The inaugural Triton ONE $8,000 Main Event has followed right into the footsteps of the opening $3,000 QQPK Genesis Event and filled the tournament area inside of the Landing Casino inside of the luxurious Jeju Shinhwa World hotel complex to the brim. Similar to the first flight on the previous day, the field size exploded near the end to add another 526 entries to the overall tally, which reached a staggering 1,046 entries for a prize pool of $7,607,558.
When the dust had settled after 15 levels of 40 minutes each, the very international field for the new flagship tournament series of the mid-stakes competition had been culled down to only 115 survivors and they will join the 103 survivors of Day 1a for the chase towards the money bubble and, later on, the final table on Sunday, September 7, 2025.
Konstantin Voronin came out swinging in the opening minutes of the day and more than doubled his stack within fewer than half an hour before causing more havoc at each table he visited thereafter. Eventually, he turned his 250,000 starting stack into 4,725,000 and topped the Day 1b leaderboard by some margin ahead of Seunghyun Michael Nam (3,500,000).
Third in chips is none other than Jesse Lonis, who has become one of the most feared tournament players on the international live poker circuit. Despite bemoaning to be tilted multiple times throughout the day, Lonis ran up a massive stack before the dinner break and continued his rampage thereafter. The journey ended with 2,910,000 in chips, which puts him inside of the top ten overall for Day 2.
Another rising star throughout the last few years is certainly Artur Martirosian, who already has two Triton Poker titles under his belt in addition to an EPT Main Event triumph and three WSOP gold bracelets. The always dangerous high-stakes crusher bagged up 2,305,000 in chips and will be one to watch throughout the entire festival on Jeju Island including the 2025 Triton Super High Roller Series Jeju II that follows right after.
Day 1b Top Ten chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Konstantin Voronin | Russian Federation | 4,725,000 | 118 |
| 2 | Shaoshuai Li | China | 3,835,000 | 96 |
| 3 | Seunghyun Michael Nam | United States | 3,500,000 | 88 |
| 4 | Jesse Lonis | United States | 2,910,000 | 73 |
| 5 | Alisson Piekazewicz | Brazil | 2,435,000 | 61 |
| 6 | Mingcong Chen | China | 2,435,000 | 61 |
| 7 | Trung Hieu Nguyen | Viet Nam | 2,400,000 | 60 |
| 8 | Lok Ming Chan | Hong Kong | 2,350,000 | 59 |
| 9 | Metasit Pratipsangkom | Thailand | 2,345,000 | 59 |
| 10 | Artur Martirosian | Russian Federation | 2,305,000 | 58 |
It was a very diverse mix of players with seasoned international pros, recreational poker enthusiasts, Super High Roller regulars and aspiring new players of the Asia-Pacific poker scene that made up the Day 1b field and compiling even just a short list of notables wouldn't ever do it justice.
Live poker's power couple the Foxen's were among those top pros to try and run up a stack but neither of them made it through to Day 2. Alex Foxen vanished when the field combined to the main tournament area while Kristen Foxen couldn't get Chao Duan off a ten-high straight. Her run then ended against Shung Er Sua, who ironically also knocked out Duan after the final break of the night.
Eventual chip leader Voronin was forced to re-enter after a clash with Jesse Wigan in level seven when his flopped top two pair went down in flames against the turned straight of the Brit. Voronin came back with a vengeance to quickly multiply his starting stack in a matter of minutes, and he eventually ran it all the way to the top of the leaderboard.
Lonis show-cased his usual "gorilla side" at the table to dominate the action with his aggressive style and was responsible for several eliminations throughout the day. One of the rough beats on an action-packed second flight was the elimination of last night's finalist Thi Xoa Nguyen when she got it in with pocket kings against the ace-king suited of Justin Steinbrenner. An ace came in the window and the hopes of another deep run for Nguyen vanished. There was no happy end for Steinbrenner either as the German bowed out in the late stages.
Across the two starting days, the inaugural $8,000 Triton ONE Main Event in Jeju saw 218 players advance and they will return to their seats at noon local time for the penultimate tournament day of the new mid-stakes major. Recommencing blinds will be 20,000-40,000 with a big blind ante of and there will be a break every two levels, as the duration increases to 60 minutes each from there on.
The money bubble will burst on Day 2 en route to get one step closer to crowning the first-ever Triton ONE Main Event winner and you can follow all of the action right here on PokerNews, via the Triton Poker Plus app and on the Triton Poker live stream on the final two days of the brand new mid-stakes circuit.
