Alin Ivan Wins Triton ONE Tournament in Northern Cyprus

The first Triton ONE festival held on European soil got off to a strong start. The $3,000 no-limit hold'em QQPK Genesis event, which opened the Triton ONE North Cyprus series, drew 912 entries and a prize pool of $2,443,248.

After four starting flights and two days of combined table play, 26-year-old Romanian Alin Ivan was crowned champion and took home the first-place prize of $450,000. This is Ivan's largest live tournament cash. His previous best result was 113th place for $80,000 in the 2025 World Series of Poker Paradise Super Main Event. His career earnings now exceed $673,000. With this win, he earned 1,368 points in the Card Player Player of the Year standings and moved into the top 500 of the 2026 rankings, which are sponsored by CoinPoker.

The event was scheduled to conclude on Saturday, November 7, but an additional session was needed to narrow the large field. The top 146 players cashed. Xuan Liu of Canada, who made history as the Triton Montenegro WPT Global Slam champion, reached the final table and finished seventh for $59,048. Liu was eliminated late on the second day.

On the extra day, Viktor Kudinov held the chip lead overnight, while Ivan continued in second place. Ivan eliminated Peng Chen (6th) for $82,000, then Yang Zhang (5th) for $111,000, reducing the table to four. Pavel Ignatov was eliminated in fourth place for $143,000 after Ruslan Kasper completed a flush with K-3 on the river.

In the final stages, Ivan limped with Q ♣ 2 ♣ and Kudinov checked the big blind. The flop came Q ♦ 8 ♦ 5 ♣. Ivan checked with top pair and called Kudinov's bet of 4,500,000. The turn, 4 ♣, gave Ivan a flush draw. Ivan called Kudinov's bet of 9,000,000. After Kudinov moved all in following the river K ♥, Ivan thought for a long time before calling with two pair, taking the chip lead.