One of the Triton Super High Roller Series’ longest shining stars left it to the very last moment of his 12th full Triton festival to do what everyone always knew he could.
Tonight in Jeju, South Korea, in the final short deck turbo event of a long series, Malaysia’s Kiat Lee finally got his hands on a trophy.
He had previously cashed 32 times. He had previously made 17 final tables, including two here in Jeju on this trip. He had been defeated heads up on five previous occasions. But with a rail packed full of Triton stalwarts happy to stick around late into Saturday night, Lee eventually got over the line.
“It means a lot to me,” Lee said, struggling to find words to describe the torrent of emotion. “I always wanted to win a title.”
And now he has.
Lee beat the UK’s short deck expert Michael Zhang heads up to seal an incredible triumph and pick up the winner’s cheque of $264,000. But that money is an afterthought. This was all about the title for Lee, who has battled so hard for so long on this tour.
By the time it was winner’s picture time, another massive clutch of Triton regs had rushed to join this memorable moment.
A hugely popular champion, Kiat Lee
TOURNAMENT ACTION
The closing day turbo is something of a Triton tradition, offering players either a small leg-up as they try to get out of a hole, or to put a gloss on another winning series. As the usual candidates came and went, with Jason Koon bursting the stone bubble, the final table was packed with talent and packed with potentially show-stopping headlines.
A fairly forgettable trip ended in a stone bubble for Jason Koon
The top two places in the counts were occupied by Triton’s defining nearly-men, Isaac Haxton and Kiat Lee, whose combined 46 final table appearances, from 81 combined cashes, had somehow yielded zero titles.
Could one of them finally earn themselves a W?
Five-time champion Phil Ivey would surely have something to say about that. Similarly Lun Loon, another player making a habit of appearing deep in Triton events without ever claiming the top spot. Then there were short deck specialists Rene Van Krevelen and Michael Zhang, the latter joining Ivey at his second final table of the day.
They lined up as follows:
Isaac Haxton – 3,320,000 (221 antes)
Kiat Lee – 2,335,000 (156 antes)
Rene Van Krevelen – 1,945,000 (130 antes)
Lun Loon – 745,000 (50 antes)
Michael Zhang – 575,000 (38 antes)
Phil Ivey – 380,000 (25 antes)
Event 20 final table players (clockwise from back left): Michael Zhang, Phil Ivey, Isaac Haxton, Lun Loon, Rene Van Krevelen, Kiat Lee.
The casual poker fan will have been rooting for Ivey, but even he couldn’t turn this one around. Ivey became the first man out from the final, and was followed fairly quickly by Loon.
Ivey’s chips went to Haxton and Loon’s to Lee. Ivey had which lost to and Loon had that lost to . Neither could have any complaints as they collected $54,000 and $70,000 respectively.
Even Phil Ivey couldn’t spin up the short stackLun Loon landed at another final
Those two quick eliminations gave a false impression of what was to follow. Despite the turbo nature of things, they played four-handed for a long while with everyone who needed to double up when all in managing just that. Zhang did it twice through Haxton, and when Van Krevelen did the same, Zhang moved into the lead.
Zhang extended that advantage for a while, but it was then Van Krevelen’s turn to take over thanks to a succession of small pots. However when Haxton then doubled back through Van Krevelen, the American was back into the lead. The average stack was 29 antes and there was no predicting where might happen next.
Lee’s pocket queens made a boat for him to double through Zhang. Then a small pot against Van Krevelen put the Malaysian in front. But then Zhang doubled through Haxton and Zhang was the leader.
Finally, the dam broke. Van Krevelen had slipped to nine antes and got his chips in with black pocket eights. Zhang’s flopped two pair and rivered a full house. Van Krevelen’s tournament ended in fourth place for $89,000.
Rene Van Krevelen, third place for the short deck specialist
Zhang had distance between himself and his two opponents at last and began to try to turn the screw. However, it was a skirmish between the two short stacks that was the next significant moment: Haxton bust to Lee, with going down against Lee’s .
Haxton’s odds-defying barren streak on the Triton Series continues. His 50th career Triton cash was worth $116,000.
Yet another near miss for Isaac Haxton
The fact that it was Lee and not Zhang who knocked out Haxton meant there was near parity when heads-up began. Zhang had a marginal lead with 69 antes to 48, but it was not quite as imbalanced as it could have been.
It was immediately apparent that these two were now prepared to play, and play quickly. Zhang won the early pots, but then there was a big one. They got to a flop of after a single raise pre-flop and it all went crazy.
Zhang bet. Lee raised. Zhang shoved. Lee called.
Lee had the smaller stack but the bigger hand: his was ahead of Zhang’s . There was one more seven in the deck for Lee to hit on the river, and this was a massive swing in his favour.
“Let’s go!” came the shout from the rail.
Michael Zhang finished with a second-place finish
Lee now had 80 antes to Zhang’s 14 and the chips were in again quickly. This time, Zhang’s needed to hit against Lee’s and the room could sense something in the air.
Danny Tang and Lun Loon were shouting from the rail and Lee came over to sweat the flop with him. “Sorry, mate,” Tang said to Zhang, apologising in case any offence was taken for the partisan support.
“No problem,” Zhang said. “I’ll come over there, it’s easier.” Zhang therefore also joined the posse waiting for the dealer to deliver Lee’s fate.
All of flop , turn and river were blanks. And that was that. At last.
“Triton made me,” Lee said in an emotional winner’s speech. “Without Triton, I’m nobody.”
This nobody is now somebody. Triton is lucky to have him.
The winning moment
RESULTS
Event #20 – $25,000 SHORT DECK Dates: March 15, 2025 Entries: 31 (inc. 11 re-entries) Prize pool: $775,000
1 – Kiat Lee, Malaysia – $264,000
2 – Michael Zhang, UK – $182,000
3 – Isaac Haxton, USA – $116,000
4 – Rene Van Krevelen, Netherlands – $89,000
5 – Lun Loon, Malaysia – $70,000
6 – Phil Ivey, USA – $54,000
Fan favourite Tan Xuan gave the thousands of Triton Super High Roller Series viewers precisely what they had clamoured for in Jeju tonight: a typically swashbuckling victory in the $50,000 Short Deck tournament and a third Triton title.
“I like this game,” Tan said, offering the simplest of explanations of how come he could land a third victory in short deck events.
Tan, 38, is a legend of the Triton cash games, where his fearless aggression and seeming devil-may-care attitude to chips thrills anyone who happens to watch. But sitting across the poker table from Tan is a terrifying prospect, and today he proved again that he possesses some dastardly skills as well.
Tan beat a field of 45 entries, taking the top prize of $708,000, and essentially defending a title he won here in Jeju last year. Though this is no longer called the short deck “Main Event”, it is the same $50K buy-in tournament packed with the same all-round poker masters.
Tan just happens to be better than all of them.
“It’s very exciting, it makes me think,” Tan said of short deck.
Poker makes him happy: Tan Xuan
He then complemented the Triton Series as a whole, whose co-founders Paul Phua and Richard Yong regularly compete against Tan. “The Triton schedule is the best of any high stakes festival in the world,” Tan said. “The best players come and I like to play with them.”
Tonight Tan defeated his fellow cash-game favourite Esti Wang heads up, denying Wang what would have been his first title. Wang banked $512,000, though he made no secret of his desire to get his hands on a first Triton trophy. He’ll just have to come back and try again — and hope Tan has a rare off day.
Esti Wang’s victory will come one day
TOURNAMENT ACTION
The biggest buy-in of the short deck phase brought out the best players — or, at least, the best players who enjoy this variant of the game, where fewer cards means more gamble.
There’s also a slight change in the way stacks are handed out. Starting stacks of 300,000 are bundled at the start in three bullets of 100,000 each, meaning that when players bust, they merely “lose a bullet” and can then just put another 100,000 into play.
But the mercurial talent that is Tan Xuan, who was essentially defending the title he won in the comparable event here in Jeju last year, immediately put all three bullets on the table when he sat down. He likes to be the big stack and to play a bullying game and–what do you know?–by the time the tournament reached its final table, Tan still had the biggest stack.
Michael Zhang, second on the leader board, only managed to stay in Tan’s sights by knocking out Artur Martirosian in eighth, not only setting the final but also bursting the tournaments’s money bubble. Martirosian, chasing Player of the Year points, fell just short of a final table bonus when his lost to .
The final table assembled as follows:
Tan Xuan – 6,090,000 (203 antes)
Michael Zhang – 3,280,000 (109 antes)
Dan Dvoress – 3,090,000 (103 antes)
Esti Wang – 2,425,000 (81 antes)
Phil Ivey – 2,085,000 (70 antes)
Wai Leong Chan – 1,785,000 (60 antes)
Danny Tang – 1,495,000 (50 antes)
Event 19 final table players (clockwise from back left): Phil Ivey, Esti Wang, Danny Tang, Tax Xuan, Michael Zhang, Dan Dvoress, Wai Leong Chan
Wai Leong Chan is probably best known to Triton fans as the man who finished runner up to Bryn Kenney in the 2024 Monte Carlo Main Event. That tournament was in no limit hold’em, but Chan has results on the Triton Series dating from 2016 in tournaments of all disciplines. Here he was again, succeeding in the short deck streets.
Unfortunately he didn’t have the stack to really showcase his skills at this final table, and he ended up taking the fall first after a collision with Esti Wang. As tends to happen in short deck, the whole table limped before Chan looked down at and made a raise.
Everyone else folded, but Wang was lying in the weeds with pocket queens and three-bet. Chan shoved, Wang called and the dealer put a board on the table that ended with the case queen. The set won the day, sending Chan out in seventh for $118,000.
Wai Leong Chan was first out from the final
Dan Dvoress is a master of pretty much all poker variants, and short deck tournaments have been another happy hunting ground for the Canadian. In a comparatively lean series for Dvoress, he has made both final tables of short deck events so far in Jeju, and followed up a third-place finish with another deep run here.
This time he could go no further than sixth, however. A slow but regrettably steady decline at the final ended with Dvoress getting to a flop of holding . It was only a gutshot, overcards and backdoor spades, but Dvoress committed his last few antes.
Wang again proved to be the issue, specifically his , which turned a boat and locked it up. Dvoress departed with $146,000.
Dan Dvoress made back-to-back short deck finals
The two eliminations had pulled Wang close to Tan at the top, but he still hadn’t quite overtaken his old cash game nemesis. Then Tan busted Danny Tang to extend his lead at the top. Tang had only 20 antes when he opened and hit a big draw on the flop. Tan, Tang’s only customer pre-flop, had , which was middle pair. Tang shoved, Tan called, Tang missed on turn and river.
Tang earned $192,000 for fifth.
Another final, but no title this time, for Danny Tang
On the subject of all-round poker superstars, they don’t come any more shimmering than Phil Ivey, and here we had the American great at another final. Though he can of course play every game, four of Ivey’s five Triton titles have come in short deck, so this is seemingly where his edge is even bigger than ever.
When Ivey won a massive pot from Tan — Ivey’s beating Tang’s — he was close to the chip lead. But that turned out to be a false dawn for Ivey, who ended up handing the chips to Wang an orbit or two later.
On Ivey’s final hand, he followed two limps with a raise holding . One of those limpers, Wang, called with and hit top pair after the flop. Wang jammed and Ivey called off with his overcard and gutshot.
The turn and river only helped Wang. Ivey thus moved into the field of the final short deck turbo instead. He won $248,000 from this one.
Phil Ivey’s tournament ended in fourth
Wang had now opened up a significant lead over both Tan and Michael Zhang, who had held firm against the fireworks elsewhere. But Zhang couldn’t hold out forever, and ended up on the sidelines as the two Chinese players booked themselves a heads-up duel.
Zhang is a British pro, with plenty of huge results both online and live, though in recent years has become something of a short-deck expert, at least on the Triton Series. Jetting into Jeju specifically for these last three tournaments, Zhang’s appearance at this final proved it was worth the trouble.
However, there was no beating Tan in this mood, no matter the cards. After both opponents limped, Tan raised his button holding , technically one of the worst hands in short deck. Zhang called with but the all but ensured all the money would now go in.
Sure enough, Tan bet, Zhang shoved and Tan called. Zhang missed his draw and the most unlikely two pair took the field down to two. Zhang won $326,000.
Everyone sees the funny side as Michael Zang is eliminated in third
The two remaining Chinese players are titans of the Triton cash games who have spent hundreds of hours at the table together playing pots larger than the total prize pool of this event. But uniquely here there was a Triton trophy on the line as well, potentially a first for Wang or a third for Tan–a second in as many years in a $50K short deck event in Jeju.
By contrast, Wang had not even been to a Triton final before, despite playing on the series from the start. Either player would make a very popular champion.
The stacks were as follows:
Tan Xuan – 10,605,000 (85 antes)
Esti Wang – 9,645,000 (77 antes)
Heads up for the title
It was easy to expect this to now be a display of all-out aggression by both players as they attempted to bludgeon each other into submission. But it took at least an hour before the first called all-in, with Wang doubling through Tan to survive.
Enjoying the moment, Tan celebrated his opponents’ double up as though he had won. And it certainly loosened things up. Tan doubled back almost immediately, cracking Wang’s queens with , and moving back into a dominant position.
From that moment, it was all Tan. And when he did actually seal the deal around 20 minutes later, the celebration was far more muted than when Wang won the earler hand. The final hand pitted Tan’s against Wang’s with a board of giving Tan a straight to beat two pair.
Wang got up to congratulate his opponent. Tan smiled broadly. They’ll see each other on the cash tables tonight, no doubt.
RESULTS
Event #19 – $50,000 SHORT DECK Dates: March 14-15, 2025 Entries: 45 (inc. 20 re-entries) Prize pool: $2,250,000
1 – Tan Xuan, China – $708,000
2 – Esti Wang, China – $512,000
3 – Michael Zhang, UK – $326,000
4 – Phil Ivey, USA – $248,000
5 – Danny Tang, Hong Kong – $192,000
6 – Dan Dvoress, Canada – $146,000
7 – Wai Leong Chan, Malaysia – $118,000
Short deck made a welcome return to the Triton Super High Roller Series in Jeju this week–and it was especially well-timed for some of Triton’s long-established heroes, who helped produce a finale of exceptional quality.
Multiple Triton champions ringed the final table, including Jason Koon, Stephen Chidwick, Dan Dvoress and Mike Watson, with Triton co-founder Paul Phua taking centre stage among the final seven.
However, all the keen Triton fans who were watching those familiar faces wondering which would be holding aloft another trophy were looking in the wrong place. They should have been focusing on Artem Kobylynskyi, a 34-year-old Ukrainian player who had come to Jeju specifically to play short deck, and was actually sitting down at his first ever event on the tour.
Kobylynskyi not only made the money and then the final table on his Triton debut. He is a Triton champion at his very first attempt. It’s a remarkable achievement, giving him $492,000, but more importantly announcing himself on the grandest stage with a famous win.
“It was not easy,” Kobylynskyi told Ali Nejad in his post-game interview, describing how he needed to adapt his strategy on a player-by-player basis surrounded by such accomplished opposition. But this former online player coped with everything the bosses threw at him, and spoke glowingly of the variant that has given him his trophy.
“When you play hold’em, it’s not so interesting,” Kobylynskyi said.”I’m very happy that Triton keeps treating short deck well, I hope it will stay.”
All smiles with Ali Nejad for Artem Kobylynskyi
The Ukrainian’s final opponent turned out to be Watson, the Canadian four-time winner, who carried the chip lead to the final table and only really surrendered it when Kobylynskyi got into his stride. Kobylynskyi insisted that he made a few mistakes during the final table, but it was barely perceptible to the viewers. This looked like a near-perfect performance from a man who was to the manor born.
TOURNAMENT ACTION
After two long weeks of hold’em and PLO, it was time for the return of short deck. A couple of specialists flew in to Jeju for precisely this portion of the schedule, while plenty of the multidisciplinarians modified their internal workings slightly to accommodate short deck’s unique rule set.
The volume in the tournament area increased immediately as the fun of short deck quickly broke out. Registration stayed open for several hours at the start, which meant it was always worth chasing those draws, so long as you were prepared to accept it when someone else’s even more improbably holding came good. The net result was 56 entries including 27 re-entries and a prize pool of $1.68 million. Short deck is no longer at its peak, but it’s not dead yet.
Day 1 played down to the money, and then slightly beyond. Sam Greenwood, who hopped in the event after finishing second in the PLO Bounty Quattro tournament, seemed to be cruising to a second in-the-money finish of the day. However, with 75 antes in his stack (and table-mates Danny Tang and Paul Phua shorter, Greenwood ran into trouble against Mike Watson.
A bubble this time for Sam Greenwood
Greenwood limped/three-bet with , and then called Watson’s four-bet jam. Watson had and flopped two red kings to end Greenwood’s tournament right there. After Winfred Yu departed in ninth, eight players came back for the final day, on two tables.
Watson had by far the biggest stack at this point, and when he also managed to eliminate Tang early on the final day — Watson’s this time beating Tang’s — Watson was also dominant heading to the final.
Danny Tang doubled then bust on the last day
They lined up as follows for the seven-handed final:
Mike Watson – 5,635,000 (188 antes)
Artem Kobylynskyi – 3,155,000 (105 antes)
Lun Loon – 2,010,000 (67 antes)
Dan Dvoress – 1,735,000 (58 antes)
Paul Phua – 1,600,000 (53 antes)
Stephen Chidwick – 1,480,000 (49 antes)
Jason Koon – 1,185,000 (40 antes)
Event 18 final table players (clockwise from back left): Lun Loon, Jason Koon, Mike Watson, Dan Dvoress, Stephen Chidwick, Artem Koblynskyi, Paul Phua
Of course, Tang’s elimination had removed a five-time Triton champ. But Watson has four wins, Dvoress and Chidwick have two apiece, and Phua is also a former champion. When you then add Jason Koon’s previous 10 titles, this was a final with 19 trophies between them. Only Lun Loon and Triton newcomer Artem Kobylynskyi were without silverware.
Paul Phua, as always, was loving every minute he spent at the Triton tournament tables. That’s the main reason he and Richard Yong created the tour. And it seemed to give him immense pleasure to see Dan Dvoress flop quad queens in the first consequential pot of final table action, even though it resulted in his elimination.
Dvoress limped with the queens. Phua found and raised. Dvoress three-bet and Phua jammed. Dvoress called to set up a classic pre-flop flip, but the dealer’s hammer blow ended Phua’s interest early. Boss took $82,000 for seventh.
Paul Phua celebrates seeing quads, even if they knocked him out
Stephen Chidwick and Jason Koon were now the short stacks, and it was the former who took the fall first. Chidwick picked up and got his last chips in as a four-bet jam against Watson. Watson, however, had and stayed best.
Like Greenwood, Chidwick had started Thursday at the final table of the PLO Bounty Quattro, and joined the short deck after busting that. He picked up another $104,000 for this sixth-placed finish, and by the end of the day, he was sitting back down in the $50K short deck event too.
Stephen Chidwick made back-to-back final tables
By his own admission, this has been a rough trip for Jason Koon. The 10-time champion hadn’t enjoyed much run-good on this event, but his innate talents in short deck had brought him to the final table nonetheless. He ended up on the rail in fifth, banking $134,000, which will be a welcome fillip before the final two short deck events.
Koon was a short stack heading to the final and hung around through two eliminations. He doubled once, but then got in against Dvoress’ on a ten-high flop. But a queen on the river killed Koon.
Nothing to be done for Jason Koon
Koon’s near namesake — Loon, Lun Loon — now took over as the main focus. He made a straight with to double through Artem Kobylynskyi and begin a surge that took him from short stack to chip leader in the space of around 45 minutes. However, when Kobylynskyi then doubled back through Loon, Watson defaulted back into the lead.
This precipitated Loon tumbling back in the other direction and landing on the rail in fourth. He was back down to 18 antes when, in a single-raised pot, he got his chips in after a flop of holding . That was a double belly-buster straight draw, which is always more likely to hit in short deck than long deck hold’em. However Kobylysnkyi, Loon’s opponent, had for top pair with one blocker. Kobylynskyi jammed, Loon called off and then missed the draw.
Loon has now cashed 18 times on the Triton Series, but still seeks a first title. This time he left with $173,000.
An up and down end for Lun Loon
Dvoress assumed short-stack duties, but clung on for only one more hand. He too fell at the hands of Kobyslynskyi, though this one was a pre-flop raise/jam/call procedure.
Dvoress made the opening raise with ; Kobylynskyi jammed with ; Dvoress called. A jack on the flop all but killed it, and Dvoress perished in third for $229,000.
Dan Dvoress was knocked out just after laddering to third
The stage was now set for what was a pretty deep heads-up confrontation. Watson had a marginal lead with 72 antes to Kobylynskyi’s 63. With only two players left, the antes are essentially the same as regular blinds, so there was lots of play left.
However what followed was one-way traffic. Chips made their way slowly but steadily into Kobylynskyi’s stack, including during one huge pot where Kobylynskyi’s flopped a straight to beat Watson’s .
That sent a decisive pot to the Ukrainian and Watson then bled down to his last 27 antes. Picking up he opened for a standard raise, then saw Kobyslynskyi three-bet. Watson jammed and Kobylynskyi call, tabling .
Mike Watson fell just short of a fifth title
Nothing is ever certain in short deck, and the flop gave Watson a straight draw to go with his eight, which was still live. The turn followed by the river only helped his opponent, however.
All of a sudden, Kobylynskyi joined that very select group of people who have a record of Played 1, Won 1 on the Triton Series.
The life of a champion begins for Artem Kobylynskyi
RESULTS
Event #18 – $30,000 SHORT DECK Dates: March 13-14, 2025 Entries: 56 (inc. 27 re-entries) Prize pool: $1,680,000
1 – Artem Kobylynskyi, Ukraine – $492,000
2 – Mike Watson, Canada – $353,000
3 – Dan Dvoress, Canada – $229,000
4 – Lun Loon, Malaysia – $173,000
5 – Jason Koon, USA – $134,000
6 – Stephen Chidwick, UK – $104,000
7 – Paul Phua, Malaysia – $82,000
8 – Danny Tang, Hong Kong – $64,000
9 – Winfred Yu, Hong Kong – $49,000
We have grown accustomed over recent years on the Triton Super High Roller Series to lauding Finnish players as the wizards of pot-limit Omaha. But their time is done. We are living in the Spanish era.
Less than 15 hours after Sergio Martinez stood on the main stage at Triton Jeju and collected the PLO Main Event title, his countryman Lautaro Guerra occupied the same spot and took down the $30,000 PLO Bounty Quattro event for $783,000.
When you add the fact that Tom Bedell, the first PLO winner of this trip, lives in Madrid, this is a fairly comprehensive takeover from the conquistadors.
Of Guerra’s total payout, $280,000 came in bounty payments, representing just how dominant his victory was in this event. He knocked out six opponents, including three in the final three hands of the tournament, taking us from four-handed to a winner in the blink of an eye.
The tournament was, by that point, remarkably shallow, but it’s still amazing to see three consecutive eliminations in as many hands. Guerra got to keep his own bounty too, as well as the top prize, and adds one more famous success to his resume.
Ali Nejad, left, congratulates Lautaro Guerra
“There are many other nationalities that are doing well,” Guerra said, when asked why the Spanish have become so good at PLO. “We are just one more.” But with a huge smile, he added, “We’re having a good time!” And as he got his hands on a massive cheque and another trophy, it was easy to see why.
Guerra won a $100K PLO event in the Bahamas in January, where he defeated many of the same players he met in this tournament here in Jeju. But he made short work of even superstars like Nacho Barbero, Stephen Chidwick, Danny Tang, Gavin Andreanoff, Alex Foxen and Sam Greenwood — holders of a combined 13 Triton titles — to claim his first.
It had been a marathon last night, when Martinez completed his victory at around 4am. It was only just 6pm by the time Guerra had locked up his.
A 6pm finish thanks to Lautaro Guerra’s incredible run
TOURNAMENT ACTION
The starting field of precisely 100 entries gave some neatly rounded calculations: the total prize pool was $3 million, of which $1 million was in the bounty pool and $2 million went into the main pool. Bounties kicked in when 25 players were left; the money bubble was at 17.
Nobody likes bubbling, but could you fold top full house to ensure getting into the money? Paul Phua can. With 18 left Phua was looking at a board of and was facing a huge river bet from Andras Nemeth, which was more than what he had behind.
Phua said he had pocket kings, but tossed his hand away. Nemeth did the decent thing and showed that he had the case six, i.e. quads. What a great fold.
The unfortunate player who ended up bursting the bubble instead of the boss was China’s Lian Zhang. In a single raised pot, Lian flopped top pair, as well as a straight-flush draw, holding on a flop of .
Lian Zhang bubbles after Paul Phua survived
His last chips went in against Lautaro Guerra, who also had a flush draw, straight draw and a lower pair. The turn changed nothing but the river filled Guerra’s straight.
That sent Lian home without cashing and brought the rest back the next day to play toward a final table.
Alex Foxen led the field overnight, and he duly converted that lead into a seat at the final. But there was a significant shake-up across the board, with some of the overnight shorties, including Gavin Andreanoff and Stephen Chidwick, also building stacks to join Foxen at the final, while others including Ike Haxton, Phil Ivey and Shi Ning Dan tumbled out.
Shi’s departure in eighth confirmed the final table line up, as follows:
Sam Greenwood — 4,795,000 (38 BBs)
Gavin Andreanoff — 3,805,000 (30 BBs)
Alex Foxen — 3,375,000 (27 BBs)
Lautaro Guerra — 3,110,000 (25 BBs)
Danny Tang — 2,480,000 (20 BBs)
Stephen Chidwick — 1,435,000 (11 BBs)
Nacho Barbero — 1,000,000 (8 BBs)
Event 17 final table players (clockwise from back left): Nacho Barbero, Sam Greenwood, Danny Tang, Lautaro Guerra, Alex Foxen, Stephen Chidwick, Gavin Andreanoff
At this point, Gavin Andreanoff had picked up the most bounties — four already, which would translate into at least $160,000 extra when he cashed out — but everyone will have been eyeing Nacho Barbero’s eight-blind stack, plus the $40,000 bounty he had.
It was on the very first hand of final-table play when its destination was decided: Nacho opened and called all-in after Foxen three-bet . There wasn’t much exciting on the board, but a queen and a six were enough to lock it up for Foxen.
Barbero won $89,000 for seventh, and didn’t have any bounties.
Nacho Barbero bust on the first hand from the final
Chidwick had had the next shortest stack heading to the final, but doubled through Foxen to move into the middle of the pack. However, this was a short-lived boost because Chidwick then got involved in another confrontation with Foxen that ended with him on the rail.
Chidwick had and raise/called Foxen’s three-bet pre-flop. Chidwick’s hand was pretty, but Foxen had double suited aces — — which meant he was still ahead after the flop.
Foxen bet and Chidwick called all in with his straight draw. But he missed after the turn and river. He earned $116,000 for sixth and added another $40K for one bounty.
Stephen Chidwick deposits his last chips in the middle
This was already shaping up to be another very shallow final table, with the average stack between five players sitting at 13 big blinds. Foxen had the most, with 24, but it was another of those situations where any significant pot likely changed the chip lead.
At the other end of the counts, both Danny Tang and Gavin Andreanoff were sitting with five blinds apiece — and they knew they needed to get them moving. Tang was the first to find himself under threat. And Tang was the next to bust. His chips went in with and Guerra put him at risk with .
A king on the flop left Tang bellowing for an ace. But it never came and the five-time champion Tang departed in fifth, winning $147,000, plus $40,000 for his single bounty.
The tournament went on a break and when they returned Guerra had 31 blinds but his three opponents had only 19 combined. But even so, what happened next was incredible.
Andreanoff only had two blinds, and they were in immediately. They never came back. Andreanoff’s lost to Guerra’s when Guerra made a straight.
Andreanoff won $303,000, including $120,000 for his three bounties.
Gavin Andreanoff departs after another deep run
Foxen lasted only one hand longer. He had red aces on his last hand, but this time Guerra’s flopped a flush. (They bet on all streets, with Foxen also hitting his set of aces. But it wasn’t good enough.)
Foxen won $341,000 including $120,000 for three bounties.
Alex Foxen having fun despite the carnage
They reset the stage for heads up, but with Guerra sitting with 45 blinds and Greenwood only 5, this might not last too long. In fact, it lasted only one more hand, completing this startling three-from-three run.
Greenwood’s lost to Guerra’s . And just like that — bang, bang, bang — this tournament was done.
Sam Greenwood couldn’t stop the Spanish momentum heads-up
After a 4am finish to the Main Event yesterday, this tournament finished just after 6pm. There were four players left four hands before, but then there was only one.
RESULTS
Event #17 – $30,000 PLO Bounty Quattro Dates: March 12-13, 2025 Entries: 100 (inc. 55 re-entries) Prize pool: $3,000,000 (inc. $1 million in bounties)
1 – Lautaro Guerra, Spain – $783,000 (inc. $280,000 in bounties)
2 – Sam Greenwood, Canada – $380,000 (inc. $40,000 in bounties)
3 – Alex Foxen, USA – $381,000 (inc. $160,000 in bounties)
4 – Gavin Andreanoff, UK – $343,000 (inc. $160,000 in bounties)
5 – Danny Tang, Hong Kong – $187,000 (inc. $40,000 in bounties)
6 – Stephen Chidwick, UK – $156,000 (inc. $40,000 in bounties)
7 – Nacho Barbero, Argentina – $89,000
8 – Shi Ning Dan, China – $67,000
9 – Daniel Geeng, USA – $90,000 (inc. $40,000 in bounties)
10 – Phil Ivey, USA – $41,000
=11 – Andras Nemeth, Hungary – $78,500 (inc. $40,000 in bounties)
=11 – Eelis Parssinen, Finland – $58,500 (inc. $20,000 in bounties)
13 – Wai Kin Yong, Malaysia – $76,000 (inc. $40,000 in bounties)
14 – Chance Kornuth, USA – $153,000 (inc. $120,000 in bounties)
15 – Paul Phua, Malaysia – $33,000
16 – Isaac Haxton, USA – $32,000
17 – Artur Martirosian, Russia – $52,000 (inc. $20,000 in bounties)
Spain’s Sergio Martinez is the latest champion on the Triton Super High Roller Series — and what an event he chose to come out of the shadows.
Though he’s made several deep runs through two years on the tour, Martinez landed the top prize tonight in the biggest six-figure buy-in PLO event ever held, by Triton or any other operator.
It was a $100K buy-in with 91 entries and Martinez’ title came with a $2.34 million winner’s cheque and an extra large trophy. That’s the biggest prize anybody has ever won in a PLO tournament, anywhere, ever. He can also now strap an exclusive Jacob & Co timepiece around his wrist, an honour bestowed only on those players who have won a Triton Main Event.
Martinez seemed to be absolutely cruising to the title for long periods of the day, amassing a chip stack that frequently sat at more than 100 blinds and was almost always more than all of his opponents’ stacks combined.
The winning moment for Sergio Martinez
But a spirited fightback from two-time Triton champion Ding Biao threatened to loosen Martinez’ stranglehold on the event. It ended in a really gritty heads-up fight with Martinez himself having to bounce back from the point of elimination.
“I had a huge chip lead,” Martinez said in his post-game interview, “and all of a sudden it disappeared.”
He explained that he even told his confident girlfriend, who wanted to watch his victory moment, to go back to sleep because “tournaments can go the other way sometimes.”
She ignored him and was there as this 33-year-old former aerospace engineer flew to new heights thanks to the Triton Poker Series.
Sergio Martinez and his girlfriend make sure his winning hand is correct
Ding took $1.61 million for second, but was clearly bitterly disappointed to go so close to a third win and fall short. He just couldn’t quite get the job done against Martinez.
TOURNAMENT ACTION
For seemingly the umpteenth tournament in succession, this event quickly became a record-breaker. As 91 entries traipsed past the buy-in desk (including 44 re-entries), Triton’s own record for the biggest six-figure buy-in PLO tournament was eclipsed. It meant $9.1 million in the prize pool and a scheduled $2.34 million for the winner. The four-card game will never catch hold’em, but it’s doing a fair imitation here on the Triton Series.
Registration only actually closed at the start of Day 2, also the last day of competition, so organisers knew immediately that it was going to be a long one. But with leading players including Dylan Weisman, Jeremy Ausmus, Isaac Haxton and Gruff Jones busting short of the money, the bubble quickly approached and burst with equal haste.
The extra large trophy and Jacob & Co timepiece
For the second time this trip, Dan Dvoress landed just the wrong side of the payout line. He had a comparatively comfortable stack of 38 blinds, and picked up single-suited aces, specifically . After Zhikang Dai opened, Dvoress three-bet and Zhikang’s call took them to the flop.
Zhikang bet and Dvoress got the rest in. Zhikang was sitting with , which was all over this flop. He finished with a straight after the came on the river.
Dvoress bust in 16th, which was especially timely for his countryman Mike Watson and Triton Ambassador Jason Koon, who were the short stacks. They went out in 15th and 14th respectively, but earned $160,000 each.
Crowds gather to see Dan Dvoress (seated, in black hat) bubble the PLO Main Event
The next target was the final, and it was clear remarkably early that this one would be without a single Finn. Yesterday’s runner-up Joni Jouhkimainen bust in 11th, just after yesterday’s winner, Gergo Nagy. Gavin Andreanoff, after two painful bubbles, cashed in 10th, then Ben Tollerene and Dirk Gerritse were knocked out, to complete the final table lineup as follows.
Event 16 final table players (clockwise from back left): Ding Biao, Huang Wenjie, Mads Amot, Sergio Martinez, Zhikang Dai, Lin Wei, Tom Vogelsang
More than half the players at the table were from China, including the remarkable Huang Wenjie, who had already won the NLH Main Event this week. But by far the biggest stack sat with Spain’s Sergio Martinez, who was tearing through the field.
The first major skirmish of the final ran these two players into one another, with Martinez emerging with an even tighter stranglehold on proceedings and Huang’s two-time ambitions in tatters.
Martinez opened with and called Huang’s pre-flop three-bet. That took them to a flop of . Huang bet out, Martinez jammed and Huang called.
Huang had hit this flop pretty hard. His looked pretty pre-flop and it was now a set of eights. But Martinez also liked what he saw with his enormous draws. The on the turn gave him a winning straight. Huang was out in seventh for $423,000.
Huang Wenjie’s quest for a stunning double came up slightly short
Mads Amot is no stranger to the deep stages of PLO tournaments, but he’d be the first to admit he is usually surrounded by other fellow Nordics. In this instance, the Norwegian pro was alone. He lost a significant pot to Ding Biao’s flush and ended as the short stack, which he promptly got in the first time he saw a decent spot.
Amot had and open/called off after Vogelsang three-bet the big blind. Vogelsang’s started best and stayed that way through a board of . Amot was free to join the bounty event, with $536,000 added to his account.
The red light of doom lands on Mads Amot
Martinez was still an enormous chip leader at this stage withe nearly three times the average stack. Only Ding had the chips to potentially do any damage, but the other three players were all scratching around the 30 blinds mark–or 20 when the levels went up once again.
The next pot only succeeded in making the rich richer, this time at the expense of Tom Vogelsang. This has been a strong return to the Triton Series for the Dutchman, with two moderate cashes from the NLH portion of the schedule, then two final tables in the PLO. However, he couldn’t progress past fifth thanks to a really gross elimination at the hands of Martinez.
All four aces were out pre-flop, two in Vogelsang’s hand and two in Martinez’. They got all their chips in before the dealer showed them any more cards, but the flop of suddenly brought their kickers into play. Vogelsang had two fours — blockers in this instance — but Martinez had and , which was good for a straight.
Vogelsang took it well and departed, earning $686,000. When you’re hot, you’re hot. Martinez now had more than 70 percent of the chips in play.
A gross way to bust for Tom Vogelsang
There was a Spaniard sitting atop three Chinese, but when Zhikang bust next, his chips stayed with a countryman. Ding Biao got a boost to his stack when his bettered Zhikang’s .
Zhikang started the hand with seven blinds and they got the last of it in on a flop of . Ding’s jacks couldn’t be caught and Zhikang left with $854,000 for his troubles.
Zhikang Dai, standing, with a huge first cash on the Triton Series
The last three were now guaranteed seven figures and Martinez still had more than double his opponents’ stacks combined. But things can change quickly, and a double for Lin Wei through Martinez put the former as the closest challenger to the European, with Ding the shortest in the room. (It was aces holding against queens, for the record.)
However, Ding battled back, nosed ahead of Lin and then won a big one from Martinez. Ding’s stayed better than Martinez’ all the way through a flop, turn and river that brought draws that never materialised for Martinez. The 3 million-chip pot produced a 6 million swing and put Ding all of a sudden in the lead.
The formidable Ding Biao
With the levels increasing again, Lin slipped to 11 blinds once more. And then seven. And then four. Through all this, he must have been gleeful to see Ding and Martinez continue to play pots against one another, usually ending with more chips padding Ding’s stack.
Lin doubled back to eight blinds, through Ding, but his next attempt wasn’t so successful. Lin’s final hand was , which looked pretty. But it never caught up against Martinez’ .
Lin ended with another career best of $1,055,000.
Lin Wei waits for the help that never came
Two players remained and vowed to play it out pure, even though it was getting late in Jeju and Luca Vivaldi was close by with his ICM calculator if they wanted it. Ding had 56 blinds now to Martinez’ 20. There was still the prospect for a long one.
Ding widened the gap in small increments, until Martinez doubled to bring them level again. Ding had and flopped a flush draw to go with his over pair. But Martinez had and his better pair held. They had exactly 38 blinds apiece.
Martinez took another big dip again, however, which then required another double up to remedy. He had only 14 blinds to 43 but picked up aces and got the double, and they were even once more.
The game’s up for Ding Biao
To this point, it had been Ding winning the small pots and Martinez doubling up. But Martinez then went on a tear and won five back-to-back hands to leave Ding with just three blinds.
Ding found a great hand to get those chips in. He had and was up against Martinez’ . But a five flopped and Ding got up to leave.
The turn and river didn’t help him. This one belonged to Martinez.
As Ali Nejad stated to the popular Spaniard: “You can’t hide anymore, Sergio.”
A celebratory fist-bump from Ali Nejad
RESULTS
Event #16 – $100,000 PLO MAIN EVENT Dates: March 11-12, 2025 Entries: 91 (inc. 44 re-entries) Prize pool: $9,100,000
1 – Sergio Martinez, Spain – $2,340,000
2 – Ding Biao, China – $1,610,000
3 – Lin Wei, China – $1,055,000
4 – Zhikang Dai, China – $854,000
5 – Tom Vogelsang, Netherlands – $686,000
6 – Mads Amot, Norway – $536,000
7 – Huang Wenjie, China – $423,000
8 – Dirk Gerritse, Netherlands – $323,000
9 – Ben Tollerene, USA – $235,000
10 – Gavin Andreanoff, UK – $190,000
11 – Joni Jouhkimainen, Finland – $190,000
12 – Gergo Nagy, Hungary – $169,000
13 – Richard Gryko, UK – $169,000
14 – Jason Koon, USA – $160,000
15 – Mike Watson, Canada – $160,000
Four cards. Five figures in the buy-in. Seven figures up top.
It’s a specific recipe, served pretty-much exclusively by the Triton Super High Roller Series, that whets the particular appetite of a certain type of poker player–especially those from the PLO mean streets of Finland and Hungary.
Here in the Landing Casino, Jeju, South Korea, tonight two of those archetypes squared off in the closing stages of the $50,000 buy-in PLO event on the Triton Series latest stop.
Gergo Nagy, a 42-year-old pro from Budapest, sat opposite Joni Jouhkimainen, 33, from Helsinki and played until they settled where the latest Triton title headed. In this instance, Nagy snagged it, turning the tables on the man who beat him the only other time he’s been heads-up for a major PLO title.
Nagy banked $1.36 million for the win. Jouhkimainen’s runner-up finish was worth $930,000. “It was really good for me that I can take this revenge,” Nagy said at the end.
Joni Jouhkimainen is the first to congratulate Gergo Nagy
“Most of the time the cards played themselves,” an understated Nagy added in his post-tournament interview. But that wasn’t really true. This is a game of fine margins and intricate skills. Both Nagy and Jouhkimainen have everything it takes, and tonight claimed the riches they earned.
“I made some risky plays, but at the end of the day it worked out,” Nagy said. That’s as may be, but his risky plays were exceptionally well timed in a tournament that was characteristically swingy.
The moment of truth for Gergo Nagy
By the point these two sluggers squared off, a litany of the game’s stars were on the rail, including two more Finns — Patrik Antonius and Eelis Parssinen — and equally tough players from the UK, the USA and China (to say nothing of those who fell before the money bubble).
But Nagy joins his countrymen Andras Nemeth and Laszlo Bujitas as a winner on the series. And there’s no way we’ve seen the last of either him of Jouhkimainen.
Joni Jouhkimainen, second this time, will be back
TOURNAMENT ACTION
This was the second PLO event of the trip to Jeju and it had double the buy-in of the first. But did that adversely affect player numbers? Not one bit. This is the Triton Poker Series, where the higher the buy-in, the better.
In all, there were 112 entries and 57 re-entries for a prize pool of $5.6 million. As always, the great and the good of the four-card game got involved, and many of them were still battling as the field tightened to its money bubble.
But then it was a case of deju vu for one of the PLO experts.
Gavin Andreanoff, a Triton PLO champion in Monte Carlo, stone bubbled the first PLO event here in Jeju. And history repeated itself in the following event, when he was knocked out in 20th place, once again just a single spot from the money.
Gavin Andreanoff sees the funny side as he bubbles again
Andreanoff had nine blinds and raised from the small blind with . Luc Greenwood, with a massive stack, called from the big blind with .
The flop of gave Andreanoff top pair and a Broadway draw. Greenwood had a flush draw and some backdoor straight draws.
Greenwood got there, however, when the turn and river came . Andreanoff was out in 20th, another stone bubble — a double sickener for the British player. The rest of the field was in the money and, after playing a little longer to finish Day 1, Tom Vogelsang led the last 17 coming back to play to a winner on Tuesday.
Play on Day 2 began slowly. This tends to be the case with these high buy-in PLO tournaments: the fast action of the registration period gives way to careful control of pot size and slow accumulation of chips. Santhosh Suvarna gave a showcase of those skills through the early part of the day, but he then also demonstrated how dangerous it can be to abandon these ideals.
Suvarna had amassed enough chips to take over the lead, but then lost a big one to Xu Liang’s aces, followed by an even bigger pile heading to Jeremy Ausmus. Suvarna tried a big bluff on the river holding on a board of . Ausmus had , i.e., aces at the start, but now two pair using both lower cards. It was enough to vault him to the top of the counts.
Santhosh Suvarna built a big stack in the $50K PLO
Suvarna was out soon after, followed by the aforementioned Luc Greenwood. With eight-handed play dragging on, the stacks shallowed before they reached the final. Eventually, some Finn-on-Finn action accounted for the best-known of them all, Patrik Antonius, who was knocked out in eighth by Joni Jouhkimainen. The final seven (with only two Finns) reconvened as follows:
Event 15 final table players (clockwise from back left): Joni Jouhkimainen, Tom Vogelsang, Gergo Nagy, Eelis Parssinen, Jeremy Ausmus, Gruff Jones, Xu Liang
To the untrained eye, a 26 big-blind average seemed shallow. But the game has changed so dramatically as skill levels have increased that none of these wizards will have considered themselves out of it. And there was no guarantee that this would get done too quickly either.
When you talk about PLO wizards, the name of Eelis Parssinen is never too far from people’s lips. But this final table was not really one he’ll go on to remember at the end of his career. Parssinen was first out, four-bet ripping his 10 blinds with pre-flop, with Xi Liang as the opponent.
Xu had and a single pair of queens was all it took to win this one after a board of .
Parssinen’s $235,000 for seventh place went straight over the other side of the room to the $100K Main Event, where he’ll hunt his third consecutive PLO cash of the week.
The Eelis Parssinen frown says it all
This was the precise same route taken by Jeremy Ausmus, who was knocked out next. Ausmus has already won a title from this trip to Jeju, in no limit hold’em, but he too could get no further than a four-bet pot against Xu.
In this one, Xu opened and Ausmus three-bet . Starting the hand with 16 blinds, he was essentially committed and called off when Xu jammed. Ausmus had 56 percent, according to equity calculators, but Xu hit his five and his six to win the hand.
Ausmus won $318,000 for his sixth place.
Jeremy Ausmus departs in sixth
The double knockout for Xu catapulted him to the top of the counts, while the remainder of the field had between 10 and 20 big blinds. The shortest of all was now Tom Vogelsang, the player who had led the field for the longest periods on Day 1 and had progressed all the way to the final.
But Vogelsang’s stack was now short enough that a three-bet pre-flop was for all of it, and when he picked up queens — , to be precise — it was decent enough to get everything in over Jouhkimainen’s early-position open.
Jouhkimainen called with after after both players paired their ace on the flop, the turn was the crucial card for Jouhkimainen’s come-from-behind win.
Vogelsang tumbled out in fifth for $408,000.
Tom Vogelsang’s long hold of the chip lead translated into a fifth-placed finish
True to form, this tournament was by no means wrapped up, even though Xu and Jouhkimainen had clear air at the top of the leader board between them and anyone else. Indeed all it took was a timely double for Gruff Jones, with aces through Liang’s kings, to put the Brit on top of the pile and leave Liang at the foot.
As the tournament levels ticked by, the blinds continued to nibble at stacks, and Xu was in trouble. True to form, he did his best to muscle his way out of his predicament, but found Jones again with a hand. Xu opened the button with . He had a 10-blind stack.
Jones three-bet the small blind holding and Xu then jammed. Jones called and though his kings were already ahead, his two other cards played after the full board ran .
That meant a fourth-place finish for Xu, who adds $505,000 to his bankroll. It’s his 10th career Triton cash, but his first of this trip to Jeju.
Xu Liang was forced out in fourth
The remaining three players had 45 blinds between them and, as expected, the chip lead rotated between them. Jones seemed to be sitting pretty, but Jouhkimainen doubled through him, which put Nagy into the lead. Nagy had probably been playing the snuggest of all of them, steadily chipping up while avoiding almost all of the big all-in confrontations.
For Jones, his decline was now terminal. He was able to hang tough for a little while, but then ran into another Joukimainen full house to lose all but one of his blinds. Though he doubled that micro stack once, he couldn’t do it twice. His kings lost to Jouhkimainen’s (three hearts did it), and that was the end of the road for Jones.
The online PLO crusher took $611,000 for third, a new career high. But with high stakes PLO tournaments now featuring more commonly on schedules, that bar will go up again pretty quickly.
Gruffudd Jones checks to see his last blinds leave his possession
The heads-up duel was between leading exponents of the four-card game from two European PLO hot-beds. Joukimainen had 33 blinds to Nagy’s 11, but Nagy doubled with aces on the first hand of heads-up and it was truly game on.
Jouhkimainen slipped below 10 blinds again after the next significant confrontation went to Nagy. But he doubled back once more to bring the stacks level again. It was fascinating to see two players of this skill level battle with fewer than 40 blinds between them.
Heads-up for it all
Eventually, it had to give and it went in Nagy’s favour. He had 19 blinds to Joukimainen’s 18 when Nagy picked up aces for one last time. He limped with and then when Jouhkimainen raised with , Nagy stuck in a three-bet.
Jouhkimainen called and they saw a flop of . That was two pair now for Jouhkimainen, and he called when Nagy jammed. The turn added a flush draw to Nagy’s gutshot, but it was the seemingly innocuous on the river that ended up sealing it. Nagy’s two pair was better.
That was the difference between $1.36 million for first and $930K for second. And the difference between holding the trophy aloft and having to wait for another day. “The quality of the series, the tournament, the venue, I really like it,” Nagy said. He has even more reason to love this series now.
The opening PLO event of the Triton Super High Roller Series trip to Jeju ended tonight in the Landing Casino with some wild short-stack lunacy and a popular champion in the shape of Tom Bedell.
At 64, the Norwegian PLO specialist becomes the third-oldest player ever to win on the Triton Series, behind only the tour’s co-founder Richard Yong, who was 65 when he won his second title, and 69-year-old Vladimir Korzinin. Bedell first strolled into a Triton tournament room in Madrid in 2022 and has been a familiar visitor since, especially when the four-card game takes centre stage.
He used all his guile to survive an exceptionally volatile final today, arriving with the big stack, losing almost all of it, but then carrying the momentum back through a brief heads-up duel with China’s Shi Ning Dan.
By that point, American Hall of Famers Erik Seidel and Phil Ivey were both back in the hutch, and noted PLO crusher Eelis Parssinen and Richard Gryko had also fallen away. Bedell, beneath his trademark bucket hat, persistent grin and wearing his lucky shirt, was the champion and $709,000 richer.
What it means to Tom-Aksel Bedell
“I love these tournaments for sure,” Bedell told Ali Nejad in his post-game interview. Pausing to reveal that some previous hotel booking issues had stopped him coming to some other Triton events, he added, “Now they are forgiven, and I’m back!”
He lifted the trophy above his head with a roar, and began his life as a Triton champion.
Shi raked in $486,000 for second, which was all the more impressive given that it was his first ever tournament on the Triton Series, and his other documented poker results barely covered the $25,000 buy-in.
Shi Ning Dan made a splash on debut in Jeju
TOURNAMENT ACTION
Over the past couple of days, the halls and cafes at the Landing Casino, Jeju, had been filled with idling poker players. This is unusual because more commonly they’re sitting at poker tables. However, this was the PLO contingent, getting their bodies adjusted to the time zone before starting the second phase of this Triton Series festival. They got the chance to put their skills to the test with the start of the $25,000 PLO Event 13.
The 10 levels of registration brought 117 entries, putting $2.925 million in the prize pool and a $709,000 carrot at the top. And while early action was hectic, it slowed to an almighty crawl as the bubble neared, with most pots staying small, else short-stacks repeatedly doubling up.
Ten-time Triton champion Jason Koon lost his last chips with aces, beaten by Tom Bedell’s , a hand seemingly specifically designed to crack aces. Koon was out in 21st, leaving the field on its stone bubble.
After more than an hour, it was time finally for some more aces to be kicked out. This time Gavin Andrenoff, who won a PLO tournament in Monte Carlo in 2023, picked up and lost to Dirk Gerritse’s . Gerritse finished with a flush.
Sergio Martinez’s elimination took the field to the final table
Not only did the hand burst the bubble, it also ended Day 1. Bedell was a massive chip-leader, and the field also still featured American legends Phil Ivey and Erik Seidel, as well as Gerritse (better known as “venividi”), and Monte Carlo PLO Main Event champ Eelis Parssinen. It was quite a line-up.
Through the first two hours of play on the final day, only Gerritse of the players listed above hit the rail. Sam Greenwood, Jeremy Ausmus and Seth Davies also fell short of the final seven, but Ivey, Parssinen and Seidel were still involved.
Bedell’s closest challenge came from the British PLO specialist Richard Gryko, with China’s Wei Lin and Shi Ning Dan sitting in third and fifth, respectively. There were a couple of very short stacks but plenty of play. The last seven lined up as follows:
Tom Bedell – 7,100,000 (71 BBs)
Richard Gryko – 5,175,000 (52 BBs)
Wei Lin – 3,725,000 (37 BBs)
Phil Ivey – 3,675,000 (37 BBs)
Shi Ning Dan – 2,950,000 (30 BBs)
Eelis Parssinen – 550,000 (6 BBs)
Erik Seidel – 225,000 (2 BBs)
Event 13 final table players (clockwise from back left): Lin Wei, Shi Ning Dan, Erik Seidel, Phil Ivey, Richard Gryko, Eelis Parssinen
As the players walked out to the final table, the biggest cheer was reserved for Seidel. There’s not a single person in poker who does not respect his status in the game, as one of the only members of the established pre-boom old guard still competing in the cutthroat contemporary environment.
His stack here, of course, was going to be very difficult to spin into something playable and he duly bust on the first hand of final table play. Seidel’s went down to Ivey’s .
Seidel’s second final table of the trip ended in the same place as his first: seventh place, this time for $123,000.
Erik Seidel couldn’t spin up a short stack at the final
Eelis Parssinen started the final table with not much more than Seidel, but the Finnish PLO expert fared significantly better with his short stack. Parssinen scored two double ups to stay afloat, and even edged close to the average stack line.
Meanwhile, Bedell and Gryko were now trading places at the top of the counts, with every pot that made it beyond a flop usually resulting in a shake-up of the leader board. That was a symptom of a rapidly shallowing tournament, with the average stack hovering at fewer than 30 blinds and nobody busting.
This state of affairs was not sustainable forever, but it was the previously comfortable Lin Wei who ended up breaking the impasse. He had slipped to eight big blinds and got involved in a single raised pot with Ivey, which ended with Wei on the rail and Ivey up top.
Wei opened with and Ivey called in the big blind with . Ivey checked the flop, having now hit trips, and Wei jammed.
Ivey hit two jacks on turn and river to make a full house, which was plenty good enough to dispense with Wei. This was the first tournament Wei had ever played on the Triton Series, and he left it with $166,000.
Lin Wei is out in sixth
Ivey now had one blind more than Shi Ning Dan at the top of the counts, with Gryko having lost a significant pot to Parssinen, and Bedell also only really managing to tread water. As the tournament ticked into Level 24, the average stack, five-handed, was only 19 big blinds.
Parssinen now made his move. He scored an enormous double through Bedell, with Parssinen’s beating Bedell’s . They were all-in pre-flop and Parssinen hit two kings.
All of a sudden, Bedell was now sitting with crumbs, while Parssinen was top of the pack. However, when Gryko then doubled through Parssinen, the Brit pulled level at the summit with Dan, who had taken the overall lead by default having sat out the previous hand. One more pot to Gryko, and he was alone up top again. Average stack update: 16 blinds.
This short-stack shenanigans were all-but impossible to keep up with, and took another turn for the bizarre when Bedell doubled back through Ivey, leaving the American back at the bottom of the counts with three blinds. They took a 15-minute break and returned to the frankly absurd chip counts of 18 blinds for chip-leader Gryko, followed by Parssinen (14 BBs), Dan (13 BBs), Bedell (12 BBs) and Ivey (3 BBs).
It was, in short, anyone’s game.
Except, as it turned out, Ivey’s. The five-time Triton champion had the chance here to match Jason Koon’s achievement of holding trophies in all Triton variants: hold’em, short deck and PLO. But the major hand against Bedell before the break meant he ended up pretty-much forced all-in on the first hand after it.
The good news was that Ivey found , and saw Parssinen raise ahead of him. The bad news was that Shi, sitting behind him, had .
Parssinen got out of the way, but Shi’s aces held against the kings, and Ivey was finished. This fifth place earned him $213,000.
Phil Ivey, seated left, busts to Shi Ning Dan
True to the topsy-turvy nature of this tournament, the next chip leader was the man who had the most for most of the day: Bedell again. He won a comparatively small pot from Shi, but with tiny stacks across the board, it was enough to put him ahead. It was also enough for him to take on Parssinen in a big pot, which finally ended the Finn’s up-and-down event.
Bedell, on the button, opened . Parssinen defended his big blind with and the pair took in the flop.
Both player checked to the turn and now Parssinen committed his last chips. Bedell called with his pair and enormous draw. He hit it when the landed on the river.
Parssinen, the Monte Carlo PLO Main Event champion, was this time ousted in fourth. He took $264,000 — and the entries list for the $50K PLO event starting in the same room ticked up by one.
This one hurt for Eelis Parssinen
Bedell had more than his two opponents combined, and started to apply the pressure. Only a hand or two after Parssinen departed, Gryko found himself in Bedell’s sights. Bedell opened the small blind with and Gryko shoved from the big with . Bedell called and this was basically a flip on equity.
Gryko needed to hit something, but danced around everything on the flop. The turn changed little, then the gave Bedell a straight.
That was that for Gryko, who earned $320,000 for his third place. He’s another lock for the rest of the PLO schedule here, so it’s a useful boost to the bankroll for that.
The swings ended in third for Richard Gryko
The tournament paused to reset for head-up. Shi had 10 blinds to Bedell’s 37 and although Shi managed to prolong the duel for 20 minutes or so, there was really nothing he could do to stop Bedell.
On the final hand, Bedell had while Shi had . Bedell ended up with a straight after a board of , which he needed to beat the trip sixes of Shi.
1 – Tom Bedell, Norway – $709,000
2 – Shi Ning Dan, China – $486,000
3 – Richard Gryko, UK – $320,000
4 – Eelis Parssinen, Finland – $264,000
5 – Phil Ivey, USA – $213,000
6 – Lin Wei, China – $166,000
7 – Erik Seidel, USA – $123,000
8 – Sergio Martinez, Spain – $91,000
9 – Nacho Barbero, Argentina – $71,000
10 – Dirk Gerritse, Netherlands – $59,000
11 – Seth Davies, USA – $59,000
12 – Jeremy Ausmus, USA – $53,000
13 – Kahle Burns, Australia – $53,000
14 – Li Tong, China – $47,000
15 – Gergo Nagy, Hungary – $47,000
16 – Sam Greenwood, Canada – $43,000
17 – Shizia Liu, China – $43,000
18 – Andras Nemeth, Hungary – $39,000
19 – Martin Zamani, USA – $39,000
The final no-limit hold em event on the record-breaking Triton Super High Roller Series trip to Jeju lived up to all expectations tonight in the Landing Casino and produced the kind of final table that was certain to give us an exceptional champion.
When the final card was dealt at a little past 2 a.m. local time, all the chips had once again found their way in front of Thailand’s Punnat Punsri, one of the tour’s most reliable performers over the past few years.
Punsri’s victory had been predicted by the writing on the wall. Quite literally. An error on the LED screens around the tournament room had listed Punsri as a three-time Triton champion, when he had, at time of illumination, only two.
But this victory allows Punsri to catch up with his own LED banner, and gives him another $2,594,555.
The victory came after Punsri agreed a heads-up ICM deal with Germany’s Christoph Vogelsang, with the eventual runner-up collecting $2.456,445. Vogelsang had been the chip leader for much of the day, but slipped down the counts at the final (thanks in no small part to a remarkable hand against Ben Tollerene; read down for details), before bouncing back with a double elimination where there were four left.
Christoph Vogelsang was one half of a near 50/50 ICM split
That hand eliminated five-time Triton champion Mikita Badziakouski and two-time winner Chris Brewer. It was really that kind of tournament: all the stars squaring off for one last NLH payday.
But Punsri, as he has before, beat every one of them. He won a $50,000 buy-in NLH event here a year ago, and he did it again in the busiest stop of them all.
Three for Punnat Punsri
TOURNAMENT ACTION
The magnificent turnout for the Main Event meant tournament organisers extended the entry period for this, the final hold’em event on the schedule, to allow players to join the action on the last day. The crowds duly arrived to put the final entry tally at 93, including 33 re-entries, and more than $11.6 million in the prize pool.
As the field numbers then went the other way, with players flying out of the tournament as quickly as they arrived, Christoph Vogelsang and Chris Brewer ascended to the top of the counts. They were among those able to apply maximum pressure as the bubble neared, with the likes of Brian Kim, Leon Sturm and Phil Ivey clinging on.
Sturm bust, and then Kim found himself staring at the exit when he ran pocket queens into Danny Tang’s pocket aces. (Kim opened UTG, Chris Brewer three-bet the cutoff and Tang then tank-shoved the big blind. Only Kim called for all of his chips.) A queen in the window saved Kim, and left Tang with only four big blinds.
Tang doubled with pocket tens to stay alive. And just when it looked at though this was a bubble that would never burst, enter the combustible Tan Xuan.
Tan had 27 big blinds, considerably more than 10 opponents. But he is not a player who is going to try to fold into the money. Tan found and opened from the cutoff. Ben Tollerene three-bet the small blind. Tan moved it all-in and Tollerene, with pocket jacks and the covering stack, called to put Tan in danger.
All Tollerene needed was to fade an ace or a king. But the dealer made this a little more emphatic. There was a jack on the flop and another on the river, with Tan smashed by quads. The rest of the field breathed a sigh of relief as Tan headed over to the cash-game tables to take it out on opponents there for even higher stakes.
Easy come, easy go for Tan Xuan
Neither Tang nor Kim could spin their stacks all the way to the final. They fell, alongside Phil Ivey and Fedor Holz, just past the money bubble but short of the very final stages. When Michael Soyza followed Dan Dvoress out of the door, it left us with nine players, one from the final. But it took another 90 minutes or so before Masashi Oya was knocked out in ninth to confirm the final.
This was now the last table playing hold’em in the room, and it was filled with some of the best two-card poker players in the world. It lined up as follows:
Christoph Vogelsang – 5,075,000 (51 BBs)
Punnat Punsri – 3,090,000 (31 BBs)
Ben Tollerene – 2,970,000 (30 BBs)
Chris Brewer – 2,640,000 (26 BBs)
Mikita Badziakouski – 1,850,000 (19 BBs)
Joao Vieira – 1,820,000 (18 BBs)
Dan Smith – 585,000 (6 BBs)
Kiat Lee – 525,000 (5 BBs)
Event 12 final table players (clockwise from back left): Joao Vieira, Mikita Badziakouski, Kiat Lee, Chris Brewer, Punnat Punsri, Christoph Vogelsang, Christoph Vogelsang, Dan Smith, Ben Tollerene
The prolonged nine-handed marathon had left half the field with fewer than 20 big blinds, and Kiat Lee and Dan Smith in particularly dire straits. When Dan Smith found , it was easily good enough to get his six blinds in, but he was unfortunate enough to slam into Chris Brewer’s pocket queens.
There was no ace to seen for Smith and he was first out from the final, picking up $413,000. It was a fifth cash of the trip for Smith and a second final table. His third title will follow some day.
Dan Smith takes the slow walk to the payouts desk
To this point, Vogelsang’s chip lead had seemed unimpeachable, but Ben Tollerene considered it no such thing. He won a massive pot from Vogelsang to assume the lead himself, pegging the German back into third. Vogelsang had and called Tollerene three times, pre-flop, then after the flop and the turn.
Tollerene fired a third barrel on the river of , a virtual all-in, at which point Vogelsang let his hand go. But if Vogelsang had been suspicious, he might have wished he’d have followed his instincts. Tollerene had pulled off a sensational bluff with . Tollerene soared to the top as the chat went wild.
Meanwhile Kiat Lee had similarly been hanging around with a micro-stack, hoping for an opponent to succumb to the ICM pressure. He doubled once, from two to four blinds, and then nearly got his wish for a ladder when Brewer jammed the small blind and Mikita Badziakouski’s call from the big blind put himself at risk.
Mikita Badziakouski agonises over a crucial decision
But Badziakouski’s stayed better than Brewer’s for the double, which left Lee once again the man most likely to hit the skids next. So it proved as lost to Vieira’s . Lee was out in seventh for $540,000.
Another near miss for Kiat Lee
It was his 32nd Triton cash. He won’t need reminding that he hasn’t yet managed to convert. In a further insult, every other player left in the final six had at least one title already.
Stacks were short but none of these wizards was going to tumbling out at this stage without good reason. It’s another reason Tollerene’s bluff was so audacious. The sorry irony for Tollerene is that when he managed to pick up legitimate hands — ace-king, in back-to-back hands — he was knocked out in a classic one-two punch.
First up, lost to Punnat Punsri’s queens. Punsri doubled his 23 blind stack and Tollerene was left with 10. Next hand, lost to Vieira’s pocket jacks. Tollerene was done, earning $686,000 for sixth.
Two big flips accounted for Ben Tollerene
He’ll always be remembered for that bluff against Vogelsang, but he ended on the rail anyhow. With the PLO starting, however, he’ll be back.
Punsri now had the monster stack, and he was also hitting some cards. It was only a couple of hands after Tollerene’s elimination that Punsri found a big pair again, jacks this time, and knocked out Vieira.
This one was four-bet pre-flop, with Vieira jamming . He turned a jack to leave Vieira drawing dead and heading to the payouts desk, looking for $878,000. Vieira has also had a very good week, and is also a mean PLO player. So his trip isn’t over either.
Joao Vieira’s two-time charge ended
When they went on the next tournament break, Punsri was in total control. He had 63 blinds. Vogelsang had 15, Badziakouski 11 and Brewer 5. The good news was that the minimum payout was now seven figures.
This might have now become a cakewalk for Punsri, but Vogelsang doubled up quickly with a dominant ace. That at least gave the chip leader something to think about, while Badziakouski and Brewer were short. But Badziakouski doubled too, with beating and there were still four players with a chance.
Scratch that. All of a sudden, the field was cut in half.
Brewer, with eight blinds, raised his button with . Badziakouski, in the small blind, called with . Vogelsang woke up with and put it all in, covering his two opponents. But both of them called for all their chips.
Chris Brewer bust on the same hand as Mikita Badziakouski
Vogelsang was dominant and turned an ace to seal the deal. They were quickly down to two players: Vogelsang, with 42 blinds, against Punsri with 51. Time to get Luca Vivaldi to calculate an ICM deal.
They had just north of $5 million to split between these two places and the calculations gave Punsri a guaranteed $2,504,555 and Vogelsang $2,456,445. There was $90,000 on the side too, which meant whoever took it down would win the most — as well as the trophy and the bragging rights.
Luca Vivaldi arrives to help the last two negotiate a deal
It pretty much came down to just one hand. Punsri completed the small blind with and Vogelsang checked with . The flop came .
Vogelsang checked and Punsri stabbed with his small pair and flush draw. Vogelsang raised. Punsri three-bet and Vogelsang called.
Vogelsang, left, congratulates Punsri on his victory
They both checked the turn, but then Punsri moved further into the lead with the river. Vogelsang saw his chance to have a stab at it and made a hefty bet of almost all his stack. Punsri had two pair and made the big call.
Vogelsang had less than a blind left and it went to Punsri on the next hand.
That’s the ACTUAL three-time for the Thai pro. Each has come with a prize of more than $2 million. Very nice indeed.
Punnat Punsri begins celebrations with, among others, Danny Tang, Kiat Lee, Lun Loon and Michael Soyza
The biggest six-figure buy-in tournament in poker history tonight found a highly unlikely, but highly capable, winner as China’s Huang Wenjie blasted through a supremely talented field to win $5.555 million.
The Triton Super High Roller Series’ visit to Jeju has smashed records during pretty much every event, but with 285 entries to the $100,000 Main Event, the bar was raised higher than even the most optimistic expectations.
That the tournament would then be won by a 35-year-old comparative newcomer with less than $80,000 in documented tournament earnings to date took all by surprise, not least the humble Huang himself.
“It’s amazing, it’s unbelievable,” Huang said, speaking through an interpreter, as he prepared to hoist his Triton Poker Series trophy. “I’m super lucky.”
The new champion hoists his trophy
Huang downed the formidable Dan “Jungleman” Cates in a five-hand heads up battle, denying the self-styled “Bad Boy Cates” what would have been a third Triton title. But Huang was actually not such a rookie at this part of the game: he has a WSOP bracelet won in a heads-up online event. Not bad for a man who still works in tech in his native Hangzhou.
However, Huang produced a clinic in the three-day tournament: Cates was only the last opponent he beat, from a field featuring the very best of poker from across the world.
When the tournament was four-handed, players from the superpowers of United States, India, Russia and China sat around the table for a peaceful diplomatic standoff. The event was watched live by thousands of people in all corners of the globe, underlining the incredible reach of the Triton Series, and the tour’s unique ability to bring such a diverse field together.
Second place for the self-styled bad boy, Dan Cates
Huang is the latest Main Event champion who will also now be wearing an exclusive Jacob & Co timepiece, provided by the official timekeeper of the tour. The champion’s first date is a dinner reservation he promised for a packed rail of supporters, who cheered him on from the sidelines in the Landing Casino, Jeju.
It was a tremendous performance from this unassuming player, who will now surely be tempted to play even more on the Triton Series. After a debut like this, how can he resist?
TOURNAMENT ACTION
The staggering interest in Triton’s latest visit to Jeju had meant a packed tournament room all week, in tournaments with buy-ins of all levels. Having broken previous attendance records in the $25K buy-in event earlier in the festival, similar crowds began appearing for the $100K Main Event — edging first past the previous best mark of 216, then past 250, and eventually to 285.
That meant $28.5 million in the prize pool and a first prize of more than $5.5 million. It also meant a “min-cash” of $163,000, and all the stress and tension of a day-and-a-half race to the money.
The record-breaking stats at Triton Jeju
When the bubble came around, as it will inevitably do, it seemed like a great time to pick up pocket kings. That’s probably what Gytis Lazauninkas thought, and he was happy to make a committing raise of more than half his 12 big blind stack from early position.
Alex Foxen, with his typical big stack, called from the small blind and the dealer put the flop of on the table. Foxen checked and Lazauninkas stuck the rest of his chips forward. Foxen called, though was halted from showing his cards immediately while hands on the rest of the tables played out.
Establishing no one else was all-in, attention flipped back to Lazauninkas. He showed his kings and Foxen tabled . Lazauninkas was smart enough not to celebrate, and that was fortunate, because the turn was the . Lazauninkas’s mouth flickered downward at the corners–about as much emotion as a top-ranking poker player will allow–but it was impossible not to sympathise with the man who just missed out on a $163,000 min-cash.
An ace on the turn was heartbreak for Gytis Lazauninkas
Perhaps this will make him feel slightly better: the player who bust immediately before him, to take us to the stone bubble, was Phil Ivey.
Of course, Ivey was not the only top-ranked player not to get near the final. And over the remainder of Day 2, plenty more headed to the rail, albeit with a cash. Seth Davies, Steve O’Dwyer, Mikita Badziakouski, Stephen Chidwick, David Yan and Ike Haxton all perished through a punishing Day 2, and “Boss” aka Triton co-founder Paul Phua ran kings into aces to bust in 33rd.
The original plan to reach a final on Day 2 had been long abandoned, so 16 players bagged up and headed to bed, led by Huang Wenjie, from Dan Cates and Santhosh Suvarna. When they came back on Sunday, they needed to shed another seven players before fitting round the final table.
Everyone at this point was guaranteed more than $300,000. But having come this far, it always feels like a disappointment to miss out on the very highest places. It was a particularly punishing phase of play for the Eastern European contingent, with one Russian, Anatoly Filatov, one Belorussian, Aliaksandr Shylko and two Lithuanians, Rokas Asipauskas and Paulius Vaitiekunas falling short.
One title from this trip to Jeju will have to do for Anatoly Filatov
Vaitiekunas had led for long periods on Saturday, but was knocked out by Suvarna in 10th to set the final. Vaitiekunas won $480,000, but this was the second time in his career he’d finished 10th in a Triton Main Event. It stings.
Suvarna, meanwhile, now took over the tournament chip lead.
Another final table bubble for Paulius Vaitiekunas, standing
FINAL TABLE LINE-UP
Santhosh Suvarna – 12,000,000 (60 BBs)
Sam Greenwood – 11,225,000 (56 BBs)
Huang Wenjie – 10,850,000 (54 BBs)
Artur Martirosian – 10,375,000 (52 BBs)
Dan Cates – 9,925,000 (50 BBs)
Clemen Deng – 8,925,000 (45 BBs)
Alex Boika – 4,275,000 (21 BBs)
James Hopkins – 2,800,000 (14 BBs)
Nacho Barbero – 875,000 (4 BBs)
Main Event final table players (clockwise from back left): Sam Greenwood, Dan Cates, Santhosh Suvarna, Nacho Barbero, Alex Boika, Artur Martirosian, Clemen Deng, Huang Wenjie, James Hopkins
The first order of business for Nacho Barbero was getting himself a playable stack. That required a quick double-up. Thankfully for the Argentinian, he picked up a suited ace not long after sitting down — — and got pretty-much a full double through Sam Greenwood’s .
For James Hopkins, it wasn’t so easy. Hopkins had nine blinds when he looked down at , which was plenty good enough to get everything in. Chip-leading Suvarna found pocket 10s in the big blind — a far bigger hand than he was likely prepared to call with anyway — and called to put Hopkins at risk.
A low flop later and Hopkins was toast. His first final table on the Triton Series earned him $570,000.
Despite doubling through Martirosian with a better ace, Barbero was still comparatively short, as was Alex Boika. But it was Clemen Deng who ended up tumbling down the counts thanks to a collision with Cates. This was was brutal for Deng, who got his aces cracked by Cates’ , with Cates flopping top pair and turning two pair, then checking, laying the trap for a big check-raise on the river.
Deng paid off Cates and lost all but four blinds of his stack. He survived about an orbit more before the chips went to Huang Wenjie, whose flopped set of fives was plenty good enough to beat Deng’s .
The aces were now coming out with increased regularity, and the next time they landed in the capable hands of Cates. It was especially fortunate for him, and the opposite for Barbero, because Barbero found at the same time. Barbero three-bet jammed over Cates’ open and Cates made an obvious call.
The board this time didn’t have any ace-cracking potential, and so Barbero was finally done in seventh for $946,000, the last payout of less than $1m.
Adios Nacho Barbero
With seven figures now guaranteed, this was clearly a good week for everyone left. But Boika, who fell next, might have considered himself a little unlucky. He looked down at in the small blind and saw Artur Martirosian jam the button. Boika committed his last 11 blinds, and was ahead of Martirosian’s . But the dealer put the on the flop.
Boika couldn’t catch up through turn or river, and that was the end of the line for him. He collected $1.288 million, around three times as much as his previous biggest tournament score.
Alex Boika departs having recorded a career-best score
Cates had opened up a big chip lead at this stage, but the average among the last five was 48 blinds. Compared with other Triton finals, this was still pretty deep.
The chips began to move around the table. Martirosian was cut down, but bounced back through Suvarna. That left Suvarna short. Meanwhile Huang pushed himself back above Cates, but then gave some to Martirosian too to allow Cates to nose back in front. Suvarna, however, peeked over his short stack to see Sam Greenwood become the next player out, losing a cooler to Huang.
Greenwood was under the gun with 26 big blinds. He found pocket jacks and opened. Huang, however, had pocket kings in the big blind and put in the three-bet. Greenwood went for it with his big pair, Huang called, of course, and there was no help for Greenwood. His fifth place earned him $1.687 million.
Sam Greenwood’s jacks ran into kings
Suvarna was now back in danger and the former champ from Cyprus was doing everything he could to keep his tournament going. He doubled with pocket threes through Huang’s . But it was only a stay of execution. With six blinds left, Suvarna open-shoved again from the small blind with and Wang this time picked him off with .
Suvarna flopped his ten but Huang turned a king. That was the end of the day for Suvarna. He extended his lead at the top of the India money list to the tune of $2.14 million.
Santhosh Suvarna’s two-time hopes are extinguished
Staring over the table at leading talents from the United States and Russia didn’t seem to faze the lesser experienced Huang. He had more than his two opponents’ combined chip stacks, and seemed to know precisely how to leverage it. Cates and Martirosian’s stacks grew all but even, but then Huang split them up in a massive pot against the Russian.
After Cates folded his button, Martirosian completed from the small blind. Huang raised and Martirosian called for a flop of . In many circumstances, this flop would be innocuous. In this, it was anything but.
Martirosian’s had flopped top pair. However, Huang’s was now a set. Martirosian played it cautiously, check-calling on the flop, then check-calling again on the turn. After the river, Martirosian checked again and faced the inevitable shove. He spent a long time in the tank, but then came to the conclusion he should call.
Martirosian threw his last 15 blinds into the middle and found out the bad news.
Whatever happened today, Martirosian knew he had done enough to take over at the top of the all-time Russia money list. It was just a question of by how much he would overtake Igor Kurganov on that list. As it turned out, this was a $2.644 million boost to Martirosian’s coffers, and another chunk of points in his Player of the Year hunt. It may well be enough to put him top again.
The game is up for Artur Martirosian
Cates and Huang now prepared for their heads-up duel. Huang had 88 blinds to Cates’ 31.
On the very first hand of heads-up, a chunk of Cates’ stack went to Huang. Jungleman had , but Huang’s rivered a pair, which was good for a 15-blind pot. Huang and Cates traded pre-flop shoves on the next two hand, and then all the chips went in for the final time.
Cates limped from the small blind with and Huang jammed with . Cates called and needed to catch to prolong this one beyond five hands.
Cates did hit, but Huang hit harder. The flop came . The left Cates with one out to survive, but the river was not it.
With that, Huang had pulled this one off. He’d cut the vine carrying the Jungleman, and successfully carved his way through the biggest six-figure buy-in poker tournament in history, sealing an incredible $5.555 million first prize. Another $3.528 million is heading to Cates, but Huang is the real hero of this one.
Huang Wenjie gives a shout out to his rail
RESULTS
Event #11 – $100,000 NLH Main Event Dates: March 7-9, 2025 Entries: 285 (inc. 105 re-entries) Prize pool: $28,500,000
1 – Huang Wenjie, China – $5,555,000
2 – Dan Cates, USA – $3,528,000
3 – Artur Martirosian, Russia – $2,644,000
4 – Santhosh Suvarna, India – $2,140,000
5 – Sam Greenwood, Canada – $1,687,000
6 – Alex Boika, Belarus – $1,288,000
7 – Nacho Barbero, Argentina – $946,000
8 – Clemen Deng, USA – $695,000
9 – James Hopkins, Australia – $570,000
10 – Paulius Vaitiekunas, Lithuania – $480,000
11 – Anatoly Filatov, Russia – $480,000
12 – Vincent Huang, New Zealand – $422,000
13 – Murly Manokharan, Malaysia – $422,000
14 – Raul Manzanares, Spain – $379,000
15 – Aliaksandr Shylko, Belarus – $379,000
16 – Rokas Asipauskas, Lithuania – $336,000
17 – Ryuta Nakai, Japan – $336,000
18 – Tobias Schwecht, Germany – $294,000
19 – Alex Foxen, USA – $294,000
20 – Wai Leong Chan, Malaysia – $294,000
21 – Michael Soyza, Malaysia – $265,000
22 – Ben Heath, UK – $265,000
23 – Poseidon Ho, Taiwan – $265,000
24 – Jean Noel Thorel, France – $236,000
25 – Alex Theologis, Greece – $236,000
26 – Isaac Haxton, USA – $236,000
27 – Ding Biao, China – $236,000
28 – Aram Oganyan, USA – $208,000
29 – David Yan, New Zealand – $208,000
30 – Stephen Chidwick, UK – $208,000
31 – Vladimir Minko, UK – $208,000
32 – Daniel Rezaei, Austria – $182,000
33 – Paul Phua, Malaysia – $182,000
34 – Samuel Muller, Austria – $182,000
35 – Mikita Badziakouski, Belarus – $182,000
36 – Kristen Foxen, Canada – $182,000
37 – Steve O’Dwyer, Ireland – $182,000
38 – Lun Loon, Malaysia – $182,000
39 – Sanuel Ju, Germany – $182,000
40 – Seth Davies, USA – $163,000
41 – Dimitar Danchev, Bulgaria – $163,000
42 – Teun Mulder, Netherlands – $163,000
43 – Calvin Lee, USA – $163,000
44 – Mario Mosbock, Austria – $163,000
45 – Ferdinand Putra, Indonesia – $163,000
46 – David Chen, USA – $163,000
47 – Andras Nemeth, Hungary – $163,000
The Triton Super High Roller Series set a new incredible mark in Jeju, South Korea, on Saturday, obliterating its own previous record for the largest six-figure buy-in event in poker history.
The $100K NLH Triton Poker Main Event attracted a staggering 285 entries, smashing the previous record of 216 entries from the same tournament here in Jeju last year.
There were 180 unique entries, also a record, plus 105 re-entries.
The tournament prize pool hit $28.5 million, with the winner set to receive $5.555 million. Forty-seven places will be paid; the min-cash is $163,000.
Announcing the prize pool to the packed tournament room at the Landing Casino, Jeju, Triton Tournament Director Luca Vivaldi was clearly proud of the achievement. “We did it again,” Vivaldi said, before quickly correcting himself. “Scratch that, you did it again.”
A mic-drop moment for Triton TD Luca Vivaldi, announcing the prize pool to the field
Vivaldi continued: “Thanks to our partners and our sponsors, our incredible dealers, our whole Triton family, and most importantly you, the players, the real stars of this show.
“Because of your incredible and continuous support we have officially broken another record and rewritten what is achievable in the world of poker. The biggest six-digit buy-in in the history of poker. This moment belongs to you.”
The tournament’s prize pool of $28.5 million is the biggest ever on the Triton Series outside of its Invitational events. Similarly, the $5.555 million first prize will beat the $5.26 million won by Mikita Badziakouski in the 2019 Triton Jeju Main Event, which had a $260K buy-in. (Players may yet opt to do a deal at the end of the tournament, which could reduce the top-place payout.)
Perhaps most remarkably, it is the seventh biggest tournament, by field size, of any event on the Triton Series, including tournaments with significantly smaller buy-ins. The four biggest fields in Triton Poker history have all come on this trip to Jeju, with the 391-entry field for the $25,000 NLH topping the list.
All other events in the top 10 biggest tournaments, by field size, have buy-ins of $25,000 or less.
Another huge field on the Triton Series
Triton’s five biggest $100K+ buy-in tournaments (by entries)
285 – Jeju 2025 $100K Main Event ($28.5m prize pool) 216 – Jeju 2024 $100K Main Event ($21.6m prize pool; Winner: Roman Hrabec) 182 – Bahamas 2025 $100K Main Event ($18.2m prize pool; Winner: Alex Foxen) 171 – Montenegro 2024 $125K Main Event ($21.37m prize pool; Winner: Mikalai Vaskaboinikau) 159 – Monte Carlo 2024 $125K Main Event ($19.9m prize pool; Winner: Bryn Kenney)
Triton’s five biggest prize pools (excluding Invitational events)
$28.5m – Jeju 2025 $100K Main Event (285 entries) $21.6m – Jeju 2024 $100K Main Event (216 entries) $21.275m – Montenegro 2024 $125K Main Event (171 entries) $19.875m – Monte Carlo 2024 $125K Main Event (159 entries) $19.2m – Jeju 2025 $150K NLH (128 entries)
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and 
and flopped a flush draw to go with his over pair. But Martinez had 
on the river that ended up sealing it. Nagy’s two pair was better.
