Jason Koon is the winner of the $100,000 Triton Super High Roller Main Event, giving him three more Triton titles than anyone else. The victory was good for $2.4 million, a big golden trophy, and put Koon directly in line to win Triton’s inaugural Ivan Leow Player of the Year race.
Afterwards, Koon gave an emotional post-match interview talking about Leow, Triton’s co-founder who unexpectedly passed away last September at 39 while attending a series at Merit Royal Hotel & Casino in Cyprus where the current series is being held.
“I was here a little under a year ago when we lost Ivan,” Koon said, choking back tears after the tournament wrapped, according to Triton. “Ivan was a good friend of mine. And walking through these halls every day I feel a little bit emotional about that. Just the title of Player of the Year, it gets me emotional. I miss the guy.”
It was Koon’s second win at this Triton Super High Roller series, the first coming in the $20,000 no-limit 7-handed event May 11. He was also the runner-up in the $25,000 pot-limit Omaha event held the day before the main, as well as a seventh-place finisher in a $50,000 event.
He cashed a total of $3,594,633 so far in Cyprus and it’s not over until Wednesday.
No wonder Triton pays Koon to be its ambassador.
The series’ Main Event attracted 65 players with 35 re-entries that generated a prize pool worth just north of $10 million. It puts Koon’s lifetime tournament winnings at $47.3 million.
The win was all the more impressive since Koon came back from 15 big blinds going into the final table. Once play got to heads-up, Koon had a dominate stack of 80 bbs to Greenwood’s 21. The two made an ICM deal and played heads-up, leaving $84,000 and the title on the table.
It lasted one hand after Greenwood found AK and went all in. Koon called with QT and a queen on the flop sealed the deal. Here’s the final hand:
You deserve this @JasonKoon 🙏🏻 pic.twitter.com/DtxO5j00zY
— Triton Poker (@tritonpoker) May 22, 2023
- Jason Koon, USA – $2,451,082
- Sam Greenwood, Canada – $1,923,918
- Steve O’Dwyer, USA – $1,171,000
- Henrik Hecklen, Denmark – $946,000
- Dan Smith, USA – $762,000
- Sean Winter, USA – $595,000
- Mike Watson, Canada – $469,500
- Stephen Chidwick, UK – $358,500
- Viacheslav Buldygin, Russia – $263,000
Beef with Dan Smith
During the Main Event, cameras captured Koon and Dan Smith jawing at each other. Apparently Koon was tired of Smith’s borderline obnoxious habit of asking the table to be quiet while he’s pondering how to play his hands.
Koon stretched his ambassador muscles and told Smith his behavor was turn-off to the very rich amateur VIPs who play in the Triton Super High Roller events for the thrill of them.
“I have to say you’re the only person this whole week who berated me,” Smith said.
“Buddy, I had two VIPs — not one, two — come up to me and say how awful it was playing with you because you berated them for having a conversation at a live poker table. If you don’t want to have a conversation with them, that’s fine, but you literally do this every time we’re playing, it doesn’t mater what the stakes,” Koon shot back. “It’s obnoxious man.”
“I think if you wanted to address that point, you could have said that in a much kinder way away from the table,” Smith said.
“You’re the one who is out of line. You literally do this all the time,” Koon responded.
In other words, Smith, please don’t tap the glass.
Dan smith ask table to "get a moment"(for the table to stop talking)while thinking pre in a single raise pot. Jason calls him out for doing this all the time. Things are heating up at the 100k main! pic.twitter.com/HdN7arX8Z9
— Pokerguru740 (@RobKuhn_) May 22, 2023
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