Triton Poker in Jeju: Player Records, Profits, and Losses

The Triton Poker series has been attracting the world's strongest high rollers for 10 years now. Official reports typically only list prize money, but fans have always been curious to know:

• 💸 How much players spend on buy-ins and re-entries.
• 🔥 Who grinded the most.
• 🏆 Who won or lost the most at the end of the series.

How much does it cost to play the entire Triton?

The top 5 players by buy-in spend have invested at least $2 million*:

1. Stephen Chidwick (United Kingdom) — $2,260,000
2. Dan Dvoress (Canada) — $2,153,000
3. Artur Martirosyan (Russia) — $2,093,000
4. Biao Ding (China) — $2,017,000
5. Ben Tollerene (USA) — $2,000,000

*Rake is not taken into account. At maximum capacity, it would have been around $100K.

Unsurprisingly, these same players were also among the most active grinders throughout the series:

Interesting facts:

• Artur Martirosyan is the only player who participated in all the Hold'em and Omaha tournaments, only missing the Short Deck event.
• Ben Tollerene earned a significant portion of his profit from the Main Event: $3,766,000 for first place with 5 entries (out of 35 in the entire series).
• Philip Sternheimer (USA) holds the record for the most entries in a single tournament: 6 entries in #13 ($30K Mixed NLH/PLO), but he still was eliminated outside the ITM.

Who won the most?

The top-5 players by profit once again demonstrate that volume doesn’t always translate directly into results, especially over a short sample size:

1. Elton Tsang (Hong Kong) — $2,547,000.
2. Kiat Lee (Malaysia) — $2,330,447. 13 tournaments, 4 ITMs (1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th places).
3. Brandon Wilson (USA) — $2,175,000. 10 tournaments, 4 ITMs (including two 2nd places). BestCash — $2,241,000, second place in the $150K Triton 10th Anniversary Special.
4. Paul Phua (Malaysia) — $2,064,200. The founder of Triton won the tournament dedicated to the 10th anniversary of the series for $3,226,000.
5. Ben Tollerene (USA) — $1,816,000. Played 18 tournaments, 2 ITM, but winning the Main Event provided a good profit.

Tsang plays live almost exclusively on Triton. In Jeju, he took third place in the $100K and $150K events and cashed in three of his seven tournaments.

This result took his career winnings past $30 million.

Seven other players have earned over $1 million:

Interestingly, Ander Valinas earned $1,595,700 in Triton ONE tournaments and another $863,000 for finishing second in Event #2 of the Main Series, but he left Jeju and decided not to continue playing. In 12 days, he earned as much as he had in the previous 10 years of his career.

Who lost the most?

The top 5 losers of the series:

1. Biao Ding — $1,578,000. 20 tournaments (38 entries), 4 ITMs, and only one deep run (4th place in Short Deck, $304,000).
2. Stephen Chidwick — $1,099,000. 20 tournaments, 8 ITMs, but a maximum of $192,000 in a single tournament.
3. Yosuke Miki — $955,000. Earned $628,000 in Event #8, quadrupling his live tournament winnings. However, he didn’t cash in 16 of the 20 tournaments.
4. Michael Watson — $919,000. Two final tables (Hold'em and Short Deck), but 12 more tournaments without an ITM.
5. Mario Mosbeck — $872,000. Only 1 ITM ($223,000 for 7th place), 10 tournaments in total.

Nine more players lost over $500K:

Note

The statistics are based on the results of 23 tournaments:

• 20 Triton Poker Super High Roller events
• 3 most expensive Triton ONE tournaments ($8K Main Event → $10K 7-Handed → $15K High Roller)

All data is taken from the Triton Plus app. Precise reentry data is missing only for two single-day tournaments: Event #21 ($25K Short Deck) and Event #19 ($30K Bounty Quatro Turbo), but this doesn't significantly impact the overall statistics.