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The Story of the 2024 Triton Poker

In 2024, the Triton Poker Series once again visited four stops as the biggest high roller live tour in the world got even bigger. The Triton stop in London in 2023 was replaced in the schedule by a new stop, as the World Series of Poker’s Paradise festival in The Bahamas welcomed Triton Poker for two massive events to close out the season. Before that, the Triton Poker Super High Roller Series visited Jeju in South Korea, Budva in Montenegro, and Monte Carlo in the principality of Monaco.

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March Madness in Jeju

While basketball teams across the United States were playing for the chance to be one of the select teams competing for the national championship, another form of ‘March Madness’ was taking place thousands of miles away in the Far East. Jeju hosted an amazing 17 events on the 2024 Triton Poker Series tour, as legends of the game won millions of dollars. 

The by-now familiar format of the festival began with a slew of events in No Limit Hold’em before three Pot Limit Omaha Events and four Short Deck tournaments to close out the series. 

There were wins in NLHE for stars of the felt such as German player Fedor Holz, who claimed $786,000 in the opening event, Paulius Vaitiekunas ($1.07m in Event #2), Adrian Mateos ($1.17m in Event #5), Dimitar Danchev ($804,000 in Event #7), Punnat Punsri ($2.01m in Event #8) and Elton Tsang, who scooped an incredible $4.21m in Event #9, an 8-Handed NLHE Event where Biao Ding (2nd for $2.87m) came closest to victory and Mike ‘Sir Watts’ Watson (3rd for $1.89m) also made the podium.

With big wins for Dan Smith ($951,000 in Event #10), Quan Zhou ($530,000 in Event #12) and Nacho Barbero ($443,000 in Event #13), the Main Event was always going to be a classic. So it proved, as an incredible 216 total entries produced a $21.6 million prizepool in the $100,000 buy-in event, with 39 players reaching the money places.

Previous Triton Poker legends such as Henrick Hecklen (38th for $151,000), Wai Chan (29th for $168,000), Seth Davies (19th for $234,000), Justin Saliba (12th for $330,000) and Chris Brewer (8th for $543,000) all ran deep, but at the final table, it was the Czech player Roman Hrabec who took control, as he outlasted Patrik Antonius (4th for $1.69m) and Elton Tsang (3rd for $2.1m) then beat Jean-Noel Thorel heads-up to seal a memorable win worth $4.33 million, the biggest of his career to date. 

From Jeju, the Triton Poker Series headed west to Budva in Montenegro as 14 events made millionaires of poker’s finest.

Moneymaker Lives Up to His Name

There were 163 total entries in the GGPoker GGMillion$ in Montenegro, with just 27 players making the money. Costing $25,000 to play, there were results for Seth Davies (26th for $41,000), Patrik Antonius (17th for $55,000), Phil Ivey (14th for $61,100), and Justin Saliba (12th for $67,200) outside the final table. Just as at the 2003 WSOP Main Event, Moneymaker outlasted Phil Ivey, then turned on the afterburners, eliminating Lewis Spencer in seventh place for $153,000. 

Chinese player Bing Diao ran all the way to fourth place for $341,000, but after the exit of Igoy Yaroshevskyy in third for $419,000, it was an all-American clash for the title. Moneymaker’s grit and determination was hardly required in the final duel, as it took just three hands for him to finish off Brian Kim and claim the Triton trophy and $903,000. 

“I don’t really play a whole lot of high rollers, but when I do I enjoy it,” Moneymaker said. “I probably won’t play a ton more, but I’m sure I’ll be back out at a Triton stop – they do a really good job. It’s insane how well they run tournaments.”

Other big winners in Budva included Mike Watson, who won $1.02m in the $30,000 NLHE 8-Max Event #3, Adrian Mateos ($1.76m in Event #7), and Chris Frank, who won the PLO Main Event for $2m, beating Dylan Weisman heads-up for the title. In the $200k NLHE Event #11, Polish player Wiktor Malinowski claimed victory and the biggest win of his poker career to date when he scooped $4.78 million, beating Mateos to the title in the process. 

In the $125,000-entry Triton Montenegro Main Event, 171 entries created an incredible prize pool of $21.37 million. Just 27 of those players were paid, with stars such as Dan Smith (25th for $214,000), Matas Cimbolas (16th for $287,000), and Chris Brewer (13th for $353,000) making money but not the final table. 

At the final table, the All-Time Money List leader Bryn Kenney came eighth for $580,000, while the legend Phil Ivey finished fourth for $1,795,000. Latvian Aleks Ponakovs came third for $2.2m, leaving local Montenegrin Dejan Kaladjurdjevic to battle the Belarusian Mikalai Vaskaboinikau. The latter triumphed, taking home an astronomical $4.73 million for first place, with Kaladjurdjevic claiming $3.19m as runner-up. 

From Montenegro, the next Triton trip took over five months to arrive, but it was well worth the wait. Players took to the felt in Monte Carlo, the gambling capital of Europe, for 14 tournaments that would highlight just how high the Triton stakes had become.

Monte Carlo or Bust!

Monte Carlo in the principality of Monaco, welcomed Triton players to 14 stellar events in the first fortnight of November in 2024, kicking off with a WPT Global Slam event in conjunction with Triton. This new and exciting event, which had 170 total entries, saw Brian Kim exact revenge for coming second to Chris Moneymaker in Budva, getting the win for $941,000.

With Europeans populating the poker felt heavily, players such as Kayhan Roshanfekr, Roman Hrabec, and Pieter Aerts all claimed early victories. Alex Foxen called time on the European monopolisation by winning the $50,000-entry Event #4 for $1.47 million, beating Aleks Ponakovs heads-up for the title. The event also featured final table finishes for Wai Kiat Lee (6th for $393,000) and Lun Loon (8th for $214,000).

The Special Triton Invitational was a big one, with the $200,000 buy-in put down by 102 in total, meaning over $20m was up for grabs. Brian Kim (15th for $336,000), Morten Klein (9th for $510,000), and the super-consistent Roman Hrabec (4th for $1.86m) all cashed, but it was the Finnish powerhouse Patrik Antonius who won the day, winning $5.13m after beating Estonia’s Vladimir Korzinin, nicknamed ‘Gambledore’, heads-up. The 2022 WSOP Main Event winner Espen Jørstad came third for an impressive $2,255,000.

There were event wins for Eelis Parssinen (Event #15 for $2.27m), the remarkable Korzinin (Event #12 for $4.35m), and Ben Tollerene (Event #13 for $1.07m), but the Main Event was the place to be. Costing $125,000 to play, there were 159 entries and some of the best players in the world sat down to play Texas Hold’em for a top prize of $4.41 million. 

Results for Steve O’Dwyer (23rd for $218,000), Isaac Haxton (16th for $268,000), Fedor Holz (14th for $298,000), and Jesse Lonis (9th for $445,000) came ahead of the big action, where six players became poker millionaires – or won yet another seven-figure prize in their careers. At the end, it was a showdown between Malaysian player Wai Chan and the big dog in the world of tournament poker, Bryn Kenney. The latter got the job done to win another massive seven-figure score, pushing him beyond $73 million in lifetime tournament earnings.

Triton Poker Heads to Paradise

As part of the 2024 WSOP Paradise series at the Atlantis Resort & Casino on Paradise Island, the Triton Poker Series hosted two events in The Bahamas. The first was a $500,000 Triton Million event where a mix of VIPS and poker professionals participated. Each VIP paid $500,000 to enter and could invite a pro for $500,000. With professionals and VIPs playing separately on Day 1, the field would combine on the second day and play down to a winner.

With 96 total entries, there were big results for VIPs and professionals alike. Indeed, two of the final five players came from the VIP side of the draw, as Elias Talvitie (5th for $3.54m) and Sinan Unlu (3rd for $5.3m) had the results of their respective poker careers. While big names such as Stephen Chidwick (14th for $792,000) and Chance Kornuth (10th for $985,000) made money, the heads-up clash was between Argentina’s Alejandro Lococo and British high roller regular Ben Heath. It was Lococo who won the day, as he took home $12 million, easily the biggest win of his poker career. Heath’s $8.16 million score as runner-up was also his biggest win, putting him 26th on The All-Time Money List on The Hendon Mob.

The second Triton event in Paradise and the final one of the year cost $100,000 to play and was the Triton Main Event. Every time Triton crowns a Main Event winner is special, but the 182-player event that concluded on December 12, 2024, was a classic. Triton crusher Jason Koon came 16th for $242,000, while other big-hitting American players Seth Davies (9th for $393,000) and David Coleman (6th for $890,000) came close. The final two were set when Alex Foxen’s two-pair beat Fedor Holz’s flopped aces to see the German bust in third place for $1.83m. Heads-up, Joao Vieira stood in Foxen’s way. 

An ill-timed bluff from Vieira left him in the dust, and while he doubled up once, trying to do so again with queen-three failed, as he ran into Foxen’s ace-king. 

“It’s up there with my favorite poker moments, for sure,” said Foxen after the event. “To get the Triton Series trophy and WSOP bracelet at the same time, it’s unreal. That’s always been my motion – to get better at tournaments. You have cash games where there’s a lot of politics involved. I love the fact that if you have the money you show up, put down the money and play. You can’t pick who’s at your table. All the best players in the world are here.”

While he was delighted with how it went for him at the final table, crediting a key coinflip against Samuel Mullur, Foxen was quick to thank his wife Kristen, who still had the edge on him for WSOP bracelets, with four to his three. 

“It’s invaluable. I can’t even put it into words,” Alex said about Kristen’s support. “To have someone who not only understands the game on the deepest level and understands me at the deepest level and is at my side and helping me when I’m feeling tilted or frustrated or maybe overconfident, just keeps me in check. It’s something special. I don’t have words for it, honestly. It’s amazing.”

The amazing Alex Foxen closed out another thrilling year of Triton Poker events in 2024, with 47 tournaments creating memories that would last a lifetime. 

About the Author: Paul Seaton has written about poker for over 10 years, interviewing some of the best players ever to play the game such as Daniel Negreanu, Johnny Chan and Phil Hellmuth. Over the years, Paul has reported live from tournaments such as the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas and the European Poker Tour. He has also written for other poker brands where he was Head of Media, as well as BLUFF magazine, where he was Editor.

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Edited by Shawn A.