Even on a tour where the unexpected seems to happen every day, yesterday’s incredible turnout for the first event of the Triton Poker Series’ trip to Jeju took everyone by surprise.
Never before has the tour required alternates. Never before has the tour needed to restrict players to a single re-entry. And that’s because a Triton Series event has never seen 379 entries — a number that broke the tour record by 72.
The very best news for everyone who loves this tour is that the field included so many new faces, players realising that the Triton Poker Series is clearly the place to be. No fewer than 111 players made their Triton Series debut in Event 1 here in Jeju, more than 40 percent of the 266 unique players.
It’s the cause for quiet celebration among the Triton family, both among those who focus on attracting established poker stars to the tour and those who aim to allow relatively new poker players to cut their teeth with Triton.
This field was stacked with newcomers from across the spectrum, including the well-known vloggers Frankie Cucchiara, Alexander Seibt and Ethan Yau, better known as “NextGenPoker”, “Wolfgang Poker” and “Rampage”, respectively. All three are among the most popular content creators in the industry, recognising that a trip to a Triton stop is the only inevitable next step, demanded by their hundreds of thousands of viewers.
Cucchiara made the money on his Triton debut, cashing in 56th place for $24,000, but arguably the most eye-catching play from a poker media figure in this tournament came from a man named Xu Wang, who works with poker influencers in Japan. (Wang himself if from China.)
Wang got involved in a huge pot on one of the feature tables against former WSOP Main Event champion, and Triton tournament winner, Espen Jorstad. Wang folded pocket kings to Jorstad’s five-bet jam, learning that Jorstad did indeed have the aces. Wang preserved his tournament life and became an instant star on the poker socials across the world.
🫣 @UhlenPoker may have nightmares about this one… pic.twitter.com/HRxPDmmERq
— Triton Poker (@tritonpoker) February 26, 2025
More than 50 of the Triton debutants made the trip to South Korea from China, but the tour also rolled out the red carpet for a select group of players from both Taiwan and Japan. These players won their passage to Jeju via qualification tournaments hosted in Taipei and Tokyo, which had buy-ins of only a fraction of the $15,000 normally required to sit down here.
Wong Ka Fai and Edward Yam won full packages to come to Jeju in the so-called “Road to Triton” satellites held at the Dream Room poker club in Taipei. The series of tournaments had a lowest buy-in of only $205, with hundreds of mainly recreational players taking a stab. The events offered a chance of a lifetime to low-stakes poker players: the opportunity to sample the high life of the Triton Series and rub shoulders with the elite.
Similar events in Tokyo, with buy-ins ranging from ¥300,000 to ¥1m ($2,000-$6,600 approx), resulted in Toshikazu Ishii, Ryosuke Tomuro and Kazuki Dobashi finding themselves on a plane from Japan to South Korea. They too can now call themselves Triton Poker Series players.
“We are always keen to develop strong local collaborations with so many passionate poker players across Asia,” said Lau Boon Cheng, Group Director, Strategy and Innovation for Triton. “We want to encourage grass-root players to sample the Triton experience.”
In poker, success breeds success. The startling turnout here will all but ensure further growth for the series, with all players realising the events are now too good to miss. For pros, they will look at the starting fields and believe there is too much value to pass up. Meanwhile recreational players will see similarly inexperienced peers having the time of their life — and very often picking up significant paydays — and want to join the party as well.
Yesterday’s report of the Triton Series breaking its attendance record will almost certainly be out of date very soon.
Find out more about the Road to Triton events in Japan and Taiwan.
Triton Newcomers in Jeju Event #1:
Shaoming Li – China
Yizhi Lin – China
WeiZhou Zha – China
Dawei Lu – China
Wen Yan Liao – China
Ryosuka Tomuro – Japan
Sergei Moiseev – Russia
Shouda Zhang – China
Xu Wang – China
Jingtao Jia – China
Xu Qiang – China
Congya Zhang – China
Karim Maekelberg – Belgium
Park Yu Cheung – Hong Kong
Andrija Robovic – Serbia
Ruida Hu – China
Zhincheng Miao – China
Zhang Yu – China
Haibo Yang – China
Jianwei Lin – China
Ka Fai Wong – Hong Kong
Jia Ou Yang – China
Viacheslav Balaev – Russia
Adrien Favre-Felix – France
Phanlert Sukonthachartnant – Thailand
Xi Xiang Luo – China
Manuel Fritz – Austria
Ying Song – China
Rania Nasreddine – USA
Toshikazu Ishii – Japan
Chungjian Feng – China
Martin Zamani – USA
Yilong Wang – China
Kazuki Dobashi – Japan
Si Ng Pun – Hong Kong
Johan Schultz-Pedersen – Denmark
Jing Yao Yan – China
Jia Ming Zhao – China
Mingcong Chen – China
Diogo Coelho – Portugal
Yu Gao – China
Jon Kyte – Norway
William Jia – Australia
Edward Yam – Hong Kong
Yu Zhang – China
Jon Ander Vallinas – Spain
Andre Marques – Portugal
Shunjiro Kita – Japan
David Kaufmann – Germany
Haiyang Yang – China
Defeng Liu – China
Tuck Wai Foo – Malaysia
Siew Yee – Malaysia
Mikael Andresson – Sweden
Bin Leng – China
Sergei Kharchenko – Russia
Jinlong Hu – China
Yuchung Chang – Taiwan
Alessio Isaia – Italy
Li Zhe – China
Yin Liu – China
Jiahe Lin – China
Kenny Hallaert – Belgium
Brandon Wilson – United States
Georgios Sotiropoulos – Greece
Yang Chongxian – China
Yuhan Liu – China
Ivan Deyra – France
Matthew Wakeman – Australia
Christopher Park – USA
Song Xue – China
Yuha Kita – Japan
Andrei Kotelnikov – Russia
Poseidon Ho – Taiwan
Bernhard Binder – Austria
Adam Hendrix – USA
Calvin Anderson – USA
Hui Chen – China
Shiina Okamoto – Japan
Ryuta Nakai – Japan
Alexander Seibt – USA
Vitalijs Zavorotnijs – Latvia
Anton Zhen Lu – Australia
Xiong Chen – China
Ethan Yau – USA
Fabian Bernhauser – Austria
Rudy Halim – Indonesia
Michael Gathy – Belgium
Haohui Ma – China
Zewei Xu – China
Aliaksandr Shylko – Belarus
Frank Cucchiara – USA
Yoda Lin – China
Jieming Xu – China
Haobo Zhu – China
Wenjie Huang – China
Jason Wong – UK
Rokas Asipauskas – Lithuania
Yongjia Lin – China
Zhen Chen – China
Xiaosheng Zheng – China
Sergei Petrushevskii – Russia
Yuzhu Wang – China
Hing Yang Chow – Malaysia
Chuen Co Chung – China
Issam Fayad – Lebanon
Kazuyuki Tanemura – Japan
Koichi Chiba – Japan
Jiaze Li – China