Stephen Chidwick has accumulated more than $72 million in career tournament earnings, the second-largest total of any player on the circuit behind only Bryn Kenney ($79.5 million). With his latest massive triumph, the 36-year-old poker pro from Deal, England became just the second player to surpass the $70 million mark in lifetime cashes.
Chidwick took down the 2025 Triton Poker Super High Roller Series Jeju $200,000 short deck event, besting an elite field of 61 entries to secure his third title on the tour. He also earned $3,445,000 for the win, the second-largest score of his career behind only the $5.4 million that came with a fourth-place showing in the largest buy-in tournament ever held.
All three of Chidwick’s trident trophies have now been earned in short deck events. The two-time bracelet winner came out on top in both the $20,000 short deck at the 2024 Jeju stop and the €100,000 short deck main event at the 2022 Triton Madrid festival.
“Obviously tournament poker is so much variance, short deck especially, and I assume it’s mostly that that is the reason I’ve mostly been winning short deck tournaments and not no-limit hold’em or PLO,” said Chidwick after completing his Triton short deck hat trick.
“It’s pretty funny, I didn’t really prepare for short deck this trip. There was only one $50K on the schedule, so I just came in pretty rusty. When they kept adding tournaments I was scrambling a bit to try and look up my notes and remember what I used to know,” said Chidwick of his preparation (or lack thereof) for the format ahead of this series.
In addition to the money and the hardware, Chidwick also earned 720 Card Player Player of the Year points as the champion. The two-time POY award winner (2019, 2022) has now made 13 final tables in 2025. His 5,221 total points are currently good for 12th place in the overall standings presented by CoinPoker.
Over $12 Million For 10 Short Deck Crushers
The impressive turnout for this late addition to the festival resulted in a $12,200,000 prize pool, with the top ten all earning a share of that hefty sum. That resulted in a massive $313,000 money bubble. Wai Kin Yong was ultimately the last player to hit the rail outside of the money, with Chidwick sending him to the rail in 11th place.
High-stakes heavyweights Isaac Haxton (10th), five-time Triton winner Danny Tang (9th), and tour co-founder Richard Yong (8th) all soon headed to the rail as well, setting an official final table led by Chidwick, who held roughly twice as many chips as the next-largest stack.
Winfred Yu (7th – $590,000) was next to fall, with his A♦10♥ unable to overcome the A♠Q♣ of two-time bracelet winner and Triton champion Daniel Dvoress. Elton Tsang, fresh off of a win in the $100,000 short deck, added another $754,000 to his career haul with a sixth-place showing. Tsang lost his last chips thanks to a preflop cooler, with pocket queens running into the pocket aces of Rene Van Krevelen.
Dvoress was ultimately the next to be eliminated. The Canadian check-called a river shove from Chidwick with top pair of aces, only to be shown a broadway straight. Dvoress took home $971,000 for his efforts, bringing his lifetime haul to more than $48.1 million.
From Four To One In A Flash
Esti Wang headed to the rail in fourth place when his K♦10♣ butted heads with Chidwick’s K♣Q♣. Wang took home $1,234,000 for his efforts, a new top score for the high roller from China.
With that, Chidwick entered three-handed play with more than 3.5 times as many chips as his two opponents had combined. Van Krevelen was the next to be knocked out. He lost a big chunk of his stack flipping with pocket tens against ace-king suited for Kiat Lee. He then got the last of his chips in with A♦10♦ ahead of Chidwick’s 10♠9♦. Chidwick turned a straight to win the pot, sending Van Krevelen packing with $1,591,000. The Dutch player more or less doubled his career live earnings thanks to his score.
Heads-up play began with 152 antes for Chidwick and just 19 for Lee, a two-time Triton champion in his own right. Chidwick scored the final blow with 10-9, which again made a straight to win the pot. Lee was awarded $2,465,000 as the runner-up, a new top score for the Malaysian crusher. He now boasts more than $19.6 million in career cashes, with the vast majority of that coming from his success in Triton events. Lee has two titles and seven final-table finishes so far in 2025, which places him inside the top 20 in the POY rankings, just a handful of spots behind Chidwick.
Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Payouts | POY Points |
| 1 | Stephen Chidwick | $3,445,000 | 720 |
| 2 | Kiat Lee | $2,465,000 | 600 |
| 3 | Rene Van Krevelen | $1,591,000 | 480 |
| 4 | Esti Wang | $1,234,000 | 360 |
| 5 | Daniel Dvoress | $971,000 | 300 |
| 6 | Elton Tsang | $754,000 | 240 |
| 7 | Winfred Yu | $590,000 | 180 |
Photo credit: Triton Poker.
