Champion Aleksa Pavicevic!

The biggest tournament on the Triton Poker Super High Roller Series trip to Montenegro ended tonight in a spectacular display of high-stakes fireworks and an improbable, but highly likeable, new champion.

The $200K Invitational tournament pits a specially selected group of Invitees against the cadre of elite poker sharks who patrol the waters of this prestigious series. But tonight the title, the trophy, and the $6.18 million first prize belongs to the 29-year-old hospitality and real estate professional Aleksa Pavicevic.

"It's been a surreal experience," Pavicevic said. "I kind of just decided a week ago that I was going to play this thing. I didn't expect much, just to come, have a good time, see some friends. I love this resort, I love the people here, so I came for kind of a vacation.

"I decided I'd just take a try. Honestly I expected to bust maybe four levels in, and if not then run up a stack and maybe try to win the whole thing. So it worked out."

Pavicevic, who was playing only his third Triton Poker tournament, and who had invited the American pro Alex Foxen to join him in this field, had clearly been learning from his partner on how to close out high-profile final tables.

Pavicevic held his own through some cagey early stages of the final day, before winning two enormous hands to take him to the heads-up stage with a massive chip lead. He then had to fend off what had seemed to be a spirited comeback from Seth Davies to land the knockout blow with a rivered flush.

"It was meant to be, I guess," a stunned Pavicevic said.

Aleksa Pavicevic celebrates his win

Davies had to make do with the runner-up spot and a prize of $4.19 million. But this was an incredible result for the previously unheralded Pavicevic, who not only got Montenegro on the Triton Poker winner's list for the first time, but did so on his country's Independece Day.

"There was a lot of good energy in the place," Pavicevic said, mentioning how staff members and other Montenegrin nationals were encouraging him through the whole tournament. "It's very good for me to have my childhood friends here for this special moment."

Pavicevic won a spectacular three-handed cooler, when he managed to crack the pocket aces of fellow Invitee Javid Ismayilov with pocket kings when the two biggest stacks got them all-in pre-flop, and Davies was sitting watching in disbelief with a short stack.

Friends join the new champion, Aleksa Pavicevic

Pavicevic and Ismayilov had become firm friends after playing almost all of the tournament on the same table, joking that they would see each other heads-up. But this cooler ended that possibility, and left Pavicevic with only the obdurate Davies to beat.

He did that only after Davies had given him a scare, doubling up three times in the heads-up duel. But eventually Pavicevic's 52 hit a flush on a board of 7K3A10, and Davies couldn't fold his slow-played K3. The tournament ended right there.

Another great day on the Triton Series for Seth Davies

TOURNAMENT ACTION

The excitement ahead of this tournament had been building all year, with Invitees confirming their intended participation for months, then picking their pros. By the time of the official seat draw ceremony, on the poolside terrace outside the Maestral Resort, there were 48 confirmed pairings, meaning 96 players and a new record.

When they added 37 re-entries between them, another new mark was reached. This was officially the biggest Invitational tournament in terms of player numbers and entries.

Tournament organisers quickly confirmed a prize pool of $26.6 million and a scheduled first-place prize of $6.18 million.

While Day 1 passed in jocular fashion, with Invitees in one room rocking back and chuckling their way through proceedings, Day 2's mixed field grew a little more tense. There was the matter of the bubble to navigate when the 24th-placed player departed, and the $311,000 min-cash was not something to take lightly.

That said, two elite pros were knocked out in places 25th and 24th, both playing hands that warrant examination.

Leon Sturm was among the shorter stacks in the room with 15 big blinds, but there were a handful of players with fewer than that. He defended his big blind to a small-blind open from Javid Ismayilov, and the pair took a flop of 9J7. Ismayilov bet two blinds and Sturm called, seeing the 4 turn. Ismayilov bet again, sizing up slightly, but Sturm called again.

The J came on the river, and Ismayilov now bet just two blinds again, into a pot of 22. Sturm would be left with only one small blind left if he called and was wrong, and the German pro thought long and hard about this decision. In the end, he flipped in a call, and Ismayilov meekly tabled his A6, clearly thinking his ace high must be no good.

A huge bubble decision for Leon Sturm, right

However Sturm pushed his hand back to the dealer, mucking it. Sturm had called with something that couldn't beat the ace.

Sturm was out on the next hand, which left them on the stone bubble. And after Eric Wasserson's kings held against jacks on the feature table, keeping him alive, attention now turned to Phil Ivey. Ivey had 13 blinds (again, not the smallest in the room) and he was in the big blind when Maher Nouira open-jammed the small.

Ivey found AK, one of the very best hands out there, but one that is notoriously vulnerable as well. However, Ivey decided that folding for a min-cash was not for him, and stuck in the calling chips. Nouira tabled pocket jacks, and the board bricks. Ivey became the stone bubble, and the rest of them locked up the cash.

Phil Ivey eliminated on the stone bubble

Over the next few hours, which included an overnight break when they were 11-handed, they battled to a final table that lined up as follows:

Javid Ismayilov - 8,950,000 (72 BBs)

Aleksa Pavicevic - 7,650,000 (61 BBs)

Eric Wasserson - 4,900,000 (39 BBs)

Ramin Hajiyev - 4,800,000 (38 BBs)

Seth Davies - 4,325,000 (35 BBs)

Taylor Von Kriegenbergh - 4,025,000 (32 BBs)

Maher Nouira - 2,575,000 (21 BBs)

Joni Jouhkimainen - 1,725,000 (14 BBs)

Thomas Santerne - 950,000 (8 BBs)

Triton Invitational final table players (clockwise from back left): Seth Davies, Joni Joukhimainen, Thomas Santerne, Ramin Hajiyev, Maher Nouira, Eric Wasserson, Aleksa Pavicevic, Javid Ismayilov, Taylor Von Kriegenbergh.

The final table line-up had five players from the Invitee side of the draw alongside four pros, including the pairing of Maher Nouira and Thomas Santerne, who had both progressed. But Santerne was now at the bottom of the counts and had an uphill battle to get back involved at the final.

On the second hand they saw, it quickly became a partner vs. partner duel as Nouira looked down at pocket jacks and opened, then saw Santerne three-bet with AQ. With everyone else folding, Nouira jammed with the covering stack and Santerne called it off, setting up an early race.

The dealer made it interesting with the 95Q flop, followed by the K turn. The 10 river completed Nouira's straight and with it polished off Santerne.

Pairings had been kept apart at all stages ahead of the final table, so this was the first hand two partners had even played against one another. And it turned out to be the last. Santerne banked $617,000 for his ninth place as Nouira battled on alone.

Not much Thomas Santerne could do about the run-out that bust him in ninth

Finnish star Joni Jouhkimainen was now the default short stack and he too found AQ and spotted a good chance to get the last of his chips in. Chip-leading Javid Ismayilov opened from mid-position and Jouhkimainen jammed for his last 14 blinds. But not for the first time, Ismayilov had the goods. His AK stayed best to bust Jouhkimainen.

The Helsinki-based player now has another $774,000 to play with as the NLH segues into the PLO section of this Triton Montenegro festival.

Joni Jouhkimainen out in eighth

Two eliminations, two pros on the rail. The Invitees were running riot.

It won't have escaped many commentators' notice that there were two Azerbaijani players in the last nine, with former Invitational champion Ramin Hajiyev joined by his friend and countryman Ismayilov. Quite possibly, Hajiyev's success in Cyprus a couple of years ago had given Ismayilov the encouragement to also give Triton Poker a spin, to great success.

However, Hajiyev was forced to leave Ismayilov to it when he became the third player out from the final, ending a bid for a historic second Invitational title. He also now found the accursed AQ and became the latest player to bust with that hand.

Wasserson opened this pot from the cutoff and Hajiyev, starting the hand with 24 blinds, three-bet from the small blind. Wasserson, who had only one blind more than Hajiyev, jammed, and Hajiyev made the call.

However, the ace-queen was dominated by Wasserson's AK and Wasserson ended the hand with a boat when turn and river were both also kings. (There were two jacks on the flop.)

Hajiyev's tournament ended with the first seven-figure payout of the day. He took $1.053 million for seventh.

Ramin Hajiyev's bid for a famous Invitational double ended in seventh

So one Invitee was now on the rail, and the next player out also came from that side of the draw. Things got a little cagey for more than an hour, with a double-up for Taylor Von Kriegenbergh the only pot that could have altered the status quo.

Nouira was one of four players whose stack had dipped below 20 blinds -- he had 12 -- and when action folded to him in the small blind, he looked down at A5 and only had Seth Davies, in the big, to get through. Nouira jammed for the last of it, but Davies had found a hand. Davies called with red pocket sevens and his hand held.

Nouira bust in sixth for $1.423 million.

Maher Nouira departed in sixth

Of all the players in the field, Taylor Von Kriegenbergh seemed to be enjoying himself the most, casually sipping whisky and red wine through these in-the-money stages, like someone who had locked up a seven-figure score from a poker tournament.

He seemed pretty much carefree even with a short stack, but figured that picking up pocket fours with seven blinds was his chance to make a move. He opened from under the gun, then saw Ismayilov three-bet jam from one seat over. Von Kriegenbergh called and found out he was in pretty good shape against Ismayilov's A2.

The deck had other ideas, however. There was an ace on the flop and Von Kriegenbergh couldn't catch up. The party ended in fifth for the Las Vegas resident, with a $1.834 million payout.

Party over in fifth for Taylor Von Kriegenbergh

The caginess was now well and truly over as the tournament suddenly went nuts. This was all thanks to Aleksa Pavicevic who, in the space of two hands, seized a massive stranglehold on the tournament.

Firstly, Pavicevic open-jammed the small blind with just Wasserson behind him in the big blind. Wasserson had A5 and called for his last 17 blinds. Pavicevic was in bad shape with Q5 but flopped the miracle Q to vault him into the lead. Wasserson couldn't find one of his three outs and was on the rail in fourth with $2.287 million to his name.

Eric Wasserson suffered the first of back-to-back beats dished out by Aleksa Pavicevic

But it got even more crazy.

On the very next hand, Ismayilov was on the button/under the gun and he made a standard open. Pavicevic, in the small blind, put in a three-bet, but then Ismayilov jammed for 71 blinds total. Pavicevic, with about two blinds more, called instantly!

It was an extraordinary situation. The two leaders had more than 70 blinds each, while the third player at the table, Davies, had 15 blinds. But they both had monsters: Ismayilov had red aces -- the glorious AA -- to Pavicevic's KK.

Javid Ismayilov, left, watches his aces cracked by kings

Ismayilov surely couldn't believe his luck. Until he surely couldn't believe his bad luck. The flop was blank but the turn brought the killer K. It vaulted Pavicevic into a massive lead in the hand and, ultimately, the tournament. The 3 river changed nothing, and suddenly the man playing on home turf in Montenegro had 122 big blinds heads up against Davies' 11.

"The whole thing happened so fast," Pavicevic said. "It was meant to be, I guess."

Ismayilov, meanwhile, collected a $2.793 million prize from his first ever tournament on the Triton Series, alongside a killer of a bad beat story.

Heads-up began with Davies facing a mountain to climb. But he will also have been confident in his abilities and knew when he should be getting his chips in and when not. He started his comeback with an early double, holding J10 to beat Pavicevic's 83. And he quickly doubled again with pocket jacks against Pavicevic's 109d].

Seth Davies managed three heads-up doubles, but fell agonisingly short

The Davies resurgence continued. They got it all in once more on a flop of 24J. Davies held J10 and remained in the lead when Pavicevic's K6 missed all its outs. The stacks were now very close to level.

With 50 big blinds each, it could have stretched another good few hours. But yet another cooler — Davies' flopped two pair losing to a rivered flush — meant there was one more left bang in this one.

When all the smoke had cleared, it was Aleksa Pavicevic left standing.

"It just been an incredible experience," he said. "I wouldn't change anything."