Triton Jeju II Ends With Schulman’s Main Event Win and Simão’s $9.8M Week

There are plenty of ways to have a good Triton festival. Nick Schulman and João Simão found two of the more profitable ones in Jeju.

Schulman took down the $100,000 Main Event for a career-high $3.85 million, while Simão somehow managed to leave without the Main Event trophy and still cash for almost $10 million across two of the largest tournaments on the schedule. Those two runs shaped the closing days of a Jeju II festival that ended on September 17.

Only 12 players remained at the start of the Main Event’s final day, and the field immediately began moving in unexpected directions.

Wesley Fei started last but doubled twice and briefly led, while Danny Tang missed the final table after pocket kings were overtaken by Gytis Lazauninkas. Binder then made the strongest early push once nine remained, removing Roberto Perez and later Isaac Haxton.

Xu Yang also gathered enough chips to establish a sizeable six-handed lead, but the tournament changed again once play reached four.

Binder moved all-in with king-nine and ran into Schulman’s ace-king. Schulman took the lead, Yang later fell to Lazauninkas, and pocket tens against pocket eights allowed Schulman to remove the Lithuanian in third.

The final two agreed a deal before continuing. Binder’s bluffs narrowed the gap, but Schulman recovered and ended the tournament with pocket kings after allowing Binder to keep betting into him on the final board.

*Heads-up deal.

The 196 entries produced $19.6 million in prize money. Schulman’s share represented the largest live tournament cash of his career.

The Main Event had prestige, but the largest individual payout came two days earlier.

Simão won $7.25 million in the $200,000 Triton Invitational, overcoming a record 173-entry field and a moment on Day 2 when his stack had fallen to only two big blinds.

He recovered, reached the final table as chip leader and eventually faced Biao Ding for the title. Their heads-up match lasted around two and a half hours, with both players holding the lead before Simão took control for the final time.

The $34.6 million prize pool was larger than the Main Event pool by $15 million. Simão’s payout also became the biggest tournament score of his career and a new high for a Brazilian player.

The $150,000 10th Anniversary Special provided a fitting final chapter because Simão was there again.

He entered heads-up against Nick Petrangelo with the lead after Adrian Mateos was eliminated in third. The pair then agreed a deal, guaranteeing Simão $2,517,090 and Petrangelo $2,212,910 before the trophy was decided.

Petrangelo doubled twice and completed the turnaround to take his second Triton title. Simão finished second but earned the larger payout, lifting his combined return from the two events to $9,874,090.

*Heads-up deal.