Triton Poker Jeju has been a glittering display of poker’s top talents, and fans have been treated to some extraordinary card playing over the last 11 days in South Korea.
The Super High Roller series has been a shining example of the fortitude, strength, and bravery required to reach the top of the game. One player who has shown those traits in spades is breakout star Roman Hrabec, who has just taken down the biggest ever $100K buy-in tournament that poker has ever seen.
Hrabec topped the 216-entry field in the Triton Poker Jeju $100K Main Event for a life-changing $4,330,000 after a dominant performance that every poker player dreams of.
In his winner’s interview with Triton Media, Hrabec said, “It feels quite amazing. Is that real money? Yeah, that feels pretty good.”
“I just play a little bit [of a] different style,” Hrabec added. “Some people say I’m a punter…Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.”
Any doubters of Hrabec’s abilities will find their tails firmly placed between their legs after seeing the magic Hrabec has conjured up since Triton Jeju got underway.
Prior to his triumph, Hrabec entered seven tournaments and cashed in five of them, including one final table appearance. Across the series, he’s added $4,968,166 to his total live earnings and soared to second place on the Czech Republic All-Time Money List.
Triton Poker Jeju $100K NLH Main Event Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Roman Hrabec | Czechia | $4,330,000 |
| 2 | Jean-Noel Thorel | France | $2,875,000 |
| 3 | Elton Tsang | Hong Kong | $2,105,000 |
| 4 | Patrik Antonius | Finland | $1,697,000 |
| 5 | Matthias Eibinger | Austria | $1,330,000 |
| 6 | Fahredin Mustafov | Bulgaria | $1,008,000 |
| 7 | Igor Yaroshevskyy | Ukraine | $739,000 |
| 8 | Chris Brewer | United States | $543,000 |
| 9 | Alex Kulev | Bulgaria | $451,000 |
Event: $100K NLH Main Event
Entries: 216
Prize Pool: $21,600,000
Winner: Roman Hrabec ($4,330,000)
Paid Places: 39
Click here for a full list of payouts
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Final Day Action
The final day began with 15 players, and following the eliminations of Mario Mosboeck, Ramin Hajiyev, Wiktor Malinowski, Justin Saliba, and Kevin Rabichow, the Main Event was on the final table bubble.
The nine-handed FT was determined after the highly accomplished Stephen Chidwick suffered a horrific bad beat, which no doubt drew sighs of relief from the remaining entrants.
In a pot that would’ve put the Englishman second in chips, Chidwick had his last 19 big blinds committed preflop with A♠Q♠. His opponent was Hrabec, who held the dominated A♥4♥. An A♦10♦10♥ flop kept Chidwick out in front, but the 6♥ brought in the flush draw for the eventual champion. The Q♥ peeled off on the river to complete Hrabec’s runner-runner flush while also giving him the chip lead heading into the finale.
Hrabec entered the FT with 72 big blinds, and his closest rival was Jean-Noel Thorel, who had a stack of 67. The rest of the field all had under 30 big blinds, with poker legend Patrik Antonius being the short stack with 8 bigs.
Hrabec continued his red-hot form after seeing off Alex Kulev in ninth place. Hrabec woke up with big slick and found an ace on the flop, besting Kulev’s pocket queens. Soon after, it was Hrabec’s turn to pick up the ladies, and they remained best after Chris Brewer ripped it in with king-jack.
Igor Yaroshevskyy was reduced to a third of a big blind after clashing with $150K NLH winner Elton Tsang and put in the last of his stack with nine-five. Fahredin Mustafov, also a short stack, moved in with queens before Matthias Eibinger called the rejam as the bigger stack with pocket tens.
Mustafov’s queens held to give him some breathing room but he quickly joined Yaroshevskyy on the wrong side of the rail after Eibinger ousted the affable Bulgarian. Mustafov’s sixth-place finish netted him a payday of $1,008,000.
Eibinger, who won the Triton Monte-Carlo Main Event title in October 2023, was next in Hrabec’s firing line. The former three-bet shoved with pocket threes but Hrabec was there with pocket tens, which went on to make quads to bring the Main Event to its final four players.
The deck continued to be on Hrabec’s side when he found a two-outer to see off Antonius. The latter had laddered up impressively and was the favorite to double-up when he got it in with queens versus Hrabec’s jacks. A jack on the flop saw the smaller pair improve to a set which held out on the turn and river. Antonius, who was the favorite to depart the final table first, had skilfully laddered to a $1,697,000 payday.
Thorel saw Tsang off in third place when the two had their stacks over the betting line. Tsang’s ace-ten was behind ace-queen, and a drama-free runout set up the heads-up showdown between Hrabec and Thorel. It’s been quite a few days for Tsang, as he took down the aforementioned $150K NLH event for more than four million dollars and then followed that up with this $2,105,000 score.
Heads-up was brief and ended when Thorel bluff-shoved into a set of kings on the turn. Thorel needed a ten double up as he held Q♣4♣ on the 9♦J♠3♣K♥ board, but the river gave no help to Frenchman.
With that, Hrabec was crowned the Triton Poker Main Event champion and received the winner’s spoils, which included a prize of $4,330,000 plus an exclusive Jacob & Co watch.
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Photo credit: Triton Poker/Joe Giron
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Editor & Live Reporter
Calum has been a part of the PokerNews team since September 2021 after working in the UK energy sector. He played his first hand of poker in 2017 and immediately fell in love with the game. Calum’s proudest poker achievement is winning the only tournament he has ever played in Las Vegas, the prestigious $60 Flamingo evening event.