Matthew Wantman Edges Past Nick Schulman For First Triton Title

Matthew Wantman has accomplished a great deal in his tournament poker career. He won a World Poker Tour title in Las Vegas back in 2019, and added his first World Series of Poker bracelet in 2025. The 38-year-old has also secured four PokerGO Tour titles.

Coming into the 2026 Triton Super High Roller Series Jeju II, the American poker pro boasted well over $12 million in total career earnings. But Wantman’s career resume grew in a major way at the nosebleed-stakes South Korean stop, as the Massachusetts native became a Triton champion. He took down the $50,000 seven-handed no-limit hold’em event, defeating Poker Hall of Famer and friend Nick Schulman for the title after the pair struck a heads-up deal. Wantman earned $836,721 and the trophy, while Schulman settled for $810,279.

“I haven’t even had a chance to process it yet,” Wantman told Triton staff. “Getting heads up against one of my best friends.”

This win earned Wantman 714 Card Player Player of the Year points, increasing his total to 3,287 POY points. That puts Wantman in 50th place in the yearlong race presented by CoinPoker.

Wantman outlasted a field of 70 entrants to claim the largest share of the $3.5 million prize pool.

It was a clean sweep of the podium positions for American players, with Texas native Ben Tollerene finishing in third place. Six of the 11 players who finished in the money hailed from North America, with Daniel Dvoress (4th – $344,000), and Michael Watson (10th – $88,000) of Canada and New York’s Bryn Kenney (11th – $88,000) making deep runs.

Rushing Towards The Finish Line

With only a few days remaining in the Triton Jeju festival, contenders came into this event with dwindling opportunities to score a trident trophy at this stop. By the close of registration, 49 unique players put up 70 entries in this event, building up a substantial prize pool in its own right. The bubble wasn’t reached until the second day of the tournament, and by the time the official final table of seven locked in, action had carried well into the evening.

Schulman held the chip lead, with Tollerene and Wantman in a tier of their own behind him, and the rest of the players scrambling to catch up. Belarus’ Aliaksandr Shylko, the 2023 PokerStars Players Championship winner, lasted just five hands at the final table before his short stack went in. His K♥10♦ was live against Tollerene’s A♦3♠, but did not improve. Shylko was out in seventh place ($168,000).

Danny Tang, a six-time Triton champion and a former Triton player of the year, was next to the exit. In a battle of the blinds, Tang’s K♥Q♠ was no match for Dvoress’ A♠J♥, and Tang settled for sixth place ($213,000).

Wantman got into the action as well, picking up pocket kings to eliminate Danilo Velasevic, besting pocket tens to send the Serbian to the rail in fifth place ($273,000).

Wantman Wins

Schulman knocked out Dvoress in fourth place, as his pocket jacks held strong against A♥9♦. Dvoress, a seven-time Triton champion, earned his fifth trident trophy of 2026 alone earlier at this festival. He currently holds a substantial lead in the race to become the Ivan Leo Player of the Year for this season.

Following that elimination, Schulman held a substantial lead over Tollerene and Wantman, with almost five times as many chips as either player. But Wantman clawed away at the top stack, and then eliminated a short-stacked Tollerene in third place ($448,000). With that, Tollerene’s lifetime tournament earnings grew to nearly $38.3 million.

The chip counts to start heads-up play were virtually even. Schulman and Wantman agreed on an almost even split, and left $30,000 on the table for the winner. Wantman doubled up on the first hand of heads-up play to all but assure the victory. Schulman doubled back once, but on the final hand, Wantman’s A♥J♥ beat Schulman’s Q♠7♠ to lock down the title.

With this win, Wantman and Schulman each have one Triton victory to their names. Schulman’s title came in Jeju eight years ago, in the very first Triton event he ever played. Schulman, Tang, and Dvoress are now all sitting inside the top 10 in the POY standings. Tang climbed to seventh, with one win and 13 final tables to date in 2026. Dvoress is ranked ninth with seven titles and a dozen final tables. Schulman, who is sitting in eighth, has the same final-table total and two wins so far, including his eighth career WSOP bracelet.

Final Table Results

Photo credit: Triton Poker.