Alex “Pwndidi” Theologis won his maiden Triton Poker title on September 5, 2026, defeating a stacked 28-entry field in the $15,000 NLH 8-Handed to open the Triton Jeju II series, banking $642,000 in the process. The Greek high-stakes specialist had come close to a Triton trophy several times before without closing the deal, and Event #1 in Jeju finally delivered the breakthrough against a final table that read like a who’s who of the high-stakes tournament circuit.
Runner-up Victor Chong of Malaysia earned $431,000 for his effort, while reigning GPI Player of the Year Punnat Punsri of Thailand rounded out the top three for $302,000, in a field that packed some of the heaviest hitters in high-stakes poker into a single eight-handed bracket.
Theologis Wins the Triton Jeju High Roller
The $15,000 buy-in event is the opening tournament of the Triton Jeju II leg, a stop on the Triton Super High Roller Series that has become the premier destination for the game’s biggest cash-game and tournament specialists. Just 28 entries were enough to build a prize pool that paid out well into seven figures across the top spots, underlining how much value a single buy-in carries once a field is this concentrated with elite talent. Eight-handed play at this format compresses variance and rewards players who can adjust quickly to shorter-handed dynamics, a skill set the online-honed Theologis has built over a long career at the highest stakes.
How the Final Table Fell
Spain’s Adrian Mateos, one of the most decorated tournament players of his generation, was the first to exit the unofficial final table in eighth place for $79,000. Ehsan Amiri of Australia followed in seventh for $108,000, and Austria’s Daniel Rezaei collected $147,000 for sixth. China’s Yin Tao took fifth for $194,500, before Malaysia’s Wai Kiat Lee fell in fourth for $245,500, a result that still ranked as one of the stronger scores of his year on the Triton tour. That left Punsri to finish third for $302,000, setting up a heads-up battle between Theologis and Chong for the trophy and the difference between $642,000 and $431,000.
Theologis Closes It Out
Theologis ultimately got the better of Chong in the final exchanges, sealing his first Triton title after a career that has included plenty of near misses on this exact stage. “I was really looking forward to winning a Triton trophy,” Theologis said after the win, a simple line that nonetheless captured years of chasing a title that had eluded him despite consistently strong results on the tour.
The 33-year-old had already built a reputation as one of the most successful online grinders to make the transition to Triton’s marquee live events, but a trophy had remained the one item missing from his résumé heading into Jeju. That gap is now closed, and it comes at one of the tour’s most competitive stops of the year.
A Long Time Coming for Pwndidi
Before this win, Theologis had amassed more than $4.5 million in Triton cashes without ever finishing on top, a run that included a runner-up finish and multiple third-place results at previous Triton stops. That kind of consistency without a title can weigh on even the most accomplished players, and it made Sunday’s victory as much a psychological milestone as a financial one. Beating a final table that included a reigning GPI Player of the Year and one of tournament poker’s most recognizable faces in Mateos only adds to the weight of the result, and it should put Theologis firmly on the shortlist of players to watch for the remainder of the Jeju II schedule.
Triton’s Deep, Global Talent Pool
The Jeju II final table drew players from Greece, Malaysia, Thailand, China, Austria, Australia and Spain, a spread that reflects how thoroughly Triton has internationalized the high-stakes tournament scene since its founding. Fields at this buy-in level rarely exceed a few dozen entries, but the concentration of talent means every table plays like a final table from the moment cards go in the air. For players newer to short-handed formats like this one, Poker Pro Academy’s guide on how to play poker covers the fundamentals that scale up even to tables this rarefied, from starting hand selection to reading bet sizing tells that matter just as much at $15,000 as they do at much lower stakes.
What Comes Next for Triton Jeju II
Event #1 is only the opening stop on the Jeju II schedule, with a full slate of higher buy-in events still to come throughout the series, including short-deck and mixed-game variants that have become a signature of Triton stops in recent years. For Theologis, the win offers momentum heading into those bigger buy-ins, while the rest of the field now has a clear reminder of just how sharp the competition is at this leg of the tour. With a maiden title finally in hand, Theologis heads into the rest of Jeju II as one of the players carrying real momentum, and the tour’s remaining events will show whether Sunday’s breakthrough was a one-off or the start of a deeper run.
