Alex Anton won his first Triton title in Jeju, defeating Artur Martirosian heads-up in Event #9, the $30K NLH Turbo, to earn $577,000.
The tournament drew 70 entries and generated a $2.1 million prize pool. The victory also made the 25-year-old American the second player born in the 21st century to win on the Triton Poker Series.
Anton first appeared at Triton earlier in 2026, primarily to play Triton ONE in Jeju while also entering two of the smaller Super High Roller Series events. He returned for the opening part of the latest Jeju schedule and reached his first Triton final table in the $40K Mystery Bounty before breaking through in the turbo.
Short Stacks Define the Final Table
Stephen Chidwick entered the nine-handed final table as chip leader with 3,510,000, or 59 big blinds. Adrian Mateos followed with 3,260,000, while Anton started third with 1,800,000.
With short levels putting constant pressure on the stacks, the field quickly began to shrink.
Chen Mingcong was the first finalist eliminated. Starting the table with six big blinds, he eventually called all-in with QJ against Winfred Yu's AQ and finished ninth for $60,000.
Yu followed in eighth for $79,000 after his J10 ran into Mateos' AJ. Mikita Badziakouski then finished seventh for $101,000 when his pocket fours lost a race against Martirosian's AK.
By the time six players remained, the average stack had fallen to nine big blinds.
Byron Kaverman took sixth place for $128,000. He had earlier doubled Martirosian when his A9 lost to AJ and later doubled through Chidwick, but eventually committed his remaining chips with pocket fours and was eliminated.
Mateos finished fifth for $164,000 after moving all-in for seven big blinds over a Martirosian raise. Mateos held AJ against Q9, but a 9 on the flop put Martirosian ahead.
Anton Takes the Lead Before Heads-Up
Anton moved into the chip lead after doubling through Martirosian with AQ against KQ.
Martirosian quickly recovered some ground by doubling through Chidwick with pocket fives against Q2. Chidwick was later eliminated by Anton when his 10-6 lost to J-4, sending him out in fourth place for $207,000.
Alisson Piekazewicz had earlier recovered from less than one big blind to reach the final three. His run ended after losing around half of his remaining stack to Anton's set of aces, followed by the rest of his chips against Martirosian on the next hand. Piekazewicz collected $269,000 for third.
That left Anton and Martirosian heads-up with only 28 big blinds between them. Anton began with 16 big blinds to Martirosian's 12.
Anton Closes Out a Swinging Heads-Up
Anton had the first chance to finish the tournament when his 8-4 went up against Martirosian's A-J, but Martirosian's hand held and brought the stacks back close to even.
The match remained short-stacked as the blinds increased. Martirosian survived another all-in after flopping a flush with 9-4, then stayed alive again when his J-8 improved against pocket jacks.
The shorter stack went on to survive three more all-ins before Anton finally won the deciding pot. His K-6 beat Martirosian's 3-5 with the tournament average down to six big blinds.
The result gave Anton his first Triton title and the $577,000 top prize, adding a victory to the final-table finish he had already recorded earlier in the Jeju series.
