POTD #89 Triton Jeju 2025: I Bluff Seven High

And I review the venue, which hosted the tournament: Shinwha World

Triton Poker had already announced they are returning to Jeju in September, but they recently announced the launch of Triton One, a smaller-stakes series for people who might want a taste of the Triton experience without paying so much in buyins. It will run before the main Triton series and registration is already open. In honour of the launch of Triton One, I am going to write about a hand I played at Triton Jeju earlier this year and also give my review of what is becoming one of the most active venues on the poker circuit.

Getting There: One demerit I have about Jeju as a stop is there are no direct flights. I usually fly Toronto to Seoul direct, then take a train from one airport to another with all my bags while very tired, then fly from Seoul to Jeju, and then it’s still an hour drive or so from the airport. It’s a pain in the ass to get to Shinhwa World from almost anywhere, unless you live in one of the Asian hubs that fly direct to Jeju. 4/10

The Hotel Room: The size of the rooms are fine, the water pressure in the shower is solid, and there is an HDMI hookup, which makes it easy to connect your laptop to the TV. The pillows are way too soft to the point where it hampers my sleep. If you’re going to be living in a hotel room for two weeks, it’s important to have pillows firm enough that you can sit up in bed. Last time I was there, I requested a firmer pillow and it was an improvement, but still not ideal. However, the big problem the last time Triton was there was, the hotel turns off the AC in the winter, and the rooms were so hot I needed to keep my window open at all times. Some of the rooms have very little privacy, and if your blinds are open other guests can see into your room. It’s an adequate hotel room. 5/10 in the winter, 7/10 in the summer. (NB: Some people view a room having no AC as such a nonstarter that they told me I should give the hotel room a 0/10)

The Breakfast Buffet: I am often a lunch/dinner food for breakfast guy, and this scratches the itch perfectly. A lot of solid Asian food options, including a pretty good soup station. There are decent Western breakfast options as well, the hours are reasonable, and you don’t get the bum’s rush if you’re still eating after it closes. 8/10

The Gym: They have a very good gym on property you need to pay for and very bad gyms that are free to use. I have been exceptionally lazy/jet lagged the last couple times I’ve been there, and my exercise has been limited to stretching in my room (with the blinds closed so people can’t watch me stretch). On site gym 1/10. Good gym (ask someone who isn’t as lazy as me)

The Poker Room: Nice high ceilings with good lighting and reasonably comfortable chairs. Generally it is too warm for my liking, but it’s fine. It’s annoying that you need to show ID every time you exit and enter the poker room. 8/10

The Poker Room Food: You can get free food from the Chinese restaurant in the casino, and they have Western food options, which I believe are from the room service menu. Occasionally there are dishes that miss the mark, but it’s generally quite good. There are limited options if you want to eat clean or have dietary restrictions, but I am not picky about either. Of the regular Triton/EPT stops I go to, probably the best poker room food you can order to the table. 8/10

The Non-Poker Room Food: This is going to be its own post in the future, but there is a convenience store that is open late with many great options, an excellent food court, and several very good restaurants. Unfortunately, the hours of the restaurants almost always line up with times to play poker, but the food court is the gem of the Shinhwa World dining scene. Every restaurant is great and you can easily eat there over dinner break. 9/10

Misc: There is a bowling alley, water park, amusement park, tennis courts and maybe most importantly of all a mall where you can buy basics and sundries if you forgot to pack anything or run out of clean clothes. 9/10

I hope people considering going to Jeju for Triton, Triton One, APT, Poker Dream, WPT, etc. found that guide useful. If you’ve been and disagree, feel free to tell me why I am wrong. On to today’s hand.

HH: Triton App

Triton Jeju 2025 $50k NLH 7-Handed, 200k Starting Stack, Blinds 3k/6k/6k (SB/BB/BBA). Registration is still open.

It folds to Roland Rokita (217k) on the button who makes it 13k, I (445k) call in the BB with 7♣️6♣️.

Flop (35k) 8♣️5♠️3♦️: I check, Roland checks.

Turn (35k) 5♦️: I bet 27k, Roland calls.

River (89k) A♣️: I bet 20k, Roland calls with J♠️8♥️

What I Was Thinking

This shallow I didn’t think I got to three-bet preflop. When I do, I am more polar and mostly only three-bet suited/connected hands if they can call a shove. I pure check range on the flop and only lead boards where I could have flopped a straight. On the turn, I knew my bet size would be polar, but I thought the button would check back a five often enough on the flop that I wouldn’t get an overbet as my big size. So I bet 80% pot. The ace river is not great for me, but given my bluffs are mostly hands with no showdown, I thought I could block an eight sometimes, and my bluffs would be 76/64/74, given that 42 is now a straight and those combos are my bottom-of-range hands. I blocked and got looked up by an eight, a hand I was never getting to fold.

What I Got Wrong

I was right about preflop and I do not play leads on this flop. There are spots where the BB doesn’t get to overbet on the turn when the middle or bottom cards pair, because so much of the PFR check-back range is middle or second pair. This is not one of those spots. Second and third pair are not represented that much in the button’s opening range, and the BB is so aggressive with pocket pairs preflop that even third pair is a pretty strong hand on the flop for the PFR. While I was wrong to think overbet was never used on the turn, my hand doesn’t lose any EV by betting 77% pot, and the solver picks that size occasionally. On the river, there is no reason for me to block bet. The ace hits his range, so I should either overbet representing a trips or better and pair it with appropriate bluffs or I should check because I have an 8 or hands that want to give up. I can bet 1bb, but even then I don’t have the right hand. I want to block some hands that call 1bb on the river, which would be hands like KJ or KT high, so I want a big card in my hand. I don’t want 76, which blocks hands like straight draws that would often fold to a 1bb bet. It’s hard for a 3.5bb bet with a hand that has 0% equity to be all that bad, but this bet loses around 1/6th of a BB. Not a ton, but a sizable amount for such a small bet.

Types of Errors
Sizing error
Failure to give up with no showdown.

Grade

I didn’t make a huge mistake anywhere in this hand, but I misunderstood how the spot worked, and it’s not that complicated a spot. This hand is actually a nice partner with POTD #68. I’ve internalized that I don’t like bluffing with missed flush draws, but this flop is mostly big bet or check for IP, and they don’t want to bet big with straight draws. That means that on the river, I’d rather bluff with a hand that blocks turned flush draws that whiffed than a hand that blocks straight draws. In the preceding sentence, I referred to hands that block straight draws, do you know what those hands are … straight draws themselves. My sizing was off and I should have given up. Not all that costly, but poor thought process, so let’s give this a

C