Bernhard Binder Wins Triton Jeju $125K Title for $2.1 Million

Bernhard Binder celebrated his first win on the Triton Poker Super High Roller Series
in Jeju with a perfectly timed piece of Austrian wit.

“This is super special,” Binder said, preparing to collect his first trophy and a
paycheck of $2,137,953. “When I was a kid I remember my parents used to buy me Triton
bed sheets and I was dreaming of playing Triton one time in my life. And now I win the
title, so this is a dream come true.”

The room, packed with Vienna-based poker pros who had come to rail their own, loved it.
But even if the line was a joke, there was something fitting about it: Binder’s path to
the title was so smooth it genuinely looked effortless.

“I love to play the highest buy-ins, I love to play the toughest fields,” the
27-year-old said. This particular field came with a $125,000 buy-in, which brought out
the very best the game has to offer. Binder beat them all the same, just as he had done
at the $25K WSOP Main Event in the Bahamas in December, where he took home $10 million.

TOURNAMENT ACTION

The buy-in cleared six figures for the first time in the hold’em phase of this festival, and with 84 entries
the prize pool came to $10.5 million. All the familiar names were in contention, but as
the field thinned toward the money and then the final, several less-heralded players
remained very much in the picture. Binder led the way for long stretches, with Yosuke
Miki also putting together his strongest run near the top.

The stone bubble belonged to Wang Ye, who fell in 15th. Wang, who has finished in the
top three at $100K-plus events on three separate occasions, caught the worst possible
spot this time around, losing a flip with just nine big blinds against Eelis Parssinen.

The final table took shape after eliminations ended the runs of recent champion Daniel
Rezaei, along with regulars Jason Koon and Kayhan Mokri. Kiat Lee put serious distance
between himself and the field by winning a boat-over-boat cooler against Duc Anh Nguyen,
whose elimination in eighth confirmed the lineup:

• Kiat Lee – 5,075,000 (85 BBs)
• Bernhard Binder – 3,030,000 (51 BBs)
• Yosuke Miki – 2,950,000 (49 BBs)
• Jesse Lonis – 2,375,000 (40 BBs)
• Danilo Velasevic – 2,125,000 (35 BBs)
• Danny Tang – 890,000 (15 BBs)
• Paulius Vaitiekunas – 515,000 (9 BBs)

Paulius Vaitiekunas arrived at his third final table of the Jeju trip, having finished
fifth in the Triton ONE High Roller and eighth in the $25K Jupiter event. He came to
this one with the shortest stack and played it the only way he could: waiting for a hand
and getting the chips in. He found pocket tens against Binder’s A-10, only for the board
to run out Q-J-J-4-Q and counterfeit his pair. Binder’s ace played. Vaitiekunas
collected $493,000, his largest score from all three cashes.

Danny Tang had been struggling to find traction, and things had started going sideways
for Miki as well. He dropped half his stack to Binder, who flopped trips holding Q-9,
leaving Miki short and waiting for a spot. He found ace-ten on the button and moved in.
Lee woke up with pocket eights in the big blind and made the call. Nothing came for Miki
on the flop, and the eight on the turn left him drawing dead. Sixth place was a
career-best finish and worth $628,000.

Tang was still in the tournament, picking up blinds here and there with unanswered
raises but never building anything. He went to the felt from the button with K-3 against
Lee’s Q-10, keeping one small blind back. That last chip went in after the flop and turn, by
which point Lee had picked up a flush draw. The three on the river was no help to Tang.
Fifth place and another $804,000, his fourth final table of the trip, counting one in
Triton ONE.

Jesse Lonis had the reputation and the skill to go deep, but the spots hadn’t come his
way at the final. He picked his moments carefully while shorter stacks went to war, but
once Tang and Vaitiekunas were gone and Miki had fallen, Lonis became the most exposed
player at the table. He pushed back hard, going all-in on four of five consecutive hands.
He chopped one with Lee, picked up the blinds twice uncontested, but the fifth time
ended his run. He three-bet shoved ace-jack over Binder’s open, Binder called with
ace-queen, both players improved on the flop and the river ace gave both players two
pair, Binder’s the better one. Fourth place, $1,001,000, the first time this trip a
fourth-place finish paid seven figures.

Three-handed, the stacks were close enough that a deal made sense: Binder at 49 blinds,
Lee at 46, Velasevic at 39. They called for Luca Vivaldi, ran the ICM numbers and agreed
quickly. Binder locked up $1,937,953, Lee $1,907,447, Velasevic $1,825,600. There was
still $200,000 on the table, plus the trophy and the cap.

Velasevic moved into the chip lead after the restart, which gave him just enough of a
cushion when the biggest hand of the tournament played out.

Velasevic opened the button with ace-king. Lee called in the small blind. Binder called
from the big blind with seven-deuce. The flop came nine-king-five. Lee checked, Binder
checked, Velasevic bet his top pair. Lee folded. Binder called with his draw. The
seven on the turn gave him a pair to go with the draw. He check-called Velasevic’s
second barrel. The nine on the river completed his flush. He checked again. Velasevic
put in a bet large enough to cover Binder, who called and scooped the pot. Binder was
suddenly sitting on 98 big blinds. Lee had 25. Velasevic, who had just been leading,
was down to 8.

That hand is the answer to anyone who wonders why poker players take deals.

Velasevic doubled up, his K-7 beating Binder’s 9-8. Lee, meanwhile, was moving the
other direction. He bet the river for almost his entire stack on a board of 5-2-3-2-5,
only for Binder to raise and put him to the test for his last chip. Lee let it go,
leaving himself a single chip.

Binder took that chip on the next hand, his ten-deuce beating both Lee’s nine-four and
Velasevic’s king-nine. Velasevic was back to 12 blinds, Lee was out, and Binder had a
lead that was never seriously threatened.

On the first hand of heads-up, Binder shoved jack-seven. Velasevic called with ace-king,
the better hand by far. Two diamonds on the flop opened up a flush draw for Binder. The
seven on the turn put him in front. The two on the river didn’t change anything.

The tournament belonged to the young Austrian who grew up dreaming of it.

RESULTS: EVENT 8 – $125,000 NLH 7-HANDED

Dates: March 22-23, 2026 | Entries: 84 (inc. 30 re-entries) | Prize pool: $10,500,000

* Denotes deal made at three-handed