Fedor Holz dodges bullets, scoops Triton Jeju opener for $786,000

It might have been a record-breaking field for the opening event at Triton Jeju, but there was a very familiar face holding all the chips at the end. High-stakes crusher Fedor Holz pocketed $786,000 and his fourth Triton trophy for his heads-up victory over Seth Gottlieb.

Holz considers the Triton events to be “a really big deal,” and he isn’t alone in that; an incredible 269 entries for this event show that live poker is booming across all buy-ins. The huge field in the $15k buy-in event produced a prize pool that sneaked over the $4 million mark.

Indeed, the number making the money – 47 – would often be a reasonable total entry in HR and SHR circles, and South Korea attracted some of the biggest names in the game.

Close but no cigar for Seth Gottileb who had to settle for second place

Star power at Triton Poker

Phil Ivey played, as did the likes of Ike Haxton, Timothy Adams and Jason Koon, alongside a host of well-known names and newcomers to the world of high-stakes tournament poker.

One unusual feature of Day 1 was that they bagged and tagged on the stone bubble. 48 players returned one spot away from a payday, and it was the shortest stack, Quan Zhou, who fell at the hands of Jesse Lonis to feed the remaining players.

Norway’s 2022 WSOP champ Espen Jorstad min-cashed, while ACR boss Phil Nagy and England’s leading money-winner Stephen Chidwick both went much further, bagging $60k paydays apiece.

It was Ike Haxton, fresh from success in the APT Taipei High Roller, who would eventually bust on the official final table bubble, all-in pre-flop with A-J against Gottlieb’s A-K, the latter pairing his king on the flop for good measure.

Fedor can dodge bullets, baby

Australia’s Josh Mccully was one of the notable newbies, playing his first Triton event. He came here on the back of a great start to 2024, with a career-best cash as runner-up at the WPT Cambodia Main Event. He placed seventh at Jeju for $134,000 to continue his hot start to the year.

Malaysian businessman Lun Loon, online crusher Dominykas Mikolaitis, SHR reg Nick Petrangelo and Bulgarian Dimitar Danchev all dropped to leave Holz to battle it out with Gottlieb.

And it was Gottileb who was one card away from winning it all with aces, before Holz hit a miracle river to survive. Gottileb's face proved he's seen it all before. You can watch that hand go down below.

When Holz got his own chance to close, with jacks against Q-10, the poker gods decided to favor the former wunderkind.

Holz has one eye on the Asian market, and this must have made his victory extra sweet. “It’s nice to win the first tournament, it gives you confidence,” Holz declared afterwards, citing his girlfriend Annelina’s presence as a contributing factor to his success. Commenting on his fourth Triton title, Holz added: “It’s a really big deal. The best players in the world play these tournaments… It’s the nicest feeling.”

Triton Jeju Event 1: $15k NLH 8-Handed results

^{Images courtesy of Triton Poker/Joe Giron}