Adrian Mateos Wins Triton Montenegro $50,000 Event For $1.7 Million

Adrian Mateos is on fire this spring. The 29-year-old poker pro from Spain has cashed eight times since the start of March, accumulating nearly $4 million across those scores.

Mateo’s latest deep run saw him emerge victorious from a field of 159 entries in the 2024 Triton Poker Super High Roller Series Montenegro $50,000 no-limit hold’em eight-max event, securing his second title on the high-stakes tour and the massive top prize of $1,761,000.

This win increased Mateos’ lifetime earnings to more than $44.6 million, placing him 11th on poker’s all-time money list. The European Poker Tour main event champion and four-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner is the runaway leader on Spain’s national earnings leaderboard, with more than twice the earnings of his nearest competition (Sergio Aido – $19.3 million).

The victory also saw him overtake the lead in the Card Player Player of the Year race. This was his second title and ninth final-table finish, with more than $4.3 million in POY earnings and 4,864 POY points accrued across those scores. He now sits 707 points ahead of second-ranked Punnat Punsri on the 2024 POY leaderboard presented by Global Poker.

The strong turnout for this event resulted in a prize pool of $7,950,000. The top 27 finishers earned a slice of that pie, with a min-cash valued at $80,000. Among those to run deep were Patrik Antonius (25th), recent $50,000 bounty event winner Igor Yaroshevskyy (23rd), Alex Kulev (22nd), Aleksejs Ponakovs (20th), Danny Tang (15th), Artur Martirosian (12th), Brian Kim (11th), Chris Brewer (10th), and Mario Mosbock (9th).

The official final table began with 10-time bracelet winner and five-time Triton champion Phil Ivey leading. The Poker Hall of Famer outlasted Dan Smith (8th – $215,000) and Mikalai Vaskaboinikau (7th – $297,000), but ultimately bowed out in sixth place. He three-bet shoved over the top of a Mateos raise with K-8 and ran into A-J. Mateo’s hand held up and Ivey was sent home with $408,000 for his efforts. He now has more than $42.9 million in career scores to his name.

Ben Tollerene got the last of his stack in with A-Q leading the A-10 of Mateos, but the Spaniard improved to the nut flush after the board brought four hearts. With that, Tollerene was eliminated in fifth place ($532,000). Action was then halted for the day, with the final four bagged up for the night to return for an unscheduled third day of play.

Mateos sat with 49 big blinds to when the event got back underway, with two-time bracelet winner Justin Saliba and his 28 big blinds being the nearest competition. Another two-time bracelet winner was the first to be knocked out on day 3. Nick Petrangelo and Mateos got all-in from the blinds, with Petrangelo limp-shoving from the small blind for 25 big blinds with A-3 over the top of a Mateos raise. Mateos called with A-J suited and held to extend his lead heading into three-handed action, while Petrangelo earned $667,000 for his fourth-place showing.

Triton newcomer Joe Zou’s run ended in third when his K-5 was unable to come from behind against the A-Q of Mateos. He was awarded $818,000 for his efforts.

Mateos held 22,350,000 to Saliba’s 9,450,000 when heads-up play began. It took just a single hand for him to convert that lead into the title. Mateos open shoved from the button with A7 and Saliba called all-in with A10 for roughly 15 big blinds. The board ran out 1098JK and Mateos turned a jack-high straight to secure the pot and the title. Saliba was awarded a career-high payday of $1,188,000 for his runner-up finish.

Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded at the final table:

Photo credits: Triton Poker / Joe Giron.

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