Poker Vlogger Takes Brutal Bad Beat to Bust High Roller

Ethan “Rampage” Yau had his opponent drawing nearly dead before a runner-runner bad beat that sent the poker vlogger home in eighth place at the Triton Poker Montenegro final table on Friday.

The player who benefited from the bad beat — Anatoly Zlotnikov — would go on to win the no-limit hold’em event for $715,000 after defeating Maher Nouira heads-up. A total of 119 entries, including some of the biggest names in the game, competed in the second event of the series. There were many big hands and some crazy bad beats shown on the Triton livestream, but none more brutal than one suffered by Rampage.

Poker Vlogger’s Rough Ending That Benefits Champ

Rampage has a “punting” reputation in cash games and tournaments, which isn’t always warranted. He’s been on a mission to become the winningest tournament player in his home U.S. state, Massachusetts. Thus far in 2026, he’s been on the right path and is off to a strong start to the year.

That solid play carried over to the $25,000 NLH event in Montenegro as he reached the final eight players and was in a position to double-up. Rampage, who initially raised to 450,000 with A♠K♥, called an all-in bet from the bigger-stacked Zlotnikov’s A♣4♣.

The flop couldn’t have gone much better for Rampage, as it came K♣Q♦J♠, leaving his opponent drawing only to runner-runners. Zlotnikov picked up a bit of hope with the 4♦ on the turn, although the eventual champ was down to just two outs, and he’d hit one of them with the 4♥ on the river for trips.

Rampage calmly exited the tournament area and went to collect his $92,000 for eighth place. He nearly quadrupled his buy-in, but a double-up would have put him in position to win a ton more.

Final Table Results

To make matters worse for Yau, Mikita Badziakouski had just two big blinds when he called the all in. Badziakouski was soon eliminated in seventh place for $125,000, receiving a pay jump due to the runner-runner bad beat hand.

Hannes Jeschka was then eliminated in sixth place for $166,000, followed by PokerStars and Triton Poker ambassador Jason Koon in fifth place for $212,500, Curtis Knight in fourth place for $265,000, and Yu zhang in third place for $321,000.

That began heads-up play with Zlotnikov holding a 2:1 chip advantage. But Nouira didn’t back down against the chip leader and gave the Russian a battle. The match, however, would end when Nouira went all in with A♥5♣ and was ahead of 10♦9♣, right up until the board ran out 5♥3♠9♠8♠7♥ to end the tournament.

Nouira had to settle for second place and $486,000, while Zlotnikov took the trophy and the $715,000 first-place prize.

Dvoress Wins First Triton Montenegro Event

Zlotnikov isn’t the only winner thus far in Montenegro. Canadian star Daniel Dvoress completed a remarkable trifecta by taking down the $25,000 NLHE Golden Decade, the series opener event, for $849,000. Dvoress, who recently broke through $50 million in live tournament earnings, won the biggest share of the $3,650,000 prize pool in the 146-entrant field.

His victory was impressive in its own right, but with it, the champ has now won Triton events in No-Limit Hold’em, Pot-Limit Omaha, and Short Deck.

Final Table Results

Speaking shortly after defeating Dejan Kaladjurdjevic heads-up to complete his Triton hat trick, Dvoress said, “I’m very proud. It’s great, obviously. It is kind of funny that it took me forever to get my first Triton trophy to begin with, and they came in Short Deck, then PLO, and then Short Deck. I’ve generally been a no-limit specialist. I’ve not been playing the other two games for very long. So it feels nice to finally get this one.”

_{Images courtesy of Triton Poker Series.}