Jesse Lonis has denied Mikalai Vaskaboinikau back-to-back Main Event wins at the Triton Super High Roller Series in Budva, Montenegro.
The Belarusian was on the verge of the unthinkable when he reached the heads-up finale, but Lonis pulled out all the stops to take the trophy back to the United States with a great victory.
In this trip alone, Lonis already has two trophies after he also won the $40K NLH Mystery Bounty.
The event pulled in an impressive 180 entries, with 79 of them re-entries, to build a monster prize pool of $18,000,000.
Lonis banked $3,446,298 while Vaskaboinikau collected $2,927,702 for his runner-up finish.
It’s impressive to think back only three years when Jesse Lonis was relatively unknown at the top level of poker tournaments.
In that short space of time he’s evolved into one of the most feared live tournament players on the planet. He’s also making waves in the online tournament scene. Only three weeks ago, Jesse Lonis took down his maiden GGMillion$ title.
Action Recap
This was a seriously tough field to compete in, highlighted even further as the final table bubble approached.
With 11 players remaining, all of them had at least one Triton title to their names; two of them already winning in Montenegro.
Nacho Barbero was the player to break the money bubble, busting out in 32nd place and missing out on a $159,000 min-cash.
Jesse Lonis was leading the way as the final nine assembled, but just look at the following line-up. That’s some list of talent.
| Player Name | Chip Stack | Big Blinds (BBs) |
| Jesse Lonis | 8,975,000 | 60 |
| Stephen Chidwick | 6,675,000 | 45 |
| Kiat Lee | 5,450,000 | 36 |
| Mikalai Vaskaboinikau | 5,225,000 | 35 |
| Santhosh Suvarna | 5,025,000 | 34 |
| Ramin Hajiyev | 4,800,000 | 32 |
| Christoph Vogelsang | 3,600,000 | 24 |
| Artur Martirosian | 3,225,000 | 22 |
| Fedor Holz | 2,025,000 | 14 |
There weren’t going to be any soft eliminations on this table; every one of them would have to be earned through sheer skill or a massive slice of luck.
Artur Martirosian was the first victim, picking up pocket kings and getting the wrong board run out.
Vaskaboinikau had three-bet Ramin Hajiyev with A♥ K♠ and then faced an immediate jam from Martirosian. The board came down A♦ 8♣ Q♣ 4♣ Q♥ and we were down to eight.
That early elimination didn’t open the floodgates, though, as a quiet period of play followed with a few significant pots.
Holz found himself heading to the rail after getting crippled by Kiat Lee and then relieved of his last 3 blinds by Vaskaboinikau with a second best starting hand.
Vaskaboinikau was now leading the field but Lonis was never too far away. The American did eventually reclaim the lead when he knocked out Santhosh Suvarna.
Lonis opened with K♣ 9♣ and Suvarna jammed over the top with A♦ 8♦. The flop ran out 9♦ 3♦ Q♥ to give the Indian star a massive draw, but the turn and river of 8♣ 5♠ were no help and we were now six-handed.
It was a strange spectacle for the audience, with many finding it odd that the second best hand pre-flop always seemed to come out on top. Stephen Chidwick failed to buck the trend and he was out in fifth place for a $879,000 prize that pushed him up to second place on the all-time money list.
Ramin Hajiyev was next to leave, picking up the first seven-figure prize of the day. The Azeri jammed his last 11 blinds with pocket nines and got a call from Vaskaboinikau with A♣ 5♥.
The flop of 4♦ 3♠ :5c and 3♣ turn were all good but when the 5d: river was turned over it was game over for Hajiyev.
Christoph Vogelsang must have been happy to see another bust out as he nursed a crippled stack, but he didn’t get much more respite.
He did manage to accumulate a 12BB stack but there was no getting away when he raised with K♣ Q♦ and faced a three-bet from Kiat Lee. The chips went in and the Malaysian flipped over A♦ K♥ which held just fine.
Three-handed saw deep discussions about how a deal could be made. Vaskaboinikau wanted to be guaranteed the trophy, even at the expense of giving up significant prize money, but Triton rules prevented that.
Discussions and a deal looked to have been made but Lee went to check with a friend and returned to say the deal was now off and play would resume.
Kiat Lee probably wished he did agree because it didn’t take long before we witnessed his A♦ 7♥ get beat by Lonis’s 10♥ 8♥ to take us into heads-up.
Vaskaboinikau now had only eight blinds against Lonis’s 37 and it was all over soon enough after two breaks in play to make another deal.
Lonis would take home at least $3,321,298, while Vaskaboinikau locked up $2,927,702. There would be $125,000 left to play for.
The very next hand the chips went in. Lonis with K♦ 10♣ and Vaskaboinikau with Q♣ J♣ and the best hand finally came out on top to leave Lonis struggling to contain his emotions.
“It’s emotional, I’m trying to hold the tears back. I wanted to come out here and perform. I’m away from my family for a long time and I told them I was going to make it worthwhile. Being here is unreal. Any moment now I’m going to wake up from the dream.”
Triton Montenegro Event #10 $100K — Triton Main Event Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize (USD) |
| 1st | Jesse Lonis | USA | $3,446,298 |
| 2nd | Mikalai Vaskaboinikau | Belarus | $2,927,702 |
| 3rd | Kiat Lee | Malaysia | $1,807,000 |
| 4th | Christoph Vogelsang | Germany | $1,463,000 |
| 5th | Ramin Hajiyev | Azerbaijan | $1,159,000 |
| 6th | Stephen Chidwick | United Kingdom | $879,000 |
| 7th | Santhosh Suvarna | India | $643,000 |
| 8th | Fedor Holz | Germany | $470,000 |
| 9th | Artur Martirosian | Russia | $389,000 |
