Three Remarkable Stories from Triton Poker Jeju 2024
In March 2024, Jeju island in South Korea hosted its second Triton Poker Super High Roller Series. Here are three noteworthy stories from the series.
Brewer, Dvoress and Vogelsang “Won” Charity Obligations
The community favorite and most unfortunate poker player (according to WSOP 2023 participants) Chris Brewer kicked off his Triton Jeju 2024 with a special victory. He became the winner of the Raise for Change Charity Exhibition Game, the restricted Sit & Go for 7 players.
Each participant paid the entry fee of $5,000 resulting in the total prize pool reaching $35,000.
This victory brought Brewer $10,000 — the organisers doubled this amount to be donated to a charity foundation chosen by Chris. He picked Melanoma Research Alliance — the charity organisation developing methods of prevention and treatment of melanoma (one of the most aggressive forms of cancer), for personal reasons:
“My mom had a melanoma scare this year. She is now having preventative infusions to ensure she remains cancer free. I’m happy to be able to give something to a cause I care about.”
Two other players were “tasked” to pick one foundation each after having their prize money doubled as well:
- Daniel Dvoress — took 2nd place and donated $12,000 to Evergreen whose goal is to improve public spaces.
- Christoph Vogelsang — took 3rd place and sent $8,000 to Mary’s Meals charity organisation that provides meals to chronically hungry children.
Moreover, all top 3 players had their buy-ins refunded.
Andy Wong, Triton Poker Series CEO, thanked players for their contribution to the charity cause and added:
“Poker has the power to bring people together and make a positive impact and we were delighted to see this event succeed.”
By the way, Chris Brewer couldn’t win any other events at Triton Jeju 2024, but made it to two final tables:
- 6th place, $266K — $40K Mystery Bounty;
- 8th place, $543K — $100K Main Event.
These winnings helped him reach over $22M on The Hendon Mob.
Third Bulgarian Is the Charm
Three Bulgarians at once reached the final table of the $40K Mystery Bounty, where 190 entries made a $3.8M prize pool. And one of them ended up winning the event.
The first Bulgarian to leave the final table was Yulian Bogdanov after being busted out by his countryman Alex Kulev. 7th place and 3 bounties brought Yulian $295,000.
Alex Kulev himself was eliminated in 4th place, netting $610,000 including 6 bounties. After that he approached the last remaining Bulgarian Dimitar Danchev and shook his hand wishing luck.
Dimitar Danchev was the last to leave — he won the event and took $1,344,000. After the victory he admitted that money was not as important to him as the trophy — he coveted it since the victory of fellow Bulgarian and his friend Ognyan Dimov in the $30K 7-Handed on Triton Monte Carlo 2023.
Remarkably, Triton Jeju 2024 became a series with almost all Bulgarian Top-5 in live tournaments taking their share of the spotlight. Even excluding payouts in the $40K Mystery Bounty, the Bulgarian players collaterally reached over $3M in prizes.
| Player | Event | Winnings |
|---|---|---|
 Yulian Bogdanov | $30K NLH 8-Handed, 3rd place | $557,000 |
| Alex Kulev | $150K NLH 8-Handed, 6th place | $983,000 |
| - | $100K Main Event, 9th place | $451,000 |
| - | $20K NLH 8-Handed, 26th place | $39,500 |
| Fahredin Mustafov | $100K Main Event, 6th place | $1,008,000 |
| Dimitar Danchev | $30K NLH 8-Handed, 19th place | $65,500 |
| - | $25K Silver Main, 28th place | $54,000 |
Mario Mosböck Showed Master-Class in Short Stack Strategy
The unbelievable achievement of getting the trophy, the title and a million dollars without ever exceeding 20bb on the final table — the story of the Austrian football player Mario Mosböck from $25K GGMillion$ Live. The event had 305 entries and accumulated a prize pool of $7,625,000.
Mosbök began the final table with a 4bb stack, and was able to double up several times, but never it let him reach at least 20bb.
With help of patience and luck, he made it to heads-up, where he made a deal with Spaniard Sergio Aido. The game was decided when Mosbök with a pair of Sixes and Aido with AKs went all in.
As a result, Sergio was granted the largest payout of the event — $1,237,804, but Mario became the winner with $1,191,196 and a trophy. He was so shocked by his result that he spent a while holding his head in joyful confusion.
In the post-game interview, Mario shifted focus from his feelings and emotions to the impact of the PokerCode team to his success:
“All the boys are really smart, really driven. They want to compete at the highest level…If it was me alone, I’m not sure I would be playing the Super High Rollers. But you can talk to people about how you feel, your concerns. They can give you feedback. It was a community decision. They said, come on, you’re good enough.”
By the way, besides this victory, Mario managed to reach ITM on Triton Poker Jeju 2024 two more times:
- 14th place in $150K NLH 8-Handed — $281,000;
- 15th place in $100K Main Event — $298,000.
Curiously, calculating the exact amount of Mosbök total prizes in live tournaments is impossible as he is not listed on TheHendonMob and is labelled as an “Unknown Player”.
