Nick Schulman banked the biggest score of a 21-year career on Jeju Island, taking down the $100,000 Main Event at the Triton Super High Roller Series Jeju II for $3,854,888 on September 17. The event pulled 196 entries and built a $19.6 million prize pool at Les A Casino, capping a 14-day festival that began on September 4.
Heads-up against Austria’s Bernhard Binder, the pair paused and asked the tournament director for ICM numbers. The resulting deal locked $3,714,888 for Schulman and $3,080,112 for Binder, leaving $140,000 and the trophy still to be decided at the table. Schulman collected both.
“You know, I did my thing,” the 41-year-old said afterwards. “It’s tough to fully analyze it right away, but we got it done. That’s always good.”
He arrived in Korea with modest expectations. “Before this trip, I was telling some people I’m really close with that this high stakes stuff… I know how it goes, I’m probably going to lose,” he admitted. “I rallied and I came and I’m very happy that I did.” Schulman already owns eight WSOP bracelets and a Poker Hall of Fame jacket, but nothing on his record approached this number.
Three Asian Seats at a Nine-Handed Final
The final table was not a Western clean sweep. Japan’s Ryuta Nakai finished fifth for $1,263,000, the first seven-figure Triton payout of his career. China’s Xu Yang went two places better, busting in fourth for $1,596,000 — an improvement of three spots on his previous Triton Main Event run. Fellow Chinese regular Wesley Fei took eighth for $512,000.
Between them, the three Asian finalists removed just over $3.37 million from the pool — close to what the champion earned on his own, and a reminder that the regional contingent at Triton’s nosebleed events is no longer a novelty. It is the same pattern that produced Khoa Anh Ngo’s breakthrough Vietnamese title earlier in the year.
Where the $19.6 Million Landed
The nine-handed final paid out as follows:
- 1. Nick Schulman (USA) — $3,854,888*
- 2. Bernhard Binder (Austria) — $3,080,112*
- 3. Gytis Lazauninkas (Lithuania) — $1,968,000
- 4. Xu Yang (China) — $1,596,000
- 5. Ryuta Nakai (Japan) — $1,263,000
- 6. Isaac Haxton (USA) — $958,000
- 7. Danilo Velasevic (Serbia) — $700,000
- 8. Wesley Fei (China) — $512,000
- 9. Roberto Perez (Spain) — $424,000
*after a heads-up deal.
Binder’s runner-up finish continues a strong run of his own — he won the 2025 WSOP Paradise Super Main Event and took the $125,000 seven-max title at Triton’s earlier Jeju stop this year.
Jeju Signs Off on Its Second Triton Stop of 2026
The Main Event was not quite the last hand of the festival. Nick Petrangelo and Joao Simao chopped the closing $150,000 event, with Petrangelo taking the official title after winning the flips, while Wang Ye grabbed a late-gasp turbo on the final day.
Two full Triton festivals on Jeju inside a single calendar year says plenty about where the tour sees its high-roller demand coming from. For players tracking the circuit from Seoul, Tokyo, Taipei or Ho Chi Minh City, the island has quietly turned into the default Asian stop — our guide to the Triton Poker Series covers how the schedule and buy-in structure actually work, and K Poker Cup shows what the same venue offers at rather more human stakes.
Source: Triton Poker Series official reporting.