It had been 18 months since Anatoly Filatov had last appeared on the Triton Super High Roller Series, perhaps chastened by a cashless visit to Cyprus in 2023 in which he fired four tournaments without success. But Filatov’s pedigree is such that he was never likely to stay away for too long, and he timed his return to perfection.
After a first cash in Event 5 here in Jeju, he jumped in to play three longs days in Event 6, the $25,000 buy-in WPT Global Slam. When the final hand was dealt, he found himself raking in the last pile of chips, defeating Calvin Lee heads up and claiming the $1.882 million first prize.
“I feel the power,” Filatov said in an enthusiastic winner’s speech, in which he revealed how Korean ancestry brought him to Jeju. His mother, who was born in Uzbekistan, is of Korean heritage, specifically from the island of Jeju. A trip here was in some ways a trip home.
It’s fitting then that Filatov hit a new career high in this event, taking career earnings beyond $7 million. More importantly, it marks an emphatic return to poker’s top table. Lee had been the dominant force during the early periods of a nine-handed final day, but Filatov seized the baton half way through the last period of play and was unstoppable from that point forward.
It was one way traffic in heads-up play, with Filatov grinding Lee down to dust. Lee eventually took a stand for his last 14 blinds with 
, but Filatov flopped best with his 
and there was nothing more to be done.
“This win is really special, and I’m really thankful for that,” Filatov said. “I get lucky so many time, ran so good. I can’t complain.”
He also paid tribute to his wife, who had given him a mask she acquired in Venice as a lucky charm. Filatov wore it to walk to the final table, and put it on once more as he hoisted both trophies: one from Triton, and one from tour sponsors WPT Global.
As for Lee, he claimed a runner-up prize of $1.185 million, more than double his previous career best score. But his hunt for a first Triton title will continue–though he’s in good form, having already made two finals on this trip to Jeju.
TOURNAMENT ACTION
Eighty players made it through the first day, which meant the opening levels of Day 2 were about surviving to the bubble. Only 63 places paid, so two full tables of players needed to bust before the cashiers needed to start work.
There were plenty of prominent players who couldn’t survive this particular passage of play. Triton stalwarts Kiat Lee, Eelis Parssinen, Christoph Vogelsang and Matthias Eibinger landed outside the ropes. Ethan “Rampage” Yau’s vlog also came to a screeching halt.
And though there were plenty of players nursing a short stack through this turbulent period, ultimately it was one of the medium stacks who fell in the worst position. Dan Dvoress, with 21 blinds, picked up 
and four-bet jammed from under-the-gun, having been three-bet by the big stack of Shunjiro Kita in the cutoff. Kita had it, though. His 
remained dominant through a low board and Dvoress was eliminated in 64th. Kita assumed the overall chip lead.
Of course, the next passage of play — the race to the final — is even tougher to navigate than what came before. And Kita was one of many unable to survive it. Alex Theologis, Justin Saliba and Michael Soyza all took major chunks from Kita’s stack before he was knocked out by Christopher Park in 33rd. And of those assassins, only Saliba managed to make it to the last nine.
By that point, Calvin Lee had surged to the top of the counts, leading four North Americans and five Europeans — with eight Triton titles between them — to a final. It lined up as follows:
Calvin Lee – 16,025,000 (40 BBs)
Justin Saliba – 13,675,000 (34 BBs)
Orpen Kisacikoglu – 12,775,000 (32 BBs)
David Coleman – 12,075,000 (30 BBs)
Igor Yaroshevskyy – 11,800,000 (30 BBs)
Anatoly Filatov – 9,200,000 (23 BBs)
Fedor Holz – 9,100,000 (23 BBs)
Pascal Lefrancois – 8,375,000 (21 BBs)
Jon Ander Vallinas – 4,225,000 (11 BBs)
The last nine returned for the last of three days, with comparatively shallow stacks but a $1.9 million carrot dangling in front of them if they could last the distance.
Spain’s Jon Ander Vallinas obviously knew that he would need some help to progress. 
was plenty strong enough to potentially begin his comeback and he got his last eight blinds in with it, three-bet jamming over Calvin Lee’s open.
Lee had a decent hand too, however, and his pocket tens won the crucial flip. It left Vallinas on the rail in ninth, which earned him $176,000.
Two-time Triton champion Orpen Kisacikoglu was returning to a final table for the first time since Monte Carlo 2023, and earning the first cash of this trip to Jeju. And coincidentally, he managed to find himself in the exact same flip as Vallinas before him, also squaring off too against Lee.
Kisacikoglu had 19 blinds when he three-bet Lee’s open with red pocket tens. Lee four-bet jammed 
and Kisacikoglu called. This time, Lee got the help he needed when a queen landed on the turn. That was terminal for Kisacikoglu, who had to settle for $220,000 and an eighth-placed finish.
Pocket tens were not done yet. And neither was Lee. Only around six deals later, Lee found the exact two cards once more — 
— and once again found an opponent raising into him. This time it was Pascal Lefrancois, who opened from under the gun with 
. Lee three-bet his pair, Lefrancois jammed, and the cards were on their backs again.
This run out was especially unfortunate for Lefrancois. He hit one of his overcards when the dealer put the 
out there. But the 
turn filled Lee’s straight, and that was unbeatable now. Lefrancois’ first cash of the trip earned him $312,000.
Lee was on a seemingly unstoppable run now, but he took a back seat to the next elimination. This one pitted pocket pair against pocket pair, but it was the nines of Igor Yaroshevskyy that stayed best against David Coleman’s sixes.
Coleman hadn’t managed to get anything going at the final table and had dwindled to 10 blinds. In his final hand, Lee opened and both Yaroshevskyy and Coleman called with their pocket pairs, both also ending with an overpair to the 
flop. Yaroshevskyy tickled a small bet in, Coleman shoved. Lee folded, but the nines were not threatened after turn or river.
Coleman’s third cash of the series was his biggest yet at $415,000.
Half of the eight Triton titles previously won by players at this final table belonged to Fedor Holz, and the German wizard was in decent shape to make it five. He was also enjoying some decent fortune in the early stages of the final, particularly in a hand where his rivered a straight on a 
runout. He had two opponents in the hand, Yaroshevskyy with pocket tens and Lee with pocket threes. But somehow the two with sets managed to wriggle away losing the minimum.
Holz was therefore not able to push into his most comfortable position of dominant chip leader, and had 13 blinds when his final hand came about. Coincidentally, in this one he was facing an opponent, Anatoly Filatov, holding 
, who flopped Broadway. Holz’s 
flopped top pair, but Filatov played it slowly, picking off Holz’s river shove.
The straight was still good then. Holz was out in fifth for $529,000.
Technically, Holz had suffered a bad beat, but it was nothing of the scale suffered subsequently by Justin Saliba to oust him in fourth. The opponent was the same, Filatov, and this time the Russian pro had 
in his hand. He open-raised from the small blind and Saliba, with , called from the big.
Filatov took the lead on the 
flop and made a half-pot bet. Saliba called and hit an over-card when the 
turned. Filatov checked, Saliba bet three-quarters of his stack and Filatov jammed for the rest.
Saliba called with top pair, but the 
river stabbed deep into Saliba’s hopes. He was out in fourth for $675,000.
The last three — Yaroshevskyy, Lee and Filatov — all had plenty to play with now, having each played a part in trimming the field down to this stage. For the first time so far on this stop in Jeju, we had three top-ranking players with relatively deep stacks. It was fun to watch them try to dance their way through the various situations.
Although there was experience to burn among these three, the only player with a previous Triton title to his name was Yaroshevskyy. But the Ukrainian was next to bust. Filatov took a significant portion of Yaroshevskyy’s stack with beating , when they both hit their kicker, and then Lee finished him off on the next hand.
Lee jammed the small blind with 
and Yaroshevskyy committed his last eight blinds with . Yaroshevskyy didn’t hit anything and Lee rivered an unneeded ace. That left Yaroshevskyy’s three-time ambitions in tatters, though he picked up $850,000 for third.
There were just two players left now but 120 blinds between them — Filatov marginally ahead with 67 to Lee’s 54. The stage was set for the first genuinely deep-stacked heads up duel of the week.
If only Lee had been able to pick up some cards to do anything about Filatov’s momentum. The Russian won just about every hand in as lop-sided a contest as you’ll see, including hitting trip fours with 
to beat Lee’s .
Ultimately, there was no stopping Filatov, who has found home from home in Jeju.
RESULTS
Event #6 – $25,000 NLH WPT Global Slam
Dates: March 2-4, 2025
Entries: 389 (inc. 156 re-entries)
Prize pool: $9,725,000
1 – Anatoly Filatov, Russia – $1,882,000
2 – Calvin Lee, USA – $1,185,000
3 – Igor Yaroshevskyy, Ukraine – $850,000
4 – Justin Saliba, USA – $675,000
5 – Fedor Holz, Germany – $529,000
6 – David Coleman, USA – $415,000
7 – Pascal Lefrancois, Canada – $312,000
8 – Orpen Kisacikoglu, Turkish – $220,000
9 – Jon Ander Vallinas, Spain – $176,000
10 – Tom Fuchs, Germany – $146,000
11 – Michael Soyza, Malaysia – $146,000
12 – Christopher Park, USA – $127,000
13 – Chen Dong, China – $127,000
14 – Yu Lei, China – $112,500
15 – Teun Mulder, Netherlands – $112,500
16 – Paul Phua, Malaysia – $100,500
17 – Aleksandr Zubov, Russia – $100,500
18 – Alex Theologis, Greece – $90,500
19 – Aliaksandr Shylko, Belarus – $90,500
20 – Kristen Foxen, Canada – $90,500
21 – Leon Sturm, Germany – $90,500
22 – Wai Leong Chan, Malaysia – $80,500
23 – Pavel Plesuv, Moldova – $80,500
24 – Manuel Fritz, Austria – $71,000
25 – Lin Yongjia, China – $71,000
26 – Mehdi Chaoui, Morocco – $71,000
27 – Yan Jing Yao, China – $71,000
28 – Yuha Kita, Japan – $61,500
29 – Daniel Rezaei, Austria – $61,500
30 – Will Tjokro, Indonesia – $61,500
31 – Yang Chongxian, China – $61,500
32 – Park Yu Cheung, Hong Kong – $52,000
33 – Aleks Ponakovs, Latvia – $52,000
34 – Shunjiro Kita, Japan – $52,000
35 – Fabian Bernhauser, Austria – $52,000
36 – Lucas Greenwood, Canada – $52,000
37 – YuHang Liu, Australia – $52,000
38 – Dimitar Danchev, Bulgaria – $52,000
39 – Vitalijs Zavorotnijs, Latvia – $52,000
40 – Adrian Mateos, Spain – $44,500
41 – Dylan Linde, USA – $44,500
42 – Joey Weissman, USA – $44,500
43 – Brock Wilson, USA – $44,500
44 – Byron Kaverman, USA – $44,500
45 – Keat Liu Chun, Malaysia – $44,500
46 – Andrei Kotelnikov, Russia – $44,500
47 – Ehsan Amiri, Australia – $44,500
48 – Stephen Chidwick, UK – $44,500
49 – Kaoumi Furuse, Japan – $44,500
50 – Ding Biao, China – $44,500
51 – Calvin Anderson, USA – $44,500
52 – Jamil Wakil, Canada – $44,500
53 – Yilong Wang, China – $44,500
54 – Ebony Kenney, USA – $44,500
55 – Thomas Mühlöcker, Austria – $44,500
56 – Nevan Chang, Taiwan – $41,000
57 – David Chen, USA – $41,000
58 – Michael Gathy, Belgium – $41,000
59 – Adrien Favre-Felix, France – $41,000
60 – Alex Boika, Belarus – $41,000
61 – Barak Wisbrod, Israel – $41,000
62 – Danilo Velasevic, Serbia – $41,000
63 – Mike Watson, Canada – $41,000