Joao Simao Bluffed Twice, Got Caught Twice, and Won $7,250,000

Today's Big Question

What happened

The $200,000 Invitational at Triton Jeju II closed on Monday with a record 173 entries, a $34,600,000 prize pool and Joao Simao of Brazil holding the only part of it anybody remembers. He reached heads-up play with 66 big blinds against Ding Biao's 38. A deal was discussed and not agreed. Ding then looked up a Simao bluff with top pair, looked up a second one with second pair, and turned that deficit into a lead of nearly five to one. Simao got value with queen ten on a board of ten, nine, nine, three, three, drew a hero call out of Ding holding king six, and was level again. Trip eights put him in front. On the final hand Ding limped the button for 1,000,000 with the ten of hearts and the nine of spades and Simao raised to 2,300,000 with the king of spades and the king of diamonds. The flop came nine of hearts, five of spades, five of diamonds. Simao led for 1,400,000, Ding raised to 3,000,000, Simao called. The two of spades turned, Ding moved all in for 5,600,000 and Simao called quickly. The seven of diamonds finished it. Simao took $7,250,000, Ding $4,940,000 and Seth Davies $3,470,000 in third.

Why it matters

Simao's career earnings now sit above $28.2 million, more than $12 million clear of Yuri Dzivielevski, which makes the Brazilian all-time money list less a race than a queue. The tournament is invitational, and that is the part worth sitting with: the largest single payday in poker this year carried exactly zero Card Player Player of the Year points. Simao is inside the top 100 of that race anyway, on the strength of tournaments that paid him a fraction as much.

In the Spotlight

They Chopped $1,647,000 and Then Played Heads-Up for $30,000

What happened

Matthew Wantman won the $50,000 seven-handed event at Triton Jeju II, outlasting 70 entries from 49 unique players and a $3,500,000 prize pool for his first Triton title. He got heads-up with Nick Schulman, one of his closest friends, and the counts were virtually even when they got there, so the two of them cut an almost even deal and left $30,000 on the table for whoever finished the job. Wantman doubled on the first hand of heads-up play. Schulman doubled back once. On the last hand Wantman held the ace and jack of hearts against Schulman's queen and seven of spades. Wantman was paid $836,721 and Schulman $810,279. Americans swept the podium, with Ben Tollerene third for $448,000. Daniel Dvoress went out fourth for $344,000 and six-time champion Danny Tang sixth for $213,000. Schulman's only other Triton title came in Jeju eight years ago, in the first Triton event he ever entered.

Why it matters

Eleven players were paid out of 49, and the last two of them were close enough in chips that the trophy cost more to chase than it was worth in cash. The deal is the most honest thing published all week about what a nosebleed final table actually is. Wantman's 714 Player of the Year points moved him to 3,287 and 50th in the race. Tang is seventh, Schulman eighth and Dvoress ninth, with Dvoress also holding a clear lead in Triton's own Ivan Leow Player of the Year standings after five trident trophies this year.

The Explainer

Jean-Noel Thorel Called a Three-Bet With Three-Deuce and Flopped Quads

What happened

The $100,000 Main Event at Triton Jeju II is days from finishing and may already have had its hand of the tournament. At Level 5, blinds 1,000/2,500, Jean-Noel Thorel opened to 5,000 from middle position holding the three of clubs and the two of clubs. Nick Petrangelo three-bet to 20,000 from the button and Thorel called out of position. The flop came three of hearts, two of diamonds, three of diamonds and Thorel check-called 20,000. The king of hearts turned and Thorel check-called 80,000. The three of spades completed the board and gave Thorel four of a kind. He checked a third time. Petrangelo bet 300,000, leaving 36,000 behind, Thorel check-raised, and Petrangelo called off with the ace of hearts and the ace of clubs for aces full. Thorel went to more than 1,000,000 chips and Petrangelo went home. At the last reported break Thorel led the field on 1,200,000, ahead of Quan Zhou on 966,000 and Defeng Chen on 720,000.

Why it matters

Thorel has sixteen Triton cashes worth $11,269,800 and no Triton title. He finished second in this exact tournament in 2024 for $2,875,000 and second in the WSOP Paradise Super Main Event last year for $6 million. He is the most decorated runner-up on the tour, and he took the lead in the event he keeps not winning by calling a raise with the worst hand anybody at the table was holding.

Follow the Money

The $500 Tournament Takes 17 Percent. The $10,400 Takes 5.77.

What happened

A decade of live tournament rake figures published Tuesday set four buy-in levels against their 2015 and 2019 equivalents, and the shape of the answer is the story. At the top the movement is small. The WSOP $10,000 Main Event went from 5.99 percent to 7. The L.A. Poker Classic Main Event went from 4 percent to 7. The WPT's $10,400 Championship went the other way, from 6.73 percent down to 5.77. At the bottom it is a different chart entirely. The WSOP $500 Colossus charged 11.50 percent in 2015 and charges 17 percent now. A Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood multi-flight around $400 went from 14.29 percent to 18. The WSOPC $400 multi-flight held at 17.50 percent, which in this company counts as restraint. EPT Prague's 5,300 euro Main Event has not moved off 8.49 percent in eleven years. The study was prompted by a question Patrick Leonard posted last October asking whether the data existed at all.

Why it matters

The uncomfortable conclusion is arithmetic rather than opinion. If the player pools are roughly similar, a winner in a $1,000 field keeps more of every dollar than the same winner in a $500 field, which means the cheap tournament is the expensive one and the recommended fix is to sell action and move up. That is advice the bottom of the ecosystem cannot really take. The WSOP Main Event has now lost entries year over year twice running.

The Circuit

Nilson Junior Beat 5,754 People in a $250 Tournament and Won a $30,000 Ticket

What happened

Nilson Junior became the fifth Brazilian to win a bracelet at the 2026 WSOP Online on GGPoker, taking the $250 Beat the Pros Bounty against 5,755 entries and a $1,323,650 prize pool. He beat Fabricio Nociolini, also Brazilian, heads-up. Junior's $113,245 came as $67,824 in prize money and $45,421 in bounties. Nociolini took $73,862 and Pawel Kapczynski $59,776 in third. Twenty of the series' 33 bracelet events have finished, and Brazilians have won five, finished second in five and finished third in five, for $2,618,133 in total. The $600 Ultra Stack went to Vietnam's BananaTilt, who beat 2,500 entries for $157,439 and denied Serbia's Lord Given, the $1,091,345 GG World Championship winner from June, in fourth. Every champion also collects a $30,000 Super Pass into the WSOP Paradise Super Main Event in December, which guarantees $50 million.

Why it matters

Brazil has taken a quarter of the bracelets awarded in this series and the largest single payday awarded anywhere in poker this year, and it is the middle of September. Eight Brazilians came back for day two of the $1,500 GGMasters Freezeout Championship on Monday, where first pays $316,037, so five is a running total rather than a final one.

Beyond the Felt

The $400 Tournament Guarantees $3 Million. The $10,400 One Guarantees Nothing.

What happened

The WPT World Championship festival schedule landed Monday: 85 events at Wynn Las Vegas between November 27 and December 21, with buy-ins from $400 up to $25,800 and a calendar that still finds room for TORSE, Mixed Triple Draw, Big O and a double board bomb pot. The new event is the $400 Super Gold Million from December 10 to 14, carrying a $3,000,000 guarantee. It is a live spinoff of ClubWPT Gold's online Gold Million at triple the guarantee, and the tour's executive director confirmed it will not run online. The $10,400 WPT World Championship starts December 13 across three Day 1 flights, carries $1,000,000 in added mystery bounty money and lists no guarantee at all. The $1,100 WPT Prime Championship runs December 5 to 12 for $5,000,000 guaranteed, after Aaron Johnson beat 9,876 entries there last year for $1,010,400. Schuyler Thornton won the 2025 World Championship for $2,098,456 out of 1,865 entries.

Why it matters

This is the anti-Paradise. The WSOP's December series in the Bahamas guarantees $120 million and aims almost all of it at high rollers. The WPT has put its largest flat guarantee on its smallest buy-in and packed the rest of three weeks with $600 events. The two run at the same time, which turns December into a referendum on where poker thinks its money actually lives.

Also Filed

Nebraska Football Alumni Have Formed a Group to Stop the Betting on Nebraska Football

What happened

A group called Save Nebraska Sports launched at the state Capitol last Thursday alongside the Nebraska Family Alliance, opposing the two ballot initiatives certified in August that would legalize online sports betting in the state. Nebraska legalized sports betting in 2021, in person only. Speakers included Nebraska Family Alliance executive director Nate Grasz, State Treasurer Joey Spellerberg, State Auditor Mike Foley and Nebraska assistant coach Ron Brown. Former head coach Tom Osborne released a statement saying that the harshest criticism athletes take is not for losing but for failing to beat a spread or reach a number of yards. Supporters of the measures point to property tax relief and to the Nebraskans already wagering offshore. Colorado and Missouri, both neighbours, already allow it.

Why it matters

Former college athletes and coaches usually turn up in the advertising for legalization rather than in the campaign against it, which makes this one of the first organised blocs of its kind. The NCAA has spent two years asking states to ban college player props on the same grounds. Nebraska votes in November, and the measure that loses will still have made its case to an electorate whose phones already carry the apps.

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SEPT 14 Day 009 - The Exchange Rate Edition

Semi Sun Turned a Pair of Eights Into a Bluff. Yang Wang Turned It Into $2,820,000.

The $200,000 Invitational at Triton Jeju II drew 173 entries and built a prize pool of $34,600,000, of which 31 players would see a cent. Semi Sun came into hand-for-hand play with the chip lead at his table and left before the bubble burst. At Level 20, blinds 30,000/60,000 with a 60,000 ante, Yang Wang raised to 140,000 and Sun called on the button. Wang bet 225,000 on a seven of clubs, seven of spades, eight of spades flop, then 450,000 on the ace of hearts turn. Sun raised to 1,100,000 and Wang called. The queen of spades completed the board and Wang checked. Sun moved all in for 2,100,000 with the eight of clubs and the five of clubs, a pair of eights he had decided to stop believing in. Wang called with the ace of diamonds and the seven of hearts for a full house. Sun finished 32nd for nothing. Thirty-first place paid $305,000. Wang finished fourth for $2,820,000.

Also1,282 People Entered the Paris Main Event. First Place Pays Less Than Jeju Pays for Thirty-First. Read this brief →

Phil Ivey Lasted One Orbit of the $200,000 Invitational. It Is the Second Time He Has Done That.

SEPT 13

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