Ivey, Kenney, Badyakovsky, and Martirosyan to play the debut $200,000 Triton Invitational in Asia

From September 12 to 14, the flagship event of the Triton series — the Invitational with a $200,000 buy-in — will take place in Asia for the first time. It will happen at the festival in Jeju (South Korea). In the event, professionals and celebrity amateurs will be paired up. On day one, regulars will play against regulars, and amateurs against amateurs, after which a combined field will be formed.

Triton has already confirmed the participation of 18 pairs, including many big names. Eleven-time World Series bracelet winner Phil Ivey has accepted the invitation of Triton co-founder Paul Phua, All-Time Money List leader Bryn Kenney will play with Leonardo Drago from Hong Kong, and Christoph Vogelsang's partner will be Jean-Noël Thorel. Paired with Ethan "Rampage" Yau will be Justin Saliba, who this summer was on the rail of the blogger when he beat Adrián Mateos heads-up for a WSOP bracelet.

The current participant list includes six players from the post-Soviet region. Alexey Ponyakov will play alongside Javid Ismailov, Artur Martirosyan — with China's Xu Yang, Nikita Badziakouski — with Ramin Hajiyev, and Ilya Nikiforov — with Finland's Eelis Pärssinen.

Note that in May the largest Triton Invitational took place in Montenegro, drawing 133 entries. The champion was Spain's Adrián Mateos, who earned $6,370,000. It's worth mentioning that in four of the last 10 runnings of the event, invited amateurs won. Among them were Ramin Hajiyev and Argentine rapper Alejandro Lococo.

Partial participant list of the $200,000 Triton Invitational Jeju (amateur — professional):
🟣Ramin Hajiyev 🇦🇿 — Nikita Badziakouski 🇧🇾
🟡Javid Ismailov 🇦🇿 — Alexey Ponyakov 🇱🇻
🟣Xu Yang 🇨🇳 — Artur Martirosyan 🇷🇺
🟡Aaron Tsang 🇨🇳 — Isaac Haxton 🇺🇸
🟣Jean-Noël Thorel 🇫🇷 — Christoph Vogelsang 🇩🇪
🟡Leonardo Drago 🇭🇰 — Bryn Kenney 🇺🇸
🟣Ethan Yau 🇺🇸 — Justin Saliba 🇺🇸
🟡Paul Phua 🇲🇾 — Phil Ivey 🇺🇸
🟣Ilya Nikiforov 🇪🇪 — Eelis Pärssinen 🇫🇮

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