Ivey Out in Fourth as Mikalai Vaskaboinikau Wins Triton Montenegro $125K Main Event for $4.7M

May 22, 2024

The Triton Poker Montenegro $125K Main Event may not have the highest buy-in of the Super High Roller Series, but it undeniably carries a unique prestige, and the latest edition of this pinnacle poker tournament has reached a thrilling conclusion at the Maestral Resort & Casino.

After three days of intense competition, Mikalai Vaskaboinikau emerged victorious over a formidable 171-entry field, claiming the lion's share of the colossal $21,375,000 prize pool.

In a swift heads-up finale, Vaskaboinikau secured a windfall of $4,737,000 after defeating hometown representative Dejan Kaladjurdjevic in heads-up to capture their best career score and a true star-making moment.

The triumph came in Vaskaboinikau's sixth-ever Triton event and his fourth final table. However, Vaskaboinikau's dealings mostly come away from the felt as he's a businessman first and foremost.

Vaskaboinikau didn't share what his business was but he did say that the payout he received was "not life-changing money."

Despite that, the pride of winning a Triton event was on full display.

“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...I’m really happy about this.”

Final Table Payouts

Final Table Action

Following the glitz and glamour of the player walk-on, fireworks didn't take long to ignite. In a three-bet pot, Igor Yaroshevskyy and Wai Kin Yong both flopped top pair, with the latter holding an ace-kicker. Yaroshevskyy made two pair on the river, which checked through to showdown for the Ukrainian to take the 5.5 million pot and the chip lead early on.

Triton debutant Elizabeth Chen was zero for three in Montenegro, but her fourth tournament yielded a $478,000 payout. Her ninth-place finish came at the hands of Phil Ivey, whose king-queen paired up against pocket eights to seal the day's first casualty. Bryn Kenney was the next player all-in at risk, but his pocket jacks flopped a set for a much-needed double. The spin-up was short-lived as the All-Time Money List leader was next to depart after running pocket nines into Yaroshevskyy's pocket tens.

The start of day chip leader Yong had a rough time in the opening levels of the day but looked to rebound in an all-in preflop showdown with pocket queens. The eventual champion called with a pair of tens in the hole and found his two-outer on the river to derail Yong's pursuit of a fifth Triton title. Immediately after, Vaskaboinikau picked up kings and turned a full house to oust Samuel Ju and his pocket queens in sixth place for the first seven-figure payout of the day.

Heading into the first break, Ponakovs had hopped to the top of the counts, slightly in front of Vaskaboinikau. Ivey remained third in chips ahead of Yaroshevskyy and Dejan Kaladjurdjevic. With pay jumps of more than $300,000 on the line, the pace of play slowed down after Kaladjurdjevic immediately doubled after the restart.

Ivey began his climb up the counts, being on the right side of the deck to overtake Ponakovs at the summit, but the latter closed the gap after doing some domination rotation to see off Yaroshevskyy in fifth. It's been a heck of a series for Yaroshevskyy, who took down Event #6: $50,000 Bounty Quattro and banked two other cashes prior to the Main Event. His $1,430,000 payout took his series earnings to $2,569,919, not bad for ten days of work.

Ivey appeared to be in cruise control, but Vaskaboinikau backdoored the nut-flush and got a full double, and then Ponakovs caught the icon speeding for Ivey to become the short stack. Soon after, Vaskaboinikau took the rest of Ivey's stack with Big Slick to set up three-handed play.

Kaladjurdjevic survived another all-in and call situation to draw stacks even, making it anyone's game. From there on out, what transpired was a real war of attrition, with neither player looking to budge. Ponakovs chip count went on the descent but a double through Vaskaboinikau in a blind versus blind confrontation kept things as a stalemate between the final three.

Kaladjurdjevic Drills a Royal Flush

Then came the hand of the day. Kaladjurdjevic limped in from the small blind with aces and amazingly, Ponakovs woke up with kings and just checked his option in the big blind.

A Q♥J♥10♥ flop appeared, with Kaladjurdjevic having the A♥. Ponakovs called bets on the flop and turn, which brought in the K♥ river, giving Kaladjurdjevic a Royal Flush while improving Ponakovs to a set. Somehow, action checked through to showdown, and Ponakovs breathed a sigh of relief as he lost the minimum to remain as the chip leader.

Ponakovs continued to be active, stealing blind after blind with jams until Vaskaboinikau picked up a suited ace to double. The Belarusian had just over half the chips in play and became the runaway leader after he put the final nail in Ponakovs' coffin a few hands later.

Vaskaboinikau began heads-up with 44 big blinds to Kaladjurdjevic's nine. On the second hand of heads-up, the smaller stack moved in with jack-deuce, and Vaskaboinikau called with sixes. A clean runout followed for the pocket pair, and Vaskaboinikau booked his breakout moment with jubilant celebrations.

Triton Poker Super High Roller Series Montenegro Remaining Schedule

_{*Photos courtesy Joe Giron/Triton Poker}

Editor & Live Reporter

Calum has been a part of the PokerNews team since September 2021 after working in the UK energy sector. He played his first hand of poker in 2017 and immediately fell in love with the game. Calum's proudest poker achievement is winning the only tournament he has ever played in Las Vegas, the prestigious $60 Flamingo evening event.

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