Taiwan's Chih-Yuan Wang Leads First Flight of First-Ever $8,000 Triton ONE Main Event
The marquee event of the first-ever Triton ONE festival wrapped up early Saturday morning on South Korea's Jeju island with 105 players remaining out of 520 entrants. Far in front in the $8,000 Triton ONE Main Event is Taiwan's Chih-Yuan Wang with 5,305,000 in chips over big stacks including China's Shaoshuai Li (3,585,000), Taiwan's Jia-Chi Li (3,245,000), Thailand's Punnat Punsri (2,940,000) and Triton's own Danny Tang (2,510,000)
Among the notable names who bagged at Landing Casino are Stephen Song, Fabian Gumz, Ladies Event end-boss Shiina Okamoto, Jun Obara, Michael Wang, Justin Saliba, and Ren Lin, perhaps the happiest poker player on either side of the Great Wall of China.
Day 1a Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chih-Yuan Wang | Taiwan | 5,305,000 | 133 |
| 2 | Shaoshuai Li | China | 3,585,000 | 90 |
| 3 | Jia-Chi Li | Taiwan | 3,245,000 | 81 |
| 4 | Punnat Punsri | Thailand | 2,940,000 | 74 |
| 5 | Congya Zhang | China | 2,660,000 | 67 |
| 6 | Alisson Piekazewicz | Brazil | 2,655,000 | 66 |
| 7 | Chengcai Pan | China | 2,605,000 | 65 |
| 8 | David Chen | USA | 2,590,000 | 65 |
| 9 | Danny Tang | Hong Kong | 2,510,000 | 63 |
| 10 | Julian Warhurst | Australia | 2,450,000 | 61 |
Day 1a Action
Song told PokerNews earlier in the series that "people aren't afraid to" go for it in Jeju and that some of the players that this island attracts "will try to savage you." That aggression was on full display in the first of two flights as there seemed to be more three, four, five and six bets than there were Triton hoodies in the tournament area.
One player who's never been afraid to go for it is Alex Foxen, who busted his top-five stack in the $10,000 Mystery Bounty before hopping into the opening Main Event flight. The American high-stakes pro had a short-lived run as he ran a three-street bluff with ace-high, only to get looked up by an unconvinced Alisson Piekazewicz.
Foxen didn't hop back into the opening flight and his wife, Kristen Foxen, never got the chance. She was too busy chip-leading the Mystery Bounty, where she reached the final table, where she is currently fighting for a Triton ONE title.
Other aggressors in the field included Isaac Haxton, who six-bet Mi Deng preflop before shutting down after an unfavorable flop. Haxton ran his stack back up but was eliminated later in the evening.
The highlights kept coming from there, including Xinjing Li flopping a straight flush to decimate the ace-high flush of fellow Chinese grinder Yixi Tang, as well as Tom Heung cracking the trips of Niko Koop with a rivered two-outer that gave him a full house.
Poker Hall of Famer Phil Ivey made a late-night appearance that was short-lived, while other notable eliminations include, Jesse Lonis, Kenny Hallaert, Biao Ding, Mike Watson, Artur Martirosian, Jessica Vierling, Sosia Jiang and Jonathan Jaffe.
There's still one more starting flight to play out, which will kick off at noon local time on Saturday, Sept. 6. Day 1B will follow the same structure as Day 1a, meaning players will begin with starting stacks of 250,000 and blinds will start at 500/1,000/1,000.
Levels will once again be 40 minutes in duration with 15-minute breaks every three levels and a 45-minute dinner break after Level 9. After 15 levels, the players will bag and then join the Day 1a survivors for Day 2 on Sunday, Sept. 7.
Stay tuned as the PokerNews team is here in Jeju and will continue providing updates until the first-ever Triton ONE Main Event champion is crowned. Of course, updates can also be found on the Triton stream.
*Photos courtesy Triton, Drew Amato & Spenser Sembrat