Triton Jeju: The Start of a New Era After a Record That Will Be Tough to Beat
Table Of Contents
The Triton Poker Super High Roller Series is widely regarded as the pinnacle of high-stakes poker entertainment when it comes to tournament and cash game action. It has been growing significantly throughout the years ever since Triton Poker hosted the very first live series at the Poker King Club in Manila back in 2016. In the nine years since, the brand has raised the bar on multiple occasions in terms of production quality and now offers one of the most comprehensive overall presentations during its live events.
In March 2025, the summit so far was reached during the stop on Jeju Island, when multiple Triton Poker and global records were broken, with one of them in particular very hard to surpass. The overall attendance figures were fitting for the location at the stunning five-star Jeju Shinhwa World complex, which hosts the Landing Casino along with premium outlets.
"I Think It's Going to Be Very Tough to Beat"
Throughout 18 tournaments, the series attracted 3,349 entries with buy-ins ranging between $15,000 and $150,000, with prize pools totalling a staggering $144,270,000. Each tournament had an average prize pool of $8,015,000, and the winners took home a combined $30,825,125 in prize money, which is certainly unheard of even in the world of high-stakes poker.
The crown jewel of the two-week-long festival — if there was one such thing — was the No-Limit Hold'em Main Event with a price tag of $100,000. When the registration had closed, an incredible 285 entries were recorded to create a prize pool of $28,500,000, and it became the largest six-figure buy-in tournament in poker history.
"It was extremely successful. There was a combination of stars aligned to make that possible," Senior Director of Live Events Luca Vivaldi told PokerNews.
As for the record-breaking Main Event field, Vivaldi said, "I think it's going to be very tough to break, even for us. And it's definitely something to look up to (in inspiration) to see when we can get there and how we can get there. Because having a six-digit buy-in that gets so many entries is something extremely difficult."
China's Wenjie Huang etched his name into the history books after defeating Dan "Jungleman" Cates in a short-lived heads-up duel to claim the top prize of $5,555,555. In comparison, the $$111,111 High Roller for One Drop at the 2016 World Series of Poker had gathered 183 entries. During the same festival, the Pot-Limit Omaha Main Event with the same buy-in amount attracted a staggering 91 entries for a prize pool of $9,100,000 with Spain's Sergio Martinez walking away with the top prize of $2,340,000.
Results Triton Super High Roller Series Jeju March 2025
| Event | Variant | Buy-in USD | Entries | Prize Pool (in USD) | Winner | Country | Prize (in USD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | NLH | $15,000 | 379 | $5,685,000 | Hongjun Zhao | China | $818,000 |
| 2 | NLH | $20,000 | 348 | $6,960,000 | Tuck Wai Foo | Malaysia | $1,350,000 |
| 3 | NLH | $25,000 | 391 | $9,775,000 | Jeremy Ausmus | USA | $1,892,000 |
| 5 | NLH | $30,000 | 252 | $7,560,000 | Ramin Hajiyev | Azerbaijan | $1,517,000 |
| 6 | NLH | $25,000 | 389 | $9,725,000 | Anatoly Filatov | Russia | $1,882,000 |
| 7 | NLH 7-Handed Mystery Bounty | $40,000 | 223 | $4,460,000 | Sean Winter | USA | $1,075,000 |
| 8 | NLH - 7-Handed | $50,000 | 215 | $10,750,000 | Mario Mosböck | Austria | $1,836,570 |
| 9 | NLH | $150,000 | 128 | $19,200,000 | Joao Vieira | Portugal | $4,610,000 |
| 10 | NLH Bounty Quattro Turbo | $50,000 | 94 | $4,700,000 | Bryn Kenney | USA | $1,319,000 |
| 11 | NLH - Main Event | $100,000 | 285 | $28,500,000 | Wenjie Huang | China | $5,555,000 |
| 12 | NLH - 7-Handed | $125,000 | 93 | $11,625,000 | Punnat Punsri | Thailand | $2,594,555 |
| 13 | PLO 6-Handed | $25,000 | 117 | $2,925,000 | Tom-Aksel Bedell | Norway | $709,000 |
| 15 | PLO 6-Handed | $50,000 | 112 | $5,600,000 | Gergo Nagy | Hungary | $1,360,000 |
| 16 | PLO Main Event | $100,000 | 91 | $9,100,000 | Sergio Martinez | Spain | $2,340,000 |
| 17 | PLO Bounty Quattro | $30,000 | 100 | $3,000,000 | Lautaro Guerra | Spain | $503,000 |
| 18 | Short Deck | $30,000 | 56 | $1,680,000 | Artem Kobylynskyi | Ukraine | $492,000 |
| 19 | Short Deck | $50,000 | 45 | $2,250,000 | Tan Xuan | China | $708,000 |
| 20 | Short Deck Turbo | $25,000 | 31 | $775,000 | Wai Kiat Lee | Malaysia | $264,000 |
The high-stakes brand is currently visiting the same venue for the second time in the current year, with the Triton Super High Roller Series 2025 Jeju II taking place from September 8 to 23, 2025. Impressive attendance figures are expected once more after the spectacular debut for the first-ever Triton ONE festival in the last seven days, though new Triton Poker records for the six-figure buy-in events may not necessarily be expected this time. At the time of writing, Event #1 WPT Global Slam with a buy-in of $25,000 closed the registration with 311 entries for a prize pool of $7,775,000 while Triton co-founder Richard Yong prevailed in the $50,000 Short Deck Event for his third title.
From the humble beginnings in the Philippines, Triton Poker has developed a high-quality environment in all departments with top-notch live stream action and the state-of-the-art Triton Poker Plus app, which allows poker enthusiasts from all over the world to follow hand updates, highlight reels and results in real time during each of the stops. They are not only attracting some of the biggest names in poker for their events but also feature them as part of their commentary team, such as Randy "nanonoko" Lew, Ali Nejad and Nick Schulman.
Devil in the Details
The man to make it all happen behind the scenes is Vivaldi, who has been the tournament director of Triton Poker for numerous years and guided the brand to excellence. His efforts didn't go without notice on a global scale as he was voted Best Tournament Director during the Global Poker Awards in 2025. Vivaldi's job just got a lot busier as he is overseeing the launch of a new live poker tour.
What makes Triton so beloved by players and spectators alike?
"In Italian, there's a word that describes a person who (pays) attention to details," said Vivaldi, who has been with Triton since the beginning after 14 years with PokerStars. "I am very picky. I don't think many colleagues like me for this because I am always too picky. But I think attention to details is definitely what ... makes a difference."
Triton ONE Marks New Era
It was the start of a new era for Triton Poker here on Jeju Island, as it marked the successful launch of the new mid-stakes tour Triton ONE, which consisted of ten No-Limit Hold'em tournaments with buy-ins as little as $2,000. The debut produced impressive figures for the three marquee events, which all reached seven-figure prize pools. Across ten tournaments, 3,541 total entries gathered 20,876,308 in prize money.
In the opening QQPK Genesis $3,000 buy-in, a total of 1,185 entries produced a prize pool of $3,174,614, and China's Chengxu Hu earned the biggest slice of the pie with a top prize of $564,000. Fellow countryman Xiaqing Ji topped the 273-entry strong NLH Mystery Bounty Event #5 while Chenxiang Miao made it a third victory for China in Event #12 NLH – High Roller for a payday of $315,000.
The inaugural Triton ONE $8,000 Main Event featured two starting days and totalled 1,046 entries for a prize pool worth $7,607,558. Former German football player Joshua Gebissa defeated Thai entrepreneur Punnat Punsri in heads-up to earn $975,225 for his efforts, while Punsri had the consolation of a larger cash prize of $1,205,775 thanks to a deal between the final two players prior to the heads-up.
Gebissa cashed in the opening Event of the series and finished second in the Player One Leaderboard race, which offered an additional $50,000 in prizes to the top five players with the most points. Australia's Joshua McCully had the edge by a mere five points after back-to-back runner-up finishes in one-day tournaments where the action concluded in the early morning hours. With only a couple of hours' sleep in between, McCully then returned for Day 2 of the Triton ONE Main Event and finished in 40th place for $23,800 to ultimately wrap up first place in the ranking for an additional $15,000 and $4,000 via bonus draw.
Joint third in the leaderboard was Singapore's Jun Hao Wu, who prevailed in the 353-entry strong Triton ONE $15,000 High Roller for a career-best score of $969,000 after defeating Ebony Kenney in heads-up. For Kenney, it was the seventh Triton cash and second-largest in her live poker career for $614,500 after she reached fifth place in the $200,000 Coin Rivet Invitational in September 2022 for $1,700,000.
While they still need to crunch the Triton ONE numbers after hopping right into the Super High Roller series, Vivaldi said "the general sentiment is that it was a very successful event and we are very happy with it."
The (heavy turnout), it means that there is an appetite for it, and it means that people want to experience Triton," the tournament director said. "We definitely think that it was successful and we definitely think that we're going to see more of it."
2025 Triton ONE Jeju Festival Results
*Photos courtesy Triton, Drew Amato, Enrique Malfavon & Spenser Sembrat
In this Series
- 1 Triton ONE: New Live Tour Set to Expand Triton Poker’s Reach
- 2 Debut Triton ONE Schedule Revealed; Super High Roller Series Announced
- 3 Countdown to Triton ONE: Four Days Until Poker’s Hottest New Festival Debuts
- 4 PokerNews is Heading to Jeju for Triton ONE & Super High Roller Series
- 5 Poker Vlogger Hits Dream Flop Before Nightmare Turn Card at Triton ONE in Jeju
- 6 Xuan Liu on Historic Triton Victory: 'I Felt Like I Was on Top of the World'
- 7 'A Bridge to Our New Champions': Triton ONE Series Sees Strong Start in Jeju
- 8 How a $1.4 Million Score Saved This Poker Crusher from a Major Downswing
- 9 Player Makes Epic Hero Call Against Alex Foxen in Triton ONE Main Event
- 10 Former Footballer Beats the Pros in First-Ever Triton ONE Main Event for $975,225
- 11 First Triton ONE Festival in Jeju Generates Nearly $20 Million in Prize Money
- 12 Alex Foxen's Luck Turns With Runner-Runner Beat at WPT Global Slam Final Table
- 13 Triton Jeju: The Start of a New Era After a Record That Will Be Tough to Beat
- 14 Chidwick Closing Gap to Kenney on All-Time Money List After Triton Win
- 15 Which Crusher Leads Triton’s Ivan Leow Player of the Year Race With Days to Go?
- 16 WPT Global Ambassador Deal Offers Nacho Barbero 'A New Beginning'
- 17 Five Performances That Remind Us Why We Love Poker at Triton Jeju II
- 18 Triton CEO Andy Wong Talks About Building Poker's Most Prestigious High-Stakes Tour
