It’s never easy to win a tournament on the Triton Super High Roller Series. But sometimes, with a fair wind, it can look that way.
The Azerbaijani high roller Ramin Hajiyev enjoyed arguably one of the smoothest passages to a Triton title today in Jeju, South Korea, where he laid to waste a field of 252 entries to this $30,000 buy-in event, winning $1.517 million.
It was Hajiyev’s second Triton title, following his famous victory in the Luxon Invitational in Cyprus in 2023. And his track record makes clear he is a hugely capable talent. But he barely seemed to raise a sweat for this one — at least not after he recovered from three big blinds as registration closed, found a song he liked by the rapper Solomon, and allowed the energy to sweep him to the title.
“From 70 players left, I can’t say I knew I was going to win, but I felt pretty good,” Hajiyev said. He added: “This one went pretty well…I’m running good.”
After a smooth Day 2, Hajiyev came to the nine-handed final table in the middle of the pack, but his tracking graph simply went up, up and up from there. He won a huge pot from Sam Greenwood in the early exchanges, then stayed close to the top of the counts from that point.
He knocked out each of the final three players the first chance he had, either having the best hand when the chips went in, or flopping best when he’d made a priced-in call against short stacks.
The final hand, against Russian first-timer Viacheslav Balaev, was indicative. Balaev got his last few blinds in with 
and was up against Hajiyev’s 
. An eight on the turn duly arrived and the tournament was done before 10pm local time.
“I’m honoured to be on that wall,” Hajiyev said, pointing to the screens that show the portraits of Triton’s multiple champions. “They are fantastic players.”
Hajiyev has earned his place beside them.
TOURNAMENT ACTION
With 252 entries, this $30,000 buy-in tournament was another giant. It was just in comparison with Events 1 and 3 this week, it somehow felt more manageable. We weren’t quite bursting at the seams.
By the standards of other Triton tournaments, this was also a fairly speedy race into the money–though Portugal’s Diogo Coehlo would never forgive anyone who described it as painless. Quite the contrary for Coehlo, who entered hand-for-hand play, signalling the stone bubble, with an average stack of the 40 remaining.
He folded the first hand, then saw black pocket kings on the second. He made a standard min-raise and saw the bigger-stacked Sam Greenwood three-bet from the small blind. Coehlo likely felt comfortable getting all his chips in, and wouldn’t have minded Greenwood’s call either.
Coehlo was in decent shape against Greenwood’s 
, but that overcard was always dangerous. And there was the 
on the flop to deliver the bad news to Coehlo. He is visiting the Triton Poker Series for the first time in Jeju and cashed in Event 3. But he now knows what a bubble feels like.
The last 39 were now in the money and aiming for the final.
The compelling mix of old-timers and newcomers was still established as the tournament played into the deeper stages. And there was no respecting reputations as the likes of Nacho Barbero, Kiat Lee and Christoph Vogelsang perished before the final table.
Taiwan’s Poseidon Ho, whose trip to Jeju represented his first visit to Triton, fell agonisingly short of his first final table. He became the official 10th placed finisher, busting on the same hand as Artur Martirosian to take the field from 11 to nine.
Brandon Wilson’s 
flushed them both out, Martirosian holding 
and Ho 
. Both were insufficient after a board of 
.
That put Wilson close to the top of the leader board as the last nine stacked up as follows:
Mao Renji — 11,000,000 (44 BBs)
Brandon Wilson — 6,850,000 (27 BBs)
Ramin Hajiyev — 6,350,000 (25 BBs)
Sam Greenwood — 5,850,000 (23 BBs)
Manuel Fritz — 5,500,000 (22 BBs)
Viacheslav Balaev — 5,475,000 (22 BBs)
Winfred Yu — 4,825,000 (19 BBs)
Kahle Burns — 2,625,000 (11 BBs)
David Peters — 1,925,000 (8 BBs)
Event 5 final table players (clockwise from back left): Kahle Burns, Brandon Wilson, Ramin Hajiyev, David Peters, Sam Greenwood, Mao Renji, Manuel Fritz, Winfred Yu, Viacheslav Balaev
With a new young family, David Peters hasn’t been seen as much on the Triton Poker Series as he was in the early days, but he was back here in Jeju where some of his previous best work had been done. He got back in the groove with a run to 37th in the big opening tournament, and now he was back at a final for the first time in a year, albeit as the short stack.
Peters wasn’t able to stick around too long after they went down to a final, however, picking up a pocket pair — sixes — at the same time Viacheslav Balarv found eights. Peters open shoved from the cutoff, Balaev snapped from the big blind, and there was no help for the American. This one ended with a $159,000 payday for ninth, but it’s highly unlikely to be the last for Peters.
There are always twin opponents during these latter tournament stages: the other players at the table, plus the tournament clock, which rattles along and signifies blind raises with metronomic regularity.
Kahle Burns, another player who has been away from the Triton Series for a while, had seen his stack slip to only six big blinds, and with the blinds about to go up again, his 
was perfectly good for a three-bet jam over a Ramin Hajiyev open.
Hajiyev called with 
and turned a king. That spelled the end for Burns in this one, but that’s already two cashes for the series for him, his first since Vietnam in 2023.
Thirty-one-year-old Brandon Wilson is another one of the clutch of top-ranking American pros who hadn’t previously taken their shot on the Triton Series, instead amassing more than $4 million in tournament earnings mainly from playing in the U.S. But like Jeremy Ausmus yesterday, Wilson learned today that it’s usually worth the trip, and he took his place at his first ever Triton final.
No doubt seventh place will seem like an unfortunate near miss for Wilson, for that’s where his tournament ended. But he also likely has an appetite for more. Wilson’s final hand was 
and he opened from the cutoff with a seven big blind stack. Winfred Yu, in the small blind, had only 10 big blinds and shoved, with Wilson deciding to under-call all-in.
Yu had pocket 10s and faded the overcards. That left Wilson heading to the payouts desk where there was $259,000 with his name on it.
Sam Greenwood now slipped to the lowest stack in the room, and he too found a decent suited ace when he had only six blinds, got them in, and got outdrawn to bust. Greenwood three-bet 
over Mao Renji’s open with 
, and then called off when Renji put in the four-bet.
The 
flop smashed Renji and he improved further on the 
turn. Greenwood had outs to the redraw, but the 
was a thudding brick and Greenwood’s tournament was over.
He secured the 39th Triton cash of his career, for $353,500.
The dinner break was imminent, but Renji was still hungry for more eliminations. Only a few hands after feasting on Greenwood’s chips, he gulped down a side order of Manuel Fritz.
Fritz had eight big blinds when action folded to him in the small blind and he jammed with . Renji, the only player still to act, had 
in the big blind and called to put Fritz at risk. The on the flop was all it took to eliminate another one.
Fritz, an online crusher also making his first Triton Poker Series appearance in Jeju, took $467,000 for fifth.
Despite Renji’s charge, he was still only sharing the chip lead with Ramin Hajiyev, who had barely gone to showdown in any pots since the start of the final table, but who was steadily increasing his stack regardless. When they headed off for food, Hajiyev had 33 blinds, Renji had 30, with Balaev on 21 and Winfred Yu on 17. When they came back, the level change had gobbled up a few of those blinds apiece.
Hajiyev picked up where he had left off. He flopped a straight with to beat Balaev’s pocket eights out of a pot. Then he continued in the raise-and-take-it style of many chip leaders. Winfred Yu made a stand after Hajiyev shoved the button with , but Yu only had 
and didn’t hit anything to catch up.
Yu, a two-time Triton champion, came up three places short in his quest for a third. He earned $595,000 this time.
Hajiyev could really do no wrong at this point. He was running as pure as the driven snow. Although Balaev was the short stack with seven blinds, Renji was in the small blind and looked at 
, which was plenty good enough for an open shove. However Hajiyev, in the big blind, had 
, made the call, and claimed another victim.
They both hit their kicker, but a pair of nines was better than a pair of sevens. Renji earned $737,000 but was on the rail in third.
Tournament organisers reset the table for heads-up play, placing a mere seven blinds in front of Balaev and a mighty 56 in front of Hajiyev. Could this domination continue? Of course it could. Heads-up lasted five hands until Hajiyev shoved his low suited cards, Balaev made the call with a picture card, and the dealer did the rest.
Hajiyev is the first previous champion to win another on this trip to Jeju. His picture will be coming to an LED banner very soon.
Event #5 – $30,000 NLH 8-Handed
Dates: March 1-2, 2025
Entries: 252 (inc. 67 re-entries)
Prize pool: $7,560,000
1 – Ramin Hajiyev, Azerbaijan – $1,517,000
2 – Viacheslav Balaev, Russia – $1,008,000
3 – Mao Renji, China – $737,000
4 – Winfred Yu, Hong Kong – $595,000
5 – Manuel Fritz, Austria – $467,000
6 – Sam Greenwood, Canada – $353,500
7 – Brandon Wilson, USA – $259,000
8 – Kahle Burns, Australia – $190,000
9 – David Peters, USA – $159,000
10 – Poseidon Ho, Taiwan – $133,000
11 – Artur Martirosian, Russia – $133,000
12 – Leon Sturm, Germany – $115,500
13 – Christoph Vogelsang, Germany – $115,500
14 – Emilien Pitavy, France – $104,000
15 – Matas Cimbolas, Lithuania – $104,000
16 – Kiat Lee, Malaysia – $92,500
17 – Rainer Kempe, Germany – $92,500
18 – Dominyka Mikolaitis, Lithuania – $81,500
19 – Nacho Barbero, Argentina – $81,500
20 – Anatoly Filatov, Russia – $81,500
21 – Jinlong Hu, China – $74,000
22 – Konstantin Maslak, Russia – $74,000
23 – Alex Foxen, USA – $66,500
24 – Kazoumi Furuse, Japan – $66,500
25 – Ryuta Nakai, Japan – $66,500
26 – Aram Oganyan, USA – $66,500
27 – Alex Theologis, Greece – $66,500
28 – Alex Boika, Belarus – $59,000
29 – Dietrich Fast, Germany – $59,000
30 – Isaac Haxton, USA – $59,000
31 – Stoyan Madanzhiev, Bulgaria – $59,000
32 – Duan Bin, China – $52,000
33 – Vladimir Minko, UK – $52,000
34 – Dylan Linde, USA – $52,000
35 – Mikita Badziakouski, Belarus – $52,000
36 – Boris Angelov, Bulgaria – $52,000
37 – Ben Heath, UK – $52,000
38 – Nick Petrangelo, USA – $52,000
39 – Michael Jozoff, USA – $52,000