Aleks Ponakovs Captures Anniversary Present in Triton Showdown

The latest Triton Montenegro event saw a thrilling final table play down to a thoroughly deserving winner as Aleks Ponakovs won the $150,000 Triton Anniversary Special for over $3m. With a prizepool of $11.4 million, 13 players made the money and among them were some of the best players in the world. At the final table, Triton record title holder Jason Koon went close to the win, finishing sixth for $684,000.

Making the Money

With only 13 players paid, four of the finest to play on the Triton tour made profit but missed out on the nine-handed final. Both Danny Tang and Eelis Parssinen min-cashed for $229,000 before the tour’s co-founder Paul Phua won $245,000 in 11^th place, a score replicated by the $200,000 Triton Invitational winner Adrian Mateos in 10^th place.

When the final table began, it was the Austrian Pokercode co-founder Matthias Eibinger who led with a monster stack of 113 big blinds, but he wasn’t alone in piling up a lot of chips as the final table began with some deep stacks. Igor Yaroshevskyy wasn’t one of them, beginning with just 17 big blinds and a dream. That hope was shattered, however, as his ace-queen was overtaken by Jean-Noel Thorel’s queen-eight of hearts as three hearts came on the board to give the Frenchman a flush and send Yaroshevskyy to the rail for $319,000.

Out in eighth place was Mikalai Vaskaboinikau. The Belarussian shoved for 14 blinds with pocket eights but lost to Jason Koon’s ace-queen when a queen landed on the flop. Vaskaboinikau cashed for $422,000, a touch less than the $541,000 banked by Wai Kiat Lee in seventh place. The Malaysian shoved with bottom pair and an open-ended straight draw on the flop but Jonathan Jaffe held ace-queen for top pair, top kicker and that hand held to reduce the field to six.

King Koon Dethroned

No-one has won more Triton titles than Jason Koon, but the West Virginian poker legend ran out of luck in sixth place for $684,000. All-in with ace-nine, he was ahead of Jonathan Jaffe’s ace-seven. A seven on the flop changed all that, though, and Koon never recovered to leave himself just short of a record-extending 13^th Triton title.

Thai pro Punnat Punsri was the next to depart in fifth place for $878,000. Finding ace-king, he took on Jaffe in a coinflip but lost to the American’s pocket nines. An ace arrived on the flop for the at-risk player but a nine on the same flop was the death knell on the talented pros chances.

Matthias Eibinger started the nine-handed final in the lead but lost out in fourth place for the first seven-figure score of the event of $1,088,000. All-in with nine-five after losing a series of smaller pots, the short-stacked former chip leader ran into Thorel’s ace-king which held with ease to reduce the field to three.

Ponakovs Seals Memorable Win

“I’m pretty happy to be here, playing the highest events, with the smartest people in the world.”

Just 12 big blinds separated Ponakovs the chip leader on 47 bigs with the short-stacked Jaffe on 35 blinds, but all three men didn’t even think about doing a deal. Thorel dropped short and called off his stack pre-flop with jack-ten of hearts only to see to his dismay that he was up against the dominating ace-jack of Jaffe. No drama on the board meant the Frenchman departed for $1.39m in third place.

Heads-up, Jaffe now had the lead but with both men on one Triton win, the chance of getting onto the infamous ‘wall’ of Triton multiple winners was on the line along with around $900,000 in extra prize money. While the heads-up battle began slowly, two big hands decided it in a matter of minutes.

On a board showing 8-5-2-K-Q, Ponakovs’ shove with queen-eight was called by Jaffe with ace-deuce and that gave the Latvian a 4:1 chip lead. Soon, he had them all, but way of his ace-four holding against Jaffe’s king-six. No help came for Jaffe after an ace landed on the flop and Jaffe was drawing dead to the river as he stood and shook the hand of the man who had defeated him. Ponakovs won $3,027,000 as the champion while Jaffe collected $2,103,000 as runner-up.

“This is definitely one of the best final tables I’ve played in because we were playing kind of deep and if you want to show your skill level, it’s definitely in a deep structure,” Ponakovs said after his victory. “I’ve [faced] so many good opponents. We’ve been battling for so many years. We had four watches [of Main Event winners] at the table. Pretty sick. I was happy to participate in this final table.”

The Latvian referenced his start in Triton events nine years earlier as a measuring stick of how far his poker game has come.

“I wouldn’t have expected I would be here playing high stakes in 2017, when I was basically almost broke. I’m pretty happy to be here, playing the highest events, with the smartest people in the world.”

After yet another massive win, the Latvian Aleks Ponakovs can count himself among that number. Watch all the highlights from the latest Triton Super High Roller Series final table right here.