Triton ONE in Jeju Creates $20 Million in Prize Money

The first-ever Triton ONE festival is in the rearview and can only be described as a success. The new series catering to up-and-coming poker pros drew 3,541 total entries across ten tournaments to generate $19,646,308 in prize pools.

Triton ONE’s tagline is “where poker legends are made,” and if that’s the case, there are ten new legends in the poker world thanks to hot runs inside Landing Casino on South Korea’s Jeju Island.

That includes former pro footballer Joshua Gebissa of Germany, who bested some of the best high-stakes poker players in the world en route to a victory in the $8,000 Main Event for $975,225.

Here’s a look at the other winners from a week-plus of tournament poker action in South Korea.

Former Footballer Beats the Pros in First-Ever Triton ONE Main Event for $975,225

Yoko Sakaki Becomes First Triton ONE Female Champion

It took nine years for the first female Triton champion to emerge. That distinction went to Xuan Liu, who PokerNews caught up with at the start of the festival.

However, just a handful of events were needed for the Triton ONE series to name its first woman champion as Japan’s Yoko Sakaki took down the $2,000 One Night NLH for $69,000.

Sakaki, who posed with Japanese poker pro Tamon Nakamura in winner’s photos, defeated heads-up opponent Josh McCully, who earned $46,800 in what proved to be a stellar series for the Australian. McCully also had a runner-up finish in the $20,000 High Roller for $226,000 and also finished 40th in the Triton ONE Main Event for $23,800, according to the Triton Plus App.

Also among those at the final table were American Kaifan Wang (3rd – $32,200), China’s Tingjia Cao (4th – $26,300) and Wang Yuzhu (5th – $21,000) and Florencio Campomanes of the Philippines (6th – $16,188).

$2,000 One Night NLH Final Table Results

Another Career Run for Ebony Kenney as Jun Hao Wu Wins $15,000 High Roller

Sakaki isn’t the only woman to make waves in Jeju. American pro Ebony Kenney made yet another career-defining run on the Triton felt with a runner-up finish in the $15,000 Triton ONE High Roller for $614,500, the second-largest cash of her career.

The result marked Kenney’s second final table appearance at the festival after the streamer earlier finished ninth in the $5,000 One Night NLH Bounty Quattro for $25,000.

Kenney had two major runs at 2022’s Triton Poker Super High Roller Series in Cyprus, first finishing fifth in a $25,000 event for $240,500 before also finishing fifth in the $200,000 Coin Rivet Invitational for a career-best $1.7 million.

The winner of the $15,000 Triton ONE High Roller in Jeju was Singapore’s Jun Hao Wu, who earned the trophy and a career-best $969,000.

There were a few familiar faces at the final table, including Canadian high-stakes pro Mike Watson (5th – $284,003) and British crusher Stephen Chidwick, whose eighth-place finish brings him $117,500 closer to reaching the top spot on poker’s all-time money list. Still, he’ll need about ten times that to pass all-time money leader Bryn Kenney, who is looking to increase his lead at the now-underway Triton Super High Roller Jeju II series.

$15,000 Triton One High Roller Final Table Results

Other Triton ONE Winners

The Triton ONE festival kicked off with China’s Chengxu Hu winning the $3,000 GGPK Genesis for $564,000. Germany’s Joshua Gebissa won the marquee attraction, $8,000 Main Event, for $975,225, and PokerNews was there every step of the way providing live updates.

Other winners across the series include Denmark’s Johan Schultz-Pedersen ($5,000 One Night NLH Bounty Quattro – $78,000), China’s Chenxiang Miao ($20,000 High Roller – $315,000), Vietnam’s Khoa Anh Ngo ($2,000 One Night NLH – $58,700) and Austria’s Samuel Mullur ($2,000 One Night Bounty Quattro – $54,000), who was recently named as the latest GTO Wizard ambassador.

A full list of winners at the inaugural Triton ONE festival in Jeju is available in the table below.

Triton ONE Jeju Winners

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_{*Photos courtesy Triton, Drew Amato, Enrique Malfavon & Spenser Sembrat}

Connor Richards is a Senior Editor U.S. for PokerNews and host of the Life Outside Poker podcast. Connor has been nominated for three Global Poker Awards for his writing.