The high-stakes Triton Poker tour has kicked off its 2025 campaign in style, with the first event of the Triton Jeju festival drawing a record-setting field of 379 entries. The unprecedented turnout for the $15,000 buy-in event resulted in a prize pool of $5,685,000.
After three days of high-roller action, 43-year-old Zhao Hongjun emerged victorious with the title, earning $818,000 for the win. This was the first recorded live tournament title for the Chinese player, who told Triton reporters. that poker hadn’t even been the driving force of his decision to attend this festival.
“I’m very happy to have won this tournament. I actually came to Jeju Island mainly to play golf and joined the tournament on the side. My work keeps me quite busy, and although I’ve been playing poker for over a decade, I haven’t participated in many tournaments,” said Zhao.
Indeed, Zhao had only three prior cashes to his name, including a final table showing in a PokerStars Championship Macau event for $162,630. He now has just over $1 million in recorded scores.
The top 63 finishers earned a share of the prize money in this event, with big names like Steve O’Dwyer (28th), Espen Jorstad (27th), Danny Tang (22nd), Adrian Mateos (12th), and all-time Triton titles leader Jason Koon (10th) running deep.
Zhao scored his first knockout of the final table when his pocket jacks bested the pocket aces of Damir Zhugralin (8th – $129,000). Nikita Kuznetsov (7th – $182,000) soon followed when his K-J was unable to come from behind against the A-Q of Yuzhu Wang.
Michael Jozoff’s run came to an end when his A
K
lost out to the Q
10 of Weiran Pu, which improved to a flush on the river after all the chips went in preflop. The two-time World Series of Poker Circuit ring winner from America earned $243,000 as the sixth-place finisher.
Pu was soon involved in another preflop showdown, with A-J losing to A-K. He was left on fumes after that, and was soon sent packing in fourth place ($309,000).
Paulius Plausinaitis was the next to fall, with his K-Q unable to outrace the pocket nines of Wang. The Lithuanian walked away with $395,000 for his efforts, a new high score for him on the live scene.
Zhen Chen bowed out in third place ($497,000) when his A-Q suited ran into the pocket aces of Wang. The big pair held up to see Wang enter heads-up play with roughly a 2:1 chip lead over Zhao. The pair hashed out a deal that left the title and $40,000 to play for while locking up $778,000 for Zhao and $975,000 for Wang.
Zhao found a quick double up with A-9 besting A-4 and then took the lead and ran with it. Wang managed to bounce back with pocket jacks holding against pocket fives, but was soon all-in on the other end of a pair-over-pair clash. Zhao’s AA held against the 66 of Wang, with the final board reading A94
97 to give Zhao aces full and the victory. Despite finishing as the runner-up, Wang walked away with the largest payout thanks to the deal that was agreed upon earlier in the match. The $975,000 he earned was by far the largest tournament score yet for the Chinese player.
Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Earnings | POY Points |
| 1 | Zhao Hongjun | $818,000 | 1800 |
| 2 | Yuzhu Wang | $975,000 | 1500 |
| 3 | Zhen Chen | $497,000 | 1200 |
| 4 | Paulius Plausinaitis | $395,000 | 900 |
| 5 | Weiran Pu | $309,000 | 750 |
| 6 | Michael Jozoff | $243,000 | 600 |
| 7 | Nikita Kuznetsov | $182,000 | 450 |
| 8 | Damir Zhugralin | $129,000 | 300 |
Photo credit: Triton Poker.