Peter Wang is no stranger to playing poker with millions of dollars on the line. The Chinese high roller is more accustomed to doing so in big live-streamed cash games, though. On Saturday, Sept. 13 he took a break from his usual format of choice and tried his hand in the $60,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em eight-max tournament at the 2025 Triton Poker Jeju festival.
It turned out to be quite the profitable decision for Wang, who has been involved in several viral hands from Hustler Casino Live and High Stakes Poker in recent years. He outlasted 154 entries to earn his first trident trophy and the top prize of $2,046,000. Prior to this massive victory, his best tournament score had been the $52,100 that came with a 12th-place showing in the recent $40,000 mystery bounty event earlier in the same series, which is running from Sept. 8-23 at Landing Casino Jeju in South Korea.
Wang also earned 1,224 Card Player Player of the Year points for the win. This was his first POY-qualified score of 2025.
Setting The Stage
The second and final day began with 40 players still in contention. Only the top 27 earned a share of the $9,240,000 prize pool, with notables like Ben Heath (25h), Jun Obara (24th), Brandon Wilson (22nd), Sergio Aido (21st), Ben Tollerene (18th), Aleksejs Ponakovs (17th), Webster Lim (15th), and Matthias Eibinger (13th) running deep.
Yui Zhang bowed out in 10th place, setting up the unofficial final table of nine. Belgium’s Thomas Boivin (9th – $207,000) was ultimately the next to fall, with his pocket fives losing a classic preflop race to the A-J suited of Wang. Boivin remained ahead through the turn, but the river gave Wang a broadway straight to narrow the field to eight.
Two-time bracelet winner Santhosh Suvarna was also sent packing thanks to a coin flip. Suvarna took a stand with A♦10♠ facing the 8♦8♣ of Nang Quang Nguyen. Neither player connected with the king-high runout and the pocket pair earned the knockout for Nguyen. Suvarna settled for $250,000 as the eighth-place finisher.
Germany’s Tom Fuchs got the last of his stack in with top pair leading the middle pair of five-time Triton winner Mikita Badziakouski. Fuch’s Q♦9♣ fell behind on the turn, though, as Badziakouski’s K♦3♦ improved to kings up thanks to the K♥. That left Fuchs in need of a nine on the end, but the 5♦ rolled off on the river instead to send him packing with $345,000.
Knockout Pace Picks Up
The next big clash saw Vietnam’s Nang Quang Nguyen run A♠Q♥ into the Q♠Q♣ of Wang. Nguyen three-bet jammed over Wang’s hijack open for around 11 big blinds from the cutoff. Wang quickly called when action was back on him and the pair saw a 10♥8♣5♦9♠7♣ runout. Nguyen earned $475,000 for his sixth-place showing, while Wang overtook the chip lead heading into five-handed action.
Calvin Lee didn’t fare as well with his large pocket pair. He min-raised to 400,000 from the hijack with K♥K♣ and Sosia Jiang three-bet jammed with a covering stack from the big blind. It folded around to Lee who quickly called all-in for 3,350,000 total. Jiang was in rough shape preflop, but the final board of A♦8♥4♠10♥8♦ gave her aces up and the pot. The bracelet winner from America added $618,000 to his tally for his latest strong showing. His career haul now sits at more than $4.2 million.
Not like this!
Lee picks up cowboys. Jiang goes for the knockout. pic.twitter.com/y5y572aRoL
— Triton Poker (@tritonpoker) September 13, 2025
The very next hand after Lee was eliminated, Badziakouski three-bet shoved with K♦Q♥ from the big blind over Wang’s button min-raise with A♥J♥. The cards came out 4♥2♠2♦2♣6♥ to see Badziakouski eliminated in fourth place ($774,000). The Belarusian superstar now boasts more than $68.1 million in career earnings, placing him fifth on poker’s all-time money list. He also secured 612 POY points, bringing his total on the year to 4,592. That’s good for 17th place in the overall standings presented by CoinPoker.
Rise And Fall Of Filatov
Anatoly Filatov went from the short stack to the chip lead in a matter of minutes. First, he got all-in with aces up leading the pair of aces and lower kicker of Wang, check-raising the turn and then calling a shove. He improved to aces full of eights on the river to double ahead of Wang in that hand.
On the very next deal, Jiang raised to 550,000 from the button with A♣J♠. Filatov looked down at A♦K♠ in the small blind and three-bet to 1,700,000. Jiang called and the flop came down 10♣7♠6♣. Filatov led for 900,000 with his ace-king high. Jiang called and the turn brought the 2♠. Both players checked and the river brought a third spade in the 5♠. Filatov checked and Jiang mulled her options before firing 3,300,000 into the 5,700,000 pot. Filatov went into the tank for a couple of minutes before making the hero call to win the massive pot and take the chip lead.
Eventually, though, Filatov lost a big flip with A-Q against the pocket tens of Wang to fall back down the leaderboard. His final hand pitted pocket deuces against the K-10 suited of Wang. The overcards prevailed and Filatov settled for $950,000 as the third-place finisher. The Russian had won a $25,000 high roller at the earlier Triton stop at this venue in the spring for a career-best $1.9 million. With this latest deep run factored in, he now has more than $10.3 million in lifetime cashes to his name.
Swingy Heads-up Battle
Sosia Jiang
The final showdown began with roughly a 3:1 chip lead for Wang over Jiang. The two battled until after 4:00 AM local time, with plenty of swings along the way. The first double up saw Jiang’s top pair of queens fade Wang’s open-ended straight flush draw. Wang then held with two pair against the flush draw of Jiang to flip the script yet again.
The two doubled through each other again before the blinds went up, leaving the average stack at roughly 13 big blinds. Another pair of doubles, split between the two contenders, left things on fairly even footing. Wang was ahead, though, when the final hand of the tournament was dealt. Wang held K♠9♣ for kings and sixes with a nine kicker on a K♣7♠6♣6♠10♥ board. He checked to Jiang on the river and she moved all-in as a bluff with J♣8♠. Wang called to claim the pot and the title.
Jiang secured $1,381,000 as the runner-up, the second-largest score on her résumé behind only the $1.6 million that came with a final-table appearance in last year’s Triton Million Invitational at the World Series of Poker Paradise festival. She now has nearly $6 million in lifetime cashes under her belt.
Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Payout | POY Points |
| 1 | Peter Wang | $2,046,000 | 1,224 |
| 2 | Sosia Jiang | $1,381,000 | 1,020 |
| 3 | Anatoly Filatov | $950,000 | 816 |
| 4 | Mikita Badziakouski | $774,000 | 612 |
| 5 | Calvin Lee | $618,000 | 510 |
| 6 | Nang Quang Nguyen | $475,000 | 408 |
| 7 | Tom Fuchs | $345,000 | 306 |
| 8 | Santhosh Suvarna | $250,000 | 204 |
Photo credit: Triton Poker.
