Champion Ang Yang Yi

The first trophy of the Triton ONE festival in North Cyprus is now in the hands of Ang Yang Yi, from Malaysia, after he completed victory this afternoon in the exclusive QQPK Challenge event. Ang hoisted an exclusive golden ornament in the shape of the QQPK logo, but he will now hope to turn the rest of his prize into even more lavish riches as the Triton ONE festival plays out this week.

He won't need to look very far to realize just how much potential this brings him. Ang Yang Yi is the brother of Austin Ang, who won nearly $1m at Triton ONE in Jeju in March, along with his first major title.

The QQPK Challenge is the tournament that began online, at the virtual tables of QQPK, the Triton ONE title partner, before shifting to the Merit Resort in North Cyprus for its spectacular finale. All of the final nine, from a starting field of 99 entries, had therefore already locked up a 10-day stay in this luxurious resort as part of their prize, and now had a chance to add some Triton ONE buy-ins to their rewards as well.

The winner would earn buy-ins to the $8K Triton ONE Main Event, plus the $3K QQPK Genesis. The remaining players also won tournament buy-ins, giving them a chance to turn this trip to North Cyprus into one of the massive prizes on offer across the festival.

The initial buy-in was only $140, so these were lavish rewards for a meagre initial outlay.

The winning moment for Ang Yang Yi

The stacks were short and the action frantic, but Ang showed all the composure necessary in the key spots to close it out ahead of Garik Ambardanian at the end.

TOURNAMENT ACTION

These QQPK Challenge players became the first to sample life at the spectacular new Triton stage, though a few of them knew they would need to get lucky to make their stay last more than just a few minutes. After the online phase of play, stacks were relatively short, with the last nine lining up as follows:

Dragan Ignjatovski - 193,000 (39 BBs)

Timur Kurbanov - 174,000 (35 BBs)

Ang Yang Yi - 149,000 (30 BBs)

Garik Ambardanian - 132,000 (26 BBs)

Arman Bezhanian - 126,000 (25 BBs)

Toby Chandler - 62,000 (12 BBs)

Wang Dapeng - 59,000 (12 BBs)

Dmitrii Zhuravlev - 49,000 (10 BBs)

Cheung Ka Ho - 46,000 (9 BBs)

QQPK Challenge final table players (clockwise from back left): Dragan Ignjatovski, Dmitrii Zhuravlev, Ang Yang Yi, Wang Dapeng, Arman Bezhanian, Garik Ambardantan, Cheung Ka Ho, Timur Kurbanov, Toby Chandler

Compared with some of his table-mates, Wang Dapeng was one of the more experienced players here, having sampled life at Triton ONE in Jeju earlier this year. But he was also the first player to run a decent hand into an even better hand, departing first when his KQ perished to Arman Bezhanian's A. They got it all in pre-flop, and Wang couldn't hit. He wins a $1,500 buy-in to a Triton ONE Main Event qualifier and will hope for better luck there.

Wang Dapeng was first out from the live

Both Toby Chandler and Dragan Ignjatovski ended up with the same prize after becoming the next two players to perish. For Chandler, he will have known his 12 blinds left him with a tall order coming into the final, and his loss with AQ running into Timur Kurbanov's A was seemingly unavoidable.

Toby Chandler couldn't spin up a short stack

However, for Ignjatovski, his elimination in seventh must have hurt. He had been the chip leader coming into today's final, before everything went wrong. He lost a big pot on the third hand of the day when his pocket queens went down to Garik Ambardanian's AJ, doubling up Ambardanian. And though Ignjatovski survived and doubled the first time he was under threat, he ultimately couldn't get pocket sixes to beat Timur Kurbanov's pocket jacks. Ignjatovski had to settle for that seventh place.

A disappointing end for the chip leader Dragan Ignjatovski

There was now a pay jump, with the next two players out earning a buy-in to the $3K QQPK Genesis event. And the fast structure meant we didn't need to wait to long to discover their identities. First Cheung Ka Ho and then Dmitrii Zhuravlev hit the rail.

Cheung's day had started well with a double through Ambardanian. But he lots heaps back to Ang Yang Yi soon after and was forced to nurse a short stack from there. His final scraps went to Zhuravlev, another player who rode quite the roller-coaster before eventually busting in fifth.

Cheung Ka Ho's day had started well, but he tumbled out

Zhuravlev started the day with only 10 blinds, but stuck around as all the others began falling. He was then in the right place to pick up Cheung's final chips, but the hand was actually a three-way affair, in which Zhuravlev also doubled through Timur Kurbanov. However, he still didn't really have enough chips to mount a challenge, and ultimately perished with QJ to Armin Bezhanian's .

Dmitrii Zhuravlev, a poker TV producer, on the other side of the camera

There was now a very interesting table dynamic, not only because the stacks were exceptionally short — a 10 big blind average — but also because of the prize structure and some personal relationships among the final four.

Regarding the prizes: all four players had now locked up a buy-in to the $3K QQPK Genesis event, but only the winner would also get an $8K buy-in to the Triton ONE Main Event. The other three would have to go through the qualifiers with their $1,500 qualifier buy-in.

The other interesting factor was that Arman Bezhanian and Garik Ambardanian were cousins, two members of a sprawling poker-playing family that also included the Triton Super High Roller Series champion Aren Bezhanian, plus Garik's brother Ara Ambardanian, who is also playing Triton ONE in Cyprus this week.

They presumably knew one another's games, having grown up together. But there was precious little room for subtlety now, with the blinds gobbling up the stacks, in what was essentially now a winner-take-all affair.

Bezhanian had been on the up after busting Kurbanov. But as can so often be the case, he now took a hasty nosedive. He lost a small but meaningful pot to his cousin, which made his stack slightly smaller than Ang's. And that became significant when the pair went at one another, flipping for the chip lead.

Ang's pocket threes were up against Bezhanian's A8 when Bezhanian shoved the button. Ang called and held, taking a big three-handed chip lead.

Arman Bezhanian was the first of the cousins to leave

The last three traded blows as best they could for a few hands, but it was now just a case of dodging bullets where they could and hoping for the best. Ang still had the momentum, however, and now also sent Kurbanov packing in third.

Kurbanov had only three big blinds left and two of them were in the middle whether he liked it or not. Ang found only 102 in the small blind but raised the extra, and Kurbanov called for his last with a pretty good hand: A. However, like Doyle Brunson before him, Ang made the most of his 10-high. Two twos on flop and river sealed the deal. Kurbanov was out.

Timur Kurbanov couldn't beat the Doyle Brun

The last two players had 28 blinds between them. Ang had the lead with 17 blinds to 11, and was able to grind Ambardanian down to only around seven before the first pot that might have ended it occurred. Ambardanian shoved the small blind with 43 and was in terrible shape when Ang called with . But the poker gods decreed that we would see more poker: there was a four on the flop and Ambardanian doubled to survive.

It was a typically swingy heads-up battle

Ang pushed back into the lead, but Ambardanian doubled again with K10 beating K. All of a sudden, the stacks were dead even and worth 10 big blinds each. Ambardanian won a small pot to nose ahead, but then there was another big one: Ang's beat Ambardanian's to earn him all but four of the blinds in play.

Ambardanian still wasn't done, however. He doubled back instantly, then won another small one. But it couldn't last forever. The final hand came about when Ang had 109 and Ambardanian had K. Ambardanian shoved from the small blind and Ang picked him off, then rivered a decisive 10.

Garik Ambardanian finished one shy of the top prize

It had been a thrilling, swingy, unpredictable affair. But after starting the journey on his computer at home, Ang was now the champion of the QQPK Challenge, and has the buy-in in his pocket with which he'll hope to match his brother Austin as a Triton ONE champion.

PRIZES

1st - Ang Yang Yi (Malaysia)

$8,000 Main Event + $3,000 QQPK Genesis buy-ins

2nd-4th - Garik Ambardanian (Russia), Timur Kurbanov (Russia), Arman Bezhanian (Russia)

$3,000 QQPK Genesis + $1,500 Main Event qualifier buy-ins

5th-6th - Dmitrii Zhuravlev (Russia), Cheung Ka Ho (Hong Kong)

$3,000 QQPK Genesis buy-in

7th-9th - Dragan Ignjatovski (Macedonia), Toby Chandler (UK), Wang Dapeng (China)

$1,500 Main Event qualifier buy-in