Q: Where have we seen Jason Koon striking that winner’s pose before?
A: Pretty much everywhere.
The man from West Virginia has enjoyed success all around the world, including on the European Poker Tour, the World Poker Tour, the PokerGO Tour and most notably the Triton Super High Roller Series, where just last month he added two titles and close to $4M to his impeccable tournament resume.
Therefore, Koon’s victory last night in the WSOP's $50K High Roller will not have come as a huge shock, though what may surprise some is the fact it was only his second WSOP bracelet.
Koon doesn’t do things the easy way — his first bracelet came in the always hotly-contested $25K Heads-up Championship in 2021 — and so it proved in the $50K where his final table opposition included Viktor ‘Isildur1’ Blom, Ben Tollerene and Andrew ‘LuckyChewy’ Lichtenberger. It was Lichtenberger who would come closest to boxing Koon out for a second bracelet of his own, but that will have to wait.
Koon’s bracelet #2 comes with prize money of $1,968,927 — the biggest prize awarded at the 2025 series so far. PokerOrg spoke with Jason Koon after his win, where he shared his plans to relax and take some extended time away from poker.
Just kidding. “Tomorrow’s the $100K Day 2 and I’m going to be buying in,” told us all we needed to know.
'Did someone say $100K High Roller?'Poker’s biggest winners assemble for the $100K
Speaking of which, Day 1 of the $100K High Roller drew 77 entries, including the expected role call of famous faces. Those who bagged up and will return for Day 2 include Nacho Barbero (below), David Peters, Chance Kornuth, Jeremy Ausmus, Isaac Haxton and the vocal Martin Kabrhel.
Koon’s big money victory in the $50K has moved him up The Hendon Mob's all-time money list into third place, overtaking Justin Bonomo. When he enters the fray of the $100K High Roller on Thursday he’ll be joining some others from the top 10, such as Daniel Negreanu, Adrian Mateos, Stephen Chidwick, and the reigning world number one Bryn Kenney.
Nacho, Nacho Man: Barbero is right at home in the super high rollers.Kenney’s lead at the top of the rankings ($75M) is some $9M ahead of Chidwick in 2nd spot ($66M), so looks safe for now. Chidwick’s position, however, is well within reach if Koon can keep his foot on the gas. That is, assuming Chidwick doesn't build up a head of steam himself, and that's never a safe assumption.
Epic duel ends with another bracelet for Nick Schulman
The $10K No-Limit 2-7 Lowball Draw Championship was supposed to end on Tuesday, but whether it was the sheer quality of the combatants or a subtle shift in the game’s meta (does anyone still bluff in this game?), it ran long and returned for an unscheduled Day 4 on Wednesday.
Just six returned, so the idea of the tournament pushing on to yet another day was far from front of mind. As the day went on, though, we began to wonder…
Schulman and Elias battled long and hard for the $10,000 NL 2-7 Single Draw Championship.It didn’t take too long for the field to thin out all the way down to the final two — Darren Elias and Nick Schulman — but from that point on we began to consider the possibility that it might never actually end.
It seemed to be the case of an immovable object meeting an irresistible force, as the two titans clashed in a heads-up battle that lasted for around seven hours. Eventually, as all things must, it did end. Elias took $336,421 as a consolation prize, while Schulman banked the big bucks with a $497,356 payday.
The win was his 7th at the World Series of Poker, and we grabbed the chance to speak to Schulman after his win. Like Koon, Schulman knows his way around a victory shot.
Schulman kept his feet off the table this year. Duong enjoys not one comeback, but two, en route to Limit title
The $1,500 Limit Hold’em event also closed out on Wednesday, which started with eventual winner Jason Duong nursing a stack of just six big bets with seven players left. Needless to say, Duong mounted a comeback and, by the time he got heads-up for the win versus Adam Tyburski, the two players had even stacks.
Duong kept a toy and a slipper with him throughout the tourney as a reminder of his children.That changed, dramatically, with Duong then reduced once again to just a couple of big bets. And yet, once again, he forced his way back into the match to eventually claim the win and $130,061 in prize money.
As something of a limit poker specialist, expect to see Canada’s comeback king Duong in the $3,000 Limit Hold’em event, which starts on June 22.
Additional images courtesy of the WSOP.
