Lonis wins the Triton Montenegro Main Event
As the world speculated and memed about the outcome of a hypothetical battle between 100 men and a gorilla, the poker world conducted its own experiment, pitting Jesse ‘The Gorilla’ Lonis against 179 players, including many of the world’s best. The 29-year-old American poker pro has been on a tear for two months, cashing for $7.3m since early March, with five wins including yesterday’s $100,000 Triton Montenegro Main Event.
It’s not like the past few years have been too shabby. Lonis cashed for $4.3m in 2023 and $7.5m in 2024 with two WSOP bracelets and $10,000+ buy-in wins at the Pokerstars Caribbean Adventure, on the European Poker Tour, in the Wynn, in PokerGo events at Aria and on the North American Poker Tour. In that time, he has earned himself a fierce reputation, playing in a style that diverges from game theory more than most of the elite professionals. He’s a brawler on the felt, dragging his opponents out of the game tree, backing himself to win in a street fight of wits.
Last week, the upstate New York native announced his presence on the Triton circuit with victory in the $40,000 Mystery Bounty, winning 12 bounties en route to a $1.4m haul. That win also took him back to the #1 spot in the Global Poker Index rankings. Yesterday, he solidified that position, taking down the Triton Main Event for a career-high score of $3.4m, beating a final table that included poker luminaries Fedor Hold, Christoph Vogelsang, Artur Martirosian, Stevie Chidwick and defending champion Mikalai Vaskaboinikau.
Nine to two
In a much hyped final table, Martirosian was the first to bow out after his Kings were cracked by the big slick of Vaskaboinikau. Exiting stage left soon after was Holz who was in great shape to double but suffered a bad beat at the hands of Vaskaboinikau. Busting in seventh was two-time bracelet winner and Triton regular Santhosh Suvarna after Lonis’ King-Nine suited outraced his Ace-Eight suited.
the ‘commentator’s curse’ was in evidence as the UK’s finest was sent packing
During the first break desk, veteran broadcaster and wily wordsmith Ali Nejad plumped for Chidwick as his pick to emerge from the chasing pack. Five minutes later, the ‘commentator’s curse’ was in evidence as the UK’s finest was sent packing after Vaskaboinikau played his flopped set of deuces fast, getting it all versus Chidwick’s pocket Queens. Next to go was Ramin Hajiyev, a two-time Triton champion, again at the hands of Vaskaboinikau who seemed destined for the implausible back-to-back.
Probably the most significant hand of the final table occurred in this period when Vogelsang effectively shoved Ace-Queen and Vaskaboinikau tried to isolate with Ace-King suited from the small blind. His raise was an under-raise and correctly ruled as a call. That opened the door for Lonis who was lurking in the big blind with an Ace-Queen of his own. He click-raised and recognising how much strength this was representing, Vaskaboinikau just called. A Jack high flop improved nobody, but Lonis took a stab forcing the Ace-King out, securing himself the side pot and a chop of the main pot.
The reprieve for Vogelsang was short-lived, however, as he busted in fourth after his King-Queen ran into the Ace-King of Kiat Lee. That set up a protracted threeway affair with chips going back and forth for a while before Lonis delivered the killer blow when his Ten-Eight suited spiked the necessary against Lee’s Ace-Seven. With Lonis holding a commanding chiplead over his opponent, a little bit of business was agreed before the battle resumed.
Heads-Up
As the players re-took their seats, Lonis peaked down at a King and a Ten, enough to send his soldiers into battle. Vaskaboinikau found a suited Queen-Jack and was more than happy to oblige. The board offered no assistance to the Belarusian and an emotional Lonis was the champion. “I’m trying to hold the tears back”, he said in his post-match interview, adding, “I wanted to come out here and perform. I’m away from my family for a long time and I told them I was going to make it worthwhile.”
if everyone is doing the same stuff, you have to do things differently.”
In his interview on The Chip Race last November, Lonis talked a lot about the importance of family. As a man who had a difficult childhood, enduring much tragedy, he spoke beautifully about how much he values the love, security and stability that he gets from his wife and kids. He also spoke about his attitude to poker, insisting that “if everyone is doing the same stuff, you have to do things differently.” That was echoed in his interview right after this momentous Triton win:
“Everyone’s put in the work. I think I do my work completely differently from everyone else, which I think is starting to pay off… A lot of top guys thought I was a fish or a whale or just lucky, but now I’m getting respect from everybody.”
Jesse Lonis plays to the beat of his own drum and a gorilla with a pair of drumsticks is a very dangerous prospect indeed.
Triton Montenegro Main Event Final Table Results
1 Jesse Lonis $3,426,298
2 Mikalai Vaskaboinikau $2,927,702
3 Kiat Lee $1,807,000
4 Christoph Vogelsang $1,463,000
5 Ramin Hajiyev $1,159,000
6 Steve Chidwick $879,000
7 Santhosh Suvarna $643,000
8 Fedor Holz $470,000 9 Arthur Martirosian $389,000
