Amateur Wins $6.2 Million Triton Top Prize

The 2025 Triton Poker Montenegro $20,000 NLH Invitational had 133 entries, a record-breaking number that created a massive $26.2 million prize pool.

The champion was hometown hero Aleksa Pavicevic from Montenegro, who won his largest poker prize by far, destroying his previous best score of $17,000. Ironically, the Montenegro native won the event in his home country on Montenegrin Independence Day, making it a big day for the small Balkan country that has long been a hotbed for poker.

It has been an eventful series in Montenegro. Earlier in the series, Xuan Liu became the first woman to win a Triton trophy.

The real estate and hospitality professional won the life-changing money after besting a field of some of poker’s best players.

Aleksa Pavicevic takes down the Triton Invitational.

In his return to the Triton stage after a hiatus since his 2023 debut, the Montenegro local claimed the biggest title of them all, winning Event #8 $200K NLH Triton Invitational and $6,180,000.

A home soil victory, a massive… pic.twitter.com/Rj09ePRAIA

— Triton Poker (@tritonpoker) May 21, 2025

Pavicevic told Triton reporters his thoughts after his win:

“It’s been a surreal experience. 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.”

The final table had some big names in the poker world such as Americans Eric Wasserman, Seth Davies, Taylor von Kriegenbergh and Finnish player Joni Jouhkimainen. Six different countries were represented at the final table, including some from less prominent countries for poker such as Azerbaijan and Tunisia.

Javid Ismayilov entered the final table as the chip leader but he would lose some momentum when there was five left before eventually falling in third place.

High-roller behemoth Davies would face-off with Pavicevic in the heads-up battle for $2 million. Davies was well behind in chips with a 11:1 deficit and would need some serious reversal of fortune and poker probabilities to come back to win.

He doubled up twice to pull closer and make it a fight, though Davies would never actually take the chip lead heads-up and Pavicevic finished him off with a flush on the final hand of the tournament.