Updated on 18 Sep 26 by
Paul Seaton Avatar Paul Seaton
Poker Expert

Joao Simao and Nick Petrangelo chop anniversary special

Joao Simao and Nick Petrangelo

The American poker pro Nick Petrangelo won the $150,000-entry Triton Jeju II Anniversary Special for $2.2m in South Korea, bringing down the curtain on this Autumn's high roller festival in the Far East. After agreeing a heads-up deal with the Triton Invitational winner Joao Simao that earned the Brazilian $2.5m, both players were delighted with a final event to remember.

The final Triton Poker event of the Jeju II series ended with a final table for the books, as legends of the game like Adrian Mateos and Danny Tang battled for supremacy along with the men who would ultimately negotiate the deal that decided the title. With a total of 67 entries, a prize pool of $10.5 million was divided between 11 players as an event winner from earlier in the series, Malaysian Wai Kiat Lee, bubbled the event.

Cashes for Alex Foxen (11th) and Ben Tollerene (10th) followed for $251,000 before Danny Tang's exit in seventh place for $483,000 at the final table. Boivin lost his way to eventually be flipped out by Adrian Mateos, and the Spanish great ran all the way to third place before Simao's threes outran Mateos' ace-ten. With Simao out-chipping the former WSOP High Roller winner Petrangelo 3:1, a deal seemed wise from the Brazilian and he locked up over $2.5m. The American went on to win the extra $80,000 put to one side, getting his hands on the trophy, with both men leaving South Korea multi-million dollar richer in the final event of the series.

Place Player Country Prize
1st Nick Petrangelo United States $2,212,910*
2nd Joao Simao Brazil $2,517,090*
3rd Adrian Mateos Spain $1,286,000
4th Miroslav Atanasov Bulgaria $990,000
5th Thomas Boivin Belgium $783,000
6th Murly Manokharan Malaysia $613,000
7th Danny Tang Hong Kong $483,000
8th Seth Davies United States $377,000
9th Daniel Dvoress Canada $286,000

* after heads-up deal

Simao the Biggest Winner in Jeju

Joao Simao

Joao Simao was the biggest winner over a dramatic fortnight in Jeju.

When he travelled to South Korea to play the series, Joao Simao was not one of the most experienced Triton regulars. In fact, he wasn't sure he would attend. Winning over $10m across the series, the Brazilian was said to be stunned at the success of his series from a personal perspective, as he became the most successful live player in Brazil's storied poker history.

After winning the $100,000 Triton Invitational Event for $7.25m, the Brazilian surpassed his countryman Yuri Dzivielevski in terms of lifetime tournament earnings, and this latest victory puts another marker down as he climbs up the ranks from poker's greats to the truly elite.

Across this second Jeju High Roller Series of 2026, there have been 13 different winners of the infamous trident trophies. The series began with a win for Greek player Alex Theologis, while Daniel Dvoress moved into second place on the all-time Triton list. Matthew Wantman beat his good friend Nick Schulman in a $50,000 event before Schulman's win in the $100,000 Main Event earned him a career-high score of $3.85m.

Here are all the tournament winners from the Triton Jeju series, which broke attendance records and created more millionaires.

Event Event Details Winner Entries Top Prize
1 $15,000 NLHE 8-Max Alex Theologis 206 $642,000
2 $20,000 NLHE 8-Max Klemens Roiter 174 $771,000
3 $25,000 NLHE Golden Decade Khoa Anh Ngo 210 $1,090,000
5 $25,000 NLHE 8-Max Aliaksei Boika 131 $761,000
6 $30,000 NLHE 8-Max Daniel Dvoress 135 $942,000
7 $40,000 NLHE Mystery Bounty Wai Kiat Lee 133 $619,000
8 $50,000 NLHE 8-Max Pedro Padilha 129 $1,400,860
9 $30,000 NLHE Turbo Alex Anton 70 $577,000
10 $200,000 Invitational Joao Simao 173 $7,250,000
11 $50,000 NLHE 7-Max Matthew Wantman 70 $836,721
12 $100,000 NLHE Main Event Nick Schulman 196 $3,854,888
13 $35,000 NLHE Turbo Bounty Quattro Ben Tollerene 35 $412,000
15 $150,000 Anniversary Special Nick Petrangelo 67 $2,212,910
16 $30,000 NLHE Turbo Ye Wang 23 $256,000
Poker Expert

Paul Seaton has written about poker for over a decade, reporting live from events such as the World Series of Poker, the European Poker Tour and the World Poker Tour in his career to date. Having also been the Editor of BLUFF Europe magazine and Head of Media for partypoker, Paul has also written for PokerNews, 888poker and PokerStake, interviewing many of the world’s greatest poker players. These include Daniel Negreanu, Erik Seidel, Phil Hellmuth and all four members of the Hendon Mob, for which he was nominated for a Global Poker Award for Best Written Content.