Champion Matthias Eibinger!

Matthias Eibinger's secret is out.

For many years renowned as one of the Triton Poker Series most accomplished NLH experts, Eibinger has been expanding his horizons over recent years as a master of the four-card game as well.

And today in Montenegro, it was the PLO whiz Eibinger who was back once more as the Austrian completed a crushing victory in the $50,000 PLO Mystery Bounty event.

He took $353,000 from the main prize pool and added a further $700,000 in bounties to complete yet another seven-figure tournament score. There seems to be no stopping this irrepressible 33-year-old Austrian star.

"Seven Triton titles, three PLO events, a second place and a fifth place also," Eibinger said aloud at the tournament's conclusion, seemingly disbelieving his own accounting as he ran through his incredible achievements. He quickly added: "This one was a lot of luck, of course."

Under further questioning, Eibinger confessed that this sudden PLO affinity wasn't quite as miraculous as it might seem.

"I played a million hands online of short-stack PLO," Eibinger said. "Some people might not know that, but there's a format called 'All-in or Fold', and I played this in PLO during Covid, two years straight. So I would say that the equities is actually my biggest strength in terms of PLO and from there on I tried to shape a game-plan."

He continued: "Some know it, but many think I'm a complete newcomer."

Eibinger now has three PLO titles

Eibinger's earliest wins on the Triton Poker Series were in the turbo events, where his incredible knowledge of short-stack equities got him started on the live scene. He has quickly become one of the most accomplished performers under the Triton Poker umbrella finding the right skills and adapting perfectly to the various formats — even if that's sometimes more by luck than judgment.

He said: "Mentally yesterday when I registered this I was still tilted to be honest, because I lost a chip lead in the Main Event when there was nine players left. So this was the perfect format to gamble. And right away I gambled it up and I won many pots as well, had a decent stack."

Eibinger was then back into his comfort zone.

"I think I have a pretty good idea about equities," he said. "I know about different hands, when to stack off. This is perfect. In a bounty, it's all about whether you have the equity to call the all-ins, do you need to fold, what's your game plan. And I think I navigated it pretty good, but I need to admit that it's very lucky as well. That's always part of winning a bounty tournament."

Some favorable bounty pulls made it another successful trip for Eibinger

After whiffing the first 10 tournaments here in Montenegro, the late flourish allowed him to look back on another successful trip.

"The series started very rough," he said. "Lifetime, I've had one Triton stop where I had no cashes, and it was about to repeat that in the hold'em section. But in the last one, the $150K, was the saviour. I had a cash of $1 million. PLO Main Event, cashed it. Next PLO event I win it, so I would say it's another pretty good Triton stop for me."

Second for Joao Simao

After securing the trophy from the main part of the tournament, defeating Brazilian pro Joao Simao heads-up, Eibinger brought seven bounty tokens to the bounty draw and duly drew the biggest single prize, of $250K, as well as one envelope worth $150K, two of $75K and three of $50K.

Spain's Cesar Garcia, who finished the tournament in third place, had four bounty pulls and drew envelopes worth $325,000.

Eibinger and Cesar Garcia draw their final bounties simultaneously

But ultimately the tournament was all about Eibinger, who now draws level again with Mike Watson in the list of Triton multiple champions. Their seven wins trail only Jason Koon's 12.

TOURNAMENT ACTION

Having made its Triton Poker debut in Jeju in March, the PLO Mystery Bounty was on the Montenegro schedule for the first time this week, and the hardy PLO contingent duly showed up. There were 47 entries, of which 25 were re-entries, with players making sure they did everything in their powers to remain in the hunt for when the bounties came into play.

That happened at the point only 12 players remained, which was also the end of Day 1. Former Main Event champions Isaac Haxton and Danny Tang were knocked out in 14th and 13th, respectively, to hit that milestone, leaving the lucky 12 to grab some sleep and return with a bounty on their heads.

And when those bounties were in play, it all went nuts. The hand that knocked out Espen Myrmo was especially illustrative of how the bounties affect the dynamic: it was a big four-way all-in on the first hand of the day, with Myrmo the collateral damage in a wild one.

The target was likely Lautaro Guerra's bounty. The Spanish pro had only nine blinds to start the day and was in mid-position. Punsri limped from UTG and Guerra called too. Joao Simao, the big stack at the table, raised, but then Ding Biao called in the small blind. Myrmo called in the big blind, but that only led to Punsri three-betting for almost all his stack.

A huge early hand for Lautaro Guerra

Guerra called for his last chips and Simao folded. But Ding called and Myrmo called, which meant there were two players all in already (Guerra and Myrmo) and two with about a quarter of the pot left in their stacks.

The flop came 7310 and Ding got his chips in first. Punsri called and we could finally see all the cards:

Punsri: AKK

Guerra: QQ8

Ding: KKJ

Myrmo: A97

At this point, Punsri's flush draw and pair of kings gave him 41% to win it all, with Guerra in second place equity-wise. The 2 gave Guerra even more hope, which the 10 river delivered upon.

Guerra quadrupled up, and Myrmo bust. Punsri and Ding shared the bounty. It was game on.

In the relative calm of the neighboring table, Cesar Garcia dispatched Richard Gryko to earn his first bounty and assume the chip lead. And Garcia then became executioner in chief, knocking out both Klemens Roiter and Stephen Chidwick in a single hand to take the tournament into the money.

They were 10-handed when the pot played out: Garcia's J99 beating Roiter's and Chidwick's with all the chips going in pre-flop. Roiter had 15 blinds and Chidwick 28. But by the end of the hand, Garcia had 75 blinds, Roiter and Chidwick were out, with the latter the official bubble.

A tough series for Stephen Chidwick continues with a bubble in the Mystery Bounty

Garcia's run only got better about an orbit later when he felted Jason Koon in eighth, this time flopping top set holding JJ7 and getting everything when Koon's turned trips. Most of the money went in on the turn with the full board running 2d].

Ding Biao, who was knocked out on the other table, and Koon took $54,000 each for eighth and ninth place.

Jason Koon landed another PLO cash

With that, there were at the official final, with Garcia carrying a massive chip lead.

FINAL TABLE STANDINGS

Cesar Garcia - 3,680,000 (123 BBs)

Matthias Eibinger - 1,840,000 (61 BBs)

Joao Simao - 1,490,000 (50 BBs)

Ben Tollerene - 1,165,000 (39 BBs)

Lautaro Guerra - 675,000 (23 BBs)

Punnat Punsri - 555,000 (19 BBs)

Event 16 final table players (clockwise from back left): Matthias Eibinger, Punnat Punsri, Joao Simao, Cesar Garcia, Ben Tollerene, Lautaro Guerra.

The pattern of chaos established early on continued apace at the final table. Even PLO superstar Ben Tollerene couldn't survive. Tollerene's last 27 blinds went to Matthias Eibinger in another multi-way pot, with both Eibinger and Garcia eyeing Tollerene's bounty.

All the chips went in pre-flop once again, with Tollerene's AQJ losing out to Eibinger's . Garcia was alsoin the pot with and he lost nearly half of his stack as well, with the board of keeping Eibinger's hand best.

Tollerene won $75,000 for sixth.

Nowhere to hide from the chaos for Ben Tollerene

Guerra's surge from the bottom of the counts to a battling stack was, to this point, the feel-good story of the day. But no one is at a poker table to make friends, Eibinger was now in the zone. It helps when you pick up aces to beat kings, and that was the size of it next with Guerra's AK slain by Eibinger's .

Guerra had been looking like a pre-bubble elimination at one point, but ended the tournament with a $96,000 pick-up for fifth.

The comeback ended for Lau

Punsri became Eibinger's next victim, with Punsri's aces cracked by Eibinger's Q98. All of Punsri's 11 blinds were in pre-flop -- he held -- but the board of gave Eibinger trips.

Punsri had one bounty envelope in addition to his $124,000 for fourth.

Another good PLO showing for Punnat Punsri

Eibinger had the massive stack at this stage, with his 167 blind swamping the 42 in Garcia's stack and the 26 in the possession of Simao. But Simao's QJJ earned him a double when he flopped another jack, and he even moved into the three-handed lead when he doubled again, holding that became a full house to beat Eibinger's straight.

But in a tournament defining hand soon after, all three remaining players got their stacks in the middle — mostly pre-flop — with piles moving over to Eibinger.

Simao opened his button holding AQQ and Garcia three-bet the small blind with . Eibinger had in the big blind and called, only to see Simao then four-bet. Garcia called for everything and Eibinger called as well, meaning two active players to the flop.

Cesar Garcia had a big lead but was out in third

Eibinger now had a flush draw and moved the rest of his chips forward. Simao still had an over-pair and called, while Garcia had flopped a set and must have been expecting a triple up.

However, the turn was the 8 to hit Eibinger and leave the others needing a better card than the 3 river. Garcia was toast in third for $164,000, plus his four bounties.

The huge hand put Eibinger back into an enormous heads-up lead of 144 blinds to Simao's 13. This period was brief. Eibinger's 1099 ended with a flush to beat Simao's . The deal was don

It was a brief heads-up battle