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.”
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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