Champion Fedor Holz!

Fedor Holz doesn't play as much poker as he used to. And aren't his fellow super high rollers happy about that. For no matter how long the young German spends away from the game, his return inevitably leads straight to the top of the podium.

Tonight at the Maestral Casino & Resort in Montenegro, Holz crushed a field of 111 entries in the $40K Mystery Bounty event on the Triton Poker Super High Roller Series. It earned him a fifth career title and a $1,208,811 payday, including $620,000 in bounties.

Holz took $528,811 from the main prize pool, but the victory was so dominant that he also had 11 bounty pulls at the special Mystery Bounty ceremony the following evening. That's where he found the extra to push this win into seven figures once more.

Holz, 32, remember, won the first ever tournament on the Triton Poker Series, all the way back in 2016 in the Philippines. We're all a decade older, but Holz is a talent for all ages.

"It means a lot," Holz said, celebrating his latest win. "The first Triton was definitely very different than 10 years later. They've come a long way. They put together the best tournament series in the world and there's a reason why this is the one I play once or twice a year. I have an incredible time. It's just the best tournament series there is."

Mario Mosbock celebrates with his friend Fedor Holz, the pair winning titles on consecutive

"I felt good throughout the whole tournament and I got lucky in the right spots," Holz continued.

Holz will be the first to admit that today he was bathed in good fortune from the very outset. He returned after Day 1's play with only his countryman Leonard Maue above him in the counts, but then went on the kind of surge through the rest of the day that has characterised his entire superstar career.

It was only when he got heads-up against Aleks Ponakovs that the apparent certainty of the success came into doubt. Ponakovs trailed by a good measure when the pair agreed an ICM deal and then settled down to play it out, both players with their eyes also set on the end of registration on the $50K event playing out in the same room.

But Ponakovs hauled himself out of the rut and had Holz all-in and in danger. But a sun-running Holz is nigh on impossible to dim.

"When he doubled three times, and then there was a really big all-in, I thought, 'OK, now it's probably all over,'" Holz admitted. "Aleks is a hard one to beat, but I'm very happy I took it down."

Aleks Ponakovs did what he could to halt the Holz train

Ponakovs took $407,189 from his side of the deal, and added $160,000 in bounties. But today was all about Holz once again, just as it was 10 years ago — and plenty of times in between.

TOURNAMENT ACTION

The ever-popular Mystery Bounty format provides a number moments of intrigue even before the big money starts getting distributed. After registration closed with 111 entries through the door, the Day 1 plan was to play until only 25 percent of the field remained. In this case, it meant 28 players — and it's only after this point that every elimination earns a bounty.

The tournament therefore features this "bounty bubble", which also ends the first day. And in this tournament, Adrian Mateos fell on the wrong side of it. Seeing Kiat Lee open from under the gun from a big stack, Mateos jammed 23 blinds holding KJ UTG+1. He successfully got everyone else around the table to fold, but Lee had pocket aces and went nowhere.

Mateos bust in 29th to bring Day 1 to a close.

Adrian Mateos misses out on the bounty fun

The second bubble is the more conventional money bubble, due this time to kick in when someone bust in 18th. Players returned on Day 2 in preparation of this moment, and it came along far sooner than anyone expected. That was largely because Fedor Holz picked up a tremendous head of steam at the featured table, and the won an extraordinary, enormous pot to take a massive lead and burst the bubble in one fell swoop.

It was a crazy hand, with Kiat Lee picking up KK under the gun and opening from a 30-blind stack. Alex Theologis had 24 blinds one seat along from Lee, and he looked down at pocket jacks. He raised for almost everything, leaving a solitary chip behind.

Action folded around the table to Holz in the big blind, with a covering stack. Holz played the position rather than his cards and put in a four-bet, enough to cover Lee. Lee wouldn't be persuaded to fold his kings and, of course, Theologis tossed in his remaining chip. And only then did they see what Holz had made his move with: 64.

If they were laughing at this point, it became less humorous after the dealer delivered a board of 267. That four on the river gave Holz the two pair he needed to crack the two bigger hands, sending both Theologis out on the stone bubble, and giving Lee the min-cash of $35,500. Holz picked up two bounties (he had three even before this hand) and took 255 blinds into the post-bubble period.

The wild three-handed bubble burst

Holz now had the freedom of Montenegro, and his position at the seven-handed final was already all but assured. However, there was plenty to play for beneath him, and the player who made the best of it during the period ahead of the final was Holz's countryman Leonard Maue.

Maue had led the pack overnight, and stood back while Holz did his thing. But after the bubble burst, Maue turned the flat line on his chip progress graph into a steady incline, with sharp jerks upward representing a big pot won from Orpen Kisacicoglu, followed by the elimination of Punnat Punsri and then Paulius Vaitiekunas in back-to-back hands.

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Holz finished off Kisacicoglu to snaffle that bounty and set the seven-handed final. But Maue was now back in the lead, with three bounties to his name. Holz was in second place and had seven scalps already.

It was still very, very deep for this stage of a tournament.

FINAL TABLE LINE-UP

Leonard Maue - 7,190,000 (144 BBs)

Fedor Holz - 5,175,000 (104 BBs)

Aleks Ponakovs - 3,785,000 (76 BBs)

Jean-Noel Thorel - 2,330,000 (47 BBs)

Mikhail Soltanov - 1,760,000 (35 BBs)

Nick Petrangelo - 1,070,000 (21 BBs)

Mike Watson - 895,000 (18 BBs)

Event 5 final table players (clockwise from back left): Fedor Holz, Nick Petrangelo, Leonard Maue, Aleks Ponakovs, Mike Watson, Jean-Noel Thorel, Mikhail Soltanov

Mikhail Soltanov is visiting the Triton Poker Series for the first time here in Montenegro, but he's taken to this game like a duck to water. He made the final table at the very first event he played, the $25K Golden Decade, and here he was again in the top seven, with a decent stack to boot.

He won a small early pot from Jean-Noel Thorel to get his final off to a bright start, but things unfortunately went sound soon after when he got trapped in a pot between the short-stacked Mike Watson and Alex Ponakovs, who was trying to knock both of them out.

Soltanov had KQ in the hijack and raised from a 36-blind stack. Watson, on the button, had A and three-bet jammed for 15 blinds. Ponakovs found pocket 10s in the small blind and he just called. Soltanov was now persuaded in as well, with that all-important bounty now in play.

The flop was fairly delightful for Soltanov. It came 846. But Ponakovs had an overpair, and Watson's ace was still live. Ponakovs now led out for everything Soltanov had. It was about 20 blinds. Soltanov decided to risk it all with his flush draw and over-cards, juicing the pot with another bounty token.

The A on the turn was precisely what Watson was looking for. He was now in great shape for a triple up. And the 3 secured it. Unfortunately for Soltanov, that meant he finished third in the three-way coup, with Ponakovs taking the side pot and Soltanov's bounty.

Ponakovs won only five blinds in the hand, but the bounty is the precious thing. Soltanov, meanwhile, took $99,000 for seventh. He doesn't have any bounties.

When bounty hunting goes wrong, Mikhail Soltanov busts in

With Watson taking the early big pot, the real depth of the table became apparent. The shortest stack was 35 big blinds and there was every suggestion that this tournament was getting ready to go late. However, Jean-Noel Thorel is not a player who tends to slow down. He enjoys playing big pots too much. And Thorel found himself heading out the door next, refusing to believe the story Nick Petrangelo was telling.

Petrangelo, with 37 blinds, was Thorel's closest neighbour at the bottom of the leaderboard. He raised from the cutoff and saw Holz call on the button. Thorel looked down at pocket sixes and he stuck in the three-bet. But Petrangelo jammed, covering Thorel, but with Holz still between them.

Holz shied away, but Thorel called for his tournament life. Petrangelo tabled pocket jacks.

Three queens came on the board to give both players a full house, but Thorel couldn't catch Petrangelo. The hand ended with Thorel heading out the door, locking up $129,000. He too did not manage any eliminations so was not present at the bounty draw.

Jean-Noel Thorel ran into a bigger boat

Holz now won a decent pot from Maue to push back into the tournament lead. Meanwhile Watson was now the shortest stack, but still had 45 blinds and was under no imminent threat. Actually, scratch that. The dealer can still always make things tricky. It happened when Watson found himself with pocket 10s while Ponakovs found pocket queens and they conspired to get it all in pre-flop.

Watson opened, Ponakovs three-bet and Watson four-bet jammed. Ponakovs called and there was nothing dramatic on the board. Just like that, the tournament was down to four.

Watson banked $164,000 for fifth and had two bounties. And didn't they pay off handsomely. Watson was the first up at the bounty ceremony and managed to pull $300K out of the bounty pot.

Mike Watson will add two bounty draws tomorrow

The pot catapulted Ponakovs into the overall lead, with Maue haemorrhaging chips to Petrangelo, Holz and Ponakovs. Maue was now fourth of four holding 43 blinds, with Petrangelo's 49 blinds sitting below Holz's 70 and Ponakovs' 116.

Holz found top gear again. In what turned out to be a massive pot, Holz defended his big blind holding J9 and flopped a huge combo draw when the first three cards off the deck were . Ponakovs was sitting with and hit top pair on the flop became trips on the turn.

Holz bet, Ponakovs raised and Holz called. Holz binked the flush with the 8 river. Holz opted to check and set a trap, but Ponakovs checked behind. Both players played it immaculately of course, but it put Holz in the lead once more. He quickly consolidated it when Maue had a club draw against Holz's top pair of aces. Maue didn't hit and more chips went to Holz.

Maue trod water for a little while longer, unfortunate to chop a pot with Holz when the kicker alongside his dominant ace was counterfeited, but still had a sub-20 blind stack. And when he tangled with Holz the next time, Maue's A5 were no match for Holz's pocket queens. This one started with a limp from the button from Maue then a raise from Holz in the big blind.

Maue only then jammed the remainder of a 17-blind stack, which Holz called and held.

Maue finished this phase of proceedings with $203,000 and added $120,000 from three bounties.

Leonard Maue was powerless to halt Holz

Holz was purring. He had more than 100 blinds while Petrangelo had 23 and Ponakovs 52. Petrangelo managed to double when his 109 flopped two pair and Holz tried to bluff him off it, holding the camera-friendly 7. Holz put Petrangelo to the test for everything on the river (by that point there were possible straights and flushes out there), but Petrangelo passed the test and got his double.

It was, however, just a stay of execution. Holz had another way to win Petrangelo's bounty. It came thanks to a pair of pocket threes, with which Holz raised his button, then saw Petrangelo three-bet the big blind. Holz's four-bet was for all of Petrangelo's chips, and Petrangelo called.

The at risk player was in great shape. Petrangelo tabled pocket 10s. But Holz yet again found fortune shining on him as the flop brought a third three and left Petrangelo's tournament in tatters. Petrangelo won his only Triton title in this venue a couple of years ago, but he departed this one in third with $245,000 and three pulls of the bounty envelopes. He picked up an additional $120,000 thanks to those.

An overpair wasn't good enough for Nick Petrangelo

Staff re-set the table for the heads-up duel. Ponakovs had 32 blinds. Holz had 145. That's an 89-blind average and two absolute masters still seated. It still had potential for another heads-up classic.

The pair first opted to take some of the variance out of it. They agreed a deal that awarded $508,811 to Holz and $407,189 to Ponakovs, with $20,000 and the trophy going to the winner. Bounties were not included in the deal, so the deal was something of a footnote formality.

What was resolutely not a formality, however, was the destination of the trophy. If this was supposed to be a march to the title for Holz, no one told Ponakovs. He won all of the first 13 hands of heads up play, showing down a full house and then flopped trips along the way. His surge put him, miraculously, into the lead.

Had Holz finally run out of juju?

Tough times (relatively speaking) for Fedor Holz

The answer, of course, was no. Holz stopped the rot with a couple of small pots, and then won the first massive hands in this phase of play. Holz raised out of the small blind hoding 53 and Ponakovs just called with A.

The flop of A7K was all Ponakovs, but he checked to allow Holz to put in a c-bet. Ponakovs called. The pattern repeated after the turn: check from Ponakovs, bet from Holz and then a call. Holz was bluffing still, until the river completed his miracle straight.

Ponakovs checked again and Holz jammed. Ponakovs, with time running out on his Triton Tempo, called and learned the terrible news. He was suddenly down to only two blinds.

But this wasn't over still. Ponakovs built back with three consecutive double ups. (The first hand after the one above, he had aces.) In a flash, it was 34 blinds to 22. But the pair had long decided to cut the levels to just six hands duration, so the blinds were going up and were forcing the issue.

It was another swingy heads-up battle in Montenegro

At this point, it seemed possible that for the second night in succession, some short-stack heads-up absurdity would end up undermining what had come before. Both players were again all in and at risk, but somehow kept finding doubles.

However, when Holz had a lead of 28 blinds to 16, and registration was getting close to closing in the neighbouring $50K event, they played the final hand. Ponakovs limped the small blind, Holz checked and they saw a flop of 9KQ. Holz checked, Ponakovs bet and Holz called.

The 5 came on the turn and Holz check-called for a second time, a smaller bet this time, and the K fell on the river.

Holz checked once again and Ponakovs jammed. Holz agonised over his decision, and nobody in the room could have had any certainty about what either of them was holding. Holz flicked in the call, however, and Ponakovs quickly said, "You win."

Holz wins again

Holz tabled Q10, which beat Ponakovs' 10. One last bluff and it was finally done.

Fedor Holz, the first winner, is now a five-timer on the Triton Poker Super High Roller Series.

SIMAO WINS BIG WITH THE BOUNTIES

Joao Simao only finished 11th in the tournament proper, winning $45,500. But with his one bounty token, he pulled out the biggest prize, worth $400,000. "I used to hate bounty tournaments, but now they're my favourite," the Brazilian pro said.