Champion Jesse Lonis!

The $40K Mystery Bounty tournament at the Triton Poker Super High Roller Series stop in Montenegro today lived up to its billing as the most chaotic, thrilling and unpredictable event on the 15-tournament schedule. It was only fitting that the player at the centre of most of the carnage duly bagged the win.

More than anyone, Jesse Lonis seemed to relish this precise format, delighted to find an additional excuse to get his chips in the middle. That enticement came in the form of the minimum $40,000 he received for every knockout, the total for which he only discovered at the mystery bounty ceremony on the following night.

Lonis had 12 bounties, representing 11 knockouts plus his own bounty token that nobody else could win. After he pulled the envelopes he added a further $800,000 to the $619,000 he took from the main prize pool, earning a total haul of $1.419 million.

Of course, he also took the Triton Poker tournament trophy, the second of his career.

Lonis joked with Ali Nejad as he collected his trophy that he enjoys taking a slightly more high variance line than others, which can work wonders in the bounty format.

"I tend to sometimes make too loose of a call, so when I do it in these at least I get rewarded," Lonis said, having completed the victory over a 129-entry field. "It definitely helps me knowing that I can keep pushing the pedal and going for bounty after bounty. It kind of fits my style."

Jesse Lonis conjured a famous win

Lonis won the most dramatic hand of the event when there were still 17 players involved, knocking out three opponents on a single hand. Lonis rivered a flush with Q5 and eliminated Poseidon Ho, Kiat Lee and Maksim Shornikau in one fell swoop.

"If I don't make that call then everything is completely different," Lonis said. "I'm just happy that I pulled the trigger on that one, for sure."

He continued to describe a champion's mindset, that helped him overcome a dry trip to Jeju and return to the Triton Poker Series with confidence still high.

"Everyone that knows me knows I never get really down on myself," Lonis said. "I always have the confidence that it's going to turn around as long as I keep doing what I like to do.

"You gotta know that it's a long game and short-term things are going to happen negatively. You just gotta stay level headed, don't get down, just keep your pedal to the metal and get it all back in one tournament!"

His final opponent tonight was Barak Wisbrod, the standout performer of this festival so far. This was Wisbrod's third final table from three consecutive events, and he was one card away from a first Triton title.

However, Wisbrod was powerless to halt Lonis when the topsy turvy heads-up battle turned decisively away from him. Wisbrok had to settle for $422,000 from the main prize pool, and he added another $330,000 from bounties for a $752,000 total.

TOURNAMENT ACTION

Day 1 ended with specifically 25 percent of the field remaining. That was deliberate. It meant Day 2 started with the bounty chips now in play. Every elimination brought with it not just what was left of an opponent's stack, but a pull at the Mystery Bounty ceremony tomorrow.

The early stages of Day 2 were therefore thrilling for spectators, as well as some fortunate players. If you were lucky enough to have short stacks to your left, it was possible to do enormous damage with wanton pre-flop aggression. There were eliminations and double ups left and right as ranges grew startlingly wider.

Nick Petrangelo, chip leader at the end of Day 1, continued to build. Brian Kim knocked out Jonathan Jaffe and then Sirzat Hissou in less than an orbit, before Barak Wisbrod hit a three-outer with a dominated ace to double up through Kim and peg him back.

And it only got more hectic as the bubble edged into view. With 22 players left, three people were knocked out on the same hand, across two tables, and therefore each took a small slice of the scheduled 20th-place money.

This was a super weird one for the tournament organisers to figure out.

Ordinarily, if two players get knocked out on the bubble from the same table, the smaller stack gets the lower place and the bigger stack gets the higher, meaning the bigger stack gets the min-cash. But if two people bust from separate tables, they split the min-cash.

Chris Brewer was one of three players knocked out on the bubble

However, in this instance, two players were on one table -- Murly Manokharan (AK) and Kim (AJ), who lost to Wisbrod's (A8) -- and the third was on another -- Chris Brewer's AJ losing to Jamil Wakil's QQ. That therefore meant a three-way split. Although Manokharan got most unlucky in the sense that his hand was best and got cracked, he was luckiest because he had the shortest stack. He might otherwise have left with nought instead of the $11,166 he got.

It actually meant that Leon Sturm, who lost a big flip to Jason Koon, then surrendered his last crumbs to Dominykas Mikolaitis, was the last player to leave with nothing at all.

Leon Sturm ended up as the last player to bust without a payout

It wasn't even the most dramatic hand of this period. That accolade went to a pot that featured Jesse Lonis as its principal, and sent three players from the same table to the rail in the same pot. Lonis limped with Q5 and then Poseidon Ho jammed his last six blinds with pocket fours. Kiat Lee reshoved with A10 and 17 blinds, and then Maksim Shornikau, with AJ also jammed for 28 blinds.

Lonis obviously knew his hand couldn't be best, but he had a covering stack and had the chance to pick up three bounties. That would be a minimum of $120,000 (and an EV of $240,000) when the envelopes were drawn. And so he called.

Two clubs fell on the flop, a third fell on the river. Lonis flushed three of them out and stacked up a massive pile of chips. He also secured another three bounty pulls.

Poseidon Ho, right, can't believe the run-out for Jesse Lonis

All the chopping and changing meant an enormous shake-up of the chip counts, but when Paul Newey bust in eighth, they eventually settled around a seven-handed final table as follows:

Jesse Lonis - 7,865,000 (98 BBs)

Barak Wisbrod - 5,165,000 (65 BBs)

Nick Petrangelo - 4,890,000 (61 BBs)

Dominykas Mikolaitis - 2,585,000 (32 BBs)

Dan Dvoress - 2,040,000 (26 BBs)

Danny Tang - 1,935,000 (24 BBs)

Jamil Wakil - 1,325,000 (17 BBs)

Triton Montenegro Event 5 final table players (clockwise from back left): Jamil Wakil, Jesse Lonis, Nick Petrangelo, Dominykas Mikolaitis, Barak Wisbrod, Danny Tang, Dan Dvoress

Jamil Wakil was in the poker headlines before this Triton Poker Series stop even began thanks to a controversial hand he featured in at an event in Monte Carlo. But Wakil (who was the innocent party in the controversy) swore he was trying to put those events behind him before arriving in Montenegro, and this second cash of the series certainly helped the healing process.

It was Wakil's third career Triton final, but he couldn't translate it into a first win. He found what looked like a decent spot to get his last 12 blinds in -- four-bet ripping 99 on the button after Nick Petrangelo opened the hijack and Jesse Lonis three-bet the cutoff -- but Petrangelo had pocket tens and snapped him off.

Wakil earned $108,000 from the main prize pool and added $40K form his single bounty pull on the following night.

Jamil Wakil was first out from the seven-handed final

This trip to Montenegro has already been a profitable one for Triton's Canadian contingent, with four representatives at the Event 1 final table, and another two in the deepest stages here. The common denominator was Dan Dvoress, a long-time Triton force, who was following up his runner-up finish in that first tournament with another FT appearance here.

Dvoress, however, is still seeking his third Triton win because he followed his countryman Wakil out the door in sixth. He only had 13 blinds when his elimination hand came about, but it was still a pretty gross situation. After three-bet jamming with AQ from the big blind, he saw Nick Petrangelo's A5 river a straight to bust him.

Dvoress even flopped two hearts to leave Petrangelo drawing very thin. But a full run-out of 2K234 did the job and left Dvoress looking for $145,000. His three bounties translated to another $120,000.

A rueful Dan Dvoress watches a gross run-out

Dominykas Mikolaitis now had the short stack, and he had the misfortune of clashing with the tournament's other form player. Mikolaitis opened pocket tens from the button and Lonis, in the big blind, jammed with QJ. It was another race, but Lonis was flipping very well and saw a jack on the flop.

Mikolaitis couldn't recover and finished in fifth for $184,000. He won $140,000 more from the bounty pull. This was his fifth Triton final, and his first win can't be too far away.

Things were moving quickly. Danny Tang lost a big pot in doubling up Wisbrod (A5 < A10) but immediately doubled back through Lonis when Tang this time had A10. However when ace-ten came out for the third time in an orbit, Lonis had it, specifically A10, and picked off Tang's shove with KJ.

That put Tang on the sidelines in fourth, with $229,000 to soften the blow. Tang also had four bounties, which translated into another $280,000. That gave him $509K total from this event.

Triton Ambassador Danny Tang could get no further than fourth

Petrangelo, Wisbrod and Lonis were therefore the last three left. It seemed like the fulfilment of destiny for each of them, having been the dominant three players for most of the day.

Lonis led, from Wisbrod and then Petrangelo, but they all drew within a handful of blinds of one another after the opening exchanges of three-handed play.

There were still some more outdraws in this deck, however. Petrangelo lost a couple of pots to leave himself third of three again, but he found a good spot to get his chips in again. He picked up KJ and three-bet jammed over Lonis' button open. Lonis called with the dominated J5, but flopped a five.

That stayed best and Petrangelo hit the road. This one was worth $278,000 so far, but he had three envelopes to open at the bounty ceremony. They turned out to be worth another $200K.

Another rough beat accounted for Nick Petrangelo

Lonis now sat down across from Wisbrod, with a lead of 67 blinds to 36. This was pretty deep still, and one double up would switch things entirely. All it would take is for Lonis to lose that magic touch.

As it turned out, that's precisely what happened. On the first significant pot of heads-up play, Lonis seemed all but certain to be setting up a huge cooler to bust Wisbrod. The hands were 910 for Lonis and 97 for Wisbrod. And there were two nines on the flop.

Barak Wisbrod has enjoyed a sensational start to his Montenegro trip

Lonis check raised, and Wisbrod called. The K came on the turn. Lonis did his own betting now, leading out. Wisbrod called. And then the 3 fell on the river, vaulting Wisbrod into the lead.

Lonis was undeterred by seeing the backdoor flush possibilities and jammed with his flopped trips. Wisbrod snapped him off with his rivered flush and suddenly had 67 blinds to Lonis' 19.

The final hand as Jesse Lonis takes it down

In fairly quick succession, Wisbrod had two opportunities to end it. He had 105 against Lonis' QJ all in pre-flop, but Lonis held and doubled his 9 BB stack. Shortly after, Lonis won a race with AQ spiking an ace on the river to beat Wisbrod's pocket fours, after they again got it in pre. That put the stacks level again.

Lonis now put his foot on the gas. He built himself into a two-to-one lead again before they got everything in the middle once more with Lonis' A9 holding against Wisbrod's J10.

That was the end of the road for Wisbrod, but became a new career high for Lonis, whose 10th Triton cash earned a second win. He also made good on a text message he once sent to the Triton Series about five years ago, in which he stated he'd one day make it to the pinnacle of poker and make everyone proud.

Achievement unlocked.

Jesse Lonis made good on his DM-ed promise

There was further drama at the bounty ceremony, when the top prize of $400K lingered among the unopened envelopes right until the very final stages of the draw. It was at this point that Espen Jorstad's designated proxy (Maya from the VIP Liaison team) stepped up to draw Jorstad's solitary bounty.

Boom. There it was. Jorstad finished the tournament in 12th for a $45,500 payout. But he snatched the $400K extra from that one envelope and so finished with a delightful $445,500.

Brian Kim, who also missed out on the final table, nonetheless took $240,000 in bounties. Christoph Vogelsang, who also did not make the final, won $80K from his single bounty pull.

The $400K bounty is revealed