Champion Matthias Eibinger!

In a game full of unpredictability, it's good to have a few things you can rely on.

Tonight at the Triton Poker Super High Roller Series in Montenegro, a sense of deja vu descended as Austria's Matthias Eibinger won a late-night turbo.

Eibinger, 32, has now won four Triton titles, three of which have come in the turbo format. He picked up $891,000 for the win this time, including $360,000 in bounties. For fairly obvious reasons, he was delighted again that turbo time had come around again on the schedule.

"Four time Triton champion feels obviously amazing, but the fact that I won three of them in turbos is the part that I actually enjoy the most," Eibinger said. "It's so fun. Whenever it's short, I enjoy it so much. And now three of my four titles are turbos. It's a good fit."

Eibinger got his start in poker playing hyper turbos tournaments online, where, he explained, players begin with 25 big blinds and play all the way down to the shortest of short stacks. It's a similar game here on the Triton Series, albeit with a $50,000 buy-in, and in this case with a bounty quattro element adding further intrigue.

The turbo is where Matthias Eibinger feels most comfortable

"I think it's not as simple as it looks," Eibinger said of the turbo world. "From outside, it seems 'oh this hand is a push, this hand is a fold', it looks like limited options. But in reality there are a lot of small details. You can play around with limps, what should you three-bet shove, it's very player dependent also. So I would say the details make the difference, and that's why I feel extremely comfortable."

He certainly looked at ease through a typically thrilling final, filled with the game's top stars. Eibinger ultimately defeated China's Wang Ye heads up, but he also knocked out Canadian pair Dan Dvoress and Jamil Wakil in one crazy hand, with Talal Shakerchi, Eelis Parssinen, Kristen Foxen and Ren Lin also at the final.

"It was a completely messed up hand, a really awkward hand," Eibinger said of the coup that brought the tournament to its heads-up stage. "The only reason the hand could happen like that is because there were two bounties in play. It was a crazy hand. I was the lucky winner of that, and suddenly I'm heads up with a big chip lead."

The bounties were worth $60,000 apiece, adding a level of complexity to decisions that even Eibinger, at times, seemed to struggle to solve. But he got there in the end. Of course he did.

"I am still full of motivation, and Triton tournaments are just great generally," Eibinger added. "So many cool players, so many personalities. I am enjoying it."

As tournament director Luca Vivaldi joked, the Triton turbo event may as well be called the Matthias Eibinger Invitational. He'd still win it.

TOURNAMENT ACTION

The Turbo Bounty Quattro got started as the Main Event was deep into its second day. And as the end of late registration drew close, the big $100K was on its bubble, meaning anyone unfortunate enough to miss out on a cash in the big one could go scrambling for a 25 blind stack to potentially spin up in this side event.

The players who finished either side of the in-the-money line—Danny Tang, who min-cashed, and Nacho Barbero, who bubbled—both took this opportunity. But the waters are even choppier in the turbo than they are in the Main Event, and neither got close to a payout this time.

The bounties came into play with 25 percent of the field left, which meant knocking someone out in place 13 or lower brought a $60K bonus. The final table was still the main goal, however, albeit with a nasty caveat. Though there were nine seats at the final, only the top eight players would be paid.

Lun Loon bust in 10th, sending the final nine to a single table. But everyone was merely still waiting to see who would be forced out next. It didn't take long, though this was pretty grim for Leonard Maue.

He looked down at AK in mid-position and made a standard open from a 20 big-blind stack. Wang Ye, with 35 blinds, three-bet shoved his button and Krissy Foxen, with around 20 blinds too, pondered a while in the big blind. Foxen decided to fold, and the two players remaining tabled their hands.

Maue: AK

Wang: A3

This was looking like a great spot for Maue to double into the chip lead. But the 236 flop was horrible for him, and the 3 turn was even worse. He was drawing dead and out of the door on the stone bubble. Wang took the bounty and the chip lead as the last nine returned to their seats and the following stacks.

Wang Ye: 2,855,000 (57 BBs)

Matthias Eibinger: 1,820,000 (36 BBs)

Talal Shakerchi: 1,260,000 (25 BBs)

Jamil Wakil: 1,255,000 (25 BBs)

Eelis Parssinen: 1,005,000 (20 BBs)

Kristen Foxen: 875,000 (18 BBs)

Dan Dvoress: 780,000 (16 BBs)

Ren Lin: 350,000 (7 BBs)

Triton Montenegro Event 11 final table players (clockwise from back left): Eelis Parssinen, Talal Shakerchi, Matthias Eibinger, Ren Lin, Wang Ye, Kristen Foxen, Dan Dvoress, Jamil Wakil

There's no blind rollback in turbo events, but they were comparatively deep for tournaments of this nature. The chirpiest player was, of course, Ren Lin (that's always the case), but he had to focus on his seven blinds in a bid to play a bigger role at the final table.

The first two significant pots at the final cancelled one another out. Dan Dvoress doubled his short stack through Mattias Eibinger, but Eibinger doubled right back through Dvoress. No change.

Lin slipped down to only three blinds, and, after an ominous under-the-gun limp from Eibinger, got them in with KJ. Dvoress, in the big blind, pondered through two time banks. That gave Lin enough time to high five Alex Foxen on the rail, asking for some of Foxen's luck. But after Dvoress folded, Eibinger called and tabled his A8. The board of AJ3Q5 gave Lin some encouragement, but ultimately not enough.

Lin busted in eighth for $71,000.

Ren Lin couldn't spin up his short stack at the final

For the second time on this trip, there were three Canadians at the final table. And just like the first time, two of them were Dvoress and Foxen. However, there are no friends at the poker table, and a nasty collision between those two left Foxen heading out the door in seventh.

Foxen got it in good. Her AK was plenty good enough to three-bet jam with from the big blind, sitting with 12 blinds total. Dvoress, who had opened the pot from his 14 blind stack, had QJ. And even though there was an ace on the flop, there was also a queen. And then another queen on the river.

Foxen had previously made quad queens in this event to boost her in the early stages. But they were her ultimate downfall at the end, and left her with $90,000 from her third final of the trip.

Kristen Foxen watches a gross runout to bust

Eelis Parssinen now had the short stack, but if we've learned anything from his performances in the PLO tournaments on the Triton Poker Series, it's that this man knows how to pick his spots. Parssinen, the PLO Main Event winner in Monte Carlo, managed to pick up one double with Q10 through Jamil Wakil's 104, but he couldn't do the same in a pot against Wang.

Wang, with a stack that covered everyone, open-jammed from the cutoff, holding 910. Parssinen had red pocket sixes on the button and called for his last eight blinds. Parssinen flopped a set, but Wang flopped a gutshot and filled it on the turn.

Parssinen was out in sixth for $113,000, and added another $60K in bounty payments.

Eelis Parssinen's face says it all

The tournament went on a break, which meant stacks were even shorter when they returned. It was no problem for any of them, however, who have turned short-stack play into an art form. For all the perfection, there's still not really anyone can do when the dealer starts playing havoc, and Talal Shakerhi was the latest on the receiving end.

He got his last 11 blinds in with A6 as a three-bet jam from the big blind. Wang, who had opened the button, called with A5, and while he had realistic prospects of a chop, the 5 on the turn gave him the outright win instead.

"No!" said Shakerchi in despair. "How many times have you done that?"

Wang, in delighted embarrassment, said, "So lucky." He snaffled another bounty as Shakerchi headed off to the payouts desk looking for $145,000. He didn't eliminate anyone, so his bounty column remained empty.

Talal Shakerchi fell victim to Wang Ye

Wang had extended his lead, but then had to hand over two sizeable chunks of his stack to double up first Dvoress and then Wakil, who each managed what Shakerchi had not in getting their dominant hand to hold up. Eibinger thus defaulted into the chip lead.

In the next pot of real significance, Wakil and Dvoress butted heads for almost all of both their chips: Wakil's A2 going down to Dvoress' KK. That left Wakil with only one blind left and, with the bounty encouragement, he found three callers when he got that blind in on the next hand.

Though he only had J5 it turned out to be good enough for a quadruple as the board ran 810J44 and nobody could beat top pair.

This was only a temporary reprieve, however. Wakil perished only a few hands later in one of those pots that comes up every now and then in a turbo that puts even these fine minds to the test.

Jamil Wakil bust in a double elimination with Dan Dvoress

After Wang folded under the gun, Jamil opened for all but one of his chips, leaving himself a single small blind behind. Dvoress three-bet for a third of his 21 blind stack, and then Eibinger, in the big blind and covering both, called. Wakil committed his last chip.

They then saw a flop of 679 and Dvoress shoved. It put Eibinger deep into the tank. Eibinger is an absolute master at determining precisely the calling and shoving ranges in these kinds of situations, but there were now so many variables in play that even he seemed to be struggling.

After a long while in the tank, he muttered something that sounded like, "This is so stupid" and dropped in calling chips. Both opponents were now under threat as they all tabled their hands.

Wakil: Q5

Dvoress: K9

Eibinger: J7

Dvoress had top pair, but the Q turn put Wakil into the lead. However, when the J fell on the river, Eibinger suddenly made two pair and knocked both of them out.

"That is not a great outcome for me," Dvoress said. He took third place money of $248,000, plus $120,000 for two bounties. Wakil's grind ended in fourth for $188,000 plus $60K for his one bounty.

Not a great outcome for Dan Dvoress, left

And just like that, it was Eibinger vs. Wang, with the Austrian holding a 64 to 17 blind lead.

Wang dwindled to 10 blinds, but then doubled with pocket nines over K7. However, it was only a temporary stay of execution. The next time the chips went in, Wang had 65 tom Eibinger's K3. And there was nothing on the board to help Wang.