The startling expansion of the Triton Poker Super High Roller Series over the past five years has become one of global poker’s most compelling talking points. In Jeju, South Korea, in March, the $100K Main Event attracted 285 entries – a new record for a tournament with a six-figure buy-in, and a number previously deemed unimaginable for a premium, ultra high-stakes tournament.
At a similar time, the poker industry finally realised that this extraordinary boom did not occur by accident. Its principal architect, Triton CEO Andy Wong, received long overdue recognition for his incredible achievement, landing among the nominees for Industry Person of the Year at the GPI Awards.
For many senior figures in high-stakes poker, the nomination represented only a fraction of the credit due to Wong, who has overseen all aspects of Triton’s operations during its sensational growth.
“Andy has incredible vision,” says leading American pro Jason Koon. “He pays close attention to all the details and is responsible for a ton of the little things that add up into Triton being such an amazing product and experience. He’s an extremely humble guy and is never looking for credit but, man, does he deserve a lot of it.”
Wong joined Triton in 2018 at the point that the series was essentially still at an experimental phase, with co-founders Paul Phua and Richard Yong testing the poker community’s appetite for an exclusive high stakes only series. There was early enthusiasm and buoyant early field sizes, but Wong brought experience and business savvy – as well as an outsider’s approach to what was an initially baffling world.
“It was mind-blowing to me,” Wong admits, detailing how he watched high rollers entering and re-entering a tournament in Montenegro with carefree abandon, despite every trip to the cashier costing HKD$100K. His initial focus was understanding the environment he was entering, before figuring out not only a way for an events-based poker product to prosper without an online operation, but also to make it accessible and attractive to poker fans.
“There was a lot of learning in the process of this journey,” Wong says. “I talked to a lot of people. I spent a lot of time getting to meet players, different high rollers, and really understanding how this ecosystem works.”
Having transitioned to poker from the glitzy world of eSports, Wong is a lifelong evangelist for the power of content: the showcasing of a brand as an entertainment package. A first visit to the rarefied Triton Series convinced him he had found the poker product that could warrant similarly dialled up production values, both to reinvigorate existing poker audiences and seduce fresh viewers.
With a laser-focus on producing content that could match his vision, Wong tagged in Pauls Lusins and Viktors Zajarnijs, the innovators who run Sharehand productions to design poker’s most prestigious stage, and produce the Triton stream. He then began building a team that shared his desire to turn poker into unmissable programming.
“Back then, when we talk about the vision of the company, it’s the same as it is now: It’s about growing poker, and we want to grow poker through entertainment,” Wong says. “It’s through the lens of our production that we want to inspire people.”
The Triton Series grew thanks to two main driving forces: aspiration and recommendation. As viewers watched the superlative production, they perhaps began or progressed their poker journeys with the Triton Series as the ultimate goal. Meanwhile, high stakes players discussed with great enthusiasm their experiences of playing on the series, and this powerful word-of-mouth advertising drew others from across the poker community to get involved.
At all stages–in everything from venue selection, to staff acquisition, to schedule development, to game innovation–the focus remained fixed on both player satisfaction and content production. People on the tour needed to know they would be looked after here better than anywhere else, while viewers continued to be dazzled by what they saw on the stream.
In 2019, the Triton co-founders floated the idea of what is now Triton’s biggest super high roller event, the Triton Million. The mission was an event that would bring in an equal playing field of pros, with a massive buy-in of £1 million and that would benefit a number of charitable foundations, all set in a landmark city – London.
As the point man for the event, Wong knew that for an event that would be this iconic, a game changing tournament environment that would raise the bar for poker tournaments around the globe. He set out to work along with Sharehand to create a beyond spectacular stage that was the perfect ground for this event. The Hilton Ballroom was transformed into the most dazzling arena in poker history, and the Triton Million became the most talked-about event in the modern game.
“We set a precedent,” Wong says. “When you walk into a Triton event, it has to feel like a million dollars. We’re playing such high stakes, this should be the pinnacle of poker. This should be the Champions League. The optics have to align with this. When you think of high stakes poker, Triton is the brand you go to.”
He adds of the Triton co-founders: “Our co-founders have always been incredibly supportive in all that we do. They have been instrumental in the way that we shape the player experience at our Super High Roller events, and their support comes not just by word, but also by action.”
The respect and admiration runs both ways, with both Phua and Yong offering effusive praise of their dynamic CEO.
“Andy’s trust in his vision and ability to inspire confidence in everyone around him has made Triton a global benchmark of innovation and greatness in the poker world,” Phua says.
Yong says: “Andy’s vision and leadership have transformed Triton tournaments into a premier global event, creating an environment where players thrive through excellence and mutual respect. His unwavering dedication to innovation and professionalism has made every moment in the tournament truly special and inspiring.”
Even when the Covid pandemic threatened to derail everything — “It almost sounded like game over for any event-driven business,” Wong says — he sought further investment from shareholders not only to retain Triton’s valuable staff, but to ensure that the tour returned with even more to offer.
It was during this period that the industry-leading Triton Poker Plus app came to fruition. It is now head and shoulders above any other piece of poker software, offering real-time hand histories and chip counts as well as precise statistical breakdowns of every hand played.
“I was trying not to focus on the pandemic, but focus on what we were going to do when the world was back to a normal footing,” Wong says. “We thought about how we can translate the fans we have, the community we have, into something that gets closer to the brand. So we created Triton Poker Plus.”
Wong admits that there have been mis-steps along the way, but with a “fail fast, learn quickly” approach, the vision for Triton has always remained clear. “I think we have a very solid understanding of what we’re trying to build,” Wong says.
The spectacular field sizes of the Jeju event certainly went a long way to demonstrating that the brand is doing something right. However, Wong is adamant that numbers are not the solitary metric by which the tour should be judged.
“The goal is never about breaking records. Our mission in these events is to provide a platform for people to come and play, and an arena in which they can compete. If we happen to break a record – it’s a bonus. It’s always about the experience first.”
He continues: “How people experience the Triton brand is key. On one end, it’s about creating something that is sustainable, letting people see the light of what the brand is trying to do through content, but at the same time, it is everybody being part of the team to create an enormous experience for the players. Whatever we create around events is a supporting vehicle for exponential growth.”
It’s also something of an open secret that the tour will soon move into a different arena, offering a taste of the Triton experience to players with slightly smaller bankrolls. While the bespoke VIP treatment of the Super High Roller Series cannot be replicated across vast fields, there will be no compromising of Triton’s standards in production and poker experience.
“It’s a lower buy-in but a larger operation to give people a taste of the experience and the platform we’re creating,” Wong says. “From the moment you walk onto the tournament floor, everything runs with finesse. A benchmark standard has to be there.”
“Rest assured that in the coming years, Triton will be more accessible to a lot of people around the world,” Wong says. “Right now, we go to certain cities in Europe and Asia, but we hope that we can be open to people in different countries who haven’t yet experienced Triton.”
And after that, further possibilities seem limitless.
Note from the CEO: It’s been an incredible honour and the journey of a lifetime being at the helm of the Triton brand. A lot of praise has been sent my way in this article, but it would not be right if I didn’t also acknowledge the people who have been by my side, building this with me. Triton has an incredible team, led by some truly remarkable people. I want to take this opportunity to say how grateful I am for you, and I could not have done it without all of you.