After a five-year hiatus, the Triton Super High Roller Series made a grand return to the picturesque island of Jeju, marking its first stop of the season with a festival that will be talked about for quite some time. Over seventeen days from March 5 to 21, the poker elite battled across seventeen events, with buy-ins ranging from $15,000 to a staggering $150,000, showcasing the best of high-stakes poker.
Among these, the $100,000 No Limit Hold’em Main Event and the $50,000 Short Deck Main Event stood out as the crowning jewels, where winners received not just a trophy but actual hand jewelry in the form of luxury watches. However, many other stories were developing during the series in South Korea.
Record after Record after Record
The festival hit the ground running, setting new benchmarks from the get-go. The opening event, a $15,000 NLH 8-Handed tournament, witnessed a record-breaking participation of 269 entries. It was German poker pro Fedor Holz who emerged victorious, clinching his fourth Triton title along with a hefty $786,000 prize.
The heads-up battle saw Holz facing off against Seth Gottlieb, another multiple Triton winner. However, it wasn’t all smooth sailing for Holz, mainly when, in a key hand against Gottlieb, he found himself behind against pocket aces for his tournament life. Aces perfectly slowplayed from the American pro, but luck favored the German on the river.
This victory, with an additional four finishes in the money, pushes Holz’s live tournament winnings to an impressive $41.7 million, ranking him 12th on the all-time list.
2024 Triton Poker Jeju Event #1 – $15,000 NLH 8-Handed Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
| 1 | Fedor Holz | Germany | $786,000 |
| 2 | Seth Gottlieb | USA | $500,000 |
| 3 | Dimitar Danchev | Bulgaria | $375,000 |
| 4 | Nick Petrangelo | USA | $303,000 |
| 5 | Dominykas Mikolaitis | Lithuania | $240,000 |
| 6 | Lun Loon | Malaysia | $182,000 |
| 7 | Josh Mccully | Australia | $134,000 |
| 8 | Ken Tong | Hong Kong | $98,000 |
| 9 | Pieter Aerts | Belgium | $81,000 |
The attendance record was shattered once more a few days later in Event #3, the $25,000 NLH Silver Main, which saw Paulius Vaitiekunas triumph over a field of 298 entries. The final three players in Vaitiekunas, Alex Tkatschew, and Aram Oganyan, struck a deal, each of them walking away with close to a million dollars, marking the best career results for all involved.
$100,000 was still left to play, and Vaitiekunas, who led most of the final table, snagged the extra prize. Lithuanian even declined a deal when he was a big chip leader with four players left to settle for a bit smaller win money-wise in a three-way deal that saw players having 26, 25, and 24 big blinds.
2024 Triton Poker Jeju Event #3 – $25k Silver Main Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
| 1 | Paulius Vaitiekunas | Lithuania | $1,077,499* |
| 2 | Alex Tkatschew | Germany | $1,002,000* |
| 3 | Aram Oganyan | USA | $989,501* |
| 4 | Joseph Cheong | USA | $560,000 |
| 5 | Roman Hrabec | Czech Republic | $441,000 |
| 6 | Maksim Vaskresenski | Belarus | $337,000 |
| 7 | Dan Smith | USA | $248,000 |
| 8 | Chen Guangcheng | China | $182,000 |
| 9 | Jason Koon | USA | $149,000 |
Another record fell for the third time in a single week at Event #6, the popular $25,000 GG Million$ event, drawing 305 entries and creating a prize pool of $7,625,000. This new achievement sets a new standard for the Triton Series, and the record will await its next challenger at the upcoming event in Budva, Montenegro.
Amidst the record-breaking success, Austrian pro Mario Mosböck captured his second Triton title in a heads-up against Sergio Aido. The pair landed a deal before the finale, with Aido securing the biggest piece of the pie for $1,237,804, while Mosböck locked in $1,131,196, with an additional $60,000 left on the table.
The path to Mosböck’s victory was quite impressive, beginning at the final table with the shortest stack of a mere four big blinds. Ultimately, it was just the beginning of a comeback, an exceptional run that even Mosböck pointed out in a post-win interview.
Austrian doubled up several times at the start of the final table, clawing back from the brink of elimination to a comfortable position at the felt. A pivotal moment came when he went all-in with pocket tens against the pocket queens of Alex Theologis. However, poker gods were on his side that afternoon, allowing him to survive and make a complete comeback, with a win over Aido in heads-up.
2024 Triton Poker Jeju #Event 6 – $25,000 GG MIllion$ Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
| 1 | Mario Mosböck | Austria | $1,191,196* |
| 2 | Sergio Aido | Spain | $1,237,804* |
| 3 | Alex Theologis | Greece | $707,000 |
| 4 | Adrian Chua | Singapore | $573,000 |
| 5 | Dan Dvoress | Canada | $452,000 |
| 6 | Tim Adams | Canada | $345,000 |
| 7 | Jesse Lonis | USA | $253,000 |
| 8 | Kosei Ichinose | Japan | $186,000 |
| 9 | Ehsan Amiri | Australia | $152,000 |
The Main Events
The $100,000 Main Event was a true highlight, not just of the series but also in poker globally. With 216 entries, it set a new record for the largest $100,000 buy-in event in poker history.
At the heart of this was Roman Hrabec of the Czech Republic, who emerged as the champion with a deserved victory that was a testament to his undeniable talent. His dominating performance secured him his maiden Triton title along with a staggering $4.33 million prize. With five more cashes in seven tournaments leading up to the Main Event, Hrabec truly had a breakout show in Jeju that would earn him the Player of the Series award if such an accolade existed.
His dominance was evident as he led the final table from start to finish. Standing between Hrabec and his first-ever Triton title was only unpredictable and mighty aggressive Jean-Noel Thorel, who was looking for his own first title as well.
It was a deep heads-up that could go on for hours, but Hrabec set up a perfect bait for the Frenchman, who never turns down an opportunity to bluff. After hitting a set of kings on the turn, Hrabec checked, inviting Thorel to do the work for him.
True to his aggressive nature, Thorel pushed all in, only to be met with the bad news of drawing to only four outs. River was a blank, sealing Hrabec’s breakout victory.
2024 Triton Poker Jeju Event #11 – $100,000 NLH Main Event Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
| 1 | Roman Hrabec | Czech Republic | $4,330,000 |
| 2 | Jean Noel Thorel | France | $2,875,000 |
| 3 | Elton Tsang | Hong Kong | $2,105,000 |
| 4 | Patrik Antonius | Finland | $1,697,000 |
| 5 | Matthias Eibinger | Austria | $1,330,000 |
| 6 | Fahredin Mustafov | Bulgaria | $1,008,000 |
| 7 | Igor Yaroshevskiy | Ukraine | $739,000 |
| 8 | Chris Brewer | USA | $543,000 |
| 9 | Alex Kulev | Bulgaria | $451,000 |
Transitioning from the No Limit Hold’em events that kicked off the series, through Pot Limit Omaha battles, to a thrilling finale with four Short Deck events. The highlight of the final act was the action-packed $50,000 Short Deck Main Event.
China’s Tan Xuan triumphed for the second time in his Triton career, adding another trophy to his resume after his maiden win at the London series in 2019. Known predominantly as a high-stakes cash game player who has entertained thousands of poker fans on Triton’s YouTube cash game series, Tan has also proven his mettle in the tournament arena.
His loose-aggressive style flourishes in the Short Deck format, embodying the very essence of high-risk, high-reward. The heads-up saw Tan battle it out against Short Deck specialist Martin Nielsen. In the end, it was Tan who triumphed, ecstatic as he clinched the title and a prize of $922,000. Despite his impressive performance and deep run, Nielsen had to settle for the runner-up position, securing $655,000 for his first-ever Triton cash.
2024 Triton Poker Jeju Event #17 – $50,000 Short Deck Main Event Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
| 1 | Tan Xuan | China | $922,000 |
| 2 | Martin Nielsen | Faroe Islands | $655,000 |
| 3 | Rene Van Krevelen | Netherlands | $428,000 |
| 4 | Jason Koon | USA | $330,000 |
| 5 | Zhou Quan | China | $261,000 |
| 6 | Michael Zhang | UK | $205,000 |
| 7 | Seth Davies | USA | $161,000 |
Looking ahead, the Triton Series sets its sights on Montenegro, the scenic venue that marked the first visit of the Triton series on European soil in 2018. Not many details are known at this point for the May series, but Jeju 2024 set a very high bar with its record-breaking tournaments and breakout performances that will be hard to match.
