Champion Austin Ang!

Imagine you get to the last three of the biggest buy-in poker tournament of your career, and you're in touching distance of a win that would surpass anything you've ever achieved before. The only problem: even though most of the 490-entry field has been eliminated, the other side of the table still sits Isaac Haxton and Bryn Kenney, two of the greatest poker players ever to pick up chips.

For many, it would seem too much, too steep a hill to climb. But today in Jeju, South Korea, in the final event of the Triton ONE festival, 29-year-old Austin Ang, from Malaysia, faced exactly that situation.

And he won.

Ang knocked out Kenney first and polished off Haxton heads-up, landing a first prize of $932,000 and winning something that neither of his opponents have managed: a Triton ONE trophy.

The three agreed a deal in the tournament's closing stages, which secured Haxton the most money ($940,000) and $891,000 for Kenney. But it's Ang who did what had seemed impossible, and earned one of the most spectacular underdog victories the tour has ever seen.

"I think I just got lucky to be honest," a humble but excited Ang said at the end of a long tournament. "But one fun fact. Before I got to the final, I was so short-stacked, but I saw Paul Phua sitting right there and I said, 'Hey, can I steal your luck? Can I shake your hand?' And I ran super-hot."

It capped a tremendous Triton ONE debut for Ang, who entered six events here in Jeju, cashed in four of them, including this outstanding win against a field that would not have seemed out of place on the Super High Roller Series.

The new champion basks in the moment

Ang ground his way through the opening couple of days, coming to a phenomenally difficult final table with the shortest stack of the nine left. But nothing could stop this dream run.

"Give it a try, you might get lucky like me," Ang said, when asked what he'd advise poker players on the sidelines, tempted to come to Triton ONE. It was a brilliant way to finish what has been a tremendous series.

Triton ONE, and Austin Ang, are here to stay.

TOURNAMENT ACTION

The final event on the Triton ONE schedule was the perfect segue to the incoming Super High Roller Series. It was the High Roller, with a $15K buy-in — a little bit more than the Triton ONE Main Event, but not quite the eye-watering sums we'll see next week and beyond.

Still, many of the faces were very familiar indeed. Essentially, the established big guns came to play, and demonstrated precisely why they're considered the elite. From the starting field of 490 entries, the in-the-money line-up was about as star-studded as any SHRS tournament. And when they closed in on the really significant cash, the final table assembled as follows:

Christopher Nguyen - 18,400,000 (61 BBs)

Bryn Kenney - 14,975,000 (50 BBs)

Paulius Vaitiekunas - 14,400,000 (48 BBS)

Manuel Fritz - 11,700,000 (39 BBs)

Aren Bezhanyan - 10,300,000 (34 BBs)

Zhang Yang - 8,350,000 (28 BBs)

Isaac Haxton - 7,425,000 (25 BBs)

Sergio Aido - 6,750,000 (23 BBs)

Austin Ang - 5,700,000 (19 BBs)

Triton ONE Event 20 final table players (clockwise from back left): Bryn Kenney, Austin Yang, Zhang Ang, Paulius Vaitiekunas, Chris Nguyen, Isaac Haxton, Aren Bezhanyan, Sergio Aido, Manuel Fritz.

The tournament was already running long, and tournament officials decided to add an extra day, allowing for a more relaxed final. They agreed to play until six players were left on Day 2, then take us to a winner on Day 3.

Zhang Yang's final got off to a dicey start when he lost most of his stack to Bryn Kenney's flush. But he doubled back through Sergio Aido, with pocket 10s holding against Aido's AQ. Aido was left on the ropes and became the first player to bust. With seven blinds, Aido called Chris Nguyen's open holding J8 and then shipped it in on the 4107 flop.

Aido was banking on Nguyen having missed the flop, but he wasn't so fortunate. Nguyen's Q10 was now top pair. Nguyen called, faded outs on turn and river, and sent Aido packing. Aido won $117,000 for ninth.

First out from the final, Sergio Aido

Isaac Haxton was now the short stack but, never one to panic, Haxton found his spot to get his chips in good and doubled with A8 through Zhang's A5. That put Zhang back in danger, and he jammed his remaining 13 blinds in holding pocket deuces, finding a willing customer in the form of Zhang Yang.

Yang had A9 and a run-out of JJ667 counterfeited the deuces. Yang was out in eighth for $149,090.

Zhang Yang counterfeited out

Armenia's Aren Bezhanyan had played the full Triton ONE schedule this time around, cashing five times without previously hitting the final table. His good form had taken him even further in this one, but when he ran into Paulius Vaitiekunas' flush to lose all but five big blinds, he was left in severe danger.

He then got unlucky again. Folded to him in the small blind, he shipped his remaining stack into the middle holding Q6 with only Isaac Haxton behind him in the big blind. But not only did Haxton have enough chips and A5 to call with, Haxton then rivered a straight on the 346J7 board.

Bezhanyan banked $214,000 for seventh.

Aren Bazhanyan's elimination in sixth ended Day 2

They bagged for the night with Vaitiekunas in the lead of a shallow line-up, and action moved quickly on their Monday return. Chris Nguyen, chip-leader at the start of the final table, suddenly lost a flip to Haxton to plummet down the charts. Haxton got the full double with pocket tens against Nguyen's AK.

Nguyen surrendered his final chips to Bryn Kenney, whose 87 made a flush to beat Nguyen's K2. They were all in pre-flop, with Austin Ang and Manuel Fritz also giving Nguyen's one-blind stack the chance to quadruple. But a four-diamond run-out was the win for Kenney. Nguyen's sixth place came with $287,000.

Chris Nguyen's final table chip lead evaportated

The average stack five handed was now only 20 blinds, and all five players had pretty much precisely that amount. It made for a lot of caginess, but one false move could prove exceptionally costly.

Vaitiekunas now found himself in the same position as Bezhanyan earlier. Sitting with one of the shorter stacks, he was also in the small blind when action folded to him. He only had Kenney behind him, and Q9 was good enough to move all-in. But Kenny found A8, called and flopped an ace to win.

Vaitiekunas, a champion on the Super High Roller Series here in 2024, couldn't add a Triton ONE title to that gong. Instead, he earned $366,000 for fifth.

Former Jeju SHRS champion Paulius Vaitiekunas finished fif

It wasn't all one-way traffic in Kenney's direction. Siang Ang Ang doubled through the American money list leader, with pocket queens staying best against Q9. But still nobody could really take a commanding lead as the small number of blinds in play shifted slowly around the table.

They weren't really going towards Manuel Fritz, however. He had occupied the short-stacks chair for a few orbits before picking up KJ holding eight blinds. He raised for most of it, then called off after Kenney jammed in the small blind. Kenney had it again, with AQ and although a jack flopped, the full board gave Kenney the wheel.

Fritz was out in fourth for $466,000.

Manuel Fritz out in four

It left three players, all with between 26 and 29 blinds. That meant one blind steal would be the difference between the chip lead and the short stack — and it's why the three of them decided to make a deal.

Haxton had the tiniest of chip leads and took the most. He locked up $940,000. Kenney signed for $891,000 and Ang took $842,000. There was $90,000 left to play for, which would make certain that the winner still got the biggest prize. And the trophy, of course.

The last three agree a deal

Ang was the least experienced of the three and might have been cursing his luck that the best run of his poker career just happened to land him in a last three with two of the greatest tournament players of their generation. But Ang was far from intimidated, and instead set about dealing with the problem.

He knocked out Kenney in third.

Kenny limped with KJ from the small blind, and Ang found A10 in the big blind and stuck in a raise. Kenney jammed and Ang called, flopping an ace to make matters more comfortable. That was the end of Kenney, whose money-list leading total gets another $891,000 added to it.

Poker's No 1 Bryn Kenney finishing this one in third

Ang therefore now squared off against Haxton. He not only had a lead of 39 blinds to Haxton's 22, but had the Triton ONE crowd firmly rooting for him as the underdog surrounded by the big hitters.

Of course, Haxton didn't see it like that. The American boss doubled with 108, cracking Ang's aces in the process. Ang got tricky with the rockets, just limping pre-flop and allowing Haxton to flop a pair of tens and river another one. Most of the money went in at this point, with Haxton's trips winning the day.

Isaac Haxton took the most, but finished runner up

Ang was still battling, and doubled back with Q7 beating Haxton's J2. Haxton was trying to turn the screw, but Ang doubled once again, rivering a straight holding 109 to beat Haxton's Q8. When Ang managed the trick once more, with K7 defeating A4, the giant-killing dream remained alive. Ang had 33 blinds to Haxton's eight.

It proved to be a swingy heads-up phase

All it took was one more hand like the above. And it duly arrived soon after, with Ang managing to get A10 to hold up against Haxton's 107. David had beaten all the Goliaths. The day belonged to Austin Ang.

The moment of truth for Austin ng

Correction: An earlier version of this article misspelled the winner's name. He is Austin Ang, not Austin Yang, as previously stated.