The 2026 Triton Poker Super High Roller Series Jeju II opened on Friday, September 4, at Les A Casino in Jeju, South Korea, and the very first tournament produced one of the most memorable hands of the year alongside a headline-grabbing arrival: Poker Hall of Famer Phil Ivey, chasing his sixth Triton title.
A Straight Flush to Open the Series
The series kicked off with a $15,000 No-Limit Hold’em 8-Handed event, and it did not take long for the cards to steal the spotlight. Player Nevan Chang, holding 7 of hearts and 5 of hearts, flopped a straight flush when the dealer produced 6 of hearts, 8 of hearts, and 9 of hearts. His opponent, Li Yiming, held king of hearts and queen of clubs, a hand that looked strong until the flop but was already dead against Chang’s holding. The turn brought the 2 of hearts, completing a king-high flush for Yiming that still could not catch Chang’s straight flush, and the river fell 6 of spades. Chang extracted maximum value with an overbet to 66,000, sending a message early in the series that the high-stakes action at Jeju was going to be dramatic from hand one.
Moments like that are part of what makes Triton’s Super High Roller stops appointment viewing for high-stakes poker fans. Elsewhere in the same event, Aleksejs Ponakovs, a multiple-time Triton champion, flopped two pair against Wang Yang’s flopped nut straight, only to river a full house and complete a stunning double-up that kept him alive deep into the tournament.
Phil Ivey Arrives Chasing History
No name draws more attention on the Triton circuit than Phil Ivey. The Poker Hall of Famer has already won five Triton titles and racked up 46 cashes on the tour, numbers that make him one of the most successful players in the series’ history. He arrived in Jeju looking for title number six, but the opening event did not go his way. Ivey ran into Artur Martirosian early and was eliminated before the money bubble even burst, an early exit that will not affect his overall standing on a tour where he remains one of the most feared names at any table.
Ivey’s continued presence on the Triton tour, more than a decade after his rise to fame in mainstream poker, speaks to how the series has become the preferred stage for the game’s most recognizable stars to test themselves against the modern generation of high-stakes specialists.
A Deep Field and a Big Prize Pool
The opening $15,000 event drew 204 entries, well above what many expected for a starting event, generating a prize pool of $3,090,000. The top spot was worth $642,000, a payday that underlines just how quickly money moves at this level of the game. Only 28 players survived to Day 2, meaning the vast majority of the field, including a Hall of Famer, went home before the final stretch.
Heading into the business end of the tournament, three names separated themselves at the top of the counts. Wai Kiat Lee of Malaysia led with 3,500,000 in chips, narrowly ahead of Thailand’s Punnat Punsri with 3,465,000. Greece’s Alex Theologis rounded out the top three with 3,215,000, giving the final stages of the event an international flavor typical of Triton’s global roster of regulars and rising stars.
Jeju’s Reputation for Record-Breaking Moments
Jeju is not new to producing history at the poker table. During the previous Jeju stop in September 2025, a side cash game at the same venue delivered what was described at the time as the largest pot ever seen in televised poker history. Ossi Ketola, known in the poker world as Monarch, won an eleven million dollar pot against Alex Foxen after entering the session down nine million dollars to his opponent. Ketola made a full house of kings full of jacks on the river to beat Foxen’s flush, a swing so large that Foxen simply conceded with a two-word message: good game.
That history hangs over every Triton stop at Les A Casino, and it is part of why the series draws so much attention even outside its official tournament schedule. High-stakes cash games often run alongside the tournaments, and with a roster that includes some of the biggest bankrolls in the game, the potential for another record-shattering pot is never far away.
Why the Super High Roller Series Matters
Triton has built its identity around buy-ins that dwarf almost anything else in the tournament world, drawing a mix of billionaire businesspeople, elite tournament grinders, and online phenoms who have moved into live high-stakes poker. For fans following from home, the series offers a rare look at how the best in the world approach hands with life-changing sums on the line, from the disciplined pre-flop ranges to the kind of hero calls and overbets seen on Day 1 in Jeju. Players newer to the game who want to understand why hands like Chang’s straight flush are so rare and so powerful can review the basics with a resource such as Poker Pro Academy’s poker hand rankings guide.
With Ivey already eliminated from the opening event but the series still in its early days, Jeju II has plenty of high-stakes tournaments left on the schedule, and after the fireworks of Day 1, few would bet against more record-setting moments before the series wraps up.
Poker Pro Academy covers the game responsibly. High-stakes poker involves significant financial risk, is intended for players 18 and older, and no result described here should be read as financial advice or a guarantee of future returns.
