Following the Triton Montenegro event, Dan Dvoress jumped to the top of the Season 5 POY leaderboard with three victories. Mike Watson entered the top ten after winning two titles, while Adrian Mateos won the $200K Invitational.
Another stop in the Triton Poker Series has concluded successfully, with the Montenegro stop awarding over $100 million in prize money.
Amazingly, 35 players won at least $1 million in prize money at this event, and 16 champions were crowned.
In this article, PokerNews will explore how this has impacted the competition for the Season 5 Triton Player of the Year (POY) award, and who is currently leading the race for the prestigious Ivan Leow Player of the Year award.
Triton Season 5 Player of the Year Rankings
| Ranking | player | country | integral |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dan Dvoress | Canada | 3,181 |
| 2 | Isaac Haxton | United States | 2,517 |
| 3 | Danny Tang | Hongkong | 2,405 |
| 4 | Matthias Eibinger | Austria | 2,156 |
| 5 | Aleks Ponakovs | Latvia | 2,089 |
| 6 | Punnat Punsri | Thailand | 2,050 |
| 7 | Ben Tollerene | United States | 2,039 |
| 8 | Daniel Rezaei | Austria | 2,020 |
| 9 | Jason Koon | United States | 1,993 |
| 10 | Michael Watson | Canada | 1,974 |
As of June 2026
Dvoress unsurprisingly took the lead.
There is no doubt that Daniel Dvoress is comfortably at the top of the leaderboard after the Montenegro Grand Prix.
The Canadian player earned 1,741 points with three wins (a hat trick) and two other prize records. This is enough to put him ahead of Isaac Haxton in the race for the "Ivan Leow Player of the Year" award.
After winning the opening event, "Golden Decade," Dvoress completed the Triton triumph, winning the Triton title in No-Limit Texas Hold'em, Pot-Limit Omaha, and Short Deck.
He also won the $100k PLO Main Event midway through the series, and finally concluded his performance with the final event on the schedule – the $25K PLO Rapid Bounty Quattro event (prize money $367,500).
His lead over Haxton (who has reached the final table twice in three of Montenegro's prize-winning seasons) has now widened to 664 points. Conversely, last year's Player of the Year, Artur Martirosian, leads second-place Alex Foxen by 700 points.
This lead isn't insurmountable, but others would need similar performances to threaten Dvoress. And that's even considering Dvoress's season may not be over yet.
Watson enters the top ten after winning two titles at the Montenegro Grand Prix.
Mike Watson's hard work at Maestral Resort & Casino paid off as he reached the final table six times and won two titles, bringing his total Triton titles to seven.
This puts him on par with Matthias Eibinger, who also won a Triton title in Montenegro, second only to Jason Koon's 12 Triton titles on the all-time list.
Eibinger is one of five players currently on the Player of the Year leaderboard (having won the Triton title in Montenegro), the other four being Dvoress, Watson, Danny Tang (who won the $100,000 No-Limit Hold'em Main Event), and Aleksejs Ponakovs (who won the $150,000 10th Anniversary Special).
Tollerene is poised to launch.
Ben Tollerene, who had been consistently in the middle of the top ten, could have made significant progress at the Montenegro tournament. Although he failed to add another (fifth) Triton title to his poker resume, he certainly made a good attempt.
Less than three months after winning the Triton Jeju Main Event in March, he earned eight prizes at this event, the most of any player.
His best result came in the $30,000 No-Limit Texas Hold'em/Pot Limit Omaha Mixed Event, where he finished fifth and won $127,000; while his biggest prize came in the $100,000 No-Limit Texas Hold'em Main Event, where he finished 14th and won $238,000.
Tollerene is not the only player in the POY top ten to have made the money multiple times at Montenegro; Jason Koon and Punnat Punsri have also each made the money seven times and reached the final table six times.
Full race results for the 2026 Triton Montenegro event.
| # | Event Name | champion | Number of participants | Total prize pool | Champion Prize Money |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $25,000 Golden Decade NLH | Daniel Dvoress | 146 | $3,650,000 | $849,000 |
| 2 | $25,000 8-person table NLH | Anatoly Zlotnikov | 119 | $2,975,000 | $715,000 |
| 3 | $30,000 8-person table NLH | Mario Mosboeck | 133 | $3,990,000 | $928,000 |
| 4 | $40,000 NLH Mystery Bounty Tournament | Fedor Holz | 111 | $4,440,000 | $1,208,811 |
| 5 | $50,000 8-person table NLH | Christopher Nguyen | 132 | $6,600,000 | $1,535,000 |
| 6 | $30,000 NLH Speed Race | Mike Watson | 84 | $2,520,000 | $659,000 |
| 7 | $200,000 NLH Triton Invitational | Adrian Mateos | 137 | $27,400,000 | $6,370,000 |
| 8 | $50,000 7-person table NLH | Christopher Vogelsang | 118 | $5,900,000 | $1,037,858 |
| 9 | $100,000 NLH Main Event | Danny Tang | 159 | $15,900,000 | $3,522,000 |
| 10 | $50,000 NLH Rapid Bounty Quattro Race | Mike Watson | 32 | $1,120,000 | $621,000 |
| 11 | $150,000 NLH 10th Anniversary Special Tournament | Aleksejs Ponakovs | 76 | $11,400,000 | $3,027,000 |
| 12 | $30,000 PLO/NLH Mixed Race | Tobias Schwecht | 53 | $1,590,000 | $465,000 |
| 13 | $100,000 PLO Main Event | Daniel Dvoress | 76 | $7,600,000 | $2,018,000 |
| 14 | $50,000 PLO Mystery Bounty Tournament | Matthias Eibinger | 47 | $2,350,000 | $1,053,000 |
| 15 | $75,000 6-person table PLO | Richard Gryko | 59 | $4,425,000 | $1,243,000 |
| 16 | $25,000 PLO Rapid Bounty Quattro Race | Daniel Dvoress | 46 | $850,000 | $367,500 |
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