Champion Kiat Lee!

Around 2pm today on the tournament floor of the Triton Poker Super High Roller Series in Jeju, Malaysia's Kiat Lee was staring at potential elimination on the bubble of the $40,000 Mystery Bounty event. He needed his hand to hold against Canada's Jamil Wakil to double a tiny stack and hope to pick up some money from his time at the tables.

Flash forward about nine hours, and Lee was again hoping for a favourable flop in a huge pot against Wakil. And he won it again. This time, though, the pot was the very last of the tournament and it secured this popular Malaysian his fourth Triton title, denying Wakil a first.

It capped a spectacular turnaround for Lee: from the brink of the bubble to the champion. But it should not come as a surprise to anyone who has watched his career continue to blossom on the tournament series he treats as his home.

Jamil Wakil congratulates Kiat Lee at the conclusion

Lee famously took many years, and many final table appearances, before he won his first Triton event in Jeju in 2025. But he quickly added two more with the monkey off his back, and was again at his irresistible best today.

He won the undisputed pot of the tournament — a spectacular four-way all-in, in which he knocked out Phil Ivey, Sam Mullur and Seth Davies — and was always at the centre of the action in a typically thrilling bounty hunt.

His reward so far is $619,000, but he also has eight bounty envelopes to open at a ceremony tomorrow, worth a minimum of $40,000 each. That's at least $320,000, so a seven-figure total payday from this event is highly likely.

Wakil has $419,000 for second place, plus six bounties. So he too has plenty to be grateful for from this event, even if that first trophy still remains elusive.

"Overwhelming," Lee said, when asked to describe his emotions at the end of an up-and-down tournament. "To be fair, I was pretty lucky most of the time. I got all the hands and the board was running over me. I just got lucky."

Another winner's interview for Kiat Lee

Describing Wakil as "pretty tough", Lee went on to acknowledge that 17 final table appearances, and five heads-up losses, before his first win was not an especially good look.

"Clearly I'm not very good at heads-up because I'm defeated in heads-up so many times," he said.

But he then pointed to a massed rail of supporters, and the assistance of the Triton founding player Paul Phua, as giving him the confidence and assurance he needed to make the most of his time on the tour.

"Without Triton, nobody would know me," Lee said. "I started my career at Triton, and Mr Paul helped me a lot in my career. I appreciate Triton, Triton is like my home...Having my rail there, you try harder, you don't want to make them down. You try harder to win it."

And, for the fourth time, that's exactly what he did. The party can roll on into tomorrow when the bounties will be drawn.

TOURNAMENT ACTION

The promise of the Mystery Bounty action drew a healthy 133-entry field, with Day 1 all about getting down to the 25 percent of the field who would receive a bounty token. Those fortunate 33 players bagged and tagged shortly before 1 a.m., and returned on Day 2 with every elimination now rewarded with a bounty pull.

But there was also the matter of the official tournament bubble, which would burst when only 23 players were left. And this one became one of the prolonged and nervy affairs, with numerous players put under threat, though usually surviving.

Ren Lin was one of the short stacks as they were two off the money, which meant an especially dialled-up version of himself presented itself to everyone in his immediate orbit (and plenty others outside). But Lin lost his last five blinds when he got it in with A6 against Alex Kulev's and Sam Mullur's .

Tony the Tiger loses his roar

A run out of 9107 gave the pot to Mullur, who also doubled through Kulev. (Big-stacked Kulev had called both Lin's shove and Mullur's 26-blind re-shove from the big blind.)

The pot turned out to be crucial because it gave Mullur enough chips to tangle with Christoph Vogelsang in the really defining hand of the bubble. Mullur opened, Vogelsang shoved for 11 blinds with pocket 10s, and Mullur snapped him off with pocket queens. There were players with sub-five big blind stacks elsewhere in the room (and Kiat Lee had to double through Jamil Wakil to survive on the same hand), but Vogelsang couldn't survive the set-up. He hit the rail in 24th to take the remaining players into the money.

Tough break on the bubble for Christoph Vogelsang

Lee, one of those players who nearly bubbled, now went on a surge, and was the main beneficiary of not one, but two spectacular four-way all-ins.

In the first, Alex Boika and Kulev bust, holding A10 and A, respectively; Kayhan Mokri, who had the biggest stack, won a bounty token for finishing second in the hand, holding , while Lee's won the main pot (and one bounty).

That one took the field from 21 to 19, but it was only an appetiser for what happened at an even more crucial stage. The tournament was 11-handed, across two tables, when there was one of the all-time Triton Mystery Bounty hands.

Seth Davies had three blinds UTG and he got his chips in with K9. Fair enough. Sam Mullur then looked down at K and re-jammed his 27 blinds, likely hoping he had free run at Davies' bounty. But then Phil Ivey, on the button, found and called putting both others at risk.

Three in one hand!

Kiat Lee was in the big blind. And he had a dominating stack. And lo and behold, the dealer had sent two black aces in his direction: a perfect set-up at the best of times, and even more so when all his opponents had each other's hands blocked.

Kiat shoved, Ivey called for the rest of his stack, and there was nothing filthy on the board. It was an enormous pot, giving Lee a 89-blind stack and three more bounty tokens, with an EV of nearly $70K apiece.

Kiat Lee has all the chips

It also got the field down to one spot from the final, which was set when David Coleman went out in eighth. Who knocked him out? Have a guess...

Lee (correct!) opened from the button and Coleman found A4 in the big blind. He called and saw precisely the kind of flop he likely wanted: A. Coleman checked his top pair, Lee bet and Coleman called.

The turn was the 6 and it went check, bet, call once again. That brought the 4 on the river and gave Coleman two pair. He checked again, with a stack of only a bit more than half the pot behind, and Lee moved in, comfortably covering. Coleman called but learnt some very bad news: Lee also had two pair with .

David Coleman was last out before the final

That sent Coleman out in eighth for $77,500, and set the final table as follows:

Kiat Lee - 10,975,000 (110 BBs)

Alex Anton - 3,375,000 (34 BBs)

Joe Hindry - 3,300,000 (33 BBs)

Sirzat Hissou - 2,675,000 (27 BBs)

Punnat Punsri - 2,675,000 (27 BBs)

Jamil Wakil - 2,300,000 (23 BBs)

Kayhan Mokri - 1,300,000 (13 BBs)

Event 7 final table players (clockwise from back left): Alex Anton, Punnat Punsri, Kayhan Mokri, Kiat Lee, Joe Hindry, Sirzat Hissou, Jamil Wakil.

Although the bounty envelopes are stacked with potential riches, by the time players get to the final table, and the regular pay-jumps are significant too, the willingness to make speculative gambles on landing a knockout gets less and less crucial. That said, when the spots are right, these players know precisely when to take them.

After a few orbits with neither an elimination nor a double-up, Kayhan Mokri's short stack was now only 10 big blinds deep. He shipped it in from the cutoff with pocket sixes. Punnat Punsri had only 19 blinds and he found A9 and moved in too.

Lee, the bounty collector, had them both comfortably covered and took a shot with J7. But nobody hit a pair and Mokri's sixes stayed best. He earned a triple.

Now, this is where it got interesting. By all expectations, Lee should now be coasting to the win. But after losing a couple of pots to Alex Anton, it was the American who actually moved ahead of Lee. Jamil Wakil was also moving in the right direction, particularly after he earned himself a bounty token by knocking out Joe Hindry.

This has already been a fantastic week for the British player, who stopped off in Jeju to make his Triton debut. He finished sixth in the $25,000 Titi Poker event, and was now back at a second final. But when he picked up AJ and saw Wakil open from the hijack, Hindry shoved for 15 blinds. Wakil called from his 18-blind stack and tabled A.

The better hand stayed in the lead. Hindry therefore had to make do with seventh place and a $105,000 payout.

A second final and a seventh place for Joe Hindry

Kayhan Mokri is very well accustomed to the swings of the Triton streets and he earned a triple up when his A4 beat Wakil's A and Anton's in another big confrontation. The board gave two flushes and a full house, with Mokri's four, somehow, the decisive card.

But Wakil got his revenge not long after, when the pair tangled with Wakil holding AA and Mokri having 6 Wakil flopped a set but let Mokri do all the betting until he called Mokri's river jam. Mokri was down to crumbs and lost them soon after, also to Wakil.

Mokri won $142,000 for sixth.

Kayhan Mokri tosses in his bounty chip

By the wild standards of the final, Sirzat Hissou had taken a relatively calm path to the last five. But his stack had now shrunk to six blinds after not managing to get anything positive going. Hissou had to jam with KJ with little fold equity.

Lee called with 63 and rivered a straight to collect another knockout. Hissou won $184,000 for fifth.

Fifth place for Sirzat Hissou

When the tournament got four handed, Wakil now held a sizeable lead, with Lee and Anton sitting on similar stacks and Punsri holding 12 blinds. The Thai No 1 had done what he does best: navigate his way through a final table to the deepest stages.

But there was another big explosion about to occur. Wakil opened with KJ. Punsri shipped with A and Anton then found in the small blind. Everything was suddenly in the middle.

Punnat Punsri stands to learn his fate

Wakil was hunting for a jack, and the dealer gave it to him on the flop. The full run out of 8JK was exactly what the big stack needed. Two players were out -- Punsri in fourth for $229,000 and Anton in third for $279,000. In a hurry, the tournament was heads-up, with Wakil's 89 blinds a dominant leader over Lee's 18.

Alex Anton took third

Both players now had six knockout bounties each, but Wakil's big lead meant Lee needed things to go his way in his bid for a fourth title -- and to take that bounty tally to eight. Heads-up play got off to the perfect start for him when he found pocket sixes, flopped another and beat Wakil's 98. It was suddenly 70 blinds to 36.

And, four hands later, they were all but dead even as Lee made the right moves and the right calls.

Heads up for the title

In the previous five completed tournaments in Jeju this week, the heads-up duels have been brief. But now, with two top campaigners and equal stacks, viewers were treated to a nitty-gritty, cut-and-thrust display. Lee nosed ahead. Wakil hauled him back. We were waiting for either a cooler or for the levels to increase so much that subtlety was forced to the back seat.

Lee eventually said that he got lucky, but the viewers of the Triton stream will know he continued to find what he needed to keep just ahead. The pair got their chips in, but chopped with ace-jack each, when a win would have clinched it for Wakil. But then with Lee back into the lead, Wakil got his nine blinds in holding A6 and Lee's J flopped a 10.

Jamil Wakil is still looking for the elusive win

Wakil had had the chance to finish off Lee all the way back when they clashed on the bubble. But after that, there was no stopping him.