Category: 2024

With nearly $40 million in live tournament earnings, four World Series bracelets and victories across all events on the European Poker Tour, you might have assumed Adrian Mateos had at least one victory on the Triton Super High Roller Poker Series to his name.

But it’s only after tonight’s performance in Jeju that that assumption is true.

Mateos blitzed through the final day of the $30,000 buy-in Event 5 here in South Korea, surviving the inherent turbulence of a short-stacked final table to down David Peters heads up and win $1,175,000.

Mateos had 10 previous cashes on the Triton Series, including a $3.1 million score when he chopped the Main Event in Monte Carlo last year. But he ended up yielding that title to Matthias Eibinger.

The Spanish No 1 was not to be denied in this return to the top table, however, and finally got his hands on a Triton trophy at around 8.30pm local time. By that point, the rest of the 185-entry field had departed, and even Peters had now been vanquished.

Having been his country’s pioneer in so many poker pursuits, Mateos became the first Spaniard to lift a Triton Series trophy too.

“Thank you to everyone supporting me,” Mateos said in victory. “Especially the Spanish poker community.”

Many of them ran on stage to celebrate with him at the end.

“I feel amazing,” Mateos said. “I’ve had a really good day.” He referenced the Monte Carlo Main Event where he came so close but fell at the final hurdle, and added too that he had bubbled five or six times on the Triton Series. “But that’s part of the game.”

His father came to watch his final table in Monte Carlo, but was viewing from afar this time around. “They’re supporting me,” Mateos said. “My dad, my mum, all my family…We will have some celebration.”

For Peters, who took $790,000 for second, it represented a welcome return to the Trion Series after a near year-long absence. Peters had had a relatively barren time of it on his most recent visits to this tour, and he opted to skip the previous three stops.

But he came back here in Jeju with renewed purpose, and showed incredible guile to survive for long periods with a micro-stack. He doubled it up at critical moments and managed to get heads-up with Mateos. But the Spaniard’s momentum was just too much.

They survived a final that also featured Phil Ivey, Patrik Antonius and Mateos’ friend Joao Vieira. And Mateos said the presence of those other greats helped him bring his A-game.

“I wasn’t nervous, but super focused,” Mateos said. “It was a tough final table. I respect them a lot but I just try to beat them.”

And beat them he did.

TOURNAMENT ACTION

With another huge field, it meant another long Day 1 — and a late night race to the bubble. Soft hand-for-hand took a while, but hard hand-for-hand was relatively quick. That’s because a cooler ended up ousting an unfortunate Aleks Boika in 32nd place.

Boika had 14 big blinds when he looked down at and raised. Yulian Bogdanov three-bet with pocket jacks and Boika called. The dealer put the flop of on the table and, with top pair and backdoor possibilities, Boika committed the last of his chips.

Bogdanov called and was rewarded instantly with the on the turn. Boika still had outs but the river turned Bogdanov’s set into full house and turned Boika’s hopes to ruin.

The remaining field was now guaranteed a minimum $49,000 apiece — and a good sleep for the 24 players who made it to the end of the day.

INTO DAY 2

The returning field was a who’s who of Triton — and, by extension, global poker — greats, topped by one of the game’s form talents Jesse Lonis. But Lonis followed previous overnight chip leaders here in Jeju by hitting the rail before the final table was set.

Lonis perished in 13th, shortly before Event 1 champion Fedor Holz. Even so, the final table still found room for Phil Ivey, David Peters, Adrian Mateos, Joao Vieira and Patrik Antonius, giving poker fans an absolute treat on the live stream.

The full final nine lined up as follows:

Patrik Antonius – 7,700,000 (39 BBs)
Seth Gottlieb – 6,000,000 (30 BBs)
Joao Vieira – 5,200,000 (26 BBs)
Ramin Hajiyev – 5,100,000 (24 BBs)
Yulian Bogdanov – 3,775,000 (19 BBs)
Adrian Mateos – 3,375,000 (17 BBs)
Lun Loon – 3,150,000 (16 BBs)
David Peters – 1,450,000 (7 BBs)
Phil Ivey – 1,275,000 (6 BBs)

For Ivey and Peters, the mission was simple: find a spot to get the chips in and hope to double up. Ivey managed it quickly, taking up against Antonius’ and winning. Peters shoved a few times and picked up blinds and antes, which kept him afloat with rapidly shallowing stacks all round.

How shallow? Well, after a few orbits of final table play and no players knocked out, the average stack was 16 big blinds and the chip leader had 28. Those ICM handcuffs were locked around all nine pairs of wrists, as even Antonius, Mateos and Hajiyev, who were exchanging the chip lead, couldn’t really afford to put a foot wrong.

Eventually, the dam broke. And it was Ivey who took the long walk from the final table first. Ivey’s pocket tens lost a flip to Mateos’ and sent the US great out in ninth. He banked $119,000 for this one, but still seeks a sixth Triton title.

Malaysian businessman Lun Loon soon followed in Ivey’s footsteps. Already at his second final table of the trip to Jeju, Loon continues to improve event by event and it’s easy to forget he’s only been playing this game for around three years.

This time, his run was halted by Yulian Bogdanov. With action folded to Loon in the small blind, he pushed his last six blinds in with . Bogdanov found in the big blind, snap-called and won.

Loon was out, earning $145,000 for eighth.

Pretty much any pot now could mean the difference between elimination and a top half stack, and Gottlieb’s double through Hajiyev put the former back near the top and put the latter into the danger zone. Meanwhile David Peters dwindled to two big blinds but managed back-to-back double ups to stick around.

As if to underline the enormous volatility, the next player to hit the rail was the previously imperious Antonius. He too was undone was Mateos, who opened with and called when Antonius shoved with .

Antonius endured a rough trip to Triton Monte Carlo last year, but has bounced back with a final table appearance early in this festival. However, his $198,000 for seventh was probably less than he was hoping for when they got down to the final.

Mateos now had close to 60 big blinds, which was the biggest stack anybody had seen for a good few hours. Bogdanov was his closest challenger; everyone else had fewer than 15.

The next set-up sent Hajiyev out. Bogdanov this time found the ace-king, specifically , and Hajiyev picked up pocket fives in the small blind. He pushed for eight big blinds and Bogdanov called. The king on the flop won him the race.

Hajiyev, the champion of the Invitational event in Cyprus last year, had to make do with sixth place in this tournament. It came with a $271,500 consolation prize.

Peters had watched all this carnage from behind a tiny stack, but he managed to double it up again through Gottlieb and rise to the dizzy heights of third overall. Naturally, Mateos kept up the pressure on everyone else with continued pre-flop raises, knowing that if anyone wanted to tangle, they were risking the end of the line.

So it proved for Vieira, who had largely kept away from most of the danger until he could hold on no more. The Portuguese No 1 has started his trip to Jeju strongly, with cashes in three out of four tournaments played so far. But his first serious skirmish with Mateos proved to be his last, with Mateos pairing his jack with and beating Vieira’s .

Vieira’s $358,000 for fifth was his biggest Triton cash to date.

Peters doubled up again. But then he lost an enormous pot to double up Gottlieb. This was gross in any circumstances — Gottlieb’s pocket kings outdrawing Peters’ pocket aces — but Peters must have felt that he was freerolling anyway, having nursed so few chips for so long.

He was soon back down to three big blinds and looking to rebuild again. And rebuild he did. He doubled through Bogdanov, Mateos and Mateos again, which left Bogdanov in trouble. But then Bogdanov doubled through Mateos twice and then Gottlieb and he was able to tread water some more.

Not so Gottlieb. It’s important to note here that none of the four remaining players ever really put a foot wrong, each of them finding the correct spots to get their chips in but learning that winning flips is very important. Gottlieb’s money went in with when he ran into Bogdanov’s aces, then with when he saw Mateos’ river a straight.

Had he have won the pot, Gottlieb would have been chip leader. As it was, he was out in fourth for $452,000. Having already finished runner up in another event, Gottlieb continues to amass plenty of Player of the Year points.

Mateos might have run away with it again, but Peters doubled with against the Spanish player’s to put them neck-and-neck.

Mateos pulled away again, however, with the elimination of Bogdanov. For such a short-handed passage of play, there were numerous premium hands, and Mateos found another one — pocket queens — to finally end Bogdanov’s resistance.

Bogdanov had and three-bet shoved. He couldn’t hit.

There seems to be a Bulgarian at every Triton final table these days, and it was Bogdanov’s turn to return in this event. A third place for $557,000 is a very good result.

The heads-up battle began with only 62 big blinds between the two of them. Mateos had 40; Peters had 22. After last night’s battle between comparative unknowns, tonight’s duel saw two of the world’s best known — 10th and 15th on global poker’s all time money list — squaring off.

Mateos won most of the small pots, with Peters forced to three-bet shove to keep himself alive. However, when Peters pushed for 13 big blinds holding , Mateos did the math and made the call with .

It stayed good and Mateos finally got his name, and his country, on the Triton board.

Event #5 – $30k – NLH 8-Handed
Dates: March 8-9, 2024
Entries: 185 (inc. 59 re-entries)
Prize pool: $5,550,000

1 – Adrian Mateos, Spain – $1,175,000
2 – David Peters, USA – $790,000
3 – Yulian Bogdanov, Bulgaria – $557,000
4 – Seth Gottlieb, USA – $452,000
5 – Joao Vieira, Portugal – $358,000
6 – Ramin Hajiyev, Azerbaijan – $271,500
7 – Patrik Antonius, Finland – $198,000
8 – Lun Loon, Malaysia – $145,000
9 – Phil Ivey, USA – $119,000
10 – Igor Yaroshevskyy, Ukraine – $101,000
11 – Vincent Huang, New Zealand – $101,000
12 – Fedor Holz, Germany – $90,500
13 – Jesse Lonis, USA – $90,500
14 – Samuel Ju, Germany – $82,000
15 – Brian Kim, USA – $82,000
16 – Weiran Pu, China – $73,500
17 – Brandon Wittmeyer, USA – $73,500
18 – Phil Nagy, USA – $65,500
19 – Dimitar Danchev, Bulgaria – $65,500
20 – David Yan, New Zealand – $65,500
21 – Sirzat Hissou, Germany – $60,000
22 – Tony Truong, China – $60,000
23 – Wang Yang, China – $60,000
24 – Michael Addamo, Australia – $54,500
25 – Kannapong Thanarattrakul, Thailand – $54,500
26 – Alex Theologis, Greece – $54,500
27 – Kiat Lee, Malaysia – $54,500
28 – Dylan Linde, USA – $49,000
29 – Changjie Zhang, Singapore – $49,000
30 – Mikita Badziakouski, Belarus – $49,000
31 – Roland Rokita, Austria – $49,000

Photography by Joe Giron/Poker Photo Archive

Even poker’s best know superstars had to start somewhere, and during the third tournament of the Triton Poker Series trip to Jeju, South Korea, it quickly became clear that we would be finding a new breakout star.

This was another record-setting field. There were 298 entries of $25,000 each in the tournament billed as the Silver Main Event. But by the time the tournament reached its business end, in the early hours of Saturday morning, three relative newcomers were the only ones left.

Paulius Vaitiekunas, of Lithuania, laid down a marker on the Triton Series, carrying a huge chip lead for most of the day, and then recovering to close out the tournament even after that lead turned to dust. He eventually denied Germany’s Alex Tkatschew a maiden title, with that pair having been two thirds of a deal that also included Aram Oganyan, of the United States.

All three won close to $1 million, with Vaitiekunas nosing ahead thanks to the $100,000 the three of them left to play for after the deal. Tkatschew banked $1,002,000 and Oganyan $989,501.

For each, it was the biggest win of their career.

It might be tempting to call out Vaitiekunas for having turned down an ICM chop four handed, when he was clear chip leader, that would have netted him more than his eventual prize. But he should be celebrated really for regrouping after surrendering that lead. He managed to regain focus and take down the dogged Tkatschew in a short-stacked heads-up blitz.

“I rejected a deal four-handed, not because I had an advantage in skill, but because of the chips,” Vaitiekunas said. He added clearly that he knew all of his opponents at the final were very good players, but knew that they were “hand-cuffed by ICM”.

Vaitiekunas fired numerous bullets at Triton’s last stop in Monte Carlo and came up short, but said it only inspired him to perform here. “I did everything I could to come to Jeju, and somehow I won,” he said.

“Poker is a game of doing as less mistakes as possible,” the new champion said. “I learnt a lot in Monte Carlo and I learnt a lot here and I’m looking forward to the rest of the series.”

It was far from easy, despite the massive stack he held for long periods. Triton Ambassador Jason Koon was at another final table. So was Koon’s countrymen Dan Smith and Joseph Cheong. But this one turned out to be the tournament for the newbies. Or should we say the future stars.

TOURNAMENT ACTION

The new record-setting field meant 47 players were due to be paid, a new high for a Triton tournament too. Seven tables were still in play as the bubble approached, with a system of soft hand-for-hand helping to smooth the process.

It was plenty smooth for everyone bar Biao Ding, who was seated at the fastest-playing table and who was knocked out in 48th place before some rivals at other tables had even played as many hands.

Ding got his last chips in with and lost when Steve O’Dwyer’s rivered a queen. Even though there were still catch-up hands to be played across the rest of the field, and anybody busting would have meant a chop of the 47th-place prize money for Ding, the short stacks all wisely folded.

It meant Ding left the tournament floor alone in 48th, while 47 others were in the money.

At the beginning of this tournament, as players arrived in their dozens, tournament organisers briefly feared this was an event that might need an additional day to complete. But it soon became apparent today that stacks were shallowing rapidly, and players were knocked out about as quickly as they arrived.

Overnight chip leader Steve O’Dwyer was among those to be cast aside long before a final table. And even Benjamin Chalot, who took over the lead after a few levels of Day 2, was knocked out before they got close to a winner.

As the field condensed even further towards a final, luminaries including Ike Haxton, Jonathan Jaffe and Juan Pardo departed. And when two-time Triton champion Michael Addamo hit the rail in 10th, we could finally convene for the last stages.

The two men who had played wrecking ball most effectively to this point, Lithuania’s Paulius Vaitiekunas and Germany’s Alexander Tkatschew duly found themselves at the top of the counts. But Vaitiekunas had 80 big blinds to Tkatschew’s 42, with everyone else even less than that. This one seemed to be Vaitiekunas’ to lose.

FINAL TABLE CHIP COUNTS

Paulius Vaitiekunas – 16,075,000 (80 BBs)
Alexander Tkatschew – 8,325,000 (42 BBs)
Joseph Cheong – 7,825,000 (39 BBs)
Dan Smith – 7,325,000 (37 BBs)
Maksim Vaskresenski – 6,725,000 (34 BBs)
Aram Oganyan – 6,725,000 (34 BBs)
Roman Hrabec – 3,150,000 (16 BBs)
Jason Koon – 2,200,000 (11 BBs)
Chen Guangcheng 1,200,000 (6 BBs)

It’s usually about this point that Jason Koon starts rising through the ranks. If Koon gets to a final, he has the most enviable habit of going on to win. But not this time. Twelve big blinds was too few even for a player of Koon’s extraordinary abilities, and it didn’t help running into Dan Smith’s pocket aces either.

Koon opened from under the gun, Smith shoved the big blind and Koon called. Koon ended up pairing his queen, but it was not enough. He was agonisingly slightly too late to register for Event 5 too, but took $149,000 for this one and a night off.

Without question, the player who will have been most delighted by Koon’s demise was Chen Guangcheng. The Chinese Triton debutant had an even smaller stack coming into the final but had now laddered up.

He managed to pinch a couple of blinds with uncontested pre-flop shoves, but ended up on the rail when he got it all in good against the bullying chip leader. In what proved to be Guangcheng’s final pot, action folded to Vaitiekunas in the small blind. He had such a huge lead that he could shove with any two cards, and was indeed any two.

Guangcheng woke up with in the big blind and put his last chips in. However, the nine on the flop ended up being the killer. Guangcheng was out in eighth, landing a first cash on the series of $182,000.

There were still a lot of medium-sized stacks out there, including the one in front of Smith. He had given some of the chips he won earlier to Joseph Cheong after the latter’s pocket sixes became a straight. And then another set-up earned Cheong another big pot, this time ending Smith’s participation.

Cheong picked up red pocket jacks and opened from the cutoff. Smith saw pocket eights in the big blind and moved all-in for 21 blinds. Cheong called. Smith flopped an eight to give him hope, but the turn brought a jack to swing it back to Cheong.

Smith won the big invitational in Monte Carlo last year and is clearly still in good form. But his run in this one came to a halt in seventh, for $248,000.

Cheong’s profitable run at the final temporarily reduced the gap at the top of the counts. But nobody else could seem to mount a challenge — and even Cheong got pegged back when he lost a flip to double Aram Oganyan.

Similarly, Maksim Vaskresenski lost half his stack to double up Roman Hrabec, and he could not recover. Vaitiekunas was waiting in the wings to finish the job.

Vaitiekunas pushed again from the small blind with his mighty stack and . Vaskrensenski called for his last chips with . There was a king on the flop to all but end it, and Vaskrensenski departed in seventh.

Vaskrensenski, from Belarus, was another player making his debut on the Triton Poker Series here in Jeju and he scored his first cash with this performance. It earned him $337,000.

The last five went on a 15-minute break and returned with an average stack of 24 big blinds. Vaitiekunas had more than double that and Hrabec had only a sixth of it, which meant the new significant pot was crueller than most.

Hrabec got the last of his chips in with and, after Cheong called from the small blind, Vaitiekunas ripped it in from the big. It persuaded Cheong to let it go.

Vaitiekunas only had but the board ran to mean the played. That was a flush for Vaitiekunas and another knockout.

Hrabec has cashed all three tournaments so far here in Jeju, finishing 18th, 25th and now fifth. The $441,000 was his biggest on the Triton Series since his first ever appearance in Vietnam.

With only three big blinds now separating the “other” three players (i.e., not the chip leader Vaitiekunas), they paused the clock to look at a potential deal. Negotiations didn’t last long but they were not fruitful. It looked as though Vaitiekunas’s demands were to steep for Tkatschew, so they played on.

As can sometimes be the case, Vaitiekunas may have ended up regretting the failure of the deal. In quick order, Oganyan doubled up through the chip leader, winning with pocket jacks against Vaitiekunas’ . All of a sudden, the lead no longer seemed unassailable.

Vaitiekunas looked to steady the ship with the elimination of Cheong, his erstwhile closest challenger. Cheong moved in from under the gun with pocket sevens and Vaitiekunas found pocket tens in the big blind. That was a snap call and Cheong quickly learned from one of his opponents that he was drawing to one out. Another seven was already in the discard pile.

The board was blank and that was the end of Cheong’s tournament. The American player, with a whole string of enormous cashes from across the poker world, is taking a stab at the Triton Series for the first time in Jeju. He is $560,000 richer as a result.

Vaitiekunas was only an observer as it became Tkatschew’s turn to double, winning a flip through Oganyan. This one was pocket fours against , resulting in a switcheroo between third and second place. When Tkatschew then doubled again, this time through Vaitiekunas, followed by Oganyan doing the same, the last three had 26, 25 and 24 big blinds, respectively.

It was now officially anyone’s game.

The combined Triton earnings of these three players before this event came in at only around $60,000. All of them were set to beat that by large multiples. But they belatedly tried again to take some of the variance out of things by discussing another deal. This time they agreed on the following.

Alex Tkatschew, who was now marginally in the lead, locked up $1,002,000. Aram Oganyan guaranteed himself $989,501. And Paulius Vaitiekunas now made $977,499 certain. There was $100,000 left on the side for the ultimate winner.

Short-handed deal-making doesn’t always speed things up. In fact, sometimes the contrary can be true. With everyone now knowing their main payout, they settled in for what was essentially a short-stacked winner-take-all tournament for $100,000, the likes of which many of these players play hundreds of times a week online.

They played a few small pots. And they played a few more. The level went up and blinds got steeper, and Oganyan’s stack became the smallest.

He then had to get it in as an open-shove from the button with . Tkatschew reshoved from the small blind with .

Oganyan picked up a straight draw on the turn, but by that point his opponent had two pair. Tkatschew filled a boat on the river and that spelled the end for the last American in the tournament. Oganyan settled for the $989,501 he had negotiated for himself earlier.

Tkatschew took a near three-to-one chip lead into heads up play, with 36 big blinds to Vaitiekunas’s 13. The German rail featured Leon Sturm and Tobias Schewcht; the Baltics were represented by Aleks Ponakovs and Dominykas Mikolaitis. After a brief repositioning, they got ready to settle it once and for all.

The first blow went to Vaitiekunas. He doubled up to even with flopping a king to beat Tkatschew’s . The second significant blow went in his direction too, and by this time he had moved back into a small chip lead.

Tkatschew got his chips in with and Vaitiekunas called with . “Hold!” bellowed the rail. It held.

RESULTS

Event #3 – $25k Silver Main – NLH 8-Handed
Dates: March 7-8, 2024
Entries: 298 (inc. 124 re-entries)
Prize pool: $7,450,000

1 – Paulius Vaitiekunas, Lithuania – $1,077,499*
2 – Alex Tkatschew, Germany – $1,002,000*
3 – Aram Oganyan, USA – $989,501*
4 – Joseph Cheong, USA – $560,000
5 – Roman Hrabec, Czech Republic – $441,000
6 – Maksim Vaskresenski, Belarus – $337,000
7 – Dan Smith, USA – $248,000
8 – Chen Guangcheng, China – $182,000
9 – Jason Koon, USA – $149,000

10 – Michael Addamo, Australia – $125,000
11 – Juan Pardo, Spain – $125,000
12 – Danilo Velasevic, Serbia – $110,000
13 – Vladimir Troyanovsky, Russia – $110,000
14 – Jonathan Jaffe, USA – $99,000
15 – Isaac Haxton, USA – $99,000
16 – Benjamin Chalot, France – $88,000
17 – Dong Chen, Hong Kong – $88,000
18 – Kayhan Mokri, Norway – $77,000
19 – Valeriy Pak, Uzbekistan – $77,000
20 – Steve O’Dwyer, Ireland – $77,000
21 – David Coleman, USA – $69,000
22 – Li Yuan, China – $69,000
23 – Yauheni Tsaireshchanka, Belarus – $69,000
24 – Chuck Chu, Vietnam – $61,500
25 – Punnat Punsri, Thailand – $61,500
26 – Adrian Chua, Singapore – $61,500
27 – Dan Dvoress, Canada – $61,500
28 – Dimitar Danchev, Bulgaria – $54,000
29 – Pieter Aerts, Belgium – $54,000
30 – Fazel Dawood, South Africa – $54,000
31 – Orpen Kisacikoglu, Turkey – $54,000
32 – Liang Xu, China – $48,000
33 – Dao Minh Phu, Vietnam – $48,000
34 – Jean Noel Thorel, France – $48,000
35 – Sergio Aido, Spain – $48,000
36 – Wang Ye, China – $48,000
37 – Ole Schemion, Germany – $48,000
38 – Thomas Boivin, Belgium – $48,000
39 – Keith Lehr, USA – $48,000
40 – Joao Vieira, Portugal – $42,000
41 – Ren Lin, China – $42,000
42 – Phil Ivey, USA – $42,000
43 – Romain Retiere, France – $42,000
44 – Vladas Tamasauskas, Lithuania – $42,000
45 – Paul Phua, Malaysia – $42,000
46 – Aleksandr Shevliakov, Russia – $42,000
47 – Winfred Yu, Hong Kong – $42,000

*denotes three-way deal

Photography by Joe Giron/Poker Photo Archive

The Austrian poker pro Roland Rokita came to the Triton Poker Series tournament room in Jeju today wearing a hoody with the word “FAKER” emblazoned across his shoulders. It was a reference to the esports legend, but it’s a bold word for a poker player to wear on his shirt in this exalted company.

However if anyone might have felt inclined to label Rokita a faker in this world of exclusive poker talent, his performance today would set the doubters right. He is the real deal. Rokita became the most recent Triton Poker Series champion, beating a field of 225 entries to lock up a first prize of $904,000.

The buy-in was $20,000. The competition was characteristically fierce. But Rokita’s performance was authentically excellent and landed him the biggest win of his career to date. It perhaps should be no surprise for someone who rolls with the likes of Fedor Holz, yesterday’s champion. But Rokita was clearly thrilled to have done it himself.

“It means a lot,” Rokita said. “I came here, I prepared a lot. To lift the trophy, it’s unbelievable.”

Having migrated to the poker tables after a former career as a ski-jumper in the Austrian national team, Rokita no doubt knows a fair bit about dangerous climbs and perilous descents. But while the first period of play today proved to be perfectly smooth for Rokita, he had to ride a few uncertain moguls during heads-up play against Sirzat Hissou.

“It was a roller coaster in the final table,” Rokita said. “I was really nervous…I won a big pot, he won a big pot, but I finished it in the end.”

Rokita eventually got the job done on the stroke of 9pm, leaving Hissou with $599,000 for second — and a tale of how he actually thought he had won the tournament before realising his opponent had turned a better hand.

That will end as a footnote after a stellar performance from Rokita, in which he came of age on the Triton Series. He is 28 years old, a chemistry graduate, and a resident of the poker hotbed Vienna. It sounds like a perfect mixture for a new poker great.

TOURNAMENT ACTION

The first three days of this trip to South Korea have been characterised by packed tournament rooms filled with enormous fields. The turnout has demanded additional levels added to Day 1s, which in the case of Event 2 meant bursting the bubble on the tournament’s opening day.

It was late in the night when Tony Truong became the unfortunate 40th placed finisher in this one, suffering a fairly nasty beat.

There were other players with smaller stacks still in the field when Truong picked up in the cutoff and called a min-raise from Roland Rokita. The pair went to a flop of . Rokita put out a continuation bet and Truong called with his top pair.

The turn brought a second flush draw and Rokita moved in, covering Truong. Nonetheless, he made the call for his last 10 blinds or so and was shown the in Rokita’s hand. When the river brought the case queen, Rokita made a boat and Truong’s trips were no good.

With everyone else now guaranteed a payday, they played down to the last 24, of which Tobias Schwecht was a runaway chip leader, with only Rokita and Alex Theologis anywhere close. They bagged and tagged and came back Thursday for Day 2.

RACING TO THE FINAL

As ever, the main focus from the players returning today was on reaching the final table, but the field needed to be trimmed by about two thirds before that would be decided. But no worries. In about four hours of play, 24 became nine with Triton stalwarts Biao Ding, John Juanda, Mike Watson and Danny Tang all falling marginally short.

Of the three overnight big stacks, both Rokita and Schwecht made it, with Theologis falling by the wayside. (Theologis’s Triton career has nonetheless started with two cashes from two tournaments entered.)

The last nine looked like this:

FINAL TABLE LINE-UP

Aleksandr Zubov, Russia – 14.6 million (73 BBs)
Mikita Badziakouski, Belarus – 8.8 million (44 BBs)
Roland Rokita, Austria – 6.575 million (33 BBs)
Kiat Lee, Malaysia – 4.35 million (22 BBs)
Tobias Schwecht, Germany – 3.1 million (16 BBs)
Damir Zhugralin, Kazakhstan – 2.45 million (12 BBs)
Leon Sturm, Germany – 2.3 million (12 BBs)
Sirzat Hissou, Germany – 2.25 million (11 BBs)
Yu Xiangyu, China – 725,000 (4 BBs)

Final table play got off to lightning-quick start with three players eliminated in a flash. Two went broke on the same hand, in the kind of set-up that was unavoidable for all concerned.

Action passed to the tiny stack of Yu Xiangyu on the button and, looking down at , he ripped it in. Rokita was in the small blind with a hand — — plenty good enough to go up against a small-stack’s button jam.

Rokita jammed to isolate.

However, Schecht, in the big blind, found pocket tens and correctly deduced that this was also plenty good enough to get his last 14 blinds in. So he was all-in too, and ahead of both opponents.

The dealer favoured only Rokita, however. The board ran and the pair of kings scooped the lot. Xiangyu was the official ninth-placed finisher, for $94,500, while Schwecht took $113,000 for eighth.

Damir Zhugralin got his first taste of Triton Poker Series action in Cyprus in 2022 and returned to the same venue the following year. That’s where he also secured his first cash on the series. It encouraged him to extend his wings and visit Jeju too, where he was rewarded with the first final table appearance of his career.

The Kazakh’s run ended in seventh as he became Mikita Badziakouski’s victim.

Zhugralin had 12 big blinds and opted to shove when he found in the cutoff. Button and small blind folded, but Badziakouski picked up pocket tens in the big blind and made the call.

Zhugralin needed to see an ace or some clubs, but neither appeared. Instead he trudged to the payouts desk where $154,000 awaited him for seventh place.

By common assent, Germany’s Leon Sturm is one of the game’s brightest new stars with a first Triton title only a matter of time. He showed his pedigree already again here in Jeju, navigating to this final table even though he never seemed to have a mighty stack.

Sturm couldn’t manage to take that small stack further than sixth in this tournament, however, as he perished mostly at the hands of Rokita (though Kiat Lee finished him off).

The hand that did the damage started with an early position raise from Rokita with . Rokita had more than 40 big blinds; Sturm, who was in the big blind, had only eight more after he posted the mandatory fee. Sturm had and called.

This was a pretty scary flop for both these hands: . Sturm checked with bottom pair, Rokita bet his straight flush draw, with his pair of eights still best. Sturm called.

Both players checked the turn, which brought the river. Sturm then made a near all-in bet, leaving himself only 25,000 behind. Rokita opted just to call with his low flush, and it was good.

Rokita took over the chip lead, while Sturm’s final chip went to Lee on the next hand. Sturm ended with another $210,000 in his bankroll as the field reduced to five.

Aleksandr Zubov came into this tournament having cashed Event 1 and then enjoying a hugely profitable Day 2 of Event 2. He ended up in the chip lead ahead of the final thanks to an aces vs. kings coup against Mike Watson, in which a micro stacked Daniel Palsson became collateral damage.

Zubov’s aces held up and he won a 3.8 million pot, principally from Watson, and that set Zubov flying high into his debut final table.

The Russian player mainly stayed out of the way of the early confrontations, losing a few small pots without ever really putting many chips at risk. However, his first major pot became his last when he slammed into the surging Rokita.

Rokita found pocket eights on the button and made a standard opening raise. With in the big blind, Zubov jammed for 25 big blinds. Rokita called and won another flop, flopping a set for good measure.

That was that for Zubov, who hit the rail in fifth for $278,000. Rokita, meanwhile, could do no wrong and had half the chips in play.

There was a marked division in Triton experience between the two halves of the remaining field. Both Rokita and Hissou were at their first ever Triton final, but Lee and Badziakouski have made this stage their second home over the past few years. Badziakouski has four titles from 20 final table appearance. Lee has never gone all the way, but has been involved at the end 11 times.

But the natural order was upended here, with the joint strength of Hissou and Rokita quickly taking care of Badzikouski, before they repeated the trick to do terminal damage to Lee.

Firstly, Hissou doubled his 15 blind stack through Badziakouski with pocket nines holding against . And then when Badziakouski was the short stack, Rokita’s stayed good against .

The latter was in Badziakouski’s hand and defeat sent him out in fourth, with $355,000 to his name.

They were heading to a dinner break three-handed as Lee and Hissou got involved in a huge pot. Lee jammed his 15 big blind stack with pocket sevens and Hissou looked down at . That was a call for his last 13 bigs, and Hissou hit an ace to double.

It left Lee with two big blinds.

Although he doubled that amount twice after they came back from dinner, he couldn’t get the crucial third — although he can claim to have got a tiny bit unlucky to bust.

Lee had in the big blind and called Hissou’s raise. The flop came and Lee committed his final chips with middle pair. Hissou’s was actually now behind, but the ace on the turn swung it back in his direction.

That was that for Lee, who took $439,000 for third.

Two of them remained for the title, both at their first Triton final table and both already guaranteed their biggest career live cash. The only thing to decide now was who would be champion.

Rokita had a two-to-one chip lead and seemingly all the momentum after a pure run on the last day. But he soon suffered his first really rough beat, with Hissou doubling into a commanding lead.

Hissou opened with and Rokita found . He didn’t slow play and instead put in a three-bet. Hissou responded with a four-bet shove and Rokita made an obvious call.

With the tournament seemingly all but over, the dealer decided to prolong it. An ace on the flop vaulted Hissou into the lead and left Rokita looking for help. Although he also had a Broadway draw on the flop, he whiffed outs on turn and river, meaning Hissou scored the full double. It was now 57-18 big blinds in his favour.

But, but, but. The tables soon turned yet again. When all the chips next found their way into the middle, Hissou had the pocket pair — sevens — while Rokita had only .

With Rokita’s supporters calling for an ace, he actually ended up doing it another way. The board brought all low cards, filling a wheel for the all-in player. Hissou hadn’t noticed originally, but he soon did when the dealer started moving his chips in his opponent’s direction.

The level went up again and the stacks shallowed once more. And the next time all the money went in, the best hand held up. Rokita had pocket nines when he saw Hissou shove with pocket twos. It was a clear call and Hissou couldn’t catch a two-outer this time.

Rokita’s hands were shaking, but his smile told the full story. Add another one to the tally for Vienna and welcome Roland Rokita to the winners’ enclosure.

Event #2 – $20k NLH 8-Handed
Dates: March 6-7, 2024
Entries: 225 (inc. 72 re-entries)
Prize pool: $4,500,000

1 – Roland Rokita, Austria – $904,000
2 – Sirzat Hissou, Germany – $599,000
3 – Kiat Lee, Malaysia – $439,000
4 – Mikita Badziakouski, Belarus – $355,000
5 – Aleksandr Zubov, Russia – $278,000
6 – Leon Sturm, Germany – $210,000
7 – Damir Zhugralin, Kazakhstan – $154,000
8 – Tobias Schwecht, Germany – $113,000
9 – Yu Xiangyu, China – $94,500

10 – Alex Theologis, Greece – $78,700
11 – Danny Tang, Hong Kong – $78,700
12 – Mike Watson, Canada – $68,800
13 – Daniel Palsson, Iceland – $68,800
14 – Yita Choong, Australia – $62,000
15 – John Juanda, Indonesia – $62,000
16 – Eric Tsai, Taiwan – $55,500
17 – Benjamin Chalot, France – $55,500
18 – Biao Ding, China – $48,500
19 – Kayhan Mokri, Norway – $48,500
20 – Santhosh Suvarna, India – $48,500
21 – Wang Ye, China – $44,000
22 – Pieter Aerts, Belgium – $44,000
23 – Keat Liu Chun, Malaysia – $44,000
24 – Anson Ewe, Malaysia – $39,500
25 – Roman Hrabec, Czech Republic – $39,500
26 – Alex Kulev, Bulgaria – $39,500
27 – Matthias Eibinger, Austria – $39,500
28 – Cheok Leng Cheong, Macao – $35,000
29 – Dan Smith, USA – $35,000
30 – Vladislav Ivanov, Russia – $35,000
31 – Jamil Wakil, Canada – $35,000
32 – Tom Heung, Hong Kong – $31,000
33 – Lun Loon, Malaysia – $31,000
34 – Joao Vieira, Portugal – $31,000
35 – Darren Elias, USA – $31,000
36 – Wei Hsiang Yeu, Malaysia – $31,000
37 – Espen Jorstad, Norway – $31,000
38 – Hans Liu, China – $31,000
39 – Aram Oganyan, USA – $31,000

Photography by Joe Giron/Poker Photo Archive