Champion Alin Ivan!

The tournaments are long on the Triton ONE tour, especially those as prestigious as the $3,000 QQPK Genesis, which kicked off Triton ONE's European debut in North Cyprus this week. But if you've got the knack of making the right moves when it matters most, you can go far in poker.

Just ask 26-year-old Romanian Alin Ivan, who is the latest champion on the tour and $450,000 richer.

Ivan returned to play an unscheduled third day in a 912-entry tournament sitting second of six players remaining. He found a couple of monster hands to strengthen his position, but then also made a tremendous hero call during three-handed play to surge to the very top. He dug deep, assessed the options, and correctly picked off a gutsy all-in bluff from the experienced Ruslan Kudinov to win what became the tournament-defining pot.

Kudinov could not quite recover and finished second. Ivan rode the momentum all the way to the victory and a new career high.

"This is a completely surreal experience," Ivan said, preparing to collect the trophy from the first Triton tournament he's ever played. "It's one of those moments you dream of when you start playing poker. To win out of 1,000 players, it's hard to even think about. It's crazy."

Ivan had been the picture of composure at a long and draining final, where numerous highly-experienced opponents had the chip lead at various junctures. But Ivan went shoulder-to-shoulder with the best, and showed all the analytical skills required to prosper on this stage. The call against Kudinov obviously featured prominently as he looked back on his success.

"Coming into the final six players, I think Viktor was the player who was most on my radar," Ivan said. "Formidable opponent. It was a tough spot on the river, but I knew he was capable of having enough bluffs for me to make that call."

Alin Ivan tells Stanley Ma all about his hero call

He then said it was all about keeping a lid on some racing emotions long enough to complete the deal.

"Emotions are a powerful thing and after I made that hero call I became the chip leader," he said. "You know that famous Kobe Bryant interview, 'The job's not done.' I had to contain my emotions and keep myself composed. As I was picking up the chips and getting closer to the win, now I can finally let loose and be happy."

His Triton debut has been about as good as he could possibly of hoped. Ivan continued: "Probably the best experience that I've had playing live poker. Everything is world class. From the dealers, the production, everything. Every single thing, just a pleasure to play here."

Viktor Kudinov congratulates the new champion

TOURNAMENT ACTION

Always certain to be a huge tournament, the four starting flights on the first official event of the Triton ONE festival brought a bumper 912 entries. That put more than $2.4 million in the prize pool and dangled a carrot of $450,000 to the winner. For a $3,000 buy-in event, it promised a huge return on investment.

Making Day 2 meant players were already in the money, and among the 146 players who returned were numerous micro-stacks belonging to the players who had clung on in the late Day 1 stages. They duly hit the rail in short order once play began on the second day.

Emilien Pitavy, Jessica Teusl, Joris Ruijs, Samuel Mullur and Dominykas Mikolaitis were among the first battalion of players to depart, with Player ONE leader Ander Vallinas also hitting the rail in 100th place. Nevertheless, as the field contracted to its final there were still familiar faces involved including Super High Roller Series winner Xuan Liu and former Triton ONE $5K 7-Handed champion Chen Peng.

The chip leader going to the nine-handed final, Zhang Yang, had also previously visited a final table on this tour.

The last nine sat down with the following stacks, and the fresh knowledge that the schedule was now revised. They would play to six players only and return to play it out on an added Day 3.

Zhang Yang - 43,075,000 (72 BBs)

Chen Peng - 32,150,000 (54 BBs)

Pavel Ignatov - 30,125,000 (50 BBs)

Ruslan Kasper - 26,425,000 (44 BBs)

Aleksandr Kirichenko - 24,950,000 (42 BBs)

Viktor Kudinov - 23,450,000 (39 BBs)

Alin Ivan - 21,300,000 (36 BBs)

Xuan Liu - 16,300,000 (27 BBs)

Sardor Shagulyamov - 10,250,000 (17 BBs)

QQPK Genesis final table players (clockwise from back left): Ruslan Kasper, Pavel Ignatov, Viktor Kudinov, Chen Peng, Zhang Yang, Aleksandr Kirichenko, Xuan Liu, Sardor Shagulyamov, Alin Ivan.

There was still obviously plenty of play left in this one, and plenty of chances for the smaller stacks to rise up the ranks. In the unpredictable early final table exchanges, some of the players near the top toppled downward, while some of the smaller stacks rocketed up. Some players did both.

Ruslan Kasper was particularly active. He lost a huge pot to Viktor Kudinov when Kudinov's kings held against Kasper's AJ. Kasper was down to only six blinds when he picked up black pocket aces and tripled back into contention, winning a three-way all-in. Sardor Shagulyamov won't look back on this coup with the same fondness. He had 14 blinds and pocket 10s, providing half of Kasper's gains and sending the rest to the third player in the hand: Aleksandr Kirichenko, who was holding and found a king. Shagulyamov went out in ninth for $33,000.

Sardor Shagulyamov finished third of three to bust in ninth

Kirichenko was doing just fine, holding around 35 blinds and in no apparent danger. And when he then picked up AA and got involved in a pre-flop raising war with the new chip leader Kudinov, he likely expected much better than what actually happened. Kudinov opened the hijack, Kirichenko three-bet the button and Kudinov then jammed, which a gleeful Kirichenko called with his bullets.

However, although Kudinov only had pocket threes, he spiked a dramatic third trey on the river to win a huge pot, sending Kirichenko packing in eighth. He took $42,000 and one of the worst beat stories of the tournament.

A disgusting beat accounted for Aleksandr Kirichenko

For fairly obvious reasons, a lot of the attention on Day 2 had gone to Xuan Liu. The first -- and so far only -- woman to win on the Super High Roller Series had shown her skills yet again in navigating her way to the final table of this event. She was the obvious choice for the feature table for much of Days 1 and 2. But it all suddenly went wrong for Liu in three hands: firstly, when A7 lost to Zhang's full house (the former leader was down to 10 blinds but doubled them); then when Zhang pushed Liu off another 15-blind pot. Liu was suddenly down to nine blinds and three-bet shoved with A, only to discover Kudinov had pocket kings.

Liu was out in seventh for $59,048, and her chances of victory on both Triton tours were over, at least for now.

Xuan Liu couldn't add to her Super High Roller triumph

It may have only been a relatively short session, as the last nine became six, but there were dramatic moves in the chip counts. When they went to bed, Kudinov now had the biggest stack of 75 blinds, ahead of Alin Ivan's 42, Zhang's 36 and Ignatov's 20. Kasper (12 BBs) and Chen (6 BBs) were bringing up the rear.

THE FINAL DAY

As soon as action began on the final day, players began falling from the bottom up. Only four hands in, Chen saw his two-time Triton ONE hopes go up in flames as he committed his last chips from the big blind, holding K7. Ivan, who had opened the small blind for enough to cover Chen, was not up to anything sinister. He had A and the better king held. Chen won $82,000 for sixth.

Only three hands later, Chen's fellow Chinese player Zhang also took the fall. And once again, it was Ivan who did the damage with another monster. Ivan put in a raise from the cutoff and Zhang, with 25 blinds, found pocket fives. He must have suspected he could get Ivan to fold, but the Romanian was sitting with AA. He wasn't folding that.

A blank board followed and Zhang departed, earning a tidy six figures — $111,000 to be precise.

Final table chip leader Zhang Yang departed in fifth

Ivan might have been the man wreaking the most destruction in the early proceedings, but he watched on as Kasper was on hand to pick up Ignatov's final five blinds. Ignatov was unlucky here. He picked up pocket queens in the big blind and obviously called when Kasper, with only 15 blinds of his own, shoved the small blind. Kasper had 3K, which meant he had one dangerous over-card. But when the first four cards the dealer put on the table were 6, Kasper now had plenty more outs.

The K meant he not only hit that over-card, but he made a flush for good measure. Ignatov's fourth place was worth $143,000.

The T-shirt reads "Never Give Up", but Pavel Ignatov had no choice

Everything had happened in a hurry, and a slowdown was now imminent. Kudinov's 54 blinds led the way, ahead of Ivan's 41 and Kasper's 19. But after a relatively lengthy period of three-handed jostling, Ivan suddenly leapt ahead. It was an intriguing pot, with Kudinov attempting to apply maximum pressure to his Romanian opponent, instead finding Ivan with the guts to make a call for his tournament life holding only second pair.

Ivan completed the small blind with Q2 and Kudinov checked the big blind with 6. The flop brought top pair for Ivan. It was . Ivan check-called Kudinov's stab at it. The brought a gutshot for Kudinov and it went check, bet, call once again. The completed the board. Ivan no longer had top pair and checked for a third time. Kudinov swung at it for everything he had, daring Ivan to commit the last of his 20 blinds. Ivan dug out the call and learned the good news. It suddenly gave him 41 blinds, which was more than double what anyone else had.

Alin Ivan thinks hard before making his excellent hero call

Ivan now put his foot down as his opponent dipped below 10 blinds each. But Kudinov doubled back holding K5 against Ivan's 9, and Kasper was left stranded at the bottom of the pile. With seven blinds, Kasper picked up and open-shoved the button. Ivan found and ended up with a club flush after a favourable board. That was the end of things for Kasper.

Kasper played twice on Triton ONE in Jeju earlier this year, without success. But he's up and running now with a $191,000 payday.

Ruslan Kasper became the latest player unable to beat Ivan

Ivan was back to 41 blinds as heads-up play began, with Kudinov's 16 just about enough to make a game of it. But it didn't end up lasting very long. Ivan chipped up steadily until Kudinov had only 10 blinds left. And that's when both players found an ace: A4 for Kudinov and for Ivan. All the money went in, and the queen on the flop effectively sealed it.

Heads up in North Cyprus

Ivan was the new champion after a brilliant final day performance. Kudinov, who has played the Super High Roller Series a few times and has more than $1 million in tournament earnings, hit a new career hish with a $272,000 payday. But it's Ivan who has the Triton ONE and QQPK trophies, and becomes the new, famous champ.

Second place for Viktor Kudinov