Champion Sean Winter!

Sean Winter, of the United States, tonight put the freeze on Mikita Badziakouski's hopes of a sixth title on the Triton Super High Roller Series, instead laying waste to a 223-entry field and claiming the first Triton win of his own.

This was the $40,000 Mystery Bounty tournament, which played to its official winner late on Tuesday night (Wednesday morning) before allocating the second half of the $8.92 million prize pool in the bounty drawing ceremony a day later. Winter secured $935,000 for finishing first, and added a further $140,000 from his three bounties for a total $1.075 million score.

Regardless of the bounties, nothing will change the core central fact: Winter is the champion after surviving an incredibly tough final table and a tense, short-stacked, late night shootout at the end. Badziakouski, the runner up, locked up $630,000 as both played sublime poker into the early hours at the Landing Casino, Jeju. Badziakouski's seven bounties earned him a further $420,000 as he crossed $1 million earnings from the tournament as well.

"The whole vibe, the atmosphere, it's the best place to play," a happy champion said of the Triton Poker Series.

Winter has been visiting Triton since 2023 and has nine previous final tables appearances. But until tonight, he's never managed to get over the line, a fact he admitted has been playing on his mind.

"This feels particularly good because it's 3x as long as it's been since I won a poker tournament," Winter said, discussing what is, for him, a barren spell. "It's been bothering me. I've had a lot of seconds and thirds. It's a monkey off my back."

Here he won a crucial flip from Badziakouski at the mid-point of final table action and stayed afloat through some choppy late stages. "Mikita is a great player," Winter added, paying tribute to the man who might have landed a sixth title, but will have to wait for that day to come.

Mikita Badziakouski smiling all the way to second

Those two were the final pairing after other titans including Jeremy Ausmus, Ben Tollerene and Matthias Eibinger had departed from a characteristically accomplished final table. Of them, Eibinger was the man picking up most of the bounties, ending with 10 and a half. That eventually meant he added $750,000 more to his prize and finished with $1.113 million.

Mattias Eibinger pulls gold at the mystery bounty draw

However, the tournament's biggest winner ended up becoming Lithuania's Matas Cimbolas, whose six bounties landed him an extraordinary haul of $1.08 million. His partner Greta did the honours of pulling the bounties and she managed to find not only the single biggest prize, of $500,000, but two separate bounties of $200K apiece and a third of $100K. It was an incredible haul, and gave Cimbolas $1.151 million from a tournament in which he finished 12th.

Matas Cimbolas watches his wife, Greta, pull the biggest bounty

Here's how it played out:

TOURNAMENT ACTION

The Mystery Bounty event plays out with what amounts to two separate bubble periods, and in this particular event they were spread over two days.

The first moment of significant interest occurs at the point the field is reduced to 25 percent and the bounties come into play. That coincided with the end of Day 1 here, and when the 56th-ranked player hit the rail. It was, in this instance, Yang Chongxian, whose departure brought the curtain down on the first day of play.

The second bubble is more conventional, the point at which regular prize-paying begins. The payouts began at 34 here in this tournament, which meant it was Punnat Punsri's departure in 35th that brought the rest of the field into the money.

Punsri, a two-time Triton champion, had a healthy stack of 52 big blinds entering the critical bubble period, and finding AK tried to lay a trap with a pre-flop limp. Matas Cimbolas, with another deep stack, seemed to fall into it, raising from the small blind.

Klemens Roiter, who had also limped, called Cimbolas's bet, which just gave Punsri extra interest. He sprang the trap and jammed for all of it. Cimbolas had pocket nines and decided to call with the dominating stack. Punsri needed to hit. He didn't. And with that, the Thai fighter was on the rail as Cimbolas soared to the overall lead.

Punnat Punsri's big slick didn't improve

Flash forward a few hours and the final table was in sight. But Cimbolas was among those who had seen his stack dwindle to around 25 big blinds, and it was his turn to get his chips in under threat. He was in good shape, however.

In a three-way coup, his pocket kings were ahead of both Rokas Asipauskas's JQ and Mikita Badziakouski's A. But the dealer put an ace on the flop and Badziakouski scored a double knockout, taking the field down to 11. By this point, other top talents including Phil Ivey, Adrian Mateos and Chris Brewer were similarly seated in another tournament.

Matthias Eibinger, standing right, four-flushes Eelis Parssinen out in ninth

The eight-handed final table was eventually set at around 8.30pm local time, with the elimination of Eelis Parssinen at the hands of Matthias Eibinger.

Meanwhile Badziakouski still the big stack. The line up looked like this:

Mikita Badziakouski - 9,925,000 (66 BBs)

Ding Biao - 7,625,000 (51 BBs)

Klemens Roiter - 5,875,000 (39 BBs)

Jeremy Ausmus - 5,575,000 (37 BBs)

Sean Winter - 5,150,000 (34 BBs)

Ben Tollerene - 4,050,000 (27 BBs)

Matthias Eibinger - 3,650,000 (24 BBs)

Kahle Burns - 2,725,000 (18 BBs)

Event 7 final table players (clockwise from back left): Jeremy Ausmus, Sean Winter, Matthias Eibinger, Mikita Badziakouski, Ben Tollerene, Ding Biao, Klemens Roiter, Kahle Burns

Keen Triton watchers will notice a few intriguing sub-plots developing here, with plenty of established forces making a familiar run at glory. Arguably the most enticing was the prospect of Jeremy Ausmus extending his hot streak into a second win within a week, but it was also exciting to see Badziakouski, one of the earliest Triton forces, looking for yet another title seven years since his first.

Kahle Burns is also a former Triton winner and has had a successful return to the tour after a couple of years away. This was his second final table and fourth cash of the week. But just like his previous appearance, he could go no further than eighth as he became the first knocked out from this final.

Burns had 18 big blinds and KQ, with which he called Matthias Eibinger's cutoff open from the button. Burns flopped top pair after the dealer put the Q on the table and after Eibinger stabbed, Burns was all in.

Eibinger had A9 for the nut flush draw and an over card. The 8 turn ended the contest and sent Burns out in eighth. He won $115,000, plus the $220,000 he pulled in bounties.

Kahle Burns, right, gets the last of his chips in

Remember those two sub-plots mentioned earlier? The next significant hand ended one of them, while strengthening the claims of the other. This was a huge clash between Ausmus and Badziakouski, with Ausmus this time landing on the receiving end of some punishment.

Ausmus looked down at pocket jacks and opened from early position. After action folded to Badziakouski in the big blind, he defended with 65 and found a world of possibility on the flop. He had top pair plus a straight draw and led out.

Ausmus, who started the hand with 37 blinds, raised with his overpair. Badziakouski stuck in a three-bet and Ausmus jammed. Badziakouski called off.

It was a turn for the worst for Ausmus, but the 6 didn't quite yet mean he was drawing dead. The 3 river did, however, as Badziakouski finished with a full house and a precious bounty to boot. It ended the hopes of world poker's in form player as well, with Ausmus forced to settle for $157,000 this time, plus $40,000 in bounties.

Jeremy Ausmus busts so infrequently, he has to check where the exit door is located

Badziakouski was now more dominant than ever. He had the only stack larger than average and was in the privileged position of seeing his opponents jostling under ICM pressure, knowing he was the only one who had them all covered.

Ding managed to double up with 72, which is always one for the stream viewers to celebrate. But it wasn't for much. When Sean Winter managed it, however, it was for a real chunk and the hand -- besting -- put Winter all but level at the top.

It also allowed Winter to have the chips to bust Ding not long later, when Winter's Q9 flopped two pair and Ding's J had an open-ended straight draw. Stacks went in at this point, but Ding whiffed. It gave the bounty to Winter and Ding earned $218,000.

Ding couldn't hit his draw and bust

Klemens Roiter had occupied the short-stack role for a while, but picked his spots well to put in a number of shoves and chip up. That left Tollerene in trouble and when he and Roiter butted heads, Roiter had the covering stack. Tollerene's QJ led Roiter's Q, but the flop ran all diamonds. Roiter's six-card flush was best for the bounty. Tollerene took $287,000.

Ben Tollerene's short-stack vigil ended in a bad beat

When they went on a break, Winter led with 42 blinds. Badziakouski had 28. Roiter had 27 and Eibinger 14.

Eibinger may have had the shortest stack, but he already had 10.5 bounties, worth a minimum of $40,000 apiece, which all but guaranteed another half million to his total. And when he was the next player to double up, with AJ beating Roiter's , he will have had eyes on further riches.

However, Roiter also doubled up again soon after, through Badziakouski, which put the Austrian closest to Winter at the top. This was a tough one for Badziakouski, who agonised for ages over whether to call Roiter's shove, holding J9. He decided to put the chips in, but was way behind Roiter's A, a hand that held.

This was becoming one of those late night, short stack battles, the kind so relished by the whiz kids who grew up playing hyper-turbos online. But any mistakes could be super costly.

Eibinger is the poster boy of that kind of player, whose first Triton title came in a crazy turbo event in Cyprus a few years ago. But he ended up losing a race to Roiter to bust from this one, three-bet jamming the small blind after Winter's open, with Roiter waking up in the big blind holding 44. Winter folded and Eibinger tabled his K. He lost the flip.

Eibinger guaranteed himself $363,000, and earned more than double that in the bounty pulling ceremony. His tally ended past $1 million.

Matthias Eibinger takes his glasses off to confirm the bad news

Badziakouski was back on the ropes, but scored a double through Winter when his J8 went runner-runner flush to beat Winter's A, with the latter flopping two pair. Badziakouski doubled through Roiter a few hands later, with holding against . With that, Badziakouski was back in the lead, by the matter of two blinds. He had 27 to Roiter and Winter's 24 apiece.

Winter nosed ahead, but then Badziakouski busted Roiter to leap ahead once more. This was a really close one: the dealer had to count and re-count stacks before establishing for certain that Badziakouski's stack was larger than Roiter's. His AQ was always ahead of Roiter's A, however. And that was the end for the Austrian.

He took $441,000 and added another $280,000 in bounties.

Klemens Roiter hands his bounty over to Badziakouski

There were now 56 blinds in play, plus two more bounties, and Badziakouski sat with 31 blinds against Winter's 25. Both these two had been in this situation before and it was far from certain to end imminently.

The pair duly traded blows for around an hour more, with the blinds escalating to the point that there were fewer than 40 in play. Then with stacks level once more, they played the first significant pot, with Winter's JJ flopping trips and Badziakouski paying off a check-raise on the flop, then a massive river bet.

Badziakouski had eight blinds to Winter's 30, and the next significant hand was decisive. Badziakouski jammed preflop with J6 and Winter called with A.

Badziakouski called for diamonds, but the dealer gave him hope another way. The flop came 10KQ. He now had a straight draw, but the turn and river were only good for Winter.

And that was that....Until that spectacular bounty ceremony shook it all up again...

Mr and Mrs Winter pull Sean's bounties