American poker pro Jason Koon is now just more than $615,000 away from becoming the seventh player in poker history to hit $40 million in recorded earnings. The 36-year-old emerged victorious from a field of 34 entries in the €150,000 buy-in short deck event at the series, earning €1,750,000 ($1,837,500 USD) for the win. With $39,384,977 in tournament cashes to his name, Koon surpassed Dan Smith ($38,502,884 in career scores) to move into seventh place on poker’s all-time money list.
This victory also saw Koon tie the record for the most Triton titles, joining Mikita Badziakouski with four wins on the high-stakes tour. Badziakouski had only set the record a week earlier when he took down a €50,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em event earlier on in this same series.
In addition to the money and the title, Koon also secured 480 Card Player Player of the Year points for the win. This was his first title and tenth final-table finish of the year. With 2,829 total points and more than $4.1 million in year-to-date POY earnings, Koon had climbed into sixth place in the 2022 POY race sponsored by Global Poker.
Registration was still open through the start of the second and final day of this event. Several big names fell early on in day 2, including recent short deck main event champion Stephen Chidwick, ten-time bracelet winner Phil Ivey, Tom Dwan, Paul Phua, and Mikita Badziakouski. Lun Loon was ultimately the last player eliminated outside of the money, with his Q-J suited unable to outrun the pocket aces of Canadian bracelet winner Daniel Dvoress.
Dan ‘Jungleman’ Cates scored his first live cash of the year with a sixth-place showing in this event for $378,000 USD. The 2021 WSOP Poker Players Championship bracelet winner ran A-10 into the pocket aces of Isaac Haxton. The six-figure payday saw him surpass $10 million in recorded tournament earnings.
World Poker Tour main event winner Seth Davies made his third cash of the series with his deep run in this event. His run came to an end when his A-K suited clashed with the pocket kings of Koon. The pair held up and Davies was eliminated in fifth place ($483,000 USD). He also scored 200 POY points for his eighth final-table finish of the year. With nearly $2.8 million in cashes so far, he now it’s in 23rd place in the POY standings.
Sam Greenwood was the next to fall. The bracelet winner from Toronto, Ontario’s last chips were at risk with him holding A-Q facing the A-J suited of Dvoress and the K-J of Haxton. The flop brought both a king and a jack. After the turn and the river brought no help, Greenwood was knocked out in fourth place ($609,000 USD) while Haxton tripled up.
Koon fell to the bottom of the leaderboard during three-handed play, but managed to crack Haxton’s kings with Q-J suited to surge back up the chip counts. Haxton was eventually all-in and at risk with AHeart Suit8Heart Suit facing the ADiamond SuitQDiamond Suit of Dvoress. Both players paired their side cards, with Dvoress’ rivered queens good enough to take down the pot. Haxton took home $798,000 USD as the third-place finisher.
With that Dvoress took 8,800,000 into heads-up play with Koon, who held 4,800,000. The tables turned when Koon’s A-K held against the K-Q of Dvoress. Shortly after that, Dvoress got all-in with QSpade Suit10Heart Suit and Koon picked up ASpade SuitAClub Suit. The board ran out ADiamond SuitKDiamond SuitJClub Suit9Diamond Suit and Koon flopped a full house to close out the title. Dvoress was awarded $1,249,500 USD as the runner-up finisher.
Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded at the final table:
Place Player Earnings (USD) POY Points
1 Jason Koon $1,837,500 480
2 Daniel Dvoress $1,249,500 400
3 Isaac Haxton $798,000 320
4 Sam Greenwood $609,000 240
5 Seth Davies $483,000
6 Daniel Cates $378,000 160
Photo credit: Joe Giron / Triton Poker.
