Triton Poker has returned to Jeju, and it took less than a day for the latest Super High Roller Series to start producing the kind of action expected when some of the world’s best poker players gather in the same room.
The 2026 Triton Poker Super High Roller Series Jeju II began on September 4 at Les A Casino in South Korea, opening a two-week festival featuring buy-ins reaching $200,000.
Phil Ivey was among the major names arriving for the opening event, although his first attempt at a Triton title in Jeju ended before the money.
Meanwhile, the $15,000 opening event attracted 204 entries and generated a $3.09 million prize pool.
Just 28 players remain.
The first prize is $642,000.
Triton Jeju II Starts With a $3.09 Million Prize Pool
The opening $15,000 No-Limit Hold’em 8-Handed event immediately demonstrated the depth of the fields Triton continues to attract.
A total of 204 entries created a $3,090,000 prize pool.
The final 34 players made the money, with a minimum cash worth $25,500.
By the end of Day 1, only 28 remained.
Malaysia’s Wai Kiat Lee leads them with 3.5 million chips, narrowly ahead of Thailand’s Punnat Punsri on 3.465 million.
Alex Theologis sits third.
Adrian Mateos, Nick Petrangelo, Jesse Lonis, Daniel Dvoress and Xuan Liu are among the other recognizable names still chasing the first trophy of the series.
Triton Jeju $15K Top 10 Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chips |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wai Kiat Lee | Malaysia | 3,500,000 |
| 2 | Punnat Punsri | Thailand | 3,465,000 |
| 3 | Alex Theologis | Greece | 3,215,000 |
| 4 | Bernhard Binder | Austria | 2,785,000 |
| 5 | Adrian Mateos | Spain | 2,225,000 |
| 6 | Nick Petrangelo | United States | 2,200,000 |
| 7 | Ehsan Amiri | Australia | 2,170,000 |
| 8 | Joao Simao | Brazil | 2,105,000 |
| 9 | Daniel Rezaei | Austria | 2,015,000 |
| 10 | Yin Tao | China | 1,680,000 |
The eventual winner will collect $642,000, while second place is worth $431,000 and third pays $302,000.
Phil Ivey’s First Jeju Attempt Ends Early
Phil Ivey was one of the headline arrivals on opening day.
The 11-time WSOP bracelet winner has become a familiar presence at Triton events and entered Jeju II with five Triton titles already on his résumé.
Title number six will have to wait.
Ivey’s opening tournament included a confrontation with Artur Martirosian, who successfully picked off a bluff from the Poker Hall of Famer.
Ivey recovered from that setback but was eventually eliminated shortly before the money.
There will be plenty more opportunities.
Triton Jeju II runs until September 17 and the buy-ins increase significantly as the festival progresses.
For Ivey and the other high-stakes regulars, the $15,000 opener is effectively the bottom rung of the schedule.
Triton Returns to a Familiar Home
Jeju has become one of Triton’s most important destinations.
The South Korean island has repeatedly attracted enormous fields filled with elite tournament professionals, wealthy recreational players and some of the highest-stakes specialists in poker.
Earlier this year, Alex Foxen won $1.26 million at Triton Jeju in the $75,000 Pot-Limit Omaha 6-Handed event, a result that helped propel him into the 2026 GPI Player of the Year race.
Triton’s fields have also become central to the legacy of players such as Jason Koon, whose extraordinary record on the high-stakes tour formed an important part of his Poker Hall of Fame case.
Jeju II now gives the same group another fortnight to add to those records.
Triton Jeju II Builds Toward Three Huge Events
The opening $15,000 tournament is only the beginning.
The schedule gradually increases in stakes before reaching three particularly significant tournaments during the final week.
| Dates | Event | Buy-in |
|---|---|---|
| Sept. 12-14 | Triton Invitational | $200,000 |
| Sept. 14-16 | NLH Main Event | $100,000 |
| Sept. 16-17 | 10th Anniversary Special | $150,000 |
The $200,000 Triton Invitational will be the largest buy-in on the schedule.
It is followed immediately by the $100,000 No-Limit Hold’em Main Event before Triton celebrates its tenth anniversary with a special $150,000 tournament.
Those three events alone require $450,000 in buy-ins for anyone entering all of them.
High-Stakes Poker Moves Back to the Tournament Tables
The timing of Triton Jeju II is particularly interesting.
Some of poker’s biggest names have spent the past week attracting enormous audiences in high-stakes cash games.
Daniel Negreanu recently made his Hustler Casino Live debut as approximately 300,000 viewers tuned in across the broadcast.
Now attention shifts back toward tournament poker.
Triton provides a very different kind of high-stakes pressure.
Players can reload during registration, but once the tournament reaches its closing stages, there is no buying back in. Every pot can change a player’s position in a tournament where individual pay jumps can be worth six figures.
The opening event already has $642,000 waiting for its winner.
By the time the $200,000 Invitational and $100,000 Main Event arrive, considerably larger amounts could be in play.
Who Leads the First Triton Jeju II Event?
For now, Wai Kiat Lee is the player everybody else must catch.
He returns with 3.5 million chips and a tiny advantage over Punnat Punsri.
Only 35,000 chips separate the top two.
The field behind them is dangerous.
Mateos, Petrangelo, Lonis, Dvoress and Liu all remain alive, while short stacks still have an opportunity to recover.
Phil Ivey will not be among them.
His first shot at a Jeju II title is already over.
But with nearly two weeks of high-stakes poker still ahead, Ivey and the rest of Triton’s regulars are unlikely to be disappearing for long.
