Champion Ivan Kozlov!

Another new format brought another new champion at Triton ONE in North Cyprus tonight, with Russia's Ivan Kozlov crowned the inaugural winner of the $3,000 Quest event.

Kozlov was among 13 players who qualified for Day 2 of this event by hitting a milestone 1 million chips on Day 1, a huge difference from the regular tournament process of playing into the wee hours and bagging whatever is in front of you.

The format might have been new, but this 26-year-old Russian took to it fondly, and seemed effortless as he bludgeoned his way through a brisk final table.

Kozlov is new to Triton and relatively new to poker in general. The title here, which was worth $67,000, came in only the second Triton tournament he has played and came with a prize larger than his previous combined tournament winnings.

He needed to see off challengers including several players who are regulars on the Super High Roller Series, including the two-time Triton ONE champ Ngo Khoa Anh. But Ngo perished in third and was among numerous victims of Kozlov, who became the fourth Russian winner during this festival so far.

His final opponent was Vietnam's Nguyen Le, who was unable to overcome a significant chip disadvantage heads-up. Nguyen took $47,000 for second, which is also his highest Triton cash.

Nguyen Le congratulates the new champion

TOURNAMENT ACTION

The Quest tournament was new to the Triton Poker Series, another innovation from the tour's Senior Director of Live Events, Luca Vivaldi. Similar to the target satellite format, Day 1 was all about reaching a specific number of chips, in this case 1 million (from a starting stack of 150,000). When player reached the magic number, they put their chips in a bag, removing them from play, and qualified to Day 2 of the tournament. It meant that the Day 1 field gradually dwindled, but the players vanishing were not only those who had been knocked out, but also those who were already through to the next phase of play. Everyone making Day 2 was in the money.

In this first running of such an event, 13 players from a starting field of 95 entries, made it through. The bubble had come and gone pretty much invisibly, and everyone had locked up $5,100. But also uniquely, everyone had pretty much the same sized stack — give or take the additional chips in the landmark pot that took their stack beyond 1 million.

Day 2 therefore felt like a fresh start, and with a slight adjustment to the blind levels, there was an average stack of around 40 big blinds and a more conventional race to the final table.

After Huang Peng, Athanasios Kefalas, Jacques Der Megreditchian and Giuseppe Calio perished in 13th through 10th, two of them losing their last chips to Zhou Yinan, the last nine moved to the TV stage with the following chips:

Zhou Yinan - 3,395,000 (68 BBs)

Parahat Nurmuhammedov - 2,625,000 (53 BBs)

Nguyen Le - 1,890,000 (38 BBs)

Ngo Khoa Anh - 1,395,000 (28 BBs)

Axel Hallay - 1,190,000 (24 BBs)

Ivan Kozlov - 1,035,000 (21 BBs)

Tang Yixi - 955,000 (19 BBs)

Aleksei Istomin - 930,000 (19 BBs)

Anton Rubtsov - 835,000 (17 BBs)

Event 18 final table players (clockwise from back left): Axel Hallay, Nguyen Le, Zhou Yinan, Ngo Khoa Anh, Aleksei Istomin, Tang Yixi, Anton Rubtsov, Ivan Kozlov, Parahat Nurmuhammedov.

Though none of the players were household names, this was a final table with some serious talent lurking on it. Ngo Khoa Anh is already a two-time Triton ONE champion and was aiming to become the first person to win three (he has a win on the Super High Roller Series too). Meanwhile, Zhou has cashed eight times on Triton ONE, including three times here this week. Tang Yixi has also cashed nine times on the tour.

Super High Roller Series fans will also know Axel Hallay, who has made a final table while playing in the big leagues. But unfortunately, Hallay won't remember this final with great fondness. He was first to depart, ensnared by Zhou in the big blind, whose 74 flopped a pair and turned two pair, beating Hallay's flopped top pair, holding J.

Hallay had 23 big blinds on the button at the start of the hand, but left with $7,200 for ninth.

Axel Hallay was returning to a Triton final table for the first time in a while

Anton Rubtsov, another Triton ONE regular, was in the money for the eighth time in his career, but his tournament went no further than eighth place. He brought the short stack to the final and hadn't managed to increase it when he got involved in a pot against Parahat Nurmuhammedov.

Nurmuhammedov raised from the hijack holding A3 and after Zhou called on the button, Rubtsov called too from the big blind. He had . Rubtsov flopped top pair when the first three cards out were , but checked. Nurmuhammedov bet his inside straight draw. Zhou folded, but Rubtsov called.

The 4 completed that draw for Nurmuhammedov and, after Rubtsov checked, Nurmuhammedov fired for all the beans. Rubtsov called with his top pair, but was drawing dead. The K river improved his hand, but not enough. Rubtsov won $9,500 for eighth.

Anton Rubtsov was already drawing dead

Tang Yixi has been treading water and waiting for a spot to get his short stack in the middle, and the gift of AK under the gun was precisely what he'd been waiting for. He open-jammed his last eight blinds, and probably didn't mind a call from Ivan Kozlov in the big blind.

Kozlov only had 11 blinds, but had AA, dominating Tang. The board brought an ace and four diamonds, which meant Kozlov won two ways. Tang was out in seventh for $12,100.

While Kozlov could now rejoice, his fellow Russian Aleksei Istomin was in trouble. He had only five blinds and called from the big blind holding J10 after the chip-leading Zhou opened his button with a shove. The full runout of 9 gave both players a straight, but Zhou's was bigger.

Istomin won $15,300 for sixth.

Aleksei Istomin's straight wasn't big enough

Nurmuhammedov had been riding high at an earlier point in the final, but he doubled up Nguyen Le when the latter's aces held against Nurmuhammedov's KQ, and Nurmuhammedov had slipped to fewer than 20 blinds when he played his final hand. Yet again it was Zhou who did the damage: he opened from mid-position (nothing surprising there) and Nurmuhammedov picked up pocket threes in the big blind. He jammed.

Zhou hadn't been abusing his position, however. His pocket nines held and Nurmuhammedov was out in fifth for $19,600. The Triton Poker Series still seeks its first winner from Turkmenistan.

Three cashes already on a Triton ONE debut for Parahat Nurmuhammedov

Kozlov's chip graph was especially spiky. He doubled through Zhou with A[J beating 7, but then Nguyen doubled up through Kozlov. But Kozlov doubled back through Nguyen and won a further pot against Zhou to nose into the chip lead. He and Zhou were all but level as they took a tournament break, with Ngo now the short stack.

During a relatively long slowdown, Zhou's stack ebbed slowly away. Ngo had also slipped as low as five blinds before he doubled through Zhou, with AJ holding against Zhou's A. That put the previously dominant chip leader at the bottom of the pile, but Ngo was back alongside him soon enough, with Kozlov pinching more of his chips.

Ngo was soon in the big blind and pretty much forced all in holding 84. Kozlov, who jammed from the small blind with 10 hit a seven on the turn to make sure. Ngo's dreams of a third Triton ONE win were now over, though he has another $24,500 in the bankroll to try again.

Ngo Khoa Anh's chips were over the line and never coming back

Kozlov was cruising. He had 56 blinds while Nguyen was in second with 11 blinds and Zhou had only five. And very soon, it was heads-up as Kozlov's 109 made a straight to beat Zhou's A. Zhou landed $31,105 for third place and continues to knock on the door at Triton ONE. He'll be champion soon enough.

A rap on the table and Zhou Yinan was gone

The table reset for heads-up, with Kozlov surely confident of wrapping it up fairly quickly. He had 48 blinds to Nguyen's 9. Nguyen had shown some good survival instincts at this final table, but was now exposed to Kozlov's might. On the fourth hand of heads-up, Nguyen jammed for nine blinds holding 87, but Kozlov's held up and the tournament was his.

Second place for Nguyen Le