Chris Moneymaker Finds The Winner’s Circle At Triton Montenegro

The Triton Super High Roller Series Montenegro was the latest smash success for the high-stakes tour. There was more than $99.8 million in prize money awarded across the 14-event festival that ran from May 12-26 at the Maestral Resort & Casino on the Adriatic coast.

There were 10 no-limit hold’em events and four pot-limit Omaha tournaments included on the schedule, and they collectively drew nearly 1,600 total entries between them despite the lowest buy-in being offered coming in at a whopping $25,000.

Moneymaker Wins (Another) One For The Everyman

Nearly 21 years after his win in the 2003 World Series of Poker main event helped set off the poker boom of the early 2000s, Chris Moneymaker once again found himself hoisting the hardware. This time around the 48-year-old topped a field of 163 entries to emerge victorious in the series’ kickoff $25,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em GG Million$ tournament. He walked away with the trophy and the top prize of $903,000.

This was the third-largest payday on Moneymaker’s résumé, trailing only the $2,500,000 he secured as the main event champion and the $2,030,000 he was awarded for a fifth-place finish in the 2023 $250,000 Triton London Luxon Invitational. The Poker Hall of Famer added another $362,000 with two more cashes at the festival, bringing his lifetime total to $7.3 million.

“I wasn’t going to lose today. I could have put it in with any hand and I would have won. I ran pure,” he told Triton reporters after coming out on top. “I hit a three-outer, a six-outer. I thought to myself, ‘You know what, this is going to be 2003. I’m not going to lose any more hands today.’”

In addition to the money and the title, Moneymaker also scooped up 1,092 Card Player Player of the Year points with this win. This was his second POY-qualified score of the year, having also placed sixth in a $500 mystery bounty event at the Moneymaker Poker Tour Palm Beach stop in February.

He also recently final tabled the ACR Poker Venom online event, finishing sixth out of a field of 5,045 total entries, earning $382,007 for that deep run.

Michael Watson Headlines Other Early Winners

Andy Ni came out on top in the $25,000 eight-max no-limit hold’em event, topping a field of 135 entries. The 41-year-old Chinese player, now based out of Spain, earned $785,000 as the champion. Multi-time Triton champions Jose ‘Nacho’ Barbero (7th), Danny Tang (6th), and Chris Brewer (3rd) also ran deep in this event.

The next event on the schedule saw Michael Watson become one of just seven players on the planet with four or more Triton titles. The World Poker Tour champion and two-time European Poker Tour main event winner from Canada secured his fourth win on the tour by topping a field of 154 entries in the $30,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em eight max event.

Watson was awarded $1,023,000 for coming out on top. He ended up cashing for more than $2.8 million across the series, including a fourth-place showing in the largest buy-in on the slate. The 40-year-old Toronto resident’s career earnings are now nearly $28.9 million.

Watson is now tied with Fedor Holz and Wai Kin Yong for fifth place on the Triton titles leaderboard. Only 10-time champion Jason Koon and five-time champions Mikita Badziakouski, Phil Ivey, and Danny Tang have secured more trophies on the tour.

“Every time you come to a Triton stop you want to come away with a trophy,” said Watson after this marquee victory. “You want to get a win. It feels really good to get one in hold’em now, which I hadn’t done either. Just want to keep adding.”

This was indeed Watson’s first victory in a standard no-limit hold’em tournament on the tour. His first win came in a $50,000 short deck event at the 2023 stop in Vietnam. He then took down a $30,000 pot-limit Omaha event in North Cyprus later that spring. His third title came in a $25,000 short deck event at the Triton Jeju stop this March. He now has more than $12.2 million in Triton earnings across 32 in-the-money finishes.

Watson now has three titles and ten final-table finishes in 2024. This latest win earned him 1,008 POY points. With a total of 4,584 points, he’s now ranked second in the overall standings.

Belarus’ Artsiom Lasouski made his debut on the Triton tour at this stop in Montenegro. While the 25-year-old failed to cash in the first two events of the series, he bounced back in a big way by emerging victorious in the $40,000 mystery bounty tournament.

Lasouski overcame a field of 151 entries to secure the title and the top payout of $669,000 from the main prize pool. This was by far the largest live poker score yet for Lasouski, easily surpassing the $63,000 he secured for a final-table finish in a $2,200 buy-in event at the Mediterranean Poker Party festival just eight days earlier.

Next up on the agenda was another bounty tournament. This one cost $50,000 to enter, with that sum being posted 126 times. Ukrainian poker pro Igor Yaroshevskyy crossed two major milestones off his poker to-do list simultaneously, winning a Triton title and earning a seven-figure payday. After securing the final bounty, he was awarded his first trident trophy and the top prize of $1,052,000. He also cashed in $120,000 in bounties along the way.

Yaroshevskyy cashed four times during this festival, including this win and two more final-table finishes. All told, he has accrued 2,950 points and more than $3.6 million across four final tables in 2024. As a result, he is now ranked 15th on the POY leaderboard.

Mateos, Kulev, And Petrangelo Score Big Wins As The Stakes Climb

Adrian Mateos is on fire in 2024. The 29-year-old poker pro from Spain has made 10 total final tables this year, winning two titles along the way. Mateos’ latest deep run saw him emerge victorious from a field of 159 entries in the $50,000 no-limit hold’em eight-max event, his second title on the high-stakes tour and with it a massive prize of $1,761,000.

Incredibly, this was not his largest payday of the festival. Just five days later, he placed second in the $200,000 buy-in tournament for nearly $3.3 million.

Mateos’ career tournament earnings now sit at $47.9 million, placing him 10th on poker’s all-time money list. The European Poker Tour main event champion and four-time WSOP bracelet winner is the runaway leader on Spain’s national earnings leaderboard, with well more than twice the earnings of his nearest competition (Sergio Aido – $19.3 million).

In addition to moving inside the top 10 on the earnings leaderboard, Mateos’ success in Montenegro also handed him the lead in the 2024 POY race. His 5,764 total points and $7.6 million in to-date POY earnings put him in pole position heading into the action-packed summer months.

Alex Kulev took down the first six-figure buy-in on the schedule, outlasting 102 entries in the $100,000 event to earn $2,566,000 and his first win on the tour.

“I’m a little bit overwhelmed, to be honest,” Kulev told Triton reporters after closing out the win in front of his parents, who traveled six hours to witness the event’s conclusion. “This means a lot to me. To accomplish this in front of my family is very special to me. I will cherish this for a long time.”

Kulev climbed inside the top 10 in the POY race with this win. The Bulgarian all-time money leader has two titles and nine final-table finishes under his belt already in 2024.

After 14 previous in-the-money finishes at Triton stops without a win, Nick Petrangelo finally came away with a trophy. The two-time bracelet winner captured his first win on the tour by surviving a field of 53 entries in the $50,000 no-limit hold’em turbo event to earn $775,000 and the hardware.

The American poker pro followed the victory up with a final-table finish in the $200,000 buy-in event for another $661,000. After his strong showing at this stop, he now has nearly $35.6 million in lifetime scores.

Mikalai Vaskaboinikau Captures Main Event Title and $4.7 Million

Mikalai Vaskaboinikau’s dream came true when he topped a field of 171 entries in the $125,000 main event.

“It’s a really amazing feeling,” Vaskaboinikau said. “I had a good feeling about this a few months ago. I put this thought in my mind in a dream.”

The 37-year-old businessman from Belarus earned $4,737,000 as the champion of the prestigious event, more than doubling his career tournament earnings in the process. Prior to this victory, his top payday had been a $492,041 score earned as the fourth-place finisher in a €100,000 buy-in at the 2022 EPT Monte Carlo stop.

Just two days after this massive win, Vaskaboinikau finished second in the first of four pot-limit Omaha events offered at this stop to add another $371,000 to his haul. He now has more than $8.7 million in total cashes to his name.

Plenty of big names were among the 27 that cashed in this event to earn a slice of the $21,375,000 prize pool. Those who ran deep included five-time Triton champion Mikita Badziakouski (26th), Dan Smith (25th), Patrik Antonius (23rd), 2019 WSOP main event champion Hossein Ensan (22nd), Masashi Oya (14th), Chris Brewer (13th), and Triton co-founder Paul Phua (12th).

Three-time Triton winner Bryn Kenney, who is the tour’s all-time money leader with over $38.6 million in total earnings across 14 career cashes, added to that total by finishing eighth in this event for $580,000. He now has nearly $66.3 million in lifetime scores, putting him back on top of poker’s all-time money list. Justin Bonomo sits in second place with $65,930,010.

Aleksejs Ponakovs busted Igor Yaroshevskyy in fifth place ($1,430,000) to bolster his run at the title, while 10-time bracelet winner and five-time Triton champion Phil Ivey eventually followed in fourth place.

Ivey lost a huge chunk of his stack thanks to a flush-over-flush cooler against Vaskaboinikau. Ivey earned $1,795,000 as the fourth-place finisher, increasing the Poker Hall of Famer’s career haul to over $44.7 million.

Ponakovs was ultimately sent home in third place. The two-time bracelet winner from Latvia secured $2,200,000 for his podium finish. He now has more than $20.1 million in career scores to his name.

Heads-up play began with Vaskaboinikau holding a 5:1 lead over local Montenegro poker player Dejan Kaladjurdjevic. It didn’t take long for him to convert the advantage into the title. Kaladjurdjevic earned $3,196,000 as the runner-up, which was far and away his largest live score yet.

‘Limitless’ Scores Big In Highest Buy-In of The Series

Despite limited appearances on the circuit, Wiktor Malinowski has accrued more than $12.7 million in career tournament earnings. The 29-year-old professional player from Poland, known to many by his online screen name ‘limitless,’ is a fixture in the biggest cash games in the world but only intermittently shows up to clash in the live MTT streets.

Malinowski has just 38 recorded tournament cashes to his name, which puts his average payout at a staggering $334,000. Malinowski recorded his largest tournament score yet by taking down the $200,000 no-limit hold’em eight-max event for a monster $4,789,000 payday.

“It’s the best feeling. There are so many moments in poker when it’s not so good, so when you win it feels very special,” he said.

Malinowski bested a field of 93 entries for his second multi-million-dollar payday on the circuit. His first came when he took down the 2021 Super High Roller Bowl Europe main event for $3.7 million.

The strong turnout for this event resulted in a prize pool of $18,600,000 that was paid out among the top 15 finishers. Santhosh Suvarna was knocked out on the bubble, ensuring that the remaining players all cashed for at least $317,000.

All-time Triton title leader Jason Koon was sent packing in sixth place and awarded $1,098,000 for his latest deep run. He added two more cashes at this festival to bring his total to 51 on the tour. His nearly $28.5 million in Triton earnings is the second most of any player. For more on that prestigious leaderboard, head to page 28.

Five-time Triton winner Mikita Badziakouski’s run concluded in fifth place ($1,405,000). The Belarusian crusher committed the majority of his stack preflop with A-7 from the hijack and ran into pocket queens for Adrian Mateos.

Michael Watson, fresh off of his win earlier this series, lost a big clash with Mateos to find himself with just a couple big blinds left in his stack. He was soon knocked out of contention by Mateos. Watson earned $1,748,000 for his efforts, the second-largest score of his career.

Steve O’Dwyer eked into the final three with just a few big blinds in his stack. His case chips eventually found their way into the middle with 9-4 suited from the big blind. He was up against A-3 for Malinowski. Neither player connected with the board and ace high was enough to send O’Dwyer home in third place ($2,157,000). This was the largest score yet for the accomplished American-born pro, who is now based out of Ireland. His career earnings now sit at $44.6 million.

Heads-up play began with Malinowski holding a 3:1 chip lead over Mateos. The Spanish pro managed to fight his way into the lead, only to have Malinowski regain control. On the final hand, Malinowski limped in from the button with 8♠ 3♥ and Mateos checked his option in the big blind with 8♥ 6♦. The flop came down 8♦ 4♣ 3♣ and Mateos checked with top pair. Malinowski bet a single big blind of 300,000 with top and bottom pair and Mateos called.

The 7♥ turn drew another check from Mateos. Malinowski bet 1,000,000 and Mateos check-raised all-in for 3,575,000. Malinowski called and the river brought the 10♠ to bring the event to an end. Mateos earned a career-best payday of $3,292,000 as the runner-up.
Sipila And Frank Shine With Spotlight On PLO

The final four events of the series were all pot-limit Omaha contests. Two of the four were ultimately won by the same player in Samuli Sipila, a feat he also accomplished in March at the PokerGO PLO Series.

The 31-year-old PLO specialist from Finland is knocking on the door of the top 15 in the 2024 POY race thanks entirely to his success in four-card events this year. He has cashed for more than $2.1 million so far on the live circuit across six final-table finishes, with four titles won along the way.

The two most recent came in Montenegro, which was his first Triton stop. Sipila bested a field of 82 entries in the $25,000 buy-in PLO event for $535,000 and 672 POY points, defeating main event winner Mikalai Vaskaboinikau heads-up for the title. Sipila then went on to win the $50,000 buy-in PLO event for a career-best payday of $839,000 just two days later. He overcame a field of 61 entries that time around.

“I had hopes, obviously,” Sipila said in his interview with Triton reporters. “Obviously there’s a lot of skill. It’s not just going all-in… but to be fair, I have run really well.”

Sipila now has more than $2.9 million in career tournament earnings, with more than two-thirds of that having been won this spring. This latest victory increased his POY point total to 2,878, which is good for 16th place on the POY leaderboard.

The $100,000 buy-in pot-limit Omaha main event drew 83 entries. German poker pro Christopher Frank dragged the final pot, earning $2,008,910 and his first Triton title as the champion. The 29-year-old bracelet winner had only entered five previous Triton events, with his best result being a 16th-place finish in a $30,000 no-limit hold’em event for $71,800. Now he has a trophy and a multi-million-dollar score earned on the tour.

Frank now has more than $5.5 million in total lifetime tournament earnings. His second-highest payday was also recorded earlier this year with $500,000 for a runner-up finish at the Wynn Millions series.

This latest victory was good for 960 POY points. Frank now has 2,652 total points earned across four final-table finishes so far this year. As a result, he now sits in 23rd place on the POY leaderboard.

Frank defeated fellow bracelet winner and PLO crusher Dylan Weisman heads-up. The American secured $1.6 million as the runner-up, the largest score yet on his résumé.

The final event of the series was the $30,000 turbo bounty PLO tournament. Martin Dam won the fast-paced affair for his first tour title. He had never entered a Triton event prior to making the trip to Montenegro. The 27-year-old Danish player fared well, cashing in three of the four events he entered while accruing $501,000 in earnings. ♠