Triton Poker continues to go from strength to strength in Jeju. Event #3, the $25K NLH, smashed the entry record again with 391 runners after Event #1 became the biggest Triton ever with 379 runners. It's not just the size of the events, either. Influencers like Frankie C and Wolfgang Poker entered the fray in Jeju and that's likely to spread the Triton word further and wider.
They're doing okay against the GTO wizards as well. Frankie C cashed in the first event, Wolfgang Poker did the same in the second, before going one better in the $25K, making the final table on Saturday night in an event he wasn't even planning on playing before another influencer, Rampage, convinced him to max late reg.
With eight players left, Wolfgang, aka Alexander Seibt, played it snug, and who could blame him? His previous biggest cash was the $62,000 he made in Event #2 and before that, it was $35,100 at last year's EPT Monte Carlo Main Event. Add all his tournament winnings together before today and you only got to $162,856. Heady stuff, and Wolfgang was enjoying himself after seeing the likes of Phil Ivey (38th), Patrik Antonius (20th), and Fedor Holz (13th) fall by the wayside.
Wolfgang starts laddering
He was enjoying himself even more when he laddered two spots by folding on the button after Zhou Quan found
and raised from the hijack. Shunjiro Kita shoved the small blind with
and Matthias Eibinger re-shoved with
from the big. Ironically, the
runout would have seen Wolfgang likely triple up and save Eibinger from elimination. Kita was probably toast either way but wasn't eliminated. His last two big blinds didn't last long, though.
Meanwhile, PokerOrg Player Advisory Board member Jeremy Ausmus was looking for the finish line.
Down to six players, Ausmus found in the cut-off. Wolfgang folded an ace before Paulis Vaitiekunas re-shoved with
in the big blind. That created a 28,050,000 pot that went the way of the kings as the board came down
.
Ausmus shouldn't really have been in at this point, with a misclick – that he later put down to jetlag – saving him from going out to aces earlier. This pot made him the new chip leader.
That took the remaining players to a break when the stacks looked like this.
Name | Stack | Big blinds |
---|---|---|
Jeremy Ausmus | 28,050,000 | 35 |
Zhou Quan | 19,800,000 | 24 |
Maksim Vaskresenski | 8,825,000 | 11 |
Wolfgang | 8,375,000 | 10 |
Paulius Vaitekunas | 7,850,000 | 10 |
Sim Kok Wai | 5,375,000 | 7 |
Ausmus wins his first Triton trophy
Soon after the restart, Wolfgang's nerves were put to the test when he found himself all-in with against Vaitiekunas'
in a 16.2M pot. The stacks were almost identical going in, with Vaitiekunas having just 400K more chips. The winner of the pot would be almost guaranteed $532,000.
The flop was good for Wolfgang and it got better on the
turn, leaving Vaitiekunas drawing to just two queens. He couldn't find one on the river and Wolfgang found himself with over 20 million chips and a dream.
Vaitiekunas found a double up the next hand (actually a 6x with blinds and antes) but went out the hand after with against Zhou's pocket jacks. Then, Maksim Vasresenski ran into Sim Kok Wai's aces to hit the rail in fifth.
"Can this just go on forever?" Wolfgang said after taking a pot from Ausmus with a well-timed bluff on the river.
It couldn't. Triton levels are quick and stacks are relatively short, and Wolfgang quickly found himself with just five big blinds after misplaying a couple of hands. Playing perfect poker isn't in Wolfgang's wheelhouse yet but he will be delighted with his $680K win, despite getting it in good in his final hand with against Ausmus'
. The
board didn't believe in making fairy tales come true.
There was time for more late drama with Sim Kok Wai going out with kings in a 34.6M all-in preflop pot against Zhou's , with the board running out
.
Ausmus went on to win his first Triton trophy after finishing second in a PLO in Madrid back in 2022, beating Zhou into second place by winning a flip with against pocket threes.
Triton Jeju Event #3 $25K NLH results
Place | Player | Prize |
---|---|---|
1 | Jeremy Ausmus | $1,892,000 |
2 | Zhou Quan | $1,193,000 |
3 | Sim Kok Wai | $855,000 |
4 | Alexander Seibt | $680,000 |
5 | Maksim Vaskresenski | $532,000 |
6 | Paulius Vaitekunas | $417,000 |
7 | Shunjiro Kita | $314,000 |
8 | Matthias Eibinger | $222,000 |