Nearly two years after taking down the 2023 Triton Cyprus $200,000 invitational event for a staggering $4.1 million, Azerbaijan’s Ramin Hajiyev once again found himself posing for a winner’s photo with a trident trophy in tow. This time around, Hajiyev overcame a field of 252 entries in the 2025 Triton Jeju $30,000 no-limit hold’em eight-max event, earning $1,517,000 as the champion.
These two massive Triton victories account for nearly half of Hajiyev’s overall career earnings of $11.3 million. He has 124 recorded in-the-money finishes dating back to 2010, with 14 six-figure scores and his two seven-figure triumphs in Triton events.
This latest title run came with 1,428 Card Player Player of the Year points for Hajiyev, enough to move him into 23rd place in the 2025 standings presented by Global Poker.
The top 39 finishers made the money in this event to earn a share of the $7,560,000 prize pool, with big names like Alex Foxen (23rd), Christoph Vogelsang (13th), Artur Martirosian (11th), and David Peters (9th) among the many stars of the game who ran deep.
Hajiyev scored the first knockout at the official final table, sending two-time bracelet winner Kahle Burns packing with $190,000 for his eighth-place showing. Rising high roller star Brandon Wilson lost a preflop coin flip with Q-J suited against the pocket tens of two-time Triton winner Winfred Yu to finish seventh for $259,000. This was already his fifth final table of 2025, with two titles won. He now sits in fourth place on the POY leaderboard as a result.
Sam Greenwood’s latest Triton cash wound up being for $353,500. The Canadian poker pro got the last of his stack in with A-10 suited leading the K-J of Renji Mao, which improved to a king-high straight. Greenwood now has more than $40.4 million in career cashes, with $14.6 million of that coming from his 39 in-the-money finishes in Triton tournaments.
Manuel Fritz finished fifth ($467,000) when his K-8 was unable to beat out the J-9 suited of Renji, who called his eight big blind shove from the big blind. Renji paired his jack on the flop and held from there to narrow the field to four.
Yu’s run ended in fourth place when his K-8 suited lost out to the A-7 of Hajiyev. He cashed for $595,000, bringing his lifetime total to more than $9.5 million.
Renji’s last stand saw him shove from the small blind with A
7
. Hajiyev looked him up with A
9
from the big blind and held to send Renji packing with $737,000, which was a new high score for the bracelet winner.
Hajiyev held roughly an 8:1 chip lead over Viacheslav Balaev when heads-up play began. The final hand saw Hajiyev shove from the button with 86. Balaev called off his last few big blinds with J2 and the board came down Q428A to give Hajiyev a flush for the win.
Balaev earned $1,008,000 for just his second cash in a Triton event. The Russian now has more than $1.4 million in career earnings.
Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Earnings | POY Points |
| 1 | Ramin Hajiyev | $1,517,000 | 1428 |
| 2 | Viacheslav Balaev | $1,008,000 | 1190 |
| 3 | Renji Mao | $737,000 | 952 |
| 4 | Winfred Yu | $595,000 | 714 |
| 5 | Manuel Fritz | $467,000 | 595 |
| 6 | Sam Greenwood | $353,500 | 476 |
| 7 | Brandon Wilson | $259,000 | 357 |
| 8 | Kahle Burns | $190,000 | 238 |
Photo credits: Triton Poker.