The first event of the Triton Poker Jeju festival, a $15,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em tournament, set a tour record with 379 entrants (266 unique players). Through three events, it’s not even the largest tournament of the series.
Records are being broken in South Korea this week as the new high roller series is underway. Zhao Hongjun won the first event of the series for $818,000, the biggest chunk of the $5,685,000 prize pool. Yuzhu Wang took second place for $975,000.
Jason Koon (10th for $86,000), Adrian Mateos (12th for $74,000), and Espen Jorstad (27th for $41,000) were among the 63 players who cashed. The second event of the series, $20,000 No-Limit Hold’em 8-Handed, had an even larger prize pool of $6,960,000 from 348 players. Tuck Wai Foo took it down for $1,350,000, beating Mario Mosbock ($856,000) heads-up for the title.
Ethan “Rampage” Yau (14th for $90,000), Alexander “Wolfgang” Seibt (22nd for $62,000), and Chris Brewer (33rd for $41,000) all left the tournament with money in their pockets.
Triton Poker Record is Set
The Triton Poker attendance record was set in Event #1, but it was surpassed in Event #3 with 392 entrants registered for the $25,000 No-Limit Hold’em 8-Handed tournament. There were still 73 players remaining, at the time of publishing.
Two players in this event will walk away with a seven-figure payday, with first place set to pay $1,892,000, and the runner-up will receive $1,193,000. The money bubble was fast approaching when we ran this story as the top 63 will be paid. A min-cash is worth $41,500.
Some of the players still standing as the bubble looms include chip leader Stephen Song, Jeremy Ausmus, Phil Ivey, Kristen Foxen, and Fedor Holz. The list of notables who’ve already busted include Joey Weissman, Ren Lin, Rainer Kempe, and Santhosh Suvarna.
The previous largest Triton Poker field had 305 entrants in a March 2024 $25,000 buy-in event. The Jeju series runs until March 15 and features 20 high roller events, two of which cost $100,000 or more to enter.
*Images courtesy of Triton Poker on X/ @tritonpoker