Chinese Player Wins Record-Setting Triton Poker Jeju Kickoff Tournament

The high-stakes Triton Poker tour has kicked off its 2025 marketing campaign in fashion, with the primary occasion of the Triton Jeju pageant drawing a record-setting area of 379 entries. The unprecedented turnout for the $15,000 buy-in occasion resulted in a prize pool of $5,685,000.

After three days of high-roller motion, 43-year-old Zhao Hongjun emerged victorious with the title, incomes $818,000 for the win. This was the primary recorded reside match title for the Chinese language participant, who informed Triton reporters. that poker hadn’t even been the driving power of his choice to attend this pageant.

“I’m very comfortable to have received this match. I truly got here to Jeju Island primarily to play golf and joined the match on the aspect. My work retains me fairly busy, and though I’ve been enjoying poker for over a decade, I haven’t participated in lots of tournaments,” stated Zhao.

Certainly, Zhao had solely three prior cashes to his title, together with a last desk exhibiting in a PokerStars Championship Macau occasion for $162,630. He now has simply over $1 million in recorded scores.

The highest 63 finishers earned a share of the prize cash on this occasion, with huge names like Steve O’Dwyer (twenty eighth), Espen Jorstad (twenty seventh), Danny Tang (twenty second), Adrian Mateos (twelfth), and all-time Triton titles chief Jason Koon (tenth) working deep.

Zhao scored his first knockout of the ultimate desk when his pocket jacks bested the pocket aces of Damir Zhugralin (eighth – $129,000). Nikita Kuznetsov (seventh – $182,000) quickly adopted when his Ok-J was unable to return from behind in opposition to the A-Q of Yuzhu Wang.

Michael Jozoff’s run got here to an finish when his AOk misplaced out to the Q10 of Weiran Pu, which improved to a flush on the river after all of the chips went in preflop. The 2-time World Sequence of Poker Circuit ring winner from America earned $243,000 because the sixth-place finisher.

Pu was quickly concerned in one other preflop showdown, with A-J shedding to A-Ok. He was left on fumes after that, and was quickly despatched packing in fourth place ($309,000).

Paulius Plausinaitis was the subsequent to fall, along with his Ok-Q unable to outrace the pocket nines of Wang. The Lithuanian walked away with $395,000 for his efforts, a brand new excessive rating for him on the reside scene.

Zhen Chen bowed out in third place ($497,000) when his A-Q suited bumped into the pocket aces of Wang. The massive pair held as much as 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 whereas locking up $778,000 for Zhao and $975,000 for Wang.

Zhao discovered a fast double up with A-9 besting A-4 after which took the lead and ran with it. Wang managed to bounce again with pocket jacks holding in opposition to pocket fives, however was quickly all-in on the opposite finish of a pair-over-pair conflict. Zhao’s AA held in opposition to the 66 of Wang, with the ultimate board studying A9497 to provide Zhao aces full and the victory. Regardless of ending because the runner-up, Wang walked away with the biggest payout because of the deal that was agreed upon earlier within the match. The $975,000 he earned was by far the biggest match rating but for the Chinese language participant.