In a field stacked full of the world’s elite highstakes pros, it was Belarus businessman and part-time poker player Mikalai Vaskaboinikau who walked off with the Triton Poker Montenegro Main Event trophy last night and with it the $4,737,000 top prize.
With a buy-in of $125,000, the Main Event attracted 171 entries and that meant a $21.375 million prize pool, to be shared out among the top 27 finishers.
First stop was the money bubble and there were a few players in contention for the worst award in poker and when Paul Phua survived his all-in, it was Matthias Eibinger’s turn…
Eibinger: K♥ Q♠
Ivey: A♣ K♠
Flop: A♥ 10♥ K♣
Turn: 5♦
River: 10♣
With the bubble burst, it was a sprint to the final table and that saw players of the caliber of Dan Smith, Patrik Antonius, Hossein Ensan, and Chris Brewer fall by the wayside.
Of those who did make it, Phil Ivey and Bryn Kenney were the clear standouts, while Elizabeth Chen was a mystery newbie and local hope Dejan Kaladjurdjevic known only for his online exploits.
Chen was first to fall, at the hands of Ivey, and was followed by Kenney who couldn’t run his short stack up but extended his all-time moneywinners lead over Justin Bonomo by another $580,000.
The real fun and games began when four-handed, with Phil Ivey seemingly cruising until disaster struck.
Ivey: Q♠ 10♠
Vaskaboinikau: A♠ 8♠
Flop: 2♠ 10♦ 4♦
Turn: 7♠
River: J♠
Ivey’s check-shove on the river saw him go from first to last and when he picked up a reasonable ace shortly afterwards, Vaskaboinikau again produced the goods, his A♦K♦ sending Ivey to the rail in 4th place for $1,795,000.
Of the three remaining, Ponakovs is a known poker beast, while Kaladjurdjevic has multiple SCOOP titles and a recent GGMillion$ win worth a monster $1,588,544.
The lesser-known Vaskaboinikau is a Belarusian businessman who only appears for a few events and revealed the $4.7million up top was “not life-changing money”.
The first two clashed in a crazy aces vs kings hand that saw Kaladjurdjevic only call blind-on-blind with the rockets, Ponakovs just check and then a Royal Flush appeared on the river.
Kaladjurdjevic: A♥ A♣
Ponakovs: K♦ K♠
Flop: 10♥ J♥ Q♥
Turn: 2♣
River: K♥
Vaskaboinikau watching on was shocked at how this played out, but he soon recovered to send Ponakovs out in 3rd place, finding an ace on the turn.
That left the businessman facing the local hero, the finale quite straightforward as the Montenegrin chanced his luck
Kaladjurdjevic: J♣ 2♣
Vaskaboinikau: 6♣ 6♠
Flop: 8♦ 7♠ 10♣
Turn: K♠
River: 2♠
“Poker tournaments is always second, second, second for me,” said Vaskaboinikau in his post-win interview, adding: “Now, finally, it was my time. For sure it will be one of the brightest moments in my life.”
Final results
| 1 | Mikalai Vaskaboinikau | Belarus | $4,737,000 |
| 2 | Dejan Kaladjurdjevic | Montenegro | $3,196,000 |
| 3 | Aleks Ponakovs | Latvia | $2,200,000 |
| 4 | Phil Ivey | USA | $1,795,000 |
| 5 | Igor Yaroshevskyy | Ukraine | $1,430,000 |
| 6 | Samuel Ju | Germany | $1,098,000 |
| 7 | Wai Kin Yong | Malaysia | $800,000 |
| 8 | Bryn Kenney | USA | $580,000 |
| 9 | Elizabeth Chen | China | $478,000 |
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