Jesse Lonis Seizes Player Of The Year Lead With Triton Mystery Bounty Victory

Jesse Lonis’s very first cash on the poker tournament circuit was recorded in the summer of 2018. The professional player from Little Falls, New York has come a long way since making that first final-table run in a $210 buy-in.

Less than seven years later, Lonis has truly proven to be one of the top players on the high-stakes circuit, regularly topping elite fields to add to his rapidly expanding trophy collection. 2025 has been a particularly big year so far for Lonis, with four titles and 12 final-table finishes to-date.

The latest triumph saw Lonis emerge victorious in the $40,000 no-limit hold’em mystery bounty event at this year’s Triton Poker Montenegro festival. He outlasted 129 entries to secure the title and the top payout of $619,000. Lonis  also secured 12 pulls from the mystery bounty pool, which was by far the most of any player in the tournament. Each pull was worth at least $40,000, which meant he was guaranteed to add no less than $480,000 to his overall haul. He ended up with $800,000 in bounty payouts when the bounty draw was conducted the day after the tournament finished.

“I tend to sometimes make too loose of a call, so when I do it in these at least I get rewarded,” Lonis told Triton commentator Ali Nejad after the win. “It definitely helps me knowing that I can keep pushing the pedal and going for bounty after bounty. It kind of fits my style.”

This was the second Triton title of Lonis’ career. The two-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner now sports nearly $17.5 million in lifetime cashes, with more than $3.6 million of that coming from 10 in-the-money finishes on this high-stakes tour.

In addition to the hardware and the money, Lonis also scored 924 Card Player Player of the Year points for this win. Earlier this year he took down a $10,500 buy-in at the Wynn Millions, a $15,100 buy-in at the PokerGO Tour Pot-Limit Omaha Series, and a €30,000 high roller at the European Poker Tour Monte Carlo stop. All told, he has accumulated 4,550 POY points across his dozen qualified final-table showings, enough to see him surge into the outright lead in the 2025 standings presented by Coin Poker. He currently sits just 169 points ahead of second-ranked Alex Foxen, who won event no. 2 at this festival just a couple of days earlier.

The bubble burst with three players being eliminated simultaneously, which resulted in the first min-cash being chopped three ways by Brian Kim, Chris Brewer, and Murly Manokharan. Plenty of big names fell between that point and the final table, with the likes of Kiat Lee (16th), 10-time Triton winner Jason Koon (14th), two-time bracelet winner Artur Martirosian (13th), 2022 WSOP main event champion Espen Jorstad (12th), and Super High Roller Bowl winner Christoph Vogelsang (10th) all earning a share of the $5,160,000 total prize pool.

Final table set for Event #5 $40K NLH Mystery Bounty at Triton Poker SHRS Montenegro 2025.

Seven players remain with their eyes on the $619,000 top prize, with mystery bounties still in play and each envelope worth at least $40,000.@JesseLonis, Barak Wisbrod, Nick Petrangelo,… pic.twitter.com/LWCEfttYxj

— Triton Poker (@tritonpoker) May 17, 2025

Lonis had climbed to the top of the leaderboard heading into the official seven-handed final table. Jamil Wakil, who recently made headlines after being on the losing end of a controversial hand at the EPT Monte Carlo main event final table, was the first to fall. Wakil ran pocket nines into the pocket tens of two-time bracelet winner Nick Petrangelo to finish seventh for $108,000.

Daniel Dvoress was at his second final-table of the festival, having been the runner-up in the kickoff event won by Triton’s first-ever female champion, Xuan Liu. The Canadian two-time bracelet winner fell just a bit short of earning his third trident trophy, with his A-Q suited unable to hold against the A-5 of Petrangelo. Dvoress settled for $145,000 as the sixth-place finisher, putting his career earnings at nearly $44.8 million.

Dominykas Mikolaitis (5th – $184,000) lost a race with pocket tens against the Q-J of Lonis to hand the eventual champion his first knockout at the final table. Five-time Triton winner Danny Tang soon followed Mikolaitis to the rail, with his KJ unable to come from behind against the A10 of Lonis. Tang earned $229,000 as the fourth-place finisher, growing his lifetime haul to nearly $31.2 million in the process.

Danny Tang finishes 4th in Event #5: $40K NLH Mystery Bounty.

A composed performance in a volatile format, but the run ends just shy of the podium.#TritonPoker #TritonMontenegro2025 #TritonLive pic.twitter.com/IinUZ8ZhyK

— Triton Poker (@tritonpoker) May 17, 2025

Petrangelo got the last of his chips in with KJ leading the J5 of Lonis, but the 7658Q runout gave Lonis a winning pair of fives and the pot. Petrangelo took home $278,000 for his podium showing.

Heads-up action kicked off with Lonis holding 16,800,000 to Barak Wisbrod’s 9,000,000. The bracelet winner from Israel was at his third final table of the festival, having placed fifth in event no. 2 and seventh in event no. 3. Early in the match, both players flopped trip nines with Lonis holding the higher kicker. Wisbrod picked up a backdoor flush draw on the turn, though, which came in on the river. Lonis shoved his trips on the end and was quickly called, giving a 4:1 chip lead to Wisbrod.

Lonis fell even further behind before getting his last six big blinds in with Q-J and finding a double through Wisbrod’ 10-5 suited. He had chipped up a bit more ahead of the next big clash, which was a flip with AQ facing 44. The board kept Wisbrod ahead through the turn, but an ace on the river gave Lonis the huge double into the lead.

Lonis had nearly a 3:1 advantage by the time the final hand arose. Wisbrod shoved for 11 big blinds on the button with J10. Lonis called with A9 and held through a K53A3 runout to bring the event to a close. Wisbrod earned a new career-best score of $422,000 as the runner-up.

Final Table Results

Photo credits: Triton Poker.