Champion Artur Martirosian!

The ever-popular Bounty Quattro Turbo at Triton Monte Carlo blasted through its 105-entry field at high speed tonight, ending in a crazy, swingy battle of the all-in shovers before Artur Martirosian emerged dazed but alive from the carnage.

Martirosian, one of the best players on the Triton Series without a title before this moment, earned $531,000 plus $360,000 for his nine bounties, defeating his countryman Nikita Kuznetcov heads-up.

The two came to the final table as the two smallest stacks. But after a nine-handed logjam, which lasted two levels, Martirosian suddenly went on a spree and knocked out six players in a matter of five or so hands. But it all slowed down again against Kuznetcov as the pair played a few, cagey levels of heads up.

But as the clock ticked towards 2am local time, the pair got it all in one last time and Martirosian’s 9 10 flopped a pair and turned trips. It was finally done.

Kuznetcov won $358,000 for second, but Martirosian again showed his wizardry in these bounty events only a couple of days after he dazzled in the Mystery Bounty tournament.

TOURNAMENT ACTION

Having raced through the early stages, the bubble was just bobbing on the horizon when Adrian Mateos went to work. In back to back hands, Mateos knocked out three players. He had pocket deuces and was all in at the same time that Ole Schemion was all in with pocket nines and Benjamin Chalot, with the covering stack, called with.

Dominykas Mikolaitis busts from one end of the table

Mateos hit a boat on the flop, felting Schemion and leaving Chalot with less than one big blind. That was in on the next hand, but so was Dominykas Mikolaitis. Mateos found pocket sixes and after four spades came on the board, one of those sixes was the only other spade out there. Mateos flished out both Chalot and Mikolaitis, taking the tournament into the money.

As Benjamin Chalot leaves from the other

The average stack was 25 big blinds, the leader (Jamil Wakil) had 52 bigs and four players had fewer than 10.

The next major stop was the final table, and with those $40K bounties up for grabs, it didn’t take long to get us there. Dan Smith, Danny Tang and then Zhewen Hu fell in 12th through 10th, leaving us with the following nine still in with a shot:

Jamil Wakil – 4.85m (49 BBs)

Ren Lin – 3.55m (36 BBs)

Ben Tollerene – 3.15m (32 BBs)

Adrian Mateos – 2.5m (25 BBs)

David Benefield – 2.5m (25 BBs)

Paulius Vaitiekunas – 1.575m (16 BBs)

Espen Jorstad – 1.25m (13 BBs)

Nikita Kuznetcov – 950,000 (10 BBs)

Artur Martirosian – 700,000 (7 BBs)

Triton Monte Carlo Event 7 final table (clockwise from back left): Adrian Mateos, David Benefield, Espen Jorstad, Paulius Vaitiekunas, Artur Martirosian, Nikita Kuznetcov, Jamil Wakil, Ren Lin, Ben Tollerene.

Remarkably, two full level passed at the final without a bustout, which meant stacks were getting hilariously short. The average was 12 blinds and the chip leader now only had 21. That was the formidable figure of Ben Tollerene, who hasn’t yet found a format of the game he hasn’t mastered.

Four players had sub-10 big blind stacks and then, boom, two were knocked out on the same hand as Artur Martirosian all but tripled up. Paulius Vaitiekunas was first in with his A9. Jorstad followed him in with A. Tollerene moved in too, covering both, with pocket threes. And Martirosian got his chips in too, with pocket eights.

An ace on the flop looked like it was going to save the former pair, but the river was an eight giving Martirosian the win. Jorstad had marginally more chips than Vaitiekunas, so took $71,000 to Vaitiekunas’ $53,000.

Paulius Vaitiekunas went out in a spectacular four-way all in

Espen Jorstad was also swept away

Martirosian took over at the top of the leader board, and he put further distance between him and the field when he completed the job on Tollerene. Only a couple of hands after the four-way all-in, Tollerene found  J10 and jammed under the gun. Martirosian had  on the button, made the call and held.

Tollerene took $94,000 from the main pool, plus some bounties.

Ben Tollerene

The dam had well and truly broken and it was Martirosian smashing down the wall. He next accounted for David Benefield with AK for Martirosian besting Benefield pocket twos. The American pro is in town for the Triton Invitational, which starts tomorrow. He warmed up with this final table appearance and took a $123,000 score.

A good warm-up for David Benefield

And it didn’t stop there. One more hand later, and two more players hit the rail. This time both Mateos and Ren Lin bust to Martirosian, whose 5 3 made a straight and outdid Mateos’ K and Lin’s .

Not this time, Adrian Mateos

Ren Lin shouted “Happy Christmas, my friend!” as he busted

Martirosian now had 63 blinds, with Kuznetcoz sitting with 10 and Jamil Wakil with 13. But it was Wakil who went next, the collateral in a three-way all-in. Martirosian this time only won the side pot. His J9 was better than Wakil’s A when a jack flopped, but Kuznetcov’s pocket threes turned a set.

Kuznetcov built his stack to 30 blinds. Martirosian had 54. Wakil’s third-place prize was worth $233,000.

Jamil Wakil

The Russian flag came out as these two countrymen squared off. And they took it very seriously, sitting in stony silence for the most part, with Kuznetcov beneath a green hoodie and Martirosian wearing a T-shirt showing a teddy bear on a fishing trip.

Kuznetcov was down, but doubled. Then Martirosian ground him down again. Then Kuznetcov doubled again and there were 35 blinds between them, with Kuznetcov in the lead. Then Martirosian’s eights held against Kuznetcov’s sixes and the pendulum swung once more.

Nikita Kuznetcov put on a dogged heads-up display

The tournament clock ticked into level 28, where Martirosian, the chip leader, had only 26 blinds to Kuznetcov’s nine. They got it all in one more time and this time Martirosian’s 910  hit two nines to beat Kuznetcov’s 5.

“Good game,” Martirosian said as he rapped the table, job well done.

A hard earned win for Artur Martirosian