China’s Zhao Wenjie has played in just three Triton events, and made the money in each of them. After 63rd-place showings in both the $3,000 QQPK Genesis ($8,000) and $5,000 mystery bounty events ($6,100) at the Triton One Jeju festival, Zhao closed out the series with an outright win in the $8,000 no-limit hold’em main event, earning $1,160,000 and his first major live tournament title.
This breakthrough victory pushed Zhao’s lifetime haul over $1.2 million. Before this, his top recorded score had been the $23,400 that came with a 47th-place finish in the WSOP Super Circuit Cyprus $5,000 main event last fall.
In addition to the trophy and the money, Zhao also earned 1,920 Card Player Player of the Year points for the win. This one triumph alone was enough to catapult him up the rankings and into ninth place on the 2026 POY leaderboard presented by CoinPoker.
Thinning The Field
This tournament attracted a massive field of 1,230 entries, making for a final prize pool of $8,945,790. The top 199 finishers earned a share of that hefty sum, with six-figures or more for the last nine standing.
Ander Vallinas held the chip lead going into the final table. The Spanish player had over 150 big blinds to start. Japanese bracelet winner Shota Nakanishi and Zhao were the only other players to come into the last day with over 100 big blinds, while four contenders began with 30 or fewer big blinds.
France’s Jimmy Guerrero (9th – $116,990) and Japan’s Eguchi Takumi (8th – $151,000) were the first to fall. They were soon joined by one of the most accomplished players at the table in Quan Zhou. The high-stakes tournament regular earned $213,000 for his seventh-place finish after his pocket fives were outraced by the Q-6 of Vallinas, who made a pair of sixes to win the pot and narrow the field to six. Zhou now has more than $15.1 million in recorded earnings, including nearly $5.4 million in cashes in Triton tournaments.
Vallinas bagged nearly 150 big blinds heading into the final day of play, with Zhao’s 94 big blinds being the next-largest stack. Issey Maeda (6th – $279,000) and Kai Yang (5th – $371,000) were the early eliminations, with Zhao landing the final blow to Yang’s stack. Liu Xiaohu (4th – $475,000) soon followed when his A-9 ran into the A-K suited of Vallinas.
From Three To One
Vallinas had nearly twice as many chips as his two remaining opponents combined. Zhao still had plenty of room to maneuver when three-handed play began, though, with 63 big blinds. Nakanishi was the shortest, but found an early double to take some of the pressure off. Or, at least for a while. He soon had a bluff attempt picked off by Zhao. The same duo squared off again, with the chips going in preflop with A♠Q♣ leading J♣4♣. The board ran out Q♥9♥8♠5♠9♠ and Zhao’s queens up earned him the knockout. Nakanishi walked away with a career-best payday of $641,000 for his third-place showing.
Heads-up play began with 105 big blinds for Vallinas and 88 for Zhao. The final two hashed out a deal that locked up $1,337,000 for Vallinas and $1,080,o00 for Zhao while leaving $80,000 and the title to play for.
Zhao picked up steam from there, overtaking the lead and then extending his advantage thanks to a key bluff. The hand in question saw Zhao force Vallinas off of a chop with a nine-high straight on board. Zhao check-raised on the end to take down the massive pot without showdown.
The final hand of the tournament saw Zhao shove from the button with 7♠4♠. Vallinas called off his remaining four big blinds with A♦9♦ and the flop came down Q♠J♠2♠ to end the hand right there. The 8♦ turn and 6♦ river were mere formalities from there. Vallinas walked away as the runner-up, but also earned the largest payout of any player thanks to the heads-up deal.
Vallinas made four cashes during this festival, including a 156th-place finish in the QQPK Genesis $3,000 event ($4,700), an eighth-place showing in the $5,000 seven-max event ($27,000), and a fourth-place finish in the $10,000 buy-in version of the same format ($227,000). With 2,200 POY points, he is now ranked third in the POY standings.
Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Payout | POY Points |
| 1 | Zhao Wenjie | $1,160,000 | 1920 |
| 2 | Ander Vallinas | $1,337,000 | 1600 |
| 3 | Shota Nakanishi | $641,000 | 1280 |
| 4 | Liu Xiaohu | $475,000 | 960 |
| 5 | Kai Yang | $371,000 | 800 |
| 6 | Issey Maeda | $279,000 | 640 |
| 7 | Zhou Quan | $213,000 | 480 |
| 8 | Eguchi Takumi | $151,000 | 320 |
| 9 | Jimmy Guerrero | $116,990 | 160 |
Photo credit: Triton Poker.
