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On Monday night, João Simão continued his incredible year by winning the biggest prize in the history of Brazilian poker. At Triton Jeju in South Korea, the 37-year-old topped the 173-entry field in the $200,000 NLH Triton Invitational, winning $7,250,000 and his second-ever Triton title.
Simão, who is Brazil’s winningest player of all-time across both live events and the real-money online casino circuit, has now earned the largest cash in Brazilian poker history. That record previously belonged to Marcelo Aziz, who finished second in the 2024 WSOP Super Main Event.
Simão also more than doubled his previous career-high cash, when he earned $3,067,000 and a gold bracelet as the champion of the $150,000 Triton event at last year’s World Series of Poker Paradise.
It wasn’t an easy road for Simão, as he was left with just two big blinds shortly after clinching a $305,000 min-cash on Day 2. However, he battled back to reach Day 3 with 25 big blinds before busting Matthias Eibinger on the final table bubble to go into the final table as the chip leader.
From there, Simão dominated, owning about half the chips in play. After taking care of Emilien Pitavy and Yang Wang, Biao Ding eliminated Seth Davies to set up a heads-up battle, with the Brazilian owning a two-to-one chip lead.
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
| 1 | Joao Simao | Brazil | $7,250,000 |
| 2 | Biao Ding | China | $4,940,000 |
| 3 | Seth Davies | United States | $3,470,000 |
| 4 | Yang Wang | China | $2,820,000 |
| 5 | Emilien Pitavy | France | $2,245,000 |
| 6 | Winfred Yu | Hong Kong | $1,693,000 |
| 7 | Hannes Jeschka | Germany | $1,237,000 |
| 8 | Thomas Boivin | Belgium | $905,000 |
| 9 | Eric Tsai | Taiwan | $749,000 |
After briefly extending the lead to four-to-one, Ding roared back to take the lead and had a real shot at the title, getting it in with ace-jack against Simão’s ace-four. However, the two ended up chopping, and Simão fought back in epic style. After a queen-high hero call, Simão took a slim lead, which he never surrendered.
Simão extended his lead back to four-to-one after flopping trips against Biao’s top pair. A couple of hands later, after nearly three hours of heads-up play, it was all over after Biao took a similar beat.
With the blinds at 500,000/1,000,000 with a 1,000,000 big blind ante, Biao limped in with ten-nine offsuit from the small blind. Simão raised to 2,300,000 with pocket kings. Biao called.
The flop came 9-5-5 rainbow, giving Simão an overpair against Biao’s top pair. With 5,600,000 in the middle and Biao having just 8,600,000 behind, there was no doubt that all the money would get in. Simão c-bet to 1,400,000, and Biao raised to 3,000,000. Simão called.
With a stack-to-pot ratio of about 50%, the turn brought the deuce of spades, putting an irrelevant spade draw on the board. Biao went all in and Simão snap-called, needing to just fade the remaining two nines on the river.
The river was the seven of diamonds, and the Brazilian took down the country’s largest prize in its storied poker history.
“I feel very, very blessed,” Simão told Triton reporters shortly after claiming victory.
“To win the biggest buy-in in the biggest field in the history of this event… I was chosen. So I feel very, very blessed and thankful for that.
“I think it (coming back with a short stack) is a skill that I have, and I take a lot of what I talk with my kids about how to deal with problems when things are not going your way in life. So when it happens at the table, I like to think that I’m an example for them. So, I want to do what I tell them. I will never give up.”
The Triton Invitational is a unique event where the invitees are separated from the established Triton professionals on Day 1, with the invitees being largely high-stakes recreational players. This, of course, makes it a very unique environment.
“It’s completely different, but it’s a lot more fun. It’s a great experience. I really love the experience because of the buy-in and the prize. But even if it was a $10,000 or a $1,000 buy-in, I would still love to play this tournament. It’s a really, really special tournament.
“There’s no comparison. I’ve had so many good results that I’m very proud of, but this is by far the happiest moment of my career.”
Simão has had an incredible last few months, recently winning the $50,000 Pot-Limit Omaha event at the WSOP for $1,368,700 for his fourth-career bracelet.
