It has been 33 long months since Triton Poker last assembled a group of elite poker players to play the best high-stakes poker series on the planet. But the painful waiting is now finally over.

Today at the Merit Crystal Cove Resort & Casino, in Girne, Cyprus, Triton Series made its return — and it was as if we had never been away. 

The opening event of a four-tournament festival played through its first 10 levels, with 75 entries (including 31 re-entries) of $50,000 apiece. That means there is already more than $3.5 million in the prize pool, for what is the smallest buy-in event on the schedule. 

Registration is still open until the start of Day 2 tomorrow, so the prize pool hasn’t stopped growing yet.

Despite the absence, there was everything we have come to know and love — the best players demonstrating their full range of skills — plus an exclusive live stream, with cards-up coverage and expert commentary. 

A great number of familiar faces returned to the felt, but there were were also at least 13 players making their first appearance at a Triton event, from at least 11 countries. All are likely to stay for the full week, which culminates in a $125K short-deck event on April 6.

But to focus again on today’s action: the chip leader at this stage is one of our old timers: Hong Kong’s Elton Tsang. Tsang was bouncing along steadily for most of the day until he won a huge pot on the feature table in the final level. His benefactor was the US-based Bosnian player Ali Imsirovic, who was returning to Cyprus after winning in the Super High Roller Bowl here last time.

Elton Tsang

But after both Tsang and Imsirovic made two pair, kings and jacks, they got it all in. Tsang had an ace kicker, which beat Imsirovic’s eight.

“He ended up donating all his chips to me,” Tsang said. But even though he maintained the chip lead to the end of the day, Tsang refused to believe he had anything locked up yet. “It’s still too early,” he said, when asked if he was confident he could win it.

In a field where almost everybody is a superstar, it’s difficult to pull out other names to highlight. But all poker fans will have been delighted to see Phil Ivey show up for Day 1 action — and bag the only other million-chip stack in the room. (Starting stack was 200,000.) Ivey has one Triton title to his name, from Montenegro in 2018, so he’s about due another.

Phil Ivey

Among the Triton debutants is Russia’s Artur Martirosian, who has won on the European Poker Tour and has heaps of online accolades. Martirosian is trying to continue that form on the Triton tour and has started healthily. He sits in third. Full chip stacks for the remaining 34 players appear at the bottom of this post.

Artur Martirosan

Play resumes at 1pm tomorrow, at which point registration will close and we’ll have the final figures for this tournament. But three hours later, the $100K buy-in no limit hold’em event gets started, promising all of the same but doubled.

Photography by Joe Giron/PokerPhotoArchive

The full Triton Special Edition Cyprus schedule is as follows.

Saturday, April 2
1pm: Event #1 – $50,000 No Limit Hold’em 6-Handed
(Resumes and concludes: April 3, 1pm)

Sunday, April 3
4pm: Event #2 – $100,000 No Limit Hold’em 8-Handed
(Resumes and concludes: April 4, 1pm)

Tuesday, April 5
4pm: Event #3 – $75,000 Short Deck
(Resumes and concludes: April 6, 1pm)

Wednesday, April 6
4pm: Event #5 – $125,000 Short Deck
(Resumes and concludes: April 7, 1pm)