Portugal’s Joao Vieira has scooped the $4,610,000 top prize in Triton Jeju’s $150k SHR, coolering Aleksejs Ponakovs heads-up en route to the title.
The biggest buy-in of the series in South Korea pulled in an astonishing 128 entries, the prizepool set at $19.2 million with a min. cash worth $250,000.
Solver Approach backfires on the Bubble
First port of call was the money bubble and Samuel Mullur made a play (apparently solver-approved) that your average Joe (and your scribe too!) simply won’t understand…
💰 Quarter-million money bubble of the $150K 🔱 Triton Poker SHRS Jeju 2025… and QUEENS run into ACES!? pic.twitter.com/d8Gn8FP3Zk
— Triton Poker (@tritonpoker) March 6, 2025
That left the Austrian with one big blind as Chidwick fell in 22nd and it was Orpen Kisacikoglu who ended the drama, flopping a set of 10s to KO Mullur without a payday.
Among those who cashed but failed to make the final table:
- Patrik Antonius (17th for $278,000)
- Isaac Haxton (15th for $307,000)
- Phil Ivey (10th for $384,000)
- Ben Tollerene (9th for $460,000)
Ivey Hits the Rail
Ivey and Tollerene both exited in a double KO courtesy of Vieira. A busy pre-flop flurry saw Smith open from the cut-off, Viera call on the button, Ivey shove his fumes in the small blind and Tollerene smell an opportunity in the big blind to get his last 10 bigs in. Smith quickly got out of the way but Viera, after tanking for a bit, decided he was going nowhere…
Viera: 10♦ 10♥
Ivey: A♣ 9♦
Tollerene: A♦ 4♦
Flop: K♥ 2♠ J♥
Turn: 3♠
River: 8♦
For those wondering why Tollerene received $460k against Ivey’s $384k, the former had more chips entering the hand, simple as that.
The Final Table
It was a stellar lineup for a final table, Fedor Holz, Alex Foxen, and Dan Smith among them but holding the three shortest stacks. Only Smith would buck that position, Holz losing with pocket aces, 10s and 8s, while Foxen finally fell with AK against Ponakovs’ 10s.
Kiat Lee fell in almost exactly the same fashion, Ponakovs again flopping a set against big slick. Smith had laddered up to 4th spot, worth $1,708,000. Things might have gone differently had he found a call in this gross spot…
UGH! A 💰 4 MILLION DOLLAR 💰 decision has just been dropped into the lap of @DanSmithHolla! 😰 pic.twitter.com/Hr6HCQc7yN
— Triton Poker (@tritonpoker) March 7, 2025
Wang Ye had to settle for 3rd place and a $2,074,000 paycheck, losing out blind-on-blind with A♣ J♣ against Ponakovs’ Q♣ 10♦ and that left the Latvian to battle heads-up with the Portuguese crusher.
Heads-Up Cooler
Playing for a $1.5million difference, first hand in saw Viera facing the poker gods, his A♦ J♦ up; against A♠ Q♠ but spiking a jack suddenly saw him with a monster chip lead.
Ponakovs vs Vieira (courtesy of Triton Poker)
Although Ponakovs fought back, he had to content himself with second place, the final hand playing out:
Ponakovs: J♠ 7♠
Vieira: 9♦ 9♥
Joao raised pre and the players took a flop…
Flop: K♦ 5♦ 7♣
A quarter pot bet from Vieira was called…
Turn: 2♥
…but when Vieira bet small again, Ponakovs shoved. It would be his last play of the tournament as Vieira called…
River: 10♦
…and Joao Vieira had bagged his first Triton Poker title and a career-best $4,610,000 cash.
Event #9 $150,000 NLH 8-Handed
Final table results
| 1 | Joao Vieira | Portugal | $4,610,000 |
| 2 | Aleks Ponakovs | Latvia | $3,139,000 |
| 3 | Wang Ye | China | $2,074,000 |
| 4 | Dan Smith | USA | $1,708,000 |
| 5 | Kiat Lee | Malaysia | $1,372,000 |
| 6 | Alex Foxen | USA | $1,076,000 |
| 7 | Ding Biao | China | $807,000 |
| 8 | Fedor Holz | Germany | $595,000 |
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