The Triton Poker Series is the highest-stakes travelling poker tour on the planet, with buy-ins from roughly $20,000 to $200,000 and a 2026 season that has already pushed past $257 million across 136 events. Two of its five stops this year sit in Jeju, South Korea, making Asia the tour’s home rather than an occasional detour. Almost no one reading this will wire in a $200K buy-in — but a free fantasy game and a much cheaper sister series are both real doors in.
Who actually sits down at a Triton table
Triton was set up in 2016 by Malaysian businessmen and philanthropists Richard Yong and Paul Phua, and the brief has never really changed: build a room where extremely wealthy recreational players feel comfortable gambling against the best professionals alive. That balance is the product, which is why fields stay small, venues are resorts rather than convention halls, and no $300 side events pad the schedule.
The clearest expression of that idea is the Triton Invitational, which made its Asian debut in Jeju on September 12-14, 2026. It costs $200,000 and you cannot simply register: each seat belongs to a recreational invitee paired with an elite pro, and the two halves play separate Day 1s before converging on Day 2. Eighteen pairs were locked in at announcement — Phil Ivey, Bryn Kenney and Isaac Haxton among them — with organisers expecting the first 50-pair field since the format launched in 2019. The standing field record is 137 runners in Montenegro in May 2026, won by Adrian Mateos for $6.37 million.
The 2026 map is mostly Jeju
Five stops made up the 2026 calendar, and the Korean island took two of them:
- Triton ONE Jeju — March 5-15, $28 million in prize pools from 5,315 entries
- Triton SHRS Jeju — March 14 to April 1, $105.9 million from 2,080 entries
- Triton SHRS Montenegro — May 13-28, $101.3 million from 1,528 entries
- Triton SHRS Jeju II — September 4-17, at Les A Casino, Jeju Shinhwa World
- Triton ONE / SHRS North Cyprus — November 5-30
Jeju keeps winning the calendar for practical reasons: it is visa-light for most of Northeast Asia, the resort has a licensed casino floor attached to its hotel towers, and the Chinese, Korean and Japanese recreational players the tour depends on can be there in a few hours. For the same island at prices a normal bankroll survives, the K Poker Cup runs in the same complex.
Triton ONE is the number most people miss
Look again at the first line of that calendar. Triton ONE Jeju drew 5,315 entries for $28 million — an average buy-in a shade over $5,000, from a field more than twice the size of the Super High Roller stop that followed it. Triton ONE is the accessible arm, and it is where online qualifying actually exists: partner room QQPoker runs satellites and hosts the QQPK Genesis event that appears inside ONE schedules.
The other route costs nothing at all. Triton Fantasy is a free game inside the Triton Poker Plus app: you draft six to eight players per eligible tournament, lock your team before Day 2 so you can study chip counts first, and nominate a Captain for multiplied points plus two Boosters. The top three on the overall leaderboard win trips to Triton ONE in North Cyprus in November — first place takes a ONE Main Event entry, seven nights’ hotel, a $1,000 travel allowance and a $200 merchandise voucher, second an NLH Mystery Bounty seat with four nights, third a QQPK Genesis entry. Places four to ten collect merchandise. More than 1,000 teams had registered during the Jeju II run.
All of it assumes you already have an account on an Asia-facing room. @PAGDaddyBot handles that boring part — signup, local currency deposits, which skin your country can use.
Short deck is the house game
Triton did more than anyone to drag Short Deck, or 6+ Hold’em, out of private Macau cash games and onto television, and it still runs alongside No-Limit Hold’em and Pot-Limit Omaha on every schedule. The stripped deck changes hand values enough that flushes beat full houses — our short deck rules guide covers the adjustments before you sit in one online.
Asia is winning on the felt too
The region no longer just supplies the recreational money. Vietnam’s Khoa Anh Ngo took his first Triton title for $1.09 million, while the season-to-date money list has been headed by Daniel Dvoress on more than $18.7 million. For everyone watching rather than playing, final tables stream free on the tour’s official YouTube channel and the schedule lives at triton-series.com. If you want a tour you can realistically enter this year, the Asian Poker Tour hits the same cities at a fraction of the price.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Triton Poker Series?
It is a travelling high-stakes poker tour founded in 2016 by Richard Yong and Paul Phua, built so that wealthy recreational players and top professionals compete in the same small fields at luxury resort venues.
How much does it cost to play a Triton event?
Super High Roller Series buy-ins generally range from about $20,000 to $200,000. The separate Triton ONE series is far cheaper — its March 2026 Jeju stop averaged a little over $5,000 per entry.
Is Triton invite-only?
Most events are open registration if you can cover the buy-in. The $200,000 Invitational is the exception: seats go to recreational invitees, each of whom is paired with a professional.
Where does Triton play in Asia?
Jeju in South Korea is the anchor, with two of the five 2026 stops held at Les A Casino in Jeju Shinhwa World. The tour has also visited Macau and Manila.
Is Triton Fantasy free?
Yes. It runs inside the Triton Poker Plus app at no cost, and the top three leaderboard finishers win packages to Triton ONE in North Cyprus, including a Main Event entry for first place.
What is the difference between Triton ONE and the Super High Roller Series?
SHRS is the original product: small fields, enormous buy-ins. Triton ONE is the lower-stakes arm with much bigger fields, QQPoker satellites, and buy-ins ordinary tournament players can reach.
Can I watch Triton from Asia?
Yes, free, on Triton’s official YouTube channel in English. The only real obstacle is the time difference when the tour plays Europe.