Ethan “Rampage” Yau was among the high-profile players making their Triton debut in Jeju

Even on a tour where the unexpected seems to happen every day, yesterday’s incredible turnout for the first event of the Triton Poker Series’ trip to Jeju took everyone by surprise.

Never before has the tour required alternates. Never before has the tour needed to restrict players to a single re-entry. And that’s because a Triton Poker Series event has never seen 379 entries — a number that broke the tour record by 72.

The very best news for everyone who loves this tour is that the field included so many new faces, players realising that the Triton Poker Series is clearly the place to be. No fewer than 111 players made their Triton Series debut in Event 1 here in Jeju, more than 40 percent of the 266 unique players.

It’s the cause for quiet celebration among the Triton family, both among those who focus on attracting established poker stars to the tour and those who aim to allow relatively new poker players to cut their teeth with Triton.

This field was stacked with newcomers from across the spectrum, including the well-known vloggers Frankie Cucchiara, Alexander Seibt and Ethan Yau, better known as “NextGenPoker”, “Wolfgang Poker” and “Rampage”, respectively. All three are among the most popular content creators in the industry, recognising that a trip to a Triton stop is the only inevitable next step, demanded by their hundreds of thousands of viewers.

Frank Cucchiara, part of the NextGenPoker crew, cashed in his first Triton event

Cucchiara made the money on his Triton debut, cashing in 56th place for $24,000, but arguably the most eye-catching play from a poker media figure in this tournament came from a man named Xu Wang, who works with poker influencers in Japan (Wang himself is from China).

Wang got involved in a huge pot on one of the feature tables against former WSOP Main Event champion, and Triton tournament winner, Espen Jorstad. Wang folded pocket kings to Jorstad’s five-bet jam, learning that Jorstad did indeed have the aces. Wang preserved his tournament life and became an instant star on the poker socials across the world.

More than 50 of the Triton debutants made the trip to South Korea from China, but the tour also rolled out the red carpet for a select group of players from both Taiwan and Japan. These players won their passage to Jeju via qualification tournaments hosted in Taipei and Tokyo, which had buy-ins of only a fraction of the $15,000 normally required to sit down here.

Wong Ka Fai and Edward Yam won full packages to come to Jeju in the so-called “Road to Triton” satellites held at the Dream Room poker club in Taipei. The series of tournaments had a lowest buy-in of only $205, with hundreds of mainly recreational players taking a stab. The events offered a chance of a lifetime to low-stakes poker players: the opportunity to sample the high life of the Triton Poker Series and rub shoulders with the elite.

Similar events in Tokyo, with buy-ins ranging from ¥300,000 to ¥1m ($2,000-$6,600 approx), resulted in Toshikazu Ishii, Ryosuke Tomuro and Kazuki Dobashi finding themselves on a plane from Japan to South Korea. They too can now call themselves Triton Poker Series players.

“We are always keen to develop strong local collaborations with so many passionate poker players across Asia,” said Lau Boon Cheng, Group Director, Strategy and Innovation for Triton. “We want to encourage grass-root players to sample the Triton experience.”

China’s Xu Wang is a prominent figure in Japan’s growing poker scene

In poker, success breeds success. The startling turnout here will all but ensure further growth for the series, with all players realising the events are now too good to miss. For pros, they will look at the starting fields and believe there is too much value to pass up. Meanwhile recreational players will see similarly inexperienced peers having the time of their life — and very often picking up significant paydays — and want to join the party as well.

Yesterday’s report of the Triton Poker Series breaking its attendance record will almost certainly be out of date very soon.

Find out more about the Rising Sun Satellite Series events in Japan and Road to Triton events in Taiwan.

Triton Newcomers in Jeju Event #1:

Shaoming Li – China

Yizhi Lin – China

WeiZhou Zha – China

Dawei Lu – China

Wen Yan Liao – China

Ryosuka Tomuro – Japan

Sergei Moiseev – Russia

Shouda Zhang – China

Xu Wang – China

Jingtao Jia – China

Xu Qiang – China

Congya Zhang – China

Karim Maekelberg – Belgium

Park Yu Cheung – Hong Kong

Andrija Robovic – Serbia

Ruida Hu – China

Zhincheng Miao – China

Zhang Yu – China

Haibo Yang – China

Jianwei Lin – China

Ka Fai Wong – Hong Kong

Jia Ou Yang – China

Viacheslav Balaev – Russia

Adrien Favre-Felix – France

Phanlert Sukonthachartnant – Thailand

Xi Xiang Luo – China

Manuel Fritz – Austria

Ying Song – China

Rania Nasreddine – USA

Toshikazu Ishii – Japan

Chungjian Feng – China

Martin Zamani – USA

Yilong Wang – China

Kazuki Dobashi – Japan

Si Ng Pun – Hong Kong

Johan Schultz-Pedersen – Denmark

Jing Yao Yan – China

Jia Ming Zhao – China

Mingcong Chen – China

Diogo Coelho – Portugal

Yu Gao – China

Jon Kyte – Norway

William Jia – Australia

Edward Yam – Hong Kong

Yu Zhang – China

Jon Ander Vallinas – Spain

Andre Marques – Portugal

Shunjiro Kita – Japan

David Kaufmann – Germany

Haiyang Yang – China

Defeng Liu – China

Tuck Wai Foo – Malaysia

Siew Yee – Malaysia

Mikael Andresson – Sweden

Bin Leng – China

Sergei Kharchenko – Russia

Jinlong Hu – China

Yuchung Chang – Taiwan

Alessio Isaia – Italy

Li Zhe – China

Yin Liu – China

Jiahe Lin – China

Kenny Hallaert – Belgium

Brandon Wilson – United States

Georgios Sotiropoulos – Greece

Yang Chongxian – China

Yuhan Liu – China

Ivan Deyra – France

Matthew Wakeman – Australia

Christopher Park – USA

Song Xue – China

Yuha Kita – Japan

Andrei Kotelnikov – Russia

Poseidon Ho – Taiwan

Bernhard Binder – Austria

Adam Hendrix – USA

Calvin Anderson – USA

Hui Chen – China

Shiina Okamoto – Japan

Ryuta Nakai – Japan

Alexander Seibt – USA

Vitalijs Zavorotnijs – Latvia

Anton Zhen Lu – Australia

Xiong Chen – China

Ethan Yau – USA

Fabian Bernhauser – Austria

Rudy Halim – Indonesia

Michael Gathy – Belgium

Haohui Ma – China

Zewei Xu – China

Aliaksandr Shylko – Belarus

Frank Cucchiara – USA

Yoda Lin – China

Jieming Xu – China

Haobo Zhu – China

Wenjie Huang – China

Jason Wong – UK

Rokas Asipauskas – Lithuania

Yongjia Lin – China

Zhen Chen – China

Xiaosheng Zheng – China

Sergei Petrushevskii – Russia

Yuzhu Wang – China

Hing Yang Chow – Malaysia

Chuen Co Chung – China

Issam Fayad – Lebanon

Kazuyuki Tanemura – Japan

Koichi Chiba – Japan

Jiaze Li – China