Jason Koon won the PGT Championship
PokerGO Tour appeared in 2021. The poker tour focused on high-stakes tournaments was a stunning success at the start and demonstrated rapid growth in the second year. This year, 175 tournaments were held within the tour framework, in which 24,998 players participated, and 426 million USD prize money was raffled. It was decided to end the 2022 season with the PGT Championship tournament, participation in which was free, and half a million dollars were played.
21 players from the top of the PokerGO Tour table were invited. Another unique feature of the tournament was that the starting number of chips depended on the position in the table. For example, Stephen Chidwick, who occupies the first place in the ranking with 3412 points, received 342,000 chips, and Benny Glaser, who got into the rating at the last moment, started with a stack of 165,000 chips.
After two days of action, Jason Koon won the PGT Championship and took 500,000 USD. During his career, the 37-year-old player earned 41.9 million USD, thanks to which he now ranks 7th in the list of the most profitable players in history. This victory came a few weeks after Koon defeated Phil Hellmuth in a 1.6 million USD battle in the High Stakes Duel.
“It’s always great. By the end of the year, for some reason, I’m starting to play better. Remember the WPT at Bellagio when they had 25K tournaments, and I won two in a row? I always play better in December. I do not know if it’s about Christmas or something else, but it’s good,” Koon said after the victory.
In the heads-up, Jason Koon was opposed by Sean Winter
Koon started the tournament with the third largest stack. During the year, the player won prizes in PGT tournaments 18 times, won three titles, and earned 6.7 million USD. The amount he received for winning the PGT Championship was the fourth largest in 2022. The American managed to earn the most money in one of the Triton Poker High Rollers with a buy-in of 150,000 EUR. Then he received 1,837,500 USD.
After the first game day, Koon became a PGT Championship chip leader, having 57% of all chips. Chad Eveslage was the first player to leave the final table when his flush lost to Koon’s flush. Stephen Chidwick took 5th place, losing to Koon, who collected two pairs on the flop. The next performance was completed by Benny Glaser when his K-Q lost to Sean Winter’s A-4. Glaser had a straight draw on the flop, but the player did not collect the full combination.
Koon and Winter clashed several times in the next game segment, and the second one won more. After that, Koon dropped to third place in the chip count, losing in one of the hands to Nick Petrangelo. Koon managed to take revenge on the Canadian and take the second line of the chip count. Then Petrangelo, with K-10, lost to Winter’s pocket sixes.
- Jason Kuhn — 500,000 USD
- Sean Winter
- Nick Petrangelo
- Benny Glaser
- Stephen Chidwick
- Chad Evesledge
In the heads-up, Jason Koon was opposed by Sean Winter. Koon had 1,185,000 chips at that time, and Winter had 2,035,000. The opponents played for about two hours. By the final hand, the stack ratio was 6 to 1 in favor of Koon. In the last hand, Koon, with 10-8o, placed a bet sufficient for the opponent to go all-in. Winter called with J-8o, and 10-6-5-3-3 appeared on the board. Koon collected two pairs and became the champion.