Benedek Farkas has pulled off one of the most remarkable comebacks of the 2026 high roller season. The 22-year-old from Hungary won the Triton ONE North Cyprus $10,000 No-Limit Hold'em Seven-Max for $572,000 after starting heads-up play against Dmitrii Kukhtarev trailing by roughly 15 to 1 in chips.
Triton ONE Poker summed up the moment on X: "CALL HIM THE COMEBACK KID!" It was a fitting line for a player whose previous best live score was just $52,238.
Event Overview: 324 Entries in Northern Cyprus
The $10,000 seven-max event attracted 324 entries at the Triton ONE festival in North Cyprus, Triton's lower-buy-in brand. Triton ONE events sit below the famous Super High Roller Series buy-ins, which often run from $25,000 to $200,000, but they still draw many of the same elite pros alongside ambitious younger players like Farkas.
Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Payout |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Benedek Farkas | $572,000 |
| 2 | Dmitrii Kukhtarev | $362,000 |
| 3 | Igor Provkin | $261,484 |
| 4 | Yu Zhang | $211,000 |
| 5 | Cedric Schwaederle | $168,000 |
| 6 | Lyudmil Ivanov | $128,000 |
| 7 | Wu Jun Hao | $96,000 |
Kukhtarev arrived at the final table as chip leader, with Farkas third of the seven. By three-handed play, Kukhtarev had built a stack more than three times larger than his nearest rival. Igor Provkin then fell in third after a coin flip: his pocket fours lost to Farkas' ace-ten when the board ran out 10♦6♣3♦6♥3♥, handing Farkas tens up.
The Heads-Up Comeback: 60.75 Million vs 4.05 Million
When heads-up play began, the chip counts looked like a formality. Kukhtarev held 60,750,000 chips to Farkas' 4,050,000, a gap of roughly 15 to 1. In big-blind terms, Farkas said the stacks were sitting at around 100 big blinds to seven.
What followed was a textbook demonstration of how quickly short-stacked heads-up play can turn.
Phase One: Win the Small Pots
Farkas started by picking up most of the early pots. With only seven big blinds, every uncontested win is worth roughly 20 percent more stack, and a few blinds and antes quickly turned a near-certain loss into a playable stack.
Phase Two: The Big Double
The turning point came when Farkas made eights full of queens against Kukhtarev's trip eights. Hands like that are where comebacks are made: the bigger stack has a strong but second-best holding and cannot get away from it. That pot moved Farkas into a genuine contest.
Phase Three: Taking the Lead
Farkas then landed a bluff to take the chip lead outright and stretched his advantage to roughly 5 to 1 before the final hand.
The Final Hand
Kukhtarev limped the button with 10♠7♣ and Farkas checked his option with 5♦4♥.
- Flop: 7♥5♠3♣. Farkas checked his pair of fives with an open-ended straight draw. Kukhtarev bet 2,000,000 into 3,000,000 with top pair, and Farkas called.
- Turn: 6♦, completing Farkas' straight. He led for 1,300,000 and Kukhtarev called.
- River: 10♣, giving Kukhtarev tens and sevens. Farkas moved all in, Kukhtarev called, and the straight was good.
It is worth noting the sizing on the turn. Farkas led small, at well under half the pot, with the nuts on a highly connected board. A small lead invites calls from top pair and draws, and it set up a river shove that Kukhtarev, having improved to two pair, found very difficult to fold.
"I had some ideas how he plays," Farkas told Triton staff, adding that he needed some luck at those stack depths but felt he played well once the chips were even.
Who Is Benedek Farkas?
Farkas is a 22-year-old Hungarian whose live results until now had been modest. His previous best was $52,238 for second place in a €5,000 event at PokerStars Open Cannes in 2025. This was his first six-figure live tournament win, and it pushes his recorded live cashes beyond $782,000.
The result also earned him 1,200 Card Player Player of the Year points, his first qualifying score in the 2026 POY race, presented by CoinPoker.
For Kukhtarev, $362,000 is a significant consolation, but losing from a 15-to-1 lead will sting.
How Rare Is a 15-to-1 Comeback?
Big heads-up comebacks are not unheard of. Perhaps the most famous is Jack Straus, who won the 1982 WSOP Main Event after being reduced to a single chip, giving birth to the "chip and a chair" saying. In the modern game, comebacks from 10-to-1 or worse happen occasionally, but they are rarer at high-roller level, where the bigger stack is usually a top-tier professional who rarely gives away chips.
The math explains why. When two equally skilled players play all-in hands, the probability of winning is roughly proportional to the share of chips held. At about 6 percent of the chips in play, Farkas' "fair" chance of winning was in the region of 6 percent. Turning that around requires winning a string of pots in a row, and usually at least one big hand where the leader cannot fold.
What This Means for Players
Farkas' run has clear lessons for anyone who ends up short in a tournament.
Never give up on a short stack. At seven big blinds, your fold equity is real. Stealing blinds and antes, especially heads-up where every hand is a confrontation, grows your stack quickly. Our bankroll management and poker strategy guides explain how to approach these situations without tilting.
Know your shove ranges. Short-stacked heads-up play is close to solved. Push-fold charts based on equity are widely available and are the foundation of good late-stage tournament play.
Size for value with the nuts. Farkas' small turn lead with a made straight is a great example of building a pot without scaring off weaker made hands.
Use online volume to prepare. Plenty of players develop heads-up and short-stack skills online before facing high rollers live. Our list of high stakes poker sites and our tournaments guide cover where you can practise these spots at a range of buy-ins.
The Triton ONE Festival Continues
The North Cyprus stop has already produced plenty of headlines, including Quan Zhou's victory in the $5,000 Mystery Bounty and some memorable coolers. With the $8,000 Main Event still in progress and more side events to come, the festival remains one of the busiest stops on the high-roller calendar. For a recap of earlier results, see our Triton ONE North Cyprus coverage.