Champion Tan Xuan!

Fan favourite Tan Xuan gave the thousands of Triton Super High Roller Series viewers precisely what they had clamoured for in Jeju tonight: a typically swashbuckling victory in the $50,000 Short Deck tournament and a third Triton title.

"I like this game," Tan said, offering the simplest of explanations of how come he could land a third victory in short deck events.

Tan, 38, is a legend of the Triton cash games, where his fearless aggression and seeming devil-may-care attitude to chips thrills anyone who happens to watch. But sitting across the poker table from Tan is a terrifying prospect, and today he proved again that he possesses some dastardly skills as well.

Tan beat a field of 45 entries, taking the top prize of $708,000, and essentially defending a title he won here in Jeju last year. Though this is no longer called the short deck "Main Event", it is the same $50K buy-in tournament packed with the same all-round poker masters.

Tan just happens to be better than all of them.

"It's very exciting, it makes me think," Tan said of short deck.

Poker makes him happy: Tan Xuan

He then complemented the Triton Series as a whole, whose co-founders Paul Phua and Richard Yong regularly compete against Tan. "The Triton schedule is the best of any high stakes festival in the world," Tan said. "The best players come and I like to play with them."

Tonight Tan defeated his fellow cash-game favourite Esti Wang heads up, denying Wang what would have been his first title. Wang banked $512,000, though he made no secret of his desire to get his hands on a first Triton trophy. He'll just have to come back and try again — and hope Tan has a rare off day.

Esti Wang's victory will come one day

TOURNAMENT ACTION

The biggest buy-in of the short deck phase brought out the best players—or, at least, the best players who enjoy this variant of the game, where fewer cards means more gamble.

There's also a slight change in the way stacks are handed out. Starting stacks of 300,000 are bundled at the start in three bullets of 100,000 each, meaning that when players bust, they merely "lose a bullet" and can then just put another 100,000 into play.

But the mercurial talent that is Tan Xuan, who was essentially defending the title he won in the comparable event here in Jeju last year, immediately put all three bullets on the table when he sat down. He likes to be the big stack and to play a bullying game and—what do you know?—by the time the tournament reached its final table, Tan still had the biggest stack.

Michael Zhang, second on the leader board, only managed to stay in Tan's sights by knocking out Artur Martirosian in eighth, not only setting the final but also bursting the tournaments's money bubble. Martirosian, chasing Player of the Year points, fell just short of a final table bonus when his KJ lost to .

The final table assembled as follows:

Tan Xuan - 6,090,000 (203 antes)

Michael Zhang - 3,280,000 (109 antes)

Dan Dvoress - 3,090,000 (103 antes)

Esti Wang - 2,425,000 (81 antes)

Phil Ivey - 2,085,000 (70 antes)

Wai Leong Chan - 1,785,000 (60 antes)

Danny Tang - 1,495,000 (50 antes)

Event 19 final table players (clockwise from back left): Phil Ivey, Esti Wang, Danny Tang, Tax Xuan, Michael Zhang, Dan Dvoress, Wai Leong Chan

Wai Leong Chan is probably best known to Triton fans as the man who finished runner up to Bryn Kenney in the 2024 Monte Carlo Main Event. That tournament was in no limit hold'em, but Chan has results on the Triton Series dating from 2016 in tournaments of all disciplines. Here he was again, succeeding in the short deck streets.

Unfortunately he didn't have the stack to really showcase his skills at this final table, and he ended up taking the fall first after a collision with Esti Wang. As tends to happen in short deck, the whole table limped before Chan looked down at AQ and made a raise.

Everyone else folded, but Wang was lying in the weeds with pocket queens and three-bet. Chan shoved, Wang called and the dealer put a board on the table that ended with the case queen. The set won the day, sending Chan out in seventh for $118,000.

Wai Leong Chan was first out from the final

Dan Dvoress is a master of pretty much all poker variants, and short deck tournaments have been another happy hunting ground for the Canadian. In a comparatively lean series for Dvoress, he has made both final tables of short deck events so far in Jeju, and followed up a third-place finish with another deep run here.

This time he could go no further than sixth, however. A slow but regrettably steady decline at the final ended with Dvoress getting to a flop of 889 holding . It was only a gutshot, overcards and backdoor spades, but Dvoress committed his last few antes.

Wang again proved to be the issue, specifically his 109, which turned a boat and locked it up. Dvoress departed with $146,000.

Dan Dvoress made back-to-back short deck finals

The two eliminations had pulled Wang close to Tan at the top, but he still hadn't quite overtaken his old cash game nemesis. Then Tan busted Danny Tang to extend his lead at the top. Tang had only 20 antes when he opened J10 and hit a big draw on the 7 flop. Tan, Tang's only customer pre-flop, had , which was middle pair. Tang shoved, Tan called, Tang missed on turn and river.

Tang earned $192,000 for fifth.

Another final, but no title this time, for Danny Tang

On the subject of all-round poker superstars, they don't come any more shimmering than Phil Ivey, and here we had the American great at another final. Though he can of course play every game, four of Ivey's five Triton titles have come in short deck, so this is seemingly where his edge is even bigger than ever.

When Ivey won a massive pot from Tan -- Ivey's 109 beating Tang's A -- he was close to the chip lead. But that turned out to be a false dawn for Ivey, who ended up handing the chips to Wang an orbit or two later.

On Ivey's final hand, he followed two limps with a raise holding AJ. One of those limpers, Wang, called with K and hit top pair after the flop. Wang jammed and Ivey called off with his overcard and gutshot.

The 10 turn and K river only helped Wang. Ivey thus moved into the field of the final short deck turbo instead. He won $248,000 from this one.

Phil Ivey's tournament ended in fourth

Wang had now opened up a significant lead over both Tan and Michael Zhang, who had held firm against the fireworks elsewhere. But Zhang couldn't hold out forever, and ended up on the sidelines as the two Chinese players booked themselves a heads-up duel.

Zhang is a British pro, with plenty of huge results both online and live, though in recent years has become something of a short-deck expert, at least on the Triton Series. Jetting into Jeju specifically for these last three tournaments, Zhang's appearance at this final proved it was worth the trouble.

However, there was no beating Tan in this mood, no matter the cards. After both opponents limped, Tan raised his button holding Q6, technically one of the worst hands in short deck. Zhang called with K but the all but ensured all the money would now go in.

Sure enough, Tan bet, Zhang shoved and Tan called. Zhang missed his draw and the most unlikely two pair took the field down to two. Zhang won $326,000.

Everyone sees the funny side as Michael Zang is eliminated in third

The two remaining Chinese players are titans of the Triton cash games who have spent hundreds of hours at the table together playing pots larger than the total prize pool of this event. But uniquely here there was a Triton trophy on the line as well, potentially a first for Wang or a third for Tan—a second in as many years in a $50K short deck event in Jeju.

By contrast, Wang had not even been to a Triton final before, despite playing on the series from the start. Either player would make a very popular champion.

The stacks were as follows:

Tan Xuan - 10,605,000 (85 antes)

Esti Wang - 9,645,000 (77 antes)

Heads up for the title

It was easy to expect this to now be a display of all-out aggression by both players as they attempted to bludgeon each other into submission. But it took at least an hour before the first called all-in, with Wang doubling through Tan to survive.

Enjoying the moment, Tan celebrated his opponents' double up as though he had won. And it certainly loosened things up. Tan doubled back almost immediately, cracking Wang's queens with A8, and moving back into a dominant position.

From that moment, it was all Tan. And when he did actually seal the deal around 20 minutes later, the celebration was far more muted than when Wang won the earler hand. The final hand pitted Tan's Q10 against Wang's K with a board of giving Tan a straight to beat two pair.

Wang got up to congratulate his opponent. Tan smiled broadly. They'll see each other on the cash tables tonight, no doubt.