Jason Koon scored his sixth victory in the Triton Series
On May 12, American poker pro Jason Koon scored his sixth victory in the Triton Series, becoming the best in the 7-max no-limit Hold’em event with a 20,000 USD buy-in. No one has more victories in this series. Mikita Badziakouski is the closest pursuer who has four victories.
138 players participated in the event, which took place in Cyprus, resulting in a prize pool of 2,760,000 USD. For the victory, Jason Koon received 663,000 USD, and his career earnings increased to 44 million USD. In the list of the richest players, the American takes 7th place, lagging behind Erik Seidel by only 45,000 USD.
“Obviously, I played well, but I have a lot of experience. I think one of the most important things is that I’ve been doing this for a very, very long time. I’ve been playing with the same lineup of players for a very long time. There are some new faces in this small tournament, but I’ve been playing in these tournaments for a very long time. You use useful information about people and can make the right decisions,” Koon said.
It took two days to determine the champion. 28 participants reached the final day, of which 20 received a payout. Koon started the day on the fourth line of the chip count. By the final, Jason had risen by one line.
Jason Koon and Kanan Taherkhani played in the heads-up
Ian Bradley was the first to leave the final, who lost 5-5 to Artur Martirosian with Q-J. Despite the knockout, Martirosian went to rest next. The reason of his departure was Koon, who at that time also had a deep stack. At first, the Russian with pocket queens conceded to the pocket kings of Koon and lost a significant part of the chips. Then he lost with pocket threes to the pocket fours of the American and left the tournament.
Adrian Mateos was the shortest after Artur Martirosian’s departure. The 4-time WSOP champion went all-in with a Q-6 and received a call from two rivals. The hand ended with a bank split, and Mateos left the game. Eduard Barsegian with a flush draw and a J-high hand could not beat Kanan Taherkhani’s straight draw and A-high, as a result of which he took 4th place.
After that, Stephen Chidwick with pocket tens lost a large pot to Jason Koon, who collected a flush on the river. The Briton had a few blinds left, but he managed to play a couple more hands. First, he lost almost the entire stack with A-7 to the same Koon, and then with Q-5 he lost the rest to Taherkhani, who collected a straight.
- Jason Koon — 663,000 USD
- Kanan Taherkhani — 451,200 USD
- Stephen Chidwick — 298,000 USD
- Eduard Barsegian — 245,500 USD
- Adrian Mateos — 197,300 USD
- Artur Martirosian — 154,400 USD
- Ian Bradley — 115,900 USD
Jason Koon and Kanan Taherkhani played in the heads-up. The stack ratio was 4 to 1 in favor of Koon. At the beginning of the game, Taherkhani reduced the gap, but he could not get around the opponent. In the final hand, Koon had 6-5, Taherkhani had Q-4. К-8-4-7-Q was distributed on the board, Koon collected a straight and became the champion.