China’s Quan Zhou Wins Triton ONE North Cyprus $5K Mystery Bounty for $293,000, With Five Bounties Still to Pull

Quan Zhou has spent the last two years building a reputation as one of China’s most dangerous high-stakes tournament players, and the commentary team clearly knows it. Randy “Nanonoko” Lew and Kevin “Rotterdam08” van der Kooi called him “The King of China” on the stream. On Tuesday he added the one thing missing from his Triton record: a Triton ONE trophy.

Zhou won the $5,000 NLH 8-Handed Mystery Bounty at Triton ONE North Cyprus for $293,000, closing out a 607-entry field after an unplanned extra day. The final session took a little over four hours. His payday isn’t finished, though. Zhou is holding five unopened mystery bounties, and those envelopes won’t be pulled until the Bounty Draw during the $8,000 Main Event, which runs until 15 November. One of them could be worth $155,000.

Final Table Results (prize money, before bounties)

1. Quan Zhou (China): $293,000
2. Ihar Soika (Belarus): $179,000
3. Eric Tsai (Taiwan): $128,000
4. Punnat Punsri (Thailand): $97,000
5. Raul Yunusov (Russia): $77,000
6. Mikita Badziakouski (Belarus): $59,122
7. Daniel Braude (Israel): $43,000
8. Chengxu Hu (China): $29,100
9. Asaf Groofi (Israel): $23,100

Note: The order follows the official results table. PokerNews’ live text describes Punsri busting before Tsai, but its table lists Tsai third and Punsri fourth.

Asia was well represented: four of the nine finalists came from China, Taiwan and Thailand, and Thai star Punnat Punsri added another deep Triton run. The rest of the table was a mix of Eastern European and Israeli regulars. One of them was Mikita Badziakouski, a Triton Super High Roller veteran, who went out in sixth after losing a coin flip.

How the Final Day Played Out

The restart was over almost before it began. Israel’s Asaf Groofi came back with a single big blind and was all in from the big blind on the very first hand. Soika called, and Tsai finished the job. Chengxu Hu was next: his ace-ten ran into Tsai’s queens, which flopped a set and became a full house when the ten paired.

That made Tsai, who started the day as chip leader, look like the clear favourite. Daniel Braude fell in seventh, Badziakouski in sixth, and Tsai knocked out Raul Yunusov in fifth.

The hand that turned the tournament

With four left, Zhou opened the button with queen-ten and Tsai defended his big blind with queen-deuce. The flop came king-queen-five, giving both players a pair of queens, though Zhou had the better kicker. The jack of hearts on the turn changed things: Zhou now had an open-ended straight draw to go with his pair, while Tsai picked up a flush draw. Tsai moved all in, Zhou called, and the ten of diamonds on the river gave Zhou two pair and a double-up that put him in the lead for the first time.

Zhou was ahead when the money went in. Queen-ten against queen-deuce on that turn leaves Tsai drawing to his flush and a few other cards, so this wasn’t a lucky escape. It was a well-timed call against an aggressive chip leader. Tsai never recovered and went out in third.

Heads-up

The heads-up match against Soika was short. Zhou limped the button with pocket aces, a classic trap against an opponent likely to shove, and Soika moved in with king-deuce. A king on the flop gave Soika a pair, but the aces held through the turn and river, and the trophy went to China.

The Bounty Maths: What Are Zhou’s Five Envelopes Worth?

This is where mystery bounty tournaments get interesting. Each $5,000 buy-in put about $2,546 into the regular prize pool and about $2,000 into the bounty pool, so around 91% went back to players in total. The bounty money was then sealed into 152 prizes:

• $155,000: 1 bounty (0.7% chance per pull)
• $55,000: 2 bounties (1.3%)
• $25,000: 3 bounties (2.0%)
• $10,000: 8 bounties (5.3%)
• $7,500: 42 bounties (27.6%)
• $5,000: 96 bounties (63.2%)

Nearly two-thirds of the envelopes hold the minimum $5,000, and the average bounty works out to about $7,993. Assuming every bounty is equally likely to come out on any pull, here’s how the three most interesting bounty holders look going into the draw (PokerClubGames calculations, not official figures):

• Quan Zhou: 5 pulls, $25,000 guaranteed, expected value about $40,000. 3.3% chance of the $155K, 18.5% chance of at least one $25K+ bounty.
• Ihar Soika: 5 pulls, $25,000 guaranteed, expected value about $40,000. 3.3% chance of the $155K, 18.5% chance of at least one $25K+ bounty.
• Eric Tsai: 12 pulls, $60,000 guaranteed, expected value about $96,000. 7.9% chance of the $155K, 39.5% chance of at least one $25K+ bounty.

Two things stand out. First, the most likely outcome for Zhou is modest. Realistically he’ll add something in the 25,000–40,000 range, taking his total to around 320,000–335,000, and there’s about a 1-in-10 chance all five of his envelopes are minimum $5,000 bounties. Second, Eric Tsai could still out-earn the champion. Twelve pulls give him a near 40% chance of hitting a big bounty. If he draws the $155,000, he’s guaranteed at least $338,000 in total, which is more than Zhou is likely to finish with. That’s the mystery bounty format in a nutshell: the trophy and the biggest payday don’t always go to the same person.

Beginner’s note: why limping aces works here. In a bounty format, players get extra value for knocking you out, so short stacks and aggressive players shove wider than usual. Limping a monster hand invites exactly that kind of shove. Zhou’s heads-up hand is a textbook example: the limp looked weak, Soika’s king-deuce looked good enough, and the trap closed.

Who Is Quan Zhou?

This was Zhou’s first Triton ONE title, but he’s hardly a newcomer. With this result his Triton earnings have passed $8 million. His previous highlights include:

• A $25,000 PLO title in Jeju in 2024, proving he can win at Omaha as well as hold’em.
• The $25,000 Jupiter event in Jeju in 2026 for $1,303,000, his biggest score.
• 7th in the $8,000 Triton ONE Main Event in Jeju earlier this year for $213,000.

There’s also some venue history. In 2023, PokerNews recorded a player named Quan Zhou, then listed under Hong Kong, winning the $3,000 EPT Cyprus Mystery Bounty at the same Merit Royal Diamond resort for $242,623 from 981 entries. If that’s the same Quan Zhou, and the format and venue suggest it is, he has now won mystery bounty events in Kyrenia on two different tours.

How This Field Compares With Jeju

North Cyprus is Triton ONE’s first stop in Europe, and turnout here gives a useful early signal for the Main Event. The same $5,000 Mystery Bounty in Jeju earlier in 2026 drew 836 entries and a $2,130,456 prize pool, with $395,000 for the winner.

• Jeju 2026: 836 entries, $2,130,456 prize pool, $395,000 first prize
• North Cyprus 2026: 607 entries (−27%), $1,545,422 prize pool, $293,000 first prize

That 27% drop almost exactly matches the QQPK Genesis, which fell from 1,236 entries to 912. The pattern is consistent: the long journey via Turkey has kept part of the Asian recreational field at home, but the players who did travel are winning titles. Zhou now joins Yan Jingyao, winner of the $4,000 Big Bounty, as a Chinese champion at this festival.

What’s Next

Zhou, Soika and Tsai all have reason to watch the Main Event schedule closely, since the Bounty Draw happens during one of its dinner breaks. Meanwhile, the festival keeps going. The $8,000 Main Event runs 10–15 November, the $15,000 Triton ONE High Roller starts on 13 November, and the $5,000 NLH Bounty Quattro on 14 November gives bounty specialists another shot. For Main Event timings in China and Singapore, see our full Main Event guide.

Our Take

Zhou’s win showed how high-stakes regulars handle bounty fields. He didn’t chase knockouts, and he finished with fewer than half as many bounties as Tsai. Instead he waited for a profitable spot against the chip leader, took the lead, and then used the format’s aggression against Soika heads-up. The $293,000 is locked in. The five envelopes are a free lottery ticket on top, worth around $40,000 on average, and we’ll update this story once the draw is done.

Related coverage on PokerClubGames

• Triton ONE North Cyprus 2026 $8,000 Main Event Guide
• Alin Ivan Wins the Triton ONE North Cyprus QQPK Genesis
• APT Online 2026 Main Event Results

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