A characteristically busy tournament room at Triton Jeju

Much has been made this week about the startling attendance numbers at the Triton Super High Roller Series in Jeju. The biggest field the tour has ever seen assembled for Event 1 this week–379 entries–but it was a record that lasted only two days.

By the time registration had closed on Event 3, there were 391 entries. It’s far from impossible that we pass the 400 barrier before the end of the year.

The Triton Series is less than a decade old, but its expansion has been precipitous. In the earliest days, nobody could have been entirely sure that there was a sustainable market for a poker tour with ultra high buy-ins, but the Triton Series has not only made clear that such a demand exists, it’s exceeded even the most ambitious expectations.

Jeju, South Korea, has become the de facto capital of operations for Triton. It’s clearly the most attractive destination for the Asia-based players to visit, which in turn brings the North Americans and Europeans, in endless pursuit of the biggest games.

Each of the 12 biggest tournaments (by field size) have taken place here, including all five tournaments for which registration has closed (at time of writing) on this trip. Fields had only ever once exceeded 300 before this particular festival, but we’ve done so four more times since arriving this time.

Of course, the slightly lower buy-in is a contributing factor. The $15K asking price for Event 1 is the smallest there’s been under the Triton banner. But the NLH Main Event here a year ago is the 10th biggest of all Triton tournaments and that had a $100K buy-in. There’s every reason to think the NLH Main Event this time, which gets started on Friday, will outstrip that.

Here’s a quick look back at the some of the statistical milestones on the Triton Series so far. No doubt this will quickly be out of date, but numbers are current to today, Monday March 3, 2025.

FIELD SIZE EXPANSION TIMELINE

January 2016

Triton Series launches with $200,000 NLH buy-in event in Parañaque, Philippines, which attracts 52 entries. Fedor Holz wins a little over $3 million, from a $10 million prize pool.

January 2016

The only side event in Parañaque — a $60,000 buy-in hold’em tournament — becomes the first to attract more than 100 entries. In all, the 62 unique players add 39 re-entries to make a 101-entry field.

May 2018

The first non-hold’em tournament with more than 100 entries takes place in Maestral Resort, Montenegro. It’s a HKD $1m ($130K) Short Deck event, won by Jason Koon for $3.6 million.

August 2019

The Triton Million Invitational in London has a buy-in of £1 million ($1.2 million approx). With 54 entries, the prize pool tops $65 million, still the largest for a single tournament on the Triton Series.

Aaron Zang won the biggest buy-in tournament on the Triton Series

March 2020

The global Covid pandemic pauses Triton’s live tournament offerings for nearly two years. The last pre-Covid tournaments took place in Rozvadov in August 2019. The tour returns to Northern Cyprus in April 2022.

March 2023

For the first time, more than 100 unique players play a Triton event: the $25,000 buy-in GG Super Million$ Live event in Vietnam. There are 166 entries in total, comprising 103 unique players and 63 re-entries.

March 2024

The first tournament with more than 200 entries takes place in Jeju. The $15,000 buy-in NLH 8-Handed event attracts 176 unique players, 93 re-entries for a total field size of 269 entries.

March 2024

The existing attendance record is broken twice inside a week. First, the $25,000 NLH “Silver Main” has 298 entries, including 124 re-entries. It’s the first time there has ever been more than 100 re-entries to a Triton tournament. Immediately after, the $25K GGMillion$ Live gets 305 entries from 187 entries and 118 re-entries, the first field of 300+.

March 2025

Event 1 of Triton Jeju 2025 (a $15,000 buy-in NLH event) attracts 379 entries, a new tour record. It’s the first time a Triton tournament has ever featured more than 200 unique players, with 113 of the field’s 266 uniques taking the single permitted re-entry.

March 2025

Event 3 of the trip to Jeju breaks the attendance record again, with 391 entries to the $25K 8-Handed event. Jeremy Ausmus wins $1.9 million and the title.

Zhou Quan and Jeremy Ausmus were the last two in the biggest Triton event to date

THE BIGGEST EVENTS

There have been 187 tournaments under the Triton banner so far. (Stats fans: No 200 will complete this festival in Jeju). Here are the 10 biggest, by number of entries:

391 – Jeju 2025: Event 3 – $25K NLH
389 – Jeju 2025: Event 6 – $25K NLH WPT Global Slam
379 – Jeju 2025: Event 1 – $15K NLH
348 – Jeju 2025: Event 2 – $20K NLH
305 – Jeju 2024: Event 6 – $25K NLH GG Million$ Live
298 – Jeju 2024: Event 3 – $25K NLH Silver Main
269 – Jeju 2024: Event 1 – $15K NLH
252 – Jeju 2025: Event 5 – $30K NLH
225 – Jeju 2024: Event 2 – $20K NLH
216 – Jeju 2024: $100K NLH Main Event