In a couple of weeks, the Triton series will celebrate its 10th anniversary. The first tournament took place in January 2016 at the WPT National series in the Philippines.
The $200,000 buy-in tournament saw 52 entries, with Fedor Holz tying with David Peters in heads-up play.
The first few series consisted of two tournaments – a “cheaper” 6-max with a buy-in of HK$250,000 and a main event for HK$1,000,000.
Triton began expanding in 2018, when two short-deck tournaments were added to the Montenegrin stage schedule.
Since then, the series has continued to grow, regularly breaking its own records. The September leg in Jeju featured 16 tournaments.
In this article, we decided to recall the most significant events in the history of the series.
Paul Phua and Rob Yong
The series' masterminds are one of the key factors behind its success. Phua and Yong have managed to win the trust of discerning regulars and wealthy amateurs.
They are quite experienced players themselves. The first mention of the billionaire couple dates back to the fall of 2010, when a thread appeared on 2+2 about a high-stakes game in Macau involving Tom Dwan, Phil Ivey , and some "Chinese businessmen."
At first, Chinese high rollers tried to maintain anonymity and even forbade posting their photos publicly. But this didn't last long.
In January 2011, the Aussie Millions Cash Game was filmed in Melbourne, featuring Full Tilt professionals, and saw the debut of Paul Phua and Richard Yong.
John Juanda introduced the audience to the mysterious players.
"Paul Phua is a great player, especially when he's focused on the game. But he's a businessman first and foremost; he can leave the table mid-game, go have a drink with clients, and then come back. It's clear that in those moments, he doesn't play his best. But when he's focused, he plays great, thinks through every decision, and makes the right decisions.
Richard Yong, on the other hand, makes decisions very quickly, but he has excellent instincts. He can instantly call or instantly raise when you're bluffing. He's also a great player."
In the summer of 2014, Paul, Richard, and other Chinese high rollers were arrested during the World Series of Poker for running an illegal bookmaking operation.
Because of these events, their poker careers were put on hold, and they only returned to active play at their own Triton series.
Paul Phua reached the final table in his first event but was eliminated in 7th place, while Richard Yong finished second in the HK$1 million event in Montenegro in 2017.
Both series founders remain active players to this day. Richard has three titles and $11 million in prize money, while Paul has one trophy but $21 million in prize money.
Richard won the $50k short deck event at the Jeju Series in September, and Paul took 3rd place in the $50,000 turbo event in the Bahamas a few days ago.
Invitational Tournaments and Interesting Amateurs
The series' signature feature is tournaments in which wealthy amateurs invite professionals. The rules separate starting levels for regulars and established players. The organizers first tried this experiment in 2019 at the London series. The venture proved successful, attracting 54 participants to the tournament with a record-breaking £1,050,000 buy-in.
The formal winner was amateur Aaron Zang, but the biggest winner was Bryn Kenney. His prize remains a record in poker history.
The second such tournament was held in 2022 in Northern Cyprus. The buy-in was reduced to $200,000, and the number of pairs increased to 45 (including reentries, players made 115 entries).
Sam Grafton defeated Linus Loeliger heads-up. Third place went to Karl-Schappe Gatien, who achieved a unique feat at the final table: he went all-in pre-flop 14 times and was never over the odds.
The Invitational format was embraced by many amateurs previously unknown in the poker world. It was also at this same series that Santosh Suvarna made his first big splash. On the very last hand of the tournament's first day, he shoved 115 blinds against Leon Tsoukernik.
Leon is hard to scare with such moves, he made a call and made a flush.
Since then, tournaments in this format have been held at almost every series, with buy-ins ranging from $200k to $500k.
Three similar tournaments were held in 2023. In the spring, Ramin Khadzhiev emerged victorious in the $200k tournament in Cyprus.
At the London Poker Series this summer, Bryn Kenney beat Talal Shakerchi heads-up and became almost $7 million richer.
Read ReadIn the fall, Dan Smith won a modest $3.9 million in Monte Carlo, the smallest of its kind (73 entries).
Read ReadIn November 2024, Patrik Antonius won $5 million at the Monte Carlo Series. He defeated another amateur rookie, Vladimir Korzinin, heads-up. Another prominent VIP, Ossi Ketola, invited Antonius to the tournament.
Read ReadLast year, the buy-in in the Bahamas was increased to $500k, but this had virtually no impact on attendance, with 96 entries.
Another colorful amateur, Argentine Alejandro Lococo, won the title. He received $12 million for first place.
This May, Aleksa Pavicevic, arguably the least-known player in the history of this format, emerged as the champion of a series in Montenegro. Pavicevic, 29, registered for the tournament as a businessman, but later reports surfaced that he was a regular at the high-stakes live tournament in Miami. This is another characteristic of these tournaments. The organizers are very liberal with the term "amateur." Jared Bleznick and Erik Wasserson, for example, have played in this role, and some players may have played one series as amateurs and the next as pros.
The final Invitational took place a few days ago in the Bahamas. The buy-in was set at a reasonable $250,000, attracting 49 pairs and a record-breaking field of 133 entries. Kayhan Mokri emerged victorious.
Jason Koon
The Triton series attracts all the top professionals, but Jason has seemingly forgotten about variance for several years. He's already won 12 titles; no one else has more than five.
Jason has also cashed 68 times, matching Stephen Chidwick's tally. In terms of career earnings, Koon is second only to Bryn Kenney.
Jason's four biggest career wins also came at the Tritons.
He won $3.6 million in 2018 in Montenegro in a short-deck tournament for HK$1,000,000. At the time, the game was at its peak, with 103 entries.
Kuhn himself evaluates his achievements very modestly:
"I play small fields and I'm probably not much stronger than my opponents. But out of the 14 or 15 heads-up matches I've played, I've won 12. I'm just doing really well. Look at Ike Haxton—he's truly one of the best heads-up players in history, but he hasn't won a single tournament at Tritons, despite finishing in the top two six times."
Mikita Badziakouski
Mikita Badziakouski is the clear leader in terms of results – he has 5 titles, 50 cashes, and $30 million in prize money.
For a while, Mikita was Koon's main rival in terms of wins, but he's been struggling in the final stages lately. At the September series in Korea, Mikita made four final tables, but never finished higher than second.
Badziakouski won his last trophy in a 34-man shortdeck tournament in March 2024.
Badziakouski's record-breaking win at the Triton series was winning the main tournament at the 2018 Jeju series.
Aleks Ponakovs
Aleks Ponakovs has 32 cashes and $24 million in prize money, but only one title, which he just won in the Bahamas.
Read ReadOver the past four years, Aleks has eight seven-figure wins, seven of which were on the Triton series.
Artur Martirosyan
Artur Martirosyan has three titles and $13.5 million in prize money. He won two of his trophies in PLO tournaments.
He won his biggest prize this spring in the main tournament at the Jeju series.
High Stakes Triton Cash Games
Almost every stage of Triton is accompanied by a very high-stakes cash game. Some of the action is captured on camera. Over the course of its history, the Triton YouTube channel has aired over 100 episodes.
Most popular videos:
In 2018, Tom Dwan and Paul Phua played one of the largest pre-flop pots in TV poker history ($2.3 million).
That same year, at a stage in Montenegro, Jason Koon made the nuts on the river against Elton Tsang.
Crazy hand between Kao and Dwan in a 72 bounty game. By the way, this cash game format just went online at CoinPoker.
Cash games on Triton tables always mean huge pots and fun conversations.
The main star of these games is Tan Xuan, who has lost almost $8 million in total.
Read Read
All-time profit leaders:
However, the results of Viktor Malinovsky and Kayhan Mokri are irrelevant, as they were supplemented by wins in heads-up matches against Ossie Ketola.
Ivan Leow
One of the Triton series co-founders died of a heart attack on September 17, 2022, during the series in Cyprus. According to unconfirmed reports, the death occurred during a gym workout. The organizers immediately canceled the remaining tournaments.
Unlike other Chinese high rollers, Ivan Leow rarely played cash games, focusing instead on tournaments. He has two Triton victories – in 2018, at the Jeju and Sochi series.
Sochi hosted just two Triton tournaments as part of its partnership with partypoker Millions. Liao won the 6 million ruble buy-in tournament (around $75,000).
In memory of Ivan, the organizers present a trophy named after him to the best player of the year. This season's winner was Artur Martirosyan, who also received a $200,000 bonus.
The Triton dates for the first stages of 2026 were recently announced.
