Sitting no. 9 on poker’s all-time money list with nearly $34 million in career tournament earnings, it was hard to believe that Jason Koon still had a major hole in his poker résumé. The West Virginia native had found the winner’s circle 24 times during his live tournament career, but never claimed gold at the World Series of Poker.
Winning a bracelet was a foregone conclusion for the online star turned high-stakes monster even back when he recorded his first series cash in 2009. A runner-up finish in the $3,000 NLH/PLO event in 2012 to Leif Force stung, but Koon assumed there would be plenty of future opportunities to get his bracelet.
There was a fourth-place finish the next year, then a seventh, three straight ninths, and a fifth, but he got no closer and furthermore, his schedule almost exclusively consisted of high roller tournaments and high-stakes cash games, giving him less opportunities to scratch his name off the ‘Best Without A Bracelet’ list.
Then this fall, just weeks after the birth of his son, Koon navigated his way through a field of 57 entries in the $25,000 Heads-Up Championship to earn $243,981, and more importantly, get the monkey off his back. Along the way, Koon defeated Chris Brewer, Nicolai Morris, Johannes Becker, Jake Daniels, Henri Puustinen, and Gabor Szabo.
The victory capped off a whirlwind week for the former Wesleyan College track star. On the same day that he was introduced as GGPoker’s newest global ambassador, Koon managed to make simultaneous deep runs in a pair of high-stakes series events. Not only did he finish ninth in the $25,000 high roller event, but he did so while also taking sixth in a $5,000 online event he was playing on his phone.
Card Player caught up with Koon after his victory to discuss where the bracelet ranks among his accomplishments, his new online poker sponsorship, and what’s left on his poker bucket list.
Card Player: Can you talk about your thoughts on the WSOP, both now and when you were first starting in poker.
Jason Koon: The WSOP was really the first time […]
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