Xuan Liu Wins Triton Montenegro 2025 Event #1 For About $1.2M CAD

Liu, who is Canadian, defeated Daniel Dvoress in heads-up play. Dvoress is also Canadian; in fact, he is No. 2 on Canada's All-Time moneylist at the Hendon Mob, behind only Daniel Negreanu. In short, Liu defeated some top Canadian brass in claiming the win in Montenegro. Furthermore, she did it despite a major chip disadvantage at the start of heads-up play. At one point, Dvoress had over 30 million chips of the 39,000,000 in play.

The final hand of the tournament was not the major storyline. Liu's come-from-behind win is as she was one of the low stacks entering the final day of action.

Leading up to the final hand, Liu and Dvoress had a race where the former had pocket fives and the latter had ace-queen. The slight mathematical advantage that belongs to the pair in those kinds of races held up in this case.

While Liu's pocket pair did not clinch the win for her, it did give her about 90% of the chips, and it left Dvoress in a position where he could no longer exercise any significant selection for hole cards.

Dvoress will no doubt be feeling disappointed at losing the tournament after being the chip leader when Day 3 started. But, as a mentally strong player, he can also be expected to bounce back as soon as he plays his next tournament.

Using the prevailing American currencies, Liu finished first for $860,000, Dvoress finished second for $579,000, Kristen Foxen finished fourth for $325,000, and Michael Watson finished sixth for $199,000. It's fair to say that Canadian poker was well represented at the final table in Montenegro.