The final day of the $40,000 Mystery Bounty at Triton in Montenegro sees 28 players battling for 17 prize spots.
The stack depth is impressive. Despite the turbocharged structure of Triton tournaments, the constant bounty rounds allow the luckiest players to accumulate chips. Leonard Maue leads with 113BB. Fedor Holz has 73BB.
The largest possible bounty is $400,000, but all bounties will be drawn after the tournament ends, so professionals can use average values when calculating pot odds. There are two bounties for $200,000, three for $100,000, six for $80,000, and 16 minimums of $40,000. Another bounty awards the base prize of $40,000 and allows you to draw a second envelope.
In the very first hand shown on the stream, Fedor Holz limps into a pot and flops a straight against the two players in the blinds who hit the board. One of them, Javid Ismailov, decides to lead with top pair. Holz responds with a raise to 140,000. We're including the screenshot for the stylish Eelis Pärssinen, who we'll soon have to say goodbye with.
Finn folds, Javid calls, and catches a red eight on the turn. Javid checks trips, Fedor bets 300,000 (75% of the pot). Javid calls.
The river is a , which doesn't complete the flush draw. The pot is a million, and Javid has 620,000 behind. Check, all-in, call, and Holz wins the huge pot with the knockout.
Preflop, everyone limps constantly and the bounty factor plays a role. Limped multi-way pots, where no one is confident in their hand, sometimes end paradoxically.
Like this: Triton newcomer Mateo Klapstien bets into four opponents with a hand that plays the board.
Aleks Ponakovs has the strongest hand, but there's no call with it either. Everyone folds, and the brave Mateo takes the pot.
A friendly, all-hands limp ends when Pärssinen is dealt jacks. Holz limps for 20,000, Pärssinen raises to 105,000. Everyone folds in horror, but Fedor shoves all-in. The Finn calls.
"I already tried it with jacks yesterday. Maybe I'll do better today?" says Eelis.
"I don't think so," Fedor calmly replies, and the dealer reveals the flop.
The turn and river change nothing; Fedor continues to hover above the battlefield.
Paulius Vaitiekūnas limps kings from the hijack.
Clapstine calls with sixes. Ding Biao goes all-in for 320,000 with AJo. Fedor, in the big blind, looks at QTo and decides to gamble – three-bet 1,125,000. Vaitiekūnas calls! And Clapstine, without a moment's hesitation, joins in the fun: his stack is bigger than Biao's and Vaitiekūnas's, and he can compete for two bounties!
In the end, Fedor catches the lady and knocks out Klapstein, and Vaitiekunas takes the bounty for Biao.
The Lithuanian player is not allowed to enjoy his newly acquired stack.
He folds to Holtz's all-in.
“I don’t know what you had, but I would have folded too,” Aleks Ponakovs approves.
"That's right. The last time I bluffed was in 2025," Fedor agrees.
– “- Alexey suggests.
Christoph Vogelsang and Alex Theologis are brought to the table.
At another table, two seats from the money, Isaac Haxton busts in a preflop all-in .
Perhaps it is the bubble factor is why no one pushes over Theologis' raise, and four players go to see the flop.
Vaitiekunas, with a clear conscience, folds nines to the Greek's continuation bet. Vogelsang chooses to call. And Holz, since he's closing the action and potentially can take two bounties, also calls.
“I wish I could be Fedor Holz for a while,” one of the commentators says upon seeing the turn.
After some thought, Theologis bets 270,000. Vogelsang, in his classic suit (dark glasses, hood, visor), methodically folds. Fedor, out of position, ponders how best to take chips from his opponent and raises to a million.
Theologis is in no hurry to call. The spot doesn't look like a bluff.
“Given the tournament format, Fedor’s range has a lot more hands with fours than usual, so a fold is generally quite possible,” says commentator and rather tight player Alex Livingston, sharing his age-old wisdom.
After struggling for a couple of minutes, Theologis, with a grimace of disgust, throws away his aces!
"World-class fold!" Henry Kilbane admires.
– The best fold of the series?
– I can’t remember anything like this for the whole year!
The abuse of Theologis continues in the next hand.
In a tournament where everyone's constantly limping, suddenly there's a raise from early position! Maybe I should call, see the flop, and dodge another bullet? But the Greek isn't omnipotent and goes all-in. And in the big blind, Fedor Holz is considering whether to go for the bounty...
Having calculated everything, Fedor goes all-in with . Kiat Lee also calls.
The retiree, then un-retiree, then retiree, is unstoppable.
"He's got an average stack in the top four!" the commentator says, a little stunned.
Aleks Ponakovs open-limped from the hijack, picking up three other players. Alex continuation-bet on the flop, but he was the only one who completely missed!
Everybody calls!
“If Aleks Ponakovs makes a big bet now, he will win... but I can’t imagine how he can bet into three people here,” says the commentator.
Ponakovs bets 240,000. Everyone folds.
Ponakovs limps from first position with . Holz enters on the button and two players are in the blinds.
On the flop, everyone checks to Holz, who makes a small bet of 20% of the pot. The blinds fold, but Alexey quickly check-raises!
Fedor calls. The turn comes a .
Aleks Ponakovs checks. Fedor checks after him.
River is an . Aleks puts 180,000 into a 510,000 pot and gets paid instantly.
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Simao limps 75s in first position. Holz, in second position, calls with K8o—in this mystery bounty, you can't miss a single chance to get into the pot when you have the chip lead!
Vogelsang, in the cutoff, looks at ATs and nearly goes all-in for 16 big blinds, leaving himself with one chip. This move is enough to flush everyone except Holz, who is always ready to go all-in.
Jean-Noël Thorel raises to 60,000 with from the cutoff. Simão, in the small blind, no doubt upset that he wasn't allowed to see the flop with 75s, three-bet to 210,000 with . Thorel calls.
On the flop, Simao makes a continuation bet.
Torell missed the flop, the stacks aren't very deep either, but how can you not float? He makes the call!
Perhaps he sensed that a would be dealt on the turn?
Torell calls the second barrel.
River – . Simao went all-in with his opponent, 635,000 into a 1,260,000 pot, and was left with 7 blinds. The French senior didn't call quickly, but the commentators never doubted him for a second.
Ponakovs limps in from first position. Simao shoves 210,000 with on the button. Holz isolates him in the small blind with and three-bets 1,000,000.
Despite a on the flop, Aleks Ponakovs manages to hold on.
Simao receives $45,500 for 11th place, but it is he who will later receive the most expensive bounty – $400,000.
Mikhail Soltanov goes all-in with kings.
Holz on the button calls with A4o, Ponakovs in the BB calls with Q9o. Soltanov triples.
New level. Ponakovs limps to 40,000 with 98s in the cutoff, Thorel raises to 150,000 with QTs on the button. Call.
On the flop ( ) Aleks Ponakovs has top pair, but his opponent has a flush draw with two overcards. Alex is under-carded, so he checks and calls a third of the pot.
The turn was a . Top pair is already in good shape, and Alex leads 250,000 into a pot of 800,000. Thorel calls.
The river brings a flush. Aleks checks. Thorel makes a very small bet, 250,000.
Aleks Ponakovs's fold delights the commentators.
Aleks continues to play like a clairvoyant.
He raised preflop against Petragelo's limp, both checked the flop, and Ponakovs paid half the pot on the turn. On the river, Petragelo made a decent bet, but it was simply impossible to squeeze Alex's hand out!
Uncle Fedor sets off for his seventh bounty.
After waiting for the finishing turn, Orpen sends his chips to the poker pensioner and solidifies the final table.
Oddly enough, Holz isn't even the chip leader!
Soltanov raises with KQs, gets all-in from the short stack and calls from Ponakovs.
Mikhail calls. Kevin Rabichow (he and Nanonoko replaced the previous commentary team at the final table) enthusiastically approves of the call – the hand, he says, is good enough to push, but since there's no fold equity, he might as well catch the flop.
Two hearts are dealt on the flop. Aleks Ponakovs forces the Russian player all-in.
The turn was an , the river a blank. SirWatts tripled, and Mikhail Soltanov, the favorite in a triple-all-in, exited the tournament in 7th place.
After losing a couple of tough hands, Thorel raises from under the gun with T5o. Maue calls on the button with KQo. The chip leader survives a continuation bet on the low flop. The turn is another low card. Thorel checks with 10-high, and Maue makes a perfect float and makes a small bet.
“All-in,” says Thorel with his two-sided card, and Maué has nothing to say in response.
Jean-Noel tries to build on his success and squeeze Petragelo and Holtz.
Petrangelo goes all-in, and Holz folds in agony. The Jacks win, and Thorell is eliminated in 6th place.
Cooler from Poniakov and Watson:
With no one stepping up, Michael Watson exits the table in 5th place. He won $164,000 – and would pocket another $300,000 in bounty envelopes the next day.
Aleks Ponakovs seizes the lead and puts on a very convincing run, winning a ton of pots with and without cards, with unintuitive squeezes and daring barrels. He's taking full advantage of the fact that no one is interested in risking their stacks against him. He's gained momentum, and it seems no one can stand a chance against him.
And then he makes an slight mistake – he doesn’t bluff with 72o on the river against Fedor Holz.
A check like that is a blatant insult to the poker god!
Holz and Ponakovs, clash like warriors.
Fedor calls and leads on turn repeat...
Alex responds with a raise!
Holz, of course, calls.
Fedor checks. Alex immediately checks back—he continues to play the tournament like an X-ray machine, scanning his opponents' cards, but the turn and river could still pose difficult challenges.
Holz reclaims the lead.
Then he flops trips in two hands in a row, and while he can hardly get anything against Aleks Ponakovs, Maué hits top pair and is forced to pay something.
Holz and Maue are in. AQo versus A8s, Holz is under, but the pot is split evenly. For variety.
And then there's another showdown, in which Holz is older.
River is a jack, Maue is out, and the magnificent three remains.
Petrangelo's short stack quickly doubles when his opponent decides to barrel 72o on all streets except the flop.
"What? He's folding sixes in the small blind?" Nanonoko is shocked. "Kevin, did you see that? Is that even normal?"
– Well, that's a pretty tight fold. The stacks are deep enough to be able to call... It's a bit odd.
– But it's good for the opponents.
Nick was just waiting for a better spot.
To leave with a proud step and with your head held high.
Heads-up, Holz has 145BB, Ponakovs has 32BB. They split the prizes, but the game will last a long time, almost two hours. Let's highlight just a couple of key moments.
The match starts off completely in Ponakovs's favor; he simply wins every hand. Sometimes he only needs one card to win.
After this pot, he becomes the leader.
And then the first hand on the stream is played, in which one of the opponents' cards is intentionally hidden.
Holz raises to 650,000 (blinds 150/300/300) with an unknown hand, Alex defends .
Flop (1,600,000):
Alex checks. Fedor bets 550,000. Alex calls.
Turn (2,700,000):
Alex checks. Fedor overbets to 3,000,000. Alex calls.
River:
Aleks thinks for a long time and makes a call.
But he doesn't clock Holtz's hand.
Aleks Ponakovs has four blinds left.
In the next hand, he's dealt aces and doubles up against 74o. Two more doubles, a couple of working hands, a couple of nice bluffs—the stacks are almost even! Another cooler—and Ponakovs is back in the lead!
Here, Alexey called the 3-bet, Fedor didn’t hit the flop, and then gave up on the turn.
With a 6.3 million stack and blinds at 250/500/500, Fedor limps with AJs and catches his opponent all-in with 84s. He doubles up, and now has 28 big blinds against 16 big blinds.
Next hand. Alexey limps. , Fedor checks .
Flop (1,500,000):
Fedor checks. Alex bets 1,000,000. Call.
Thorn (3,500,000):
Fedor checks. Alex lowers the pot and bets 850,000. He calls.
River:
Fedor sadly shuffles his chips and shakes his head. Kevin Rabichow literally panics at the sight of his suffering:
Finally, sadly throwing up his hands, Fedor puts the stack of chips over the line.
“You won,” reassures Aleks Ponakovs.
Alexey's prize after the deal is $407,189. The bounty will bring him another $160,000.
Well, Fedor Holz gets $528,811 for first place, and 11 bounties bring the prize to seven figures – an additional $680,000!