Nick Petrangelo is the official champion of the Triton $150K 10th Anniversary Special at Triton Poker’s Jeju stop, but the real story is what happened once he and his close friend Joao Simao sat down heads-up. Rather than grinding out a hand-by-hand battle for the trophy, the two players struck a deal splitting the remaining prize pool almost evenly, then agreed to settle the title itself by shoving all-in blind, hand after hand, until one of them was eliminated. It took only three hands for Petrangelo to double up twice and claim Simao’s remaining chips, ending the tournament in a matter of minutes and handing him the trophy. In one of the more unusual quirks of modern high-stakes deal-making, Simao actually walked away with more money than the man who won the title, banking $2,517,090 to Petrangelo’s $2,212,910.
The event drew 67 entries at the LES A Casino in Jeju, part of the marquee Triton Jeju II series that has become one of the most closely watched stops on the high-stakes poker calendar. Brazilian star Joao Simao eliminated Spanish standout Adrian Mateos in third place for $1,286,000 before heads-up play began, setting up the showdown with Petrangelo that would end in the now-viral blind-shove finish.
A Friendship-First Approach to a Seven-Figure Trophy
Deal-making in the closing stages of super high roller events is nothing new. With buy-ins in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, most professionals long ago decided that locking in life-changing money via an ICM-based chop makes more sense than gambling it away chasing a trophy with only marginal extra value. What made this finish stand out was the decision by two close friends to treat the actual title as almost an afterthought once the money was settled. Rather than playing out a normal heads-up battle, which can stretch for dozens of hands and hours of play, Petrangelo and Simao essentially flipped a coin with real cards, betting their remaining stacks blind until a winner emerged.
For Petrangelo, the win capped a strong showing at the Jeju series, where he recorded five cashes across the festival, adding another marquee title to a career that already includes multiple Triton and other high-stakes tournament victories. For Simao, the money outweighed the missed trophy. Coming just days after Simao’s own record-setting run in Triton’s $200K Invitational, where he banked $7.25 million, the runner-up finish here is further proof of the Brazilian’s dominant form throughout the Jeju stop.
Why the Deal Terms Favored Simao
Heads-up deals in tournament poker are typically calculated using an Independent Chip Model, which converts each player’s chip stack into an equity share of the remaining prize pool based on the probability of finishing first or second. When two players are close in chips, or when one player values certainty over variance, the resulting deal split does not have to match the eventual on-felt outcome. In this case, the agreed-upon numbers meant that whoever ended up holding the trophy, Simao’s overall payday would still exceed Petrangelo’s, since the deal was struck before the blind shove-fest determined only the title, not the bulk of the money. Petrangelo simply drew the better cards over three quick hands and left with the hardware and slightly less cash than his friend.
Triton Jeju’s Place in the High-Stakes Calendar
Triton Poker has built its reputation on drawing the game’s wealthiest and most skilled players to a rotating slate of Asian and European stops, with buy-ins that regularly reach into six and seven figures. The Jeju II series has featured a run of enormous scores throughout its schedule, and the $150K 10th Anniversary Special was one of its marquee mid-series events, timed to mark a decade since Triton’s founding. The series has already produced a string of massive results and storylines this month, reinforcing why high-stakes poker fans treat every Triton stop as must-follow content regardless of which specific bracelet or trophy is on the line.
For players who want to understand how tournament payout structures and heads-up deals actually work at a technical level, from ICM calculations to how ladder jumps affect strategy near the money bubble, our guide to poker hand rankings and hand-value fundamentals is a useful starting point before tackling more advanced tournament finance concepts.
What It Means Going Forward
The Petrangelo-Simao finish will likely be remembered as one of the signature moments of Triton’s 2026 Jeju swing, less for the poker played and more for what it revealed about how top professionals now approach the closing stages of tournaments they have already effectively won financially through a deal. It also continues an outstanding run for Brazilian poker on the world stage, with Simao adding yet another seven-figure result to a resume that already includes one of the largest single tournament scores of the year. Expect both players to remain fixtures on the Triton circuit as the series continues to expand its 2026 calendar.
High-stakes poker results like this one are the exception, not the norm, and should never be mistaken for typical outcomes. Poker carries financial risk at every level, and players must be 18 or older, or the applicable legal age in their jurisdiction, to participate in real-money games.
