Tan Xuan Defends Triton Poker Jeju Short Deck $50,000 Tournament TitleChinese Player Secures Third Trident Trophy After Topping Field of 45 To Earn $708,000 |
|
The event description may have changed slightly from 2024 to 2025, but the high-stakes poker tournament’s champion remained the same.
Last year Tan Xuan took down the Triton Poker Jeju $50,000 short deck main event. Just shy of a year later, he won the same buy-in offering of the same game at the same festival, but this time around the tournament didn’t feature a ‘main event’ designation on the schedule.
Nonetheless, Tan earned $708,000 after successfully defending his title. This was the fifth-largest score of the 38-year-old’s career, and it brought his lifetime haul to more than $12.1 million.
Tan now has three total Triton titles to his name, with almost all of his lifetime tournament earnings coming from his success on this high-stakes-centric tour.
A total of 45 entries were made in this event, resulting in a prize pool of $2,250,000. Only the top seven finishers cashed, with two-time bracelet winner Artur Martirosian hitting the rail on the six-figure money bubble.
From a 45-entry field, where each player had three bullets, only seven remain in Event #19 $50K Short Deck at Triton Poker Series SHR Jeju 2025. With $708,000 up top, the battle for the next Short Deck title is on.
Final Table Lineup:
Tan Xuan Michael Zhang … pic.twitter.com/ebwOzGfQfY— Triton Poker (@tritonpoker) March 15, 2025
Esti Wang scored the first two knockouts at the final table, busting Wai Leong Chan (7th – $118,000) and two-time Triton champion Daniel Dvoress (6th – $146,000) to see him join Tan near the top of the chip counts.
Tan then eliminated five-time Triton winner Danny Tang, with middle pair dodging an open-ended straight draw, to narrow the field to four. Tang walked away with $192,000 as the fifth-place finisher.
The next big clash saw the departure of another five-time champion on this tour. Phil Ivey, an 11-time bracelet winner, got all-in with A
J
after a K10
8 flop. He was up against KQ
for Wang, who improved to kings full after a 10 turn and K river. Ivey earned $248,000 for his efforts. The Poker Hall of Famer now has nearly $48.4 million in lifetime earnings.
Michael Zhang’s run in this event came to an end when his open-ended straight draw butted heads against the flopped two pair of Tan. Zhang was unable to improve on the turn or river and was eliminated in third place ($326,000). The UK player is now approaching $4.2 million in recorded tournament score thanks to this latest podium showing.
With that, Tan entered heads-up play with a slight lead over Wang. The two battled it out for a while, with Tan eventually pulling away in time for the final hand of the tournament. The chips went in preflop with Tan holding Q10 and Wang K9. The board came down A96JK and Tan made a straight on the end to win the pot and the title.
Wang settled for $512,000 as the runner-up. This was his second-largest score yet, trailing the $865,000 he secured as the 12th-place finisher in the Triton Million Invitational $500,000 buy-in at last year’s World Series of Poker Paradise series.
Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Earnings | POY Points |
| 1 | Tan Xuan | $708,000 | 510 |
| 2 | Esti Wang | $512,000 | 425 |
| 3 | Michael Zhang | $326,000 | 340 |
| 4 | Phil Ivey | $248,000 | 255 |
| 5 | Danny Tang | $192,000 | 213 |
| 6 | Daniel Dvoress | $146,000 | 170 |
| 7 | Wai Leong Chan | $118,000 | 128 |
Photo credit: Triton Poker.
Copyright © 2001-2025
CardPlayer.com. All rights reserved.
