Punnat Punsri Takes Down Triton Jeju $50,000 Event For $2 Million

Punnat Punsri overcame a tough field of 190 entries in the 2024 Triton Super High Roller Series Jeju $50,000 buy-in seven-max no-limit hold’em event, earning $2,010,000 and his second title on the high-stakes centric tour.

“I honestly ran so good,” Punsri told Triton reporters after coming out on top. “I’ve run good, not just this event, but ever since I’ve played Triton.”

This was the third-largest score of the Thai poker pro’s career, with his six top paydays all coming in Triton events. More than $11.7 million of Punsri’s nearly $15.2 million in lifetime earnings have come from his 15 cashes at Triton stops over the years, including the $3.1 million he earned as the third-place finisher in a $262,500 buy-in invitational event last summer in London and his win in the $100,000 main event at the Triton Mediterranean Poker Party in 2022 for $2.6 million.

Punsri now has two titles and nine final-table finishes in 2024, with 3,069 total Card Player Player of the Year points earned along the way. That’s good for the top spot in the 2024 POY standings presented by Global Poker.

A total of $9,500,000 in prize money was paid out in this event, with the top 31 finishers making the money. Among the biggest names that ran deep were bracelet winner Sam Greenwood (20th), three-time Triton champion Matthias Eibinger (19th), bracelet winner Dan Smith (14th), World Poker Tour champion Seth Davies (13th), bracelet winner Pieter Aerts (10th), and European Poker Tour champion Steve O’Dwyer (8th).

The first player to be knocked out at the official final table was ten-time bracelet winner and five-time Triton champion Phil Ivey. The living poker legend got the last of his extremely short stack in with pocket aces, which were cracked by the 9-6 of Sergio Aido. He took home $339,000 for his efforts, increasing his lifetime earnings to $41.5 million in the process.

Punsri then busted two-time Triton champion Michael Soyza – $465,000) to pull away from the pack. Aido did his best to keep pace, picking up pocket nines against the pocket fives of Ren Lin (5th – $611,000) and winning the preflop all-in confrontation to narrow the field to four.

WPT champion and two-time EPT main event winner Michael Watson lost a crucial flip with pocket sixes against A-J suited for Punsri to hit the rail in fourth place ($773,000). This was already his sixth final-table finish of the year, with one title won. He now sits in 12th place in the POY rankings as a result.

Bracelet winner Brian Kim was the clear short stack when three-handed action began. He soon found himself all-in with K-6 trailing the pocket aces of a surging Punsri. Kim was unable to pull off the upset in the hand and was knocked out in third place ($954,000).

Punsri, on the other hand, was able to crack the aces of Aido. The chips went in with Punsri holding 74. The board ran out 55369 to give Punsri a straight and the title. Aido walked away with $1,353,000, the second-largest score of his career. The Spanish poker pro had finished as the runner-up in the $25,000 ‘GG Million$’ event just a day earlier for another seven-figure payday. With 2,590 total POY points from those two scores, he is now sitting in third place on the POY leaderboard.

Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded at the final table:

Photo credits: Triton Poker / Joe Giron.

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