Champion Zhao Hongjun!

The opening event of the Triton Poker Series fourth trip to Jeju was amazing before it even really got going. There were record attendance numbers (379 entries), including a vast array of Triton first-timers, most of whom were playing under the Chinese flag.

It was only fitting, then, that at the end of an unscheduled third day, required to finish a tournament of such incredible size, the last three players of this $15,000 buy-in event were all from China, and none had ever made the money on the Triton Series before. Indeed, only one of them had ever played a tournament here. The other two were total newbies.

Whichever of the three made it all the way, it would represent a remarkable achievement. And when the dust finally settled at the end of this marathon, it was the more experienced figure of Zhao Hongjun, 43, who can take the overwhelming bragging rights. He eventually downed Yuzhu Wang in second and Zhen Chen in third to claim a maiden success.

“I’m very happy to have won this tournament,” a level-headed Zhao said in the wake of victory. “I actually came to Jeju Island mainly to play golf and joined the tournament on the side. My work keeps me quite busy, and although I’ve been playing poker for over a decade, I haven’t participated in many tournaments.”

He added: “I found this event relatively easy, even simpler than some tournaments in China. It was really fun. Moving forward, I’ll continue to compete in the 30K and 50K buy-in events and fully enjoy the experience of these legendary tournaments.”

It came with a payout of $818,000, the figure he agreed during heads-up deal negotiation with Wang. At that point, Wang had a two-to-one chip lead and secured himself a $975,000 payout. That’s the kind of thing that only happens on the Triton Series: from zero to a million in a single event.

Yuzhu Wang took close to a million bucks from his first ever Triton tournament

The extraordinary turnout created a real buzz around the room from the very outset, with the flood of Triton newcomers excited to be a part of the most prestigious tour in the world. Meanwhile the regulars set about their task in their usual unforgiving manner, intending to welcome the first-timers by feasting on their chips.

As always in poker, it worked for some, and it very much didn't for others. The list of early eliminations featured plenty of the established elite, who will need to fire again through the remaining events to turn a profit from their trip to Jeju.

The field dwindled rapidly, leaving only 71 still around at the end of the day, and a quick race to the bubble ensuing early on Day 2. By this point, organisers had already agreed that a third day would be necessary to get things done, so the focus for Day 2 was first to make the money, and then to get to the final table.

With the help of a toy capybara, Jonathan Jaffe survives the bubble

As always, there was drama as the bubble approached. Both James Hopkins and Jonathan Jaffe were all-in and at risk on neighbouring feature tables, with both surviving to double and edge into the cash. However, Dimitar Danchev and then Zewei Xu couldn't pull off the same survival trick, with Xu becoming the stone bubble.

His pocket eights slammed into Samuel Ju's aces and that left him heading out in poker's saddest finishing position.

Zewei Xu, left, became the first bubble boy of this trip to Jeju

For a very long portion of Day 2, all of the field looked up to China's Zhao Hongjun. He had more than twice the chips of his closest challenger for almost all of the day, with the likes of Ding Biao, Steve O'Dwyer, Danny Tang and Espen Jorstad falling short of the big money positions.

But after another several hours play, not only had Hongjun been reined in a bit by Lithuania's Paulius Plausinaitis, but a constellation of more stars had hit the rail, including Triton Ambassador Jason Koon, who went out in 10th. (To be honest, Koon might have perished far sooner, had he not pulled off one of the outdraws of the tournament with 53 left.)

The last nine lined up as follows:

Zhao Hongjun - 17,625,000

Paulius Plausinaitis - 13,475,000

Weiran Pu - 9,650,000

Yuzhu Wang - 7,850,000

Zhen Chen - 7,600,000

Damir Zhugralin - 7,325,000

Michael Jozoff - 7,075,000

Nikita Kuznetcov - 4,475,000

Chen Dong - 700,000

Event 1 final table players (clockwise from back left): Michael Jozoff, Nikita Kuznetcov, Zhen Chen, Damir Zhugralin, Yuzhu Wang, Weiran Pu, Zhao Hongjun, Chen Dong, Paulius Plausinaitis

The short-stacked Chen Dong was always facing an uphill battle to get back into contention at the final table. It proved to be an impossible task and he perished first, in ninth, for $103,000. Dong shoved from under the gun with J8 and lost to the dominating J in Damir Zhugralin's hand.

Dong cashed four times on his Triton debut here in Jeju last year, and he got off to a fine start this time around as well.

Despite that early fillip, Zhugralin ended up as the next player out thanks to a sickening hand against Zhou. It began as the perfect set-up for the Kazakhstani player. He had pocket aces against Zhao's jacks. They got around 5 million in pre-flop, but then a jack appeared among the first three community cards and it was looking bleak for Zhugralin.

Damir Zhugralin made it to eighth before losing with aces

Zhao check-raised the flop, then check/snap-called Zhugralin's turn shove. Zhugralin took $129,000 for eighth, but will have felt very unwell as he departed. Zhao was now back in full command.

There was just enough time left on Day 2 for Yuzhu Wang's AQ to beat Nikita Kuznetcov's K, all in pre-flop, which trimmed the field down to six. Kuznetcov, the longest lasting Russian in this mammoth field, headed out the door in seventh, banking $182,000.

Nikita Kuznetcov’s elimination in seventh ended Day 2 of the record breaker

They called it a night with Zhao cramming 64 big blinds into his bag. The next nearest, Wang, had 34. They were heading into that unscheduled Day 3 with still plenty of play left.

Ever since Koon's departure in 10th, Michael Jozoff had been the sole remaining representative of the United States, and he came into the last day as the tournament short stack. Though he survived the early jousting for around half an hour, he became the first player of the day to depart, and in fairly unfortunate circumstances.

Jozoff was on the button with AK and not only saw the dominant chip leader Zhao make an early-position raise, he then also saw Weiran Pu move all in for his 12 big blind stack. Jozoff stuck his chips in with his premium holding, and although Zhao folded, Jozoff was in good shape against Q. Two hearts on the flop and a third on the river was very bad news for the big slick, however. Jozoff departed in sixth for $243,000.

Michael Jozoff was the latest to suffer a tough beat at the final

Pu was now well placed to mount a challenge to the chip-leaders, but his wealth didn't last long. In a pot soon after, Zhao made another pre-flop raise (as the runaway leader, this was inevitable) and Pu found AJ in the small blind. He jammed, perhaps thinking he only had to worry about Zhao's wide open range. But He hadn't accounted for Yuzhu Wang sitting in the big blind, whose A was plenty good enough to commit all his chips.

This time Pu couldn't crack the big slick and was left with only two blinds as a result. Pu clung on longer than he might have, doubling at least five time, but eventually his cameo came to an end with a fifth-placed finish. He ran into Wang's aces and couldn't find a miracle with J8. Pu won $309,000.

Weiran Pu rode the roller-coaster before busting in fifth

Zhao still led of course, but Wang was very close behind. The average stack was only 24 big blinds and only those two had more than that, with Zhen Chen and Paulius Plausinaitis below the line.

Plausinaitis was of course now an interloper as the only non-Chinese player left. And he was forced to leave the three countrymen to it soon after when he lost a flip to Wang. All the chips went in pre-flop in a four-bet pot with Wang holding pocket nines to Plausinaitis' KQ. It was a dry board, with every card greeted with vocal exuberance from Wang.

Plausinaitis wandered away to collect $395,000, while Wang took over the chip lead and the three players without a single previous Triton cash to their name to do battle for the title.

Paulius Plausinaitis left the three Chinese players to slug it out

The last three had all but equal stacks, but there was fewer than 100 blinds now in play. None of the players had shown much appetite for playing a waiting game either, so it was no surprise to see all the chips flying into the middle fairly soon after three-handed play began.

The only surprise really was the strength of the hands that decided the next elimination. Zhen Chen picked up AQ and three bet over Wang's open. And when Wang jammed with the covering stack Chen was happy to call off. The problem: Wang had aces. They held and Chen was suddenly on the rail, taking $497,000 for his third place.

Zhen Chen went out in third

Zhao and Wang were therefore now set to square off for the title, and the player who had been so dominant for the best part of three days now had only half the chips of his opponent. Wang's 51 blinds comfortably covered Zhao's 25. It sent them to Tournament Director Luca Vivaldi's desk asking to look at the numbers for a deal, and they eventually settled on the following: Wang would take $975,000 minimum, Zhao would take $778,000 and there was $40,000 left on the side to play for.

They settled down to decide where it went.

The final two players negotiate a deal, with the help of a translator and Luca Vivaldi

It didn’t take long for the roles to reverse. Both players found an ace and all the chips went in. But Zhao’s nine kicker played against Wang’s four.

According to Chinese media, Zhao is by far the more experienced player with a number of titles to his name. Wang, by contrast, is a recreational player, enjoying his moment in the sun. This disparity only really became apparent in the heads-up phase of play, where Zhao’s greater familiarity with the situation allowed him to steal more pots. However, the two hands that ended up deciding it would likely have played this way no matter who had been holding the cards.

Firstly, Wang doubled his short stack with jacks against fives. But he then found another pocket pair, sixes, and got his chips in once more. Zhao had aces, however, and flopped a set. Wang offered his fist for a friendly fist-bump, before fully embracing his opponent when he was drawing dead on the turn.

With that, Zhao’s three-day run as the leader took him past the finishing post in first. What a fitting champion to this record-breaking event, and a brilliant start to this festival.

Job done for Zhao Hongjun