button in SafariLeon Sturm Leads the Triton $100K NLH Main Event After Day 1
Day 1 of the $100,000 No-Limit Hold'em Main Event of the Triton Poker Super High Roller Series Montenegro festival is done and dusted. The first day of this prestigious tournament attracted 142 entrants, including re-entries. After the completion of 10 levels, almost half of the field had fallen, leaving 73 players bagging and tagging their chips. None of the surviving players crammed more chips into their overnight bags than Germany's Leon Sturm.
Sturm was essentially idling along for a significant part of Day 1 before adding to his stack as play progressed. He won a decent pot when he turned a straight with king-ten of spades against fellow German Tobias Schwecht and got a raise paid off on the river.
He then sent Wiktor Malinowski to the rail when his ace-jack won a coinflip against the Polish star's pocket fives before helping himself to Schwecht's stack when his pocket three flopped a set against Schwecht's pocket aces, and Sturm allowed his opponent to empty the clip into him.
That hand, late into proceedings, propelled Sturm to the top of the overnight chip counts. Sturm returns to the action at 1:00 p.m. local time on May 22 armed with 1,370,000 chips, or 137 big blinds.
Danilo Velasevic (1,031,000) finds himself in second place at the restart, with Javid Ismayilov (1,016,000) rounding off the podium places.
As you would expect from a $100,000 buy-in tournament, the field is littered with household names. They include Ben Tollerene (988,000), Alex Foxen (819,000), Jesse Lonis (771,000), Isaac Haxton (754,000), Fedor Holz (647,000), recent $6.4 million winner Adrian Mateos (545,000), Mikita Badziakouski (413,000), and Triton founder Paul Phua (201,000).
$100K NLH Main Event Final Table Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Leon Sturm | Germany | 1,370,000 | 137 |
| 2 | Danilo Velasevic | Serbia | 1,370,000 | 103 |
| 3 | Javid Ismayilov | Azerbaijan | 1,370,000 | 102 |
| 4 | Ben Tollerene | United States | 1,370,000 | 99 |
| 5 | Tom Fuchs | Germany | 1,370,000 | 86 |
| 6 | Samuel Muller | Austria | 1,370,000 | 83 |
| 7 | Alex Foxen | United States | 1,370,000 | 82 |
| 8 | Mehdi Chaoui | Morocco | 1,370,000 | 79 |
| 9 | Ye Wang | China | 1,370,000 | 79 |
| 10 | Jesse Lonis | United States | 1,370,000 | 77 |
Play resumes at 1:00 p.m. local time, and late registration remains open until the start of play. Last year's Montenegro $100K NLH Main Event saw Jesse Lonis outlast 179 opponents on his way to securing a $3,446,298 payday. Will the 2026 edition see a similar field? We don't have long to wait to find out.