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.
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.
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)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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