Nick Schulman Wins Triton Jeju II Main Event for $3,854,888

Nick Schulman won Event 12, the $100,000 NLH Main Event, at the Triton Super High Roller Series Jeju II on 16 September 2026. He collected $3,854,888 from a field of 196 entries and a $19,600,000 prize pool after a heads-up deal with Bernhard Binder.

The pair agreed an ICM chop before a hand of heads-up was dealt, and Binder took $3,080,112 for second. It was Schulman's second Triton title, eight years after his first in the same room.

Schulman, 41, is an eight-time WSOP bracelet winner and the 2025 Poker Hall of Fame inductee. The win came two days after he had lost a heads-up to his friend Matthew Wantman in the $50,000 7-Handed.

Binder, 28, has been on a run for a year. He won the $125,000 7-Handed at this venue in March, led this field into day two and day three, and started the final table as the shortest stack before working his way back to heads-up.

“This is basically the final level of the game, playing Bernie heads up in a main event,” Schulman told Triton. “He's unbelievable. You could just feel it playing with him.”

Registration closed at the start of day two with 196 entries from 118 unique players, 78 of them re-entries. That put $4.15 million on the line for first place before any deal, the second-biggest prize pool of the festival behind the $34,600,000 Invitational.

The Bubble: Two Friends Go Together

Hannes Jeschka and Samuel Mullur were all in at separate tables on the stone bubble. Jeschka jammed A♥ Q♥ over a Christoph Vogelsang four-bet and lost to A♣ K♣, and Mullur's pocket eights fell to Chahnhoon Jung's A♠ K♦ when an ace turned.

Busting on the same deal meant the two friends split the min-cash for $86,500 each. Javid Ismayilov, out in 33rd, was left as the retrospective stone bubble, the last player to leave with nothing.

Zhou Quan, Alex Foxen, Vogelsang and Jesse Lonis went before the bags, and Zeng Linglin and Jessica Teusl, the last two women, finished 16th and 15th. Binder led the final 12, with Danny Tang second and chasing a back-to-back Main Event win after Montenegro.

Day three began with a 27 big blind average, and Schulman took the lead early when his aces beat Binder's A♣ K♥. Wesley Fei doubled through Roberto Perez, and Miroslav Atanasov got his last seven blinds in against Binder and went out in 12th for $320,000.

Fei doubled again with kings against Tang's A♠ K♥, and Chahnhoon Jung busted to Isaac Haxton in 11th. Tang nursed four big blinds up to nine before running pocket kings into a Gytis Lazauninkas small-blind jam with 10♣ 7♣.

The Q♥ 4♦ 7♠ flop, 5♠ turn and 7♦ river made Lazauninkas trips, and Tang's title defence ended in 10th for $359,000.

Triton has not published the 11th-place prize.

Blinds were rolled back two levels for the final so the short stacks had room to play.

Roberto Perez went first for $424,000. Binder moved in for nine big blinds from the hijack with pocket fours, Perez called for one blind fewer with A♦ 10♥ on the button, and the board missed both overcards.

Wesley Fei had 37 big blinds when he flopped a flush draw with K♥ 6♥ on Q♣ 9♥ 8♥ against Xu Yang. Both checked the flop and the 4♠ turn, then Xu bet half the pot on the 5♥ river, Fei raised, and Xu shoved.

Fei called with the second nuts and Xu showed A♥ 3♥. His last four blinds went in with pocket fours against Xu's kings on the next hand, and eighth paid $512,000.

Danilo Velasevic called Binder's 18 big blind jam from the small blind with pocket sevens, and K♦ 4♦ made a wheel on J♣ A♦ 5♥ 2♥ 3♥. They tangled again with Velasevic down to eight blinds, K♠ 2♠ against A♠ 2♦, and the ace held for seventh and $700,000.

Six-handed, the chips moved in circles. Schulman doubled through Haxton, Haxton doubled back, Lazauninkas doubled through Schulman, and Schulman doubled through Ryuta Nakai.

Isaac Haxton at his second Jeju II final, down to 12 big blinds, shoved A♥ 2♦ from the big blind over Binder's small-blind open with K♥ 3♣ and watched a three flop. Sixth paid $958,000, the last prize under seven figures, and Haxton walked over to the $150,000 event.

Ryuta Nakai shoved his last ten big blinds from the small blind with K♥ 3♣, and Schulman called from the big blind with A♣ 6♦ and 18 of his own. An ace flopped, and fifth paid $1,263,000, the Japanese player's biggest career score.

Four-handed stacks sat around 30 big blinds each, and Schulman doubled through Binder to take the lead back. Xu Yang held it for an hour before losing pots to Lazauninkas and Binder, then shoved K♥ 8♥ from the small blind over Schulman's button open with under 15 blinds.

Lazauninkas called from the big blind with pocket nines, Schulman folded, and the 10♥ 5♠ 2♣ J♦ 2♦ board missed Xu. Fourth paid $1,596,000, three places better than his previous Main Event final table.

Gytis Lazauninkas held 32 big blinds three-handed against Schulman's 49 and Binder's 16, then lost small pots to both. He raised pocket eights on the button, called Schulman's jam from the big blind, ran into pocket tens, and took $1,968,000 for his second third place of the trip.

Schulman had 62 big blinds to Binder's 20, and the pair called the tournament director over straight away rather than play for a gap of $1.3 million and change.

Schulman rivered trips with 10♣ 3♣ in the first big pot and cut Binder to 10 blinds.

Binder trod water but never got close, and Schulman then won three hands in a row: a two with Q♦ 2♥, a turned queen with Q♥ 7♥, and the last one.

Triton's report gives the hole cards but not the board. Schulman found K♠ K♥ against Binder's K♣ J♦ and, in Triton's words, worked out a way to get everything in by the river.

The kings held, and Schulman had the Main Event trophy, the Jacob & Co timepiece and a career-high score. His first Triton win, in July 2018, came in this same tournament room.

“You know, I did my thing. It's tough to fully analyze it right away, but we got the job done. That's always good.”
Nick Schulman

He almost did not make the trip: it depended on Eric Wasserson, his Triton Invitational partner, having a good weekend on High Stakes Poker before they flew, and Wasserson won $5 million.

He had told friends before the trip that he expected to lose at these stakes, and said the mental preparation for that outcome is what carried him through.

“It's pretty unbelievable. I really want to go home and see my wife. The champ is coming home soon, baby, get ready.”
Nick Schulman

Schulman's win closes out the third $100,000 NLH Main Event of the season, and the three champions arrived by different routes: a PLO Main Event winner from Montenegro, the tour's ambassador, and a Hall of Fame commentator.

*After a heads-up ICM chop.

The Jeju II field was the largest of the three, and the room has history with big Main Events. Triton's record for a six-figure buy-in came here in March 2025, when 285 entries built a $28.5 million prize pool and Huang Wenjie won $5,555,000.

*Heads-up ICM chop with $140,000 played for.

Schulman is Triton's latest two-time champion, and the eight-year gap between his titles spans the tour's growth from a $13,000 Short Deck event with 61 entries to a $100,000 Main Event with 196. Binder, who came of age in that time, is the level the game has reached.

The result also shapes the Ivan Leow Player of the Year race, updated in our Triton Poker 2026 results tracker. Haxton, second to Dan Dvoress before the festival, added a sixth place to his Event 3 third, while Tang, third in the standings, went out in 10th.

Wantman beat Schulman for his first Triton trophy on 14 September, two days before his friend went one better.

Event 14, the $150,000 NLH, closes the festival on 17 September. Our guide to the Triton Poker Series covers the schedule, the two circuits and how entry works.