Champion Nick Schulman!

The Triton Poker Super High Roller Series both makes poker superstars and attracts those who have already made it. And tonight in Jeju, at the end of the enormous $100K NLH Main Event, a white-hot young talent squared off against a Hall of Famer for yet another astonishing prize.

When the last card was dealt, Nick Schulman, the 41-year-old eight-time WSOP bracelet winner, esteemed announcer, and 2015 Hall of Fame inductee, earned himself a second Triton title after defeating Bernhard Binder, the 28-year-old poker sensation on a dazzling 12-month heater.

"You know, I did my thing," Schulman said, collecting his trophy. "It's tough to fully analyze it right away, but we got the job done. That's always good."

The final two players of a 196-entry field had already agreed a deal to chop the prize money, both taking more than $3 million. But it is Schulman who claimed the trophy, the Jacob & Co timepiece, and a new career-high score of $3,854,888. Binder will settle for $3,080,112 and the compliments of his vanquisher, who described him as "one of the best, probably ever".

Bernhard Binder: One of the best ever had to settle for second in this one

But tonight belonged to Schulman, two days after he went heads up for another Triton title but ended up losing out to his friend Matthew Wantman. But in an emotional interview, Schulman said it's only thanks to his friends that he's even here in Jeju in the first place.

Schulman partnered his friend Eric Wasserson in the Triton Invitational, but Schulman's trip had been contingent on "Wass" having a good weekend before they flew here on the cash-game show High Stakes Poker. Wasserson won $5 million, so Schulman got on the plane.

The new champion with close friends Eric Wasserson and Matthew Wantman

"I rallied and I came and I'm very happy that I did," Schulman said.

He added that he was prepared to come away from the trip with significantly less than he arrived with, and it was this mental preparation that in the end spurred him to victory.

"Before this trip, I was telling some people I'm really close with that this high stakes stuff...I know how it goes, I'm probably going to lose," Schulman said. "If there's anything to take from this one for me it's that I've worked out the feelings that I'd be OK if I lost and got crushed."

He added: "I'm over the moon grateful that it came in like this. That's crazy."

Binder congratulates Schulman as both men claim $3m+

Schulman won his first Triton title in the same room back in 2018, when there were only 61 entries to a $13,000 buy-in short deck event. This was a significant leap up from then, and came after eight years during which poker skills have developed to an extraordinary degree. Binder, the runner-up, is a perfect example of those players who have come of age since Schulman's last Triton win.

"This is basically the final level of the game, playing Bernie heads up in a main event," Schulman said. "He's unbelievable. You could just feel it playing with him."

But Schulman has still got it too, and is a hugely popular winner.

The crowning moment

TOURNAMENT ACTION

Though the first few tournaments of this two-week series didn't threaten to break any attendance records, the latter portion — spurred by the enormous Triton Invitational — has produced some of the biggest tournaments for quite a while.

The Main Event was also a monster.

Day 1 was busy, then by the time registration closed at the start of Day 2 there were 196 entries from 118 unique players. That left players chasing a $4.15 million first prize from a $19.6 million prize pool.

Continuing his good Jeju form from March, where he won his first Triton title, Bernhard Binder topped the counts going into the second day. And Binder maintained a decent stack — now alongside the likes of Nick Schulman and Wesley Fei — as the bubble approached.

However, it wasn't all fun for the German speakers in the field. At the other end of the charts, both Hannes Jeschka and Samuel Mullur were all in and at risk on separate tables, staring at the stone bubble.

Jeschka had 23 big blinds and AQ and saw Christoph Vogelsang, with 37 blinds, raise on the button. It went three-bet, four-bet, jam from Jeschka, but his hand never caught up to Christoph Vogelsang's A. One down.

Hannes Jeschka, one of two players out on the bubble

Over to Mullur's table, where he had three-bet on the button over Chahnhoon Jung's cutoff open. Jung four-bet jammed with the covering stack and Mullur called for everything, holding pocket eights. Jung's AK turned an ace to win the pot. Mullur was now out as well.

Sam Mullur is gracious in defeat

In some ways, the friends busting together was better than just one of them hitting the rail. It meant they got to split the min-cash, giving them $86,500 each. It also meant that in actual fact, Javid Ismayilov, who went out in 33rd, was the retrospective stone bubble, i.e., the last player to leave with absolutely nothing.

A retrospective bubble for Javid Ismayilov

Players had exceptionally deep stacks and the Main Event levels are long. Any hope of reaching the final table on Day 2 were quickly abandoned as the revised schedule focused on getting to the last 12. In the prolonged but certain shake-up, we lost Triton heavyweights Zhou Quan, Alex Foxen, Vogelsang and Jesse Lonis. The final two women in the field, Zeng Linglin and Jessica Teusl were knocked out in 16th and 15th, respectively.

Jessica Teusl cashed in both the Invitational and the Main Event

The 12 who remained were topped once again by Binder, with a certain Danny Tang now into second place. Triton Ambassador Tang won the Main Event in Montenegro in May and was eyeing an unprecedented back-to-back. This intriguing story would now roll into a third day.

DAY 3: A WINNER MUST BE FOUND

The average stack sat at 27 blinds heading into the last day, with a big bunch of players hovering right about that point and no outliers either at the top or the bottom of the chart. However, to underline how fragile the status quo was, when Nick Schulman's aces beat Binder's AK early on, Schulman vaulted ahead of everyone and Binder found himself in the middle.

Wesley Fei doubled through Roberto Perez to stay alive, but Miroslav Atanasov couldn't do the same when he got his last seven blinds in against Binder. Atanasov's departure in 12th for $320,000 got the remaining players one step closer to that final.

Miroslav Atanasov was first out on the last day

There were now coolers happening across the field. Having doubled to survive earlier, Fei picked up pocket kings and scored an enormous double through Tang's AK. Suddenly Tang's hopes of the dream defence were at risk. He lost another pot to Roberto Perez, but then doubled back, and then saw Chahn Jung bust to Isaac Haxton to bring the field down to 10.

There was a pay-jump after the next player went out, and Tang needed to try to nurse four blinds over the line. He very nearly did it. Tang slowly built that stack to nine blinds without showdown (except for one chopped pot), but then when he got his chips in with pocket kings against 107, that's when it all went wrong.

Gytis Lazauninkas had the suited connectors and open-jammed his small blind. Tang loved the sight of those kings in the big blind. However the flop of Q47 was not as clean as Tang would have liked, with the appearing on the turn. It was the river that was the killer though, sending Tang to the rail in 10th with $359,000.

Danny Tang just needed one more big hand to

Tang's departure set the final, with a two-level roll-back necessary to give all the short stacks some chance at some actual play.

Xu Yang - 8,100,000 (54 BBs)

Ryuta Nakai - 8,025,000 (54 BBs)

Danilo Velasevic - 7,050,000 (47 BBs)

Wesley Fu - 6,825,000 (46 BBs)

Nick Schulman - 6,475,000 (43 BBs)

Isaac Haxton - 5,125,000 (34 BBs)

Gytis Lazauninkas - 4,400,000 (29 BBs)

Roberto Perez - 1,525,000 (10 BBs)

Bernhard Binder - 1,475,000 (10 BBs)

Main Event final table line up (clockwise from back left): Xu Yang, Gytis Lazauninkas, Nick Schulman, Ryuta Nakai, Wesley Fu, Isaac Haxton, Roberto Perez, Danilo Velasevic, Bernhard Binder.

Binder had gone from chip leader overnight to smallest stack heading into the final, but he wasn't giving up just yet. The Austrian watched as Roberto Perez yielded a couple of blinds to see his stack dip slightly smaller than Binder's, a detail that proved to be decisive when the two clashed in the first serious final table pot.

Binder found pocket fours in the hijack and moved in for nine blinds. Perez, with one blind fewer, saw A10 on the button and called for everything he had. The rest of the players left them to it.

It was a flip, nothing more complicated than that. The board danced all the way around Perez's over-cards but didn't hit them. He was finished in ninth for $424,000.

Roberto Perez couldn't hit

Wesley Fei had been both short stack and chip leader during only a relatively short period of play to this point, but it turned out that his roller coaster was just shaping up for its one last plunge. This was a horrible one: Fei had 37 blinds, second in chips, and picked up a flush draw holding K6 on a flop of . His sole opponent, Xu Yang, had just called in the big blind after Fei raised preflop.

Both players checked the flop, and they also checked the 4 turn. But then things got spicy on the 5 river. Xu bet out for half the pot, Fei put in a chunky raise, but then Xu shipped for his whole stack. Fei, sitting with the second nuts (and blocking the unlikely straight flush) couldn't find the fold.

Xu duly revealed the one hand Fei must have been fearing: A3, for an enormous double. Fei had only four blinds left and they went to the same opponent on the next hand: pocket fours running into Xu's pocket kings. Bang, bang, Fei was finished. He took $512,000 for eighth.

An up and down event ended in eighth for Wesley Fei

When Nick Schulman sat down at the final table of the $50K earlier in the week, he described his fellow final table player Danilo Velasevic as "seeing the game in shapes and colors". It was a clear compliment, pointing to Velasevic's abilities to interpret and play the game on a different level to most.

Both players were back at this final too, with Velasevic clearly hoping to go one better than two runner-up finishes in previous Triton events. But, once again, the Serbian was denied. Schulman played no part in what became the crucial hand in Velsasevic's demise. Everyone at the table folded all the way to Binder in the small blind. He jammed for 18 blinds, with only Velasevic to his left. Velasevic looked down at pocket sevens and called, quickly learning he was up against Binder's K4.

The dealer did it the hard way. The full board ran JA5 and the straight earned Binder a huge double. Velasevic held on with eight blinds for quite a while, but then the same two players tangled in the same way: Binder open-jammed the small blind, this time with the bigger stack, and Velasevic called with . Binder this time had better: and it held up.

Velasevic finished in seventh for $700,000.

Danilo Velasevic's day will surely come soon

During six-handed play, Schulman doubled through Haxton. Then Haxton doubled back through Schulman. And Gytis Lazauninkas also scored a double through the Hall of Famer. But Schulman also then doubled through Ryuta Najai as chips were moving consistently around the table.

After his most recent double through Schulman, Haxton had been hovering around the 15 big blind level for a while, but never managing to get significantly more than that. They played into another level and Haxton's stack was now only 12 blinds. Play was cagey, and action folded all the way round to Binder in the small blind, who opened with K3. Haxton was now in the big blind and he picked up and shoved it all in.

Binder called and saw the 3 on the flop. Haxton couldn't beat that after a blank turn and river. That was his final hand. Haxton walked over to start playing the $150K event, with $958,000 going onto his ledger. Haxton's payout was the last of less than seven figures.

A long-range fist bump as Isaac Haxton is knocked out

Ryuta Nakai was another player at this final table who had been both at the top and the bottom of the counts. After tangling with Schulman during the period of quick and repeated double-ups, the Japanese player had been at something of a low ebb and folding for a few orbits to preserve his 15-ish blinds.

That stack had slipped to 10 blinds and, when action folded to him in the small blind, he looked down at K3 and put them in. Only Schulman still had cards, but the American picked up A and called the shove, with only 18 blinds of his own.

An ace on the flop essentially sealed it for Schulman, and sent Nakai out the door. His $1,263,000 fifth-placed prize is the biggest of his career so far.

A first seven-figure Triton score for Ryuta Nakai

The four-handed stacks were now very even. Everyone had around 30-ish big blinds.

Hanging on to the chip lead was becoming quite a problem. Schulman doubled through Binder to take the Austrian back out of the lead. Meanwhile, China's Xu Yang, at the second Main Event final table of his career, sat in the box seat for an hour or so during the mid-afternoon, but back-to-back lost pots against Lazauninkas and then Binder meant he surrendered it. Then, with his stack dipping below 15 blinds, he found what looked like a decent squeeze spot, only to squeeze himself out of the tournament.

Schulman opened his button and Xu found K8 in the small blind. That was good enough to get everything in. He may have been thinking he only had to beat whatever had prompted Schulman to raise on the button with the chip lead, but he saw Lazauninkas in the big blind make the call.

Schulman folded and Lazauninkas tabled his pocket nines. Although the 1052 board had two over cards to the pocket pair, none connected with Xu. It meant he had to take the walk in fourth, three places better than his previous result, and worth $1,596,000.

Xu Yang, with an expression that

And then there were three. Schulman's 49 blinds led the way, with Lazauninkas holding 32 and Binder with 16.

They played into another level, making the stacks seem shorter, and Lazauninkas lost small-ish pots to each of his opponents to slide into third place. He was still third from three when he found pocket eights on the button and made a raise, only then to see Schulman jam from the big blind with the biggest stack.

Lazauninkas called for his tournament life but discovered Schulman had him in bad shape, holding pocket 10s. The board bricked and Lazauninkas's tournament was over. He picked up $1,968,000 for his third place. That's his second third of the trip.

Gytis Lazauninkas hits third for the second time on this trip

Schulman had 62 big blinds to Binder's 20, and seemed to be the only player who was able to hold on to the lead once he got there. But they immediately called for the tournament director to look at the numbers and chop it up, not too keen to play heads up for $1.3 million and change.

According to ICM calculations, Schulman secured $3,714,888, Binder locked up $3,080,112, leaving $140,000 to play for

Heads up for the win

Already ahead, Schulman also won the first significant pot of heads up. He got maximum value from rivered trips, holding 103. It pegged Binder down to 10 blinds. Though Binder was able to tread water for a little while, he never got too close to Schulman's tally and was powerless to halt a three-hand surge to the win.

Schulman first had Q2 and hit his two to win a small one. Then he had Q and turned a queen to win another. He then found pocket kings against Binder's and worked out a way to get everything by the river.

Though his first heads-up battle of this trip was nothing of the sort — he flipped for it with his friend Matthew Wantman — this show demonstrated that Schulman has what it takes. He now has the Main Event title and the timepiece to show for it, and is Triton's latest two-time winner.

"It's pretty unbelievable," Schulman said. "I really want to go home and see my wife. The champ is coming home soon, baby, get ready."