.

"I wouldn't have expected I would be here playing high stakes in 2017, when I was basically almost broke," he said. "So I'm pretty happy to be here, playing the highest events, with smartest people in the world."

Ponakovs, of course, is very much among them.

TOURNAMENT ACTION

The final pure NLH event on the schedule also carried the biggest buy-in. At $150K, the tournament has always been popular, but in this special year for Triton, the rebranding as the Anniversary Special has brought an additional cache — as well as a reduction in rake for the early arrivals.

That said, of the 76 entries, around 20 appeared right before registration closed at the start of Day 2. Matthias Eibinger had bagged the most overnight, but plenty of heroes hopped in at the start of the second day. They were clutching 20 big blinds and hoped to spin it up.

Tournament organisers were quickly able to confirm a prize pool of $11.4 million and a first prize of more than $3 million. But these players also knew that only 13 could make the money, so adjusted their focus to hone in on that.

As ever, many, many elite players couldn't make it, and as the field became so thinned that it was time for hand-for-hand play, the shortest stack in the room belonged to Triton's most recent champion, Danny Tang. Tang was the only player with fewer than 10 blinds. But when it came to the crunch, Tang's role in the hand that burst the bubble was that of very near neighbor: he sat between Kiat Lee and Tom Fuchs as the latter got his stack in and bust to the former.

Tom Fuchs ran into a real hand with Kiat Lee to bust

Yes, this was a tough one for Fuchs, who was on the button with A10. Lee, in the hijack, made a standard opening raise, Tang folded the cutoff, and Fuchs three-bet, a little more than the minimum. Action folded back to Lee, who jammed his massive, covering, 82-blind stack.

Fuchs called off for his tournament life but discovered Lee wasn't just playing the bully. He had pocket queens and they held. Fuchs was finished in 14th, while everyone else could look forward to at least $229,000 on their ledger.

It was only a short distance from the final table in terms of places, but stacks were deep and no one was yet guaranteed a spot. Tang surrendered his short stack first, with the obdurate Boss, Paul Phua, not able to make the final either. Having won this tournament in Jeju, his title defence faltered in 11th.

Paul Phua received a commemorative coin in celebration of his Anniversary Special win in Jeju

But everyone is mortal in poker tournaments, and of all people it was Adrian Mateos, the recent Invitational winner, who bust in 10th to miss this particular final. Mateos tends to have a habit of finding what he wants when he needs it, but in this instance he called Aleks Ponakovs' shove holding AJ but lost to Ponakovs' K.

That set a final table in which Ponakovs trailed the cruising Eibinger at the peak, but with buckets of Triton experience below. Jean-Noel Thorel was the only one of nine players who had not yet won a Triton title. The others shared 32 between them.

FINAL TABLE LINE-UP

Matthias Eibinger - 3,380,000 (113 BBs)

Aleks Ponakovs - 2,580,000 (86 BBs)

Punnat Punsri - 2,380,000 (79 BBs)

Jean-Noel Thorel - 1,975,000 (66 BBs)

Kiat Lee - 1,845,000 (62 BBs)

Jonathan Jaffe - 965,000 (32 BBs)

Jason Koon - 845,000 (28 BBs)

Mikalai Vaskaboinikau - 715,000 (24 BBs)

Igor Yaroshevskyy - 520,000 (17 BBs)

Event 12 final table players (clockwise from back left): Jonathan Jaffe, Jason Koon, Punnat Punsri, Mikalai Vaskaboinikau, Igor Yaroshevskyy, Kiat Lee, Jean-Noel Thorel, Aleks Ponakovs, Matthias Eibinger.

Having now made the final of this huge buy-in event, players took some time to get themselves comfortable. They played more than an hour without anyone busting and without massive shifts in the positions either.

Short-stack Igor Yaroshevskyy, who was one of those players who entered just before play began today, likely had two possible targets: either find a hand to give him a chance to move upward, or tread water long enough to see someone else above him implode. But unfortunately for the Ukrainian, neither came to pass. The increase in the blinds, combined with the slow start around the table, left him still the most under pressure with only 11 blinds.

That's when he did, finally, find a good spot to get his chips in. After a mid-position raise from Jean-Noel Thorel, Yaroshevskyy picked up AQ. He three-bet jammed.

Thorel is a tough one to get to fold and he didn't let go of his Q8. And Yaroshevskyy watched in horror as three hearts appeared on the board -- the last coming on the river, to make the drama most intense.

Yaroshevskyy's last-minute dash to this tournament earned him $319,000 and a ninth-place finish.

Igor Yaroshevskyy's last-minute sprint got him to the final table

Mikalai Vaskaboinikau is a player who has fond memories of the Maestral Resort & Casino, particularly when the Triton Poker Series is in town. This is where he won the NLH Main Event in 2024, which he followed up with a second-place finish a year later. Lo and behold, he was back at the final in another major, but had now assumed the short-stack mantle.

With 14 blinds, Vaskaboinikau three-bet jammed over Jason Koon's mid-position open. And when Koon called, they were racing for Vaskaboinikau's life. Koon had AQ and a queen on the flop propelled the hand ahead of Vaskaboinikau's pocket eights. There was no coming back.

Vaskaboiniau's eighth place came with a payout of $422,000.

Kiat Lee is another player who is in wholly familiar surroundings at a Triton final table in Montenegro. He was at the final in the Invitational and the NLH Main Event here this week, and won the second of this three career titles here last year.

But Lee lost a decent portion of his chips to Matthias Eibinger's straight when the tournament was still eight-handed, which meant Vaskaboinikau's elimination in seventh was something for Lee to celebrate. It left him on the rack in terms of chips, however, and waiting for an opportunity to arise for him to try get back into contention.

Picking up 109 in the big blind, Lee called Jonathan Jaffe's raise from UTG+1. The flop of J could scarcely have been better for Lee, and he check-jammed Jaffe's three-bet. Lee had a pair and a straight draw, but Jaffe's was top pair and backdoor hearts. Jaffe called the shove and the turn trimmed Lee's outs list of outs.

The 7 did not feature on that list, and Lee headed out the door. He paused by the cashier to sign for a $541,000 prize.

Yet another final for Kiat Lee

The cogs on the tournament felt like they'd been properly greased now and, after a 30-minute dinner break, the tournament saw a proper blast off. The chip leader Matthias Eibinger, who had looked in total command pretty much all day, played a monster pot against Aleks Ponakovs that shook things right up.

Eibinger raised with 54 and saw Ponakovs three-bet holding pocket jacks. Eibinger tried to muscle past Ponakovs with a mighty shove, covering Ponakovs' 26 blind stack, but the Latvian was not scared. He put in the call and was a big favorite to double.

Those odds shrank considerably when the dealer put the flop of 638 on the table -- a roughly 23% shot suddenly became a 56% favorite. However, it was too-many-outs syndrome as the turn and river kept Ponakovs ahead. Eibinger took a massive nosedive to only 21 blinds. Ponakovs now led.

Eibinger had at least done some advertising that he was prepared to get his chips in when the situation required it. Not that anything would have changed in the next significant coup. Two hands after the 45 debacle, Eibinger picked up pocket kings UTG and open-raised.

Thorel three-bet from two seats over. He had pocket jacks. But then Koon cold four-bet jammed for 31 blinds holding AK. Eibinger called, likely hoping Thorel would join in too. But the Frenchman made a very disciplined fold of his jacks, leaving Koon needing an ace to eliminate Eibinger.

It was the ace that didn't come. Eibinger doubled back and Koon was now in trouble. It was, in fact, the beginning of the end for Koon, who chipped up and down a little for an orbit or so before finding A9 and seeing Jaffe open-shove the small blind with only Koon behind him in the big.

Koon called and was in good shape when Jaffe turned over A7. But there was a seven lurking on the flop, which did for Koon. He won the equivalent event here in Montenegro for $3.4 million last year, but this time he was out in sixth for $684,000.

Jason Koon has got close to No 13 on this trip, but

Jaffe was now the player on the steepest upward trajectory, and after Punnat Punsri lost a small pot to Thorel, it was the Thai pro at the foot of the counts by just one blind, with Thorel and Jaffe holding the narrowest of advantages over him. That was crucial, though, because another flip was not far away, with Jaffe and Punsri going at it for their all but equal stacks.

Ponakovs got things started with an open raise from UTG+1. But then Punsri found AK in the small blind and three-bet from his 25-blind stack. Jaffe looked down at pocket nines in the big blind and cold four-bet jammed for 27 blinds, which proved unattractive to Ponakovs. He folded.

It was Punsri's tournament on the line, and if he was happy to see the A on the flop, that would have turned to disappointment when he noticed the 9 alongside it. Jaffe filled up on the turn and Punsri was drawing to two aces on the river. They didn't come.

Punsri, a six-time Triton champion, will have to wait for No 7. He has $878,000 in his bankroll anyhow.

The six-time champion Punnat Punsri came up short

Jaffe took over at the top of the leaderboard, but his stay there was brief. That's because he soon clashed in a battle of the blinds against Thorel where the pair conspired to get 87 blinds in the middle, with Thorel at risk.

Thorel limped from the small blind, prompting Jaffe to shove holding pocket threes. Thorel had K9 and was in gambling mood. He stuck it in and won the flip when a king landed on the river. Thorel punched the air in delight and sat back down to play on.

The average stack four-handed was still 30 blinds, which by Triton standards is plenty. Jaffe, however, lost another big pot holding pocket threes once again, this time doubling Ponakovs, who woke up with pocket queens after Jaffe open-shoved the button.

Jaffe slipped back to 11 blinds, with Ponakovs now back ahead of Thorel. All four of the players had therefore been chip leader in the past hour or so, and it would have been a brave bettor to try to pick a winner now.

Jaffe doubled back through Thorel, with A9 beating Thorel's jacks. But then Thorel found another big pair, pocket kings, and doubled back through Eibinger's A. Thorel flopped a king to make it feel even better.

For Eibinger, that was one blow too many. He now had only three blinds and in they went on the next hand, when he was UTG. Unfortunately for Eibinger, his 95 got picked off by Thorel's A. Eibinger had to leave the stage in fourth.

The Austrian won $1,088,000. It was his first cash of a surprisingly barren run on this trip to Montenegro. But might as well make it seven figures.

A fond farewell to Matthias Eibinger

The three-handed counts were close. Ponakovs had 47 big blinds. Thorel had 40. Jaffe had 35. There's no doubt that all the neutrals in the room, as well as most people watching at home, were rooting for Thorel at this point. This passionate poker fan is never playing the game for the money, it's merely the love of competition that drives him on.

He's come close on the Triton Poker Series before, most notably in a famous heads-up duel against Tim Adams in London. But a trophy would be the icing on a well-decorated cake.

But once again, Thorel's hopes were thwarted. Jaffe edged ahead of Thorel in the counts and then the pair played a big one: Thorel raised his button holding J10 and Jaffe, with A simply jammed to put Thorel's 29-blind effective stack at risk.

Thorel called off and saw he was dominated. Nothing on the flop, turn or river changed that. Thorel turned off his small table-top lamp and wandered away to warm applause. The Poker Police departed for this event, but there's little doubt they'll be back on patrol in Jeju in September. Thorel won another $1.39 million to extend his lead on France's money list.

A third-place finish for Jean-Noel Thorel

Jaffe was now back in the lead with 56 big blinds to Ponakovs' 45. Both these players have one Triton title to their name, so a position on the wall of multiple champions was now on the line, as well as the difference between the $2.1 million scheduled for second and the $3 million for first.

They couldn't chop the glory, but the prize pool was open to negotiation, of course. However, after only the shortest discussion the idea was nixed. They'd play for all of it, with Jaffe's 56 blinds taking on Ponakovs' holding 45.

With two absolute masters at either end of the table, nobody expected this to be over especially quickly. They duly settled into a pattern of exchanging three or four big blinds, with neither man really pulling away.

Heads up in Montenego

However, things then quickly went crazy and in two hands, the whole thing was done. In the first, Ponakovs opened with Q8 and Jaffe called holding A. They both hit a pair on the flop. Jaffe check-called Ponakovs' bet, taking them to the turn. It went check, bet, call again. That brought the on the river.

Jaffe checked again and Ponakovs, who had rivered two pair, went for it all, jamming all in. Jaffe called with just a pair of twos as a bluff catcher, but this wasn't a bluff. Incidentally, the Triton commentary team ran a sim through a solver, and this was a 100% call. Jaffe, of course, found the right answer to the problem Ponakovs set him, but that doesn't necessarily mean it wins.

All of a sudden, Ponakovs had 60 big blinds to Jaffe's 16 and the end was nigh. On the next hand, Jaffe limped from the small blind with K6 and then called when Ponakovs ripped with A. There was an ace on the flop to essentially end it there and then, and Jaffe couldn't get the running cards he needed.

Jonathan Jaffe, second place

Just like that, the "conservative" Aleks Ponakovs won his second title on the Triton Poker Series, and put $3 million more against his name. Jaffe made the right calls but had to make do with $2,103,000.