Triton Montenegro Continues Tour’s Record-Breaking Streak

There has now been more than $1.4 billion in prize money awarded in Triton Poker events since the prestigious high-stakes tour debuted in 2019. The latest stop ran from May 13-27 at the Maestral Resort & Casino in Montenegro, with 15 high roller tournaments awarding a combined $106.5 million in total payouts between them.

Several new milestones were set along the way during this fortnight along the Adriatic coast, with exciting new champions making their breakthroughs and Triton regulars adding to their expansive trident trophy collections.

Xuan Liu Becomes First Female Triton Champion

It didn’t take long for this series to kick into high gear. The very first event on the Triton Poker Montenegro schedule ended with a history-making win for Xuan Liu, who topped a field of 155 entries in the WPT Global Slam $25,000 event to become the first woman to ever win a Triton title.

The WPT Global ambassador was only slated to play this one WPT-branded event and made her one shot at Triton glory count as she overcame a stacked final table for a career-best $860,000.

“Obviously, this is beyond my wildest dreams,” said Liu. “I know I really can’t hang [with these players] on a day-to-day basis, but this is what the beauty of poker is all about… anybody can get lucky on any given day.”

While Liu was humble about her victory in this event, she is hardly a newcomer on the circuit. The Canadian’s previous top score was a $600,000 windfall for a fourth-place showing in the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure main event back in 2012. The 39-year-old now has more than $3.1 million in lifetime earnings.

Liu was not the only female player to run deep in this tournament, though. There were two other women to cash, including Sosia Jiang who picked up $46,500 as the 20th-place finisher, and Kristen Foxen who placed fourth for $325,000.

Foxen was not yet done adding to her lead atop the women’s all-time money list, though. The five-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner went on to make two more final tables during the series for another $394,000 in combined scores, bringing her career haul past the $12 million mark in the process.

Alex Foxen And Nacho Barbero Stay Hot

While Kristen Foxen was running deep in one $25,000 buy-in, her husband Alex Foxen was busy closing out the win in the second $25,000 event on the schedule. The red-hot tournament crusher secured his third Triton title after besting a field of 130 entries.

The 34-year-old American poker pro took home $755,000 for his third overall victory of the year. He went on to cash five times during the series, including a third-place finish in a $25,000 pot-limit Omaha event for $251,000.

He has made a total of 10 final tables in 2025, and is now situated near the very top of the 2025 Card Player Player of the Year race standings, a place he is quite familiar with. Foxen has finished no worse than ninth in the POY standings since 2018.

Argentina’s Jose ‘Nacho’ Barbero finished third in the tournament won by Foxen, earning $341,000 for his podium showing. Just one day later, he outlasted a field of 147 entries in the $30,000 no-limit event, picking up his third career Triton victory and $1,025,000. He backed this win up with three more cashes, bringing his haul for the series to more than $1.7 million.

A week before his win in event no. 3, Barbero had placed seventh in a €25,000 tournament at the European Poker Tour Monte Carlo festival for another $222,723. His high roller spree in May has put him alongside Foxen in the upper echelons of the POY rankings.

Less than seven years removed from making his first live tournament cash in a $210 buy-in event, Jesse Lonis emerged victorious in the $40,000 mystery bounty event, earning $619,000 and a staggering $800,000 from 12 pulls at the bounty pool.

The two-time WSOP bracelet winner was not yet done adding to his pile of cash and rapidly expanding collection of tournament hardware, though. More on that later. Although Lonis had the most chances at the big bounty prizes, the top check for $400,000 went to 2022 WSOP main event champion Espen Jorstad, who finished 12th for $45,500 but made the most of his single draw.

Barak Wisbrod finished runner-up, banking $422,000 and adding another $330,000 in bounties. The Israeli pro made four final tables overall, cashing for a total of nearly $1.3 million.

Kiat Lee finished in second place in his first-ever Triton Poker event in Cyprus in 2022. After four more runner-up finishes, Lee finally found the winner’s circle with his 33rd cash on the tour. That win came in the final event of the 2025 Triton Poker Jeju festival in March of 2025.

It only took five more cashes for Lee to nab his second title on the tour, taking down the $30,000 turbo no-limit event, navigating his way through a field of 71 entries for the top prize of $586,000 in the fast-paced single-day event.

Lee would later finish third in the no-limit hold’em main event of this stop for a career-high $1.8 million payday.

Seth Davies had 36 cashes, 16 final tables, and more than $8.5 million in prior earnings in Triton tournaments. The one accomplishment on the tour that had eluded the 36-year-old American poker pro, however, was a title.

But finally, more than six years removed from his first cash at the 2019 Triton Jeju stop, Davies broke through to hoist his first trident trophy. He bested the field of 143 entries in the $50,000 no-limit event, earning $1,490,741 and the hardware.

Incredibly, this would not end up being the largest payday of the festival for Davies. A few days after this win, he finished second in the $200,000 Triton Invitational to secure a career-best payday of $4,190,000 to surpass his previous high score of $3,206,000 earned in last year’s Super High Roller Bowl. The former baseball standout now has $40 million in career tournament earnings, with $13.6 million of that coming since just last August.

Aleksa Pavicevic Banks $6.2 Million

Given that Davies earned more than $4 million as the runner-up, one can imagine just how big the $200,000 buy-in invitational event was this year. The nosebleed-stakes tournament attracted a record turnout of 133 entries, building a staggering $26.6 million prize pool and featured an interesting format that required each pro to be invited by a corresponding amateur player, with the field initially split in two along that dividing line for day 1.

The largest share of that money was ultimately awarded to Aleksa Pavicevic. The 29-year-old Montenegrin real estate and hospitality professional outlasted a field of poker’s top professionals and experienced high-rolling amateurs to capture the title and a massive $6,180,000.

This was Pavicevic’s first live tournament title and his largest poker payday by leaps and bounds. Before this, his top recorded cash was a $17,000 score for an 871st-place showing in the 2019 WSOP main event. Now, he is a Triton champion.

Pavicevic survived a brutal preflop cooler, cracking the aces of Javid Ismayilov with kings to take a massive lead into heads-up play with Davies. Despite a game showing from Davies, Pavicevic was eventually able to close out the win and hoist the trophy.

Jesse Lonis Makes It A Double

Jesse Lonis cannot be stopped this spring. The 29-year-old American poker pro has cashed for more than $7.3 million across 14 in-the-money finishes since the start of March, including a dozen final-table finishes and five titles. The Little Falls, New York native was particularly hot during his extended European trip this May, which yielded more than $6.3 million in cashes alone.

The largest triumph saw Lonis defeat a field of 180 entries in the $100,000 no-limit hold’em main event to capture his third Triton title. The victory came with a new career-high score of $3,446,298 for the current Las Vegas resident, growing his lifetime earnings to more than $22.1 million.

“It’s emotional, I’m trying to hold the tears back,” Lonis told Triton staff after closing out the momentous victory. “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.”

Lonis ended up cashing in five of the 15 events offered, with those scores accounting for $5.6 million of his $8.4 million in total Triton earnings. Prior to his huge run in Montenegro, Lonis made three final tables and won one title at the EPT Monte Carlo series. Before that, he took down two titles and made five more final tables in events around Las Vegas in March and April.

Lonis squared off heads-up against the reigning champion of this event in Mikalai Vaskaboinikau. The Belarusian walked away with more than $2.9 million after a valiant run at a title defense after taking down the $125,000 main event at this stop in 2024 for more than $4.7 million. Vaskaboinikau  also had a $1.5 million score last November at Triton Monte Carlo.

More Big Winners

Interspersed amongst a trio of six-figure buy-ins at the business-end of the no-limit hold’em segment of the schedule were a pair of $50,000 buy-in offerings. The first was won by Lithuania’s Dominykas Mikolaitis, who outlasted a field of 100 entries to earn $1,258,000 and his first trident trophy.

The second of this pair of $50,000 events saw Austria’s Matthias Eibinger probe why he just might be the end boss of high-stakes turbo poker tournaments. The 32-year-old poker pro captured his fourth career Triton title by topping the field of 51 entries in the turbo bounty quattro to earn $531,000 along with $360,000 in bounty payouts.

Three of Eibinger’s four Triton triumphs have now come in the fast-paced format, having also taken down a pair of turbo events in the spring and fall Cyprus stops back in 2022. This victory made Eibinger just the ninth player in the tour’s history to have won four or more titles.

His lone non-turbo victory saw him take down the 2023 Triton Monte Carlo $125,000 main event for nearly $3.5 million. Eibinger also finished fifth in the $150,000 no-limit event to add $1,195,000 to his tally. He now boasts career earnings in excess of $26 million.

Make It A Dozen For Triton Titles King

That $150,000 drew a field of 108 entries to create a $16,200,000 prize pool. In the end, the champion was none other than Jason Koon, the player who already held the record for the most titles in Triton history.

The 39-year-old American poker pro was also awarded $3,393,656, the second-largest score of his illustrious career, along with his record-extending 11th trophy. That gave him a six-win lead over the nearest competition, which is a four-way tie between five-time Triton champions Phil Ivey, Mikita Badziakouski, Bryn Kenney, and Danny Tang.

“I’m just at a point in my life now where I’m very comfortable in myself,” said Koon. “I have an incredible life outside poker, and what that allows me to do is sit down and feel free and play my best. At this final table, I think I did a good job of executing and I played to the best of my abilities.”

This win was made all the more special for Koon given that the final heads-up match for the title pitted him against his longtime friend, Ben Tollerene.

“I got heads up with my best pal and mentor, my inspiration to be standing here. About 12 years ago, whenever I first saw an elite poker player, what it took for them to be great, it was through Ben,” said Koon. “Honestly, I never thought at that time I would have the ability to be standing here.”

While Koon is running away with the Triton title race, it had been a while since his last victory on tour. His tenth win came all the way back in November of 2023, when he took down a $25,000 pot-limit Omaha event in Monte Carlo. It was his sixth title of that year.

While he had to wait nearly two years between his 10th and 11th wins, it was only a matter of a few days until he grew his total to a dozen. Just three days after his big no-limit win, Koon took down the $30,000 pot-limit Omaha turbo bounty for a $305,176 first-place prize and an additional $80,000 in bounty payouts.

As a result, he further cemented his hold on second place on the Triton all-time earnings list, with $33,600,784 accrued across 62 cashes. Only Bryn Kenney, with $48,218,135, has more.

Following an ICM chop heads-up, Koon defeated Seth Davies heads-up to secure the title, bringing Davies’ similarly successful performance in Montenegro to a close. He cashed four times during the festival for more than $6 million in total earnings, with one win and two runner-up performances.

Ben Tollerene Headlines PLO Winners

Koon’s 12th win came on the final day event, playing out alongside the final table of the $100,000 pot-limit Omaha main event. That tournament was won by Koon’s heads-up opponent from the $150,000 event, Ben Tollerene. This victory saw him join the three-time Triton winner’s club in style, topping a field of 93 entries to secure the hardware and the massive $2,390,000 first-place prize.

The score broke the record for the largest top payout for a PLO tournament, outstripping the $2,340,000 Sergio Martinez Gonzalez earned as the champion of this same event at the Triton Jeju stop earlier this year.

Tollerene had five cashes during this festival, with three final-table showings. With this latest multi-million-dollar windfall factored in, the 38-year-old American poker pro now boasts over $29 million in lifetime tournament earnings, with more than $6.2 million of that won during this stop in Montenegro.

In the end, Tollerene faced off against a fellow high-stakes online player in Hungary’s Laszlo Bujtas. Tollerene came out on top in the battle of ‘ben86’ and ‘omaha4rollz,’ while Bujtas picked up a career-best live score of $1,645,000 as the runner-up.

Artur Martirosian took third place for $1,080,000. The two-time Triton winner had quite the festival despite not coming away with a title. He cashed for nearly $2.7 million across nine in-the-money finishes, including two podium showings.

Daniel Dvoress took fifth for $702,000, and also accumulated over $2 million during his run in Montenegro, cashing seven times including a runner-up showing in the kickoff event won by Liu.

The $25,000 six-max PLO event was won by Thailand’s Punnat Punsri, who overcame a field of 84 entries to lock up his fourth Triton title and the top prize of $550,000. The 32-year-old poker pro from Bangkok now boasts more than $24.5 million in career tournament earnings, giving him a massive $20 million lead over second-ranked Kannapong Thanarattrakul on the Thai all-time money list.

Punsri became the 10th player to have won four or more titles on this prestigious high-stakes tour. This was his first in PLO, with his previous victories being in the 2022 Triton Cyprus $100,000 main event, the 2024 Triton Jeju $50,000 no-limit, and the 2025 Triton Jeju $125,000 no-limit. More than 80% of his career earnings have come from his 28 in-the-money finishes at Triton stops.

British PLO specialist Richard Gryko captured the penultimate title of the series, outlasting a field of 62 entries in the $50,000 six-max affair for his first trident and $884,000. This was the largest live tournament score yet for the World Series of Poker bracelet winner, who now has more than $3.9 million in recorded scores to his name.

Martin Dam finished as the runner-up, just a few days after achieving the same finishing spot in the $25,000 version of the same event that was won by Punsri. The two scores saw the Danish player take home more than $1 million in combined earnings.

With the completion of this stop in Montenegro, Triton heads on a summer hiatus before returning in the fall in Jeju.

• Photos by Triton Poker