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Jason Koon closed out the 2022 Poker Masters series in Vegas with a $666,000 takedown of event 10, seeing off a stellar final table in the $50k buy-in tournament.
With 37 entries to the final event and a $1,850,000 prizepool, it was all the sixes that the players were chasing - 6 paid spots and a deliciously devilish $666k up top.
Daniel Negreanu was one of the seven who made it through day one, but as a short stack he was also in danger of missing out on the money. A useful double-up looked distinctly possible when he got it all-in good with aces against Seth Davies, but it wasn’t to be for Kid Poker...
Out on the bubble for Negreanu and $92,500 sewn up for the remaining half-dozen, a veritable who’s-who of the highstakes poker world.
Davies had Mikita Badziakouski, Erik Seidel, Jason Koon, Adrian Mateos and Scott Seiver for company, with the latter accounting for the Belarus crusher’s exit in 6th spot.
There was more than just the prizemoney on the line, though, with the leaderboard race for the Purple Jacket still wide open, event 9 winner Sean Winter in the lead but unable to affect the standings.
When Davies fell to Koon his chances were gone, $148k a healthy amount to soothe the pain, and then Erik Seidel’s chances were scuppered. Needing a victory to leapfrog Winter, a three-way, pre-flop, all-in clash went the way of Koon...
Seidel: A♣ Q♦
Mateos: A♥ 10â™
Koon: K♠K♣
Flop: 2♥ 3♣ Jâ™
Turn: 2♣
River: 6♣
...and that meant Winter would don the Purple Jacket and take down the $50,000 bonus.
Scott Seiver fell in 3rd when Koon’s backdoor gutter appeared, leaving Koon heads-up against Mateos for the title and the final hand played out in Koon’s favour for the $666k win....
Final results
| 1 | Jason Koon | $666,000 |
| 2 | Adrian Mateos | $444,000 |
| 3 | Scott Seiver | $296,000 |
| 4 | Erik Seidel | $203,500 |
| 5 | Seth Davies | $148,000 |
| 6 | Mikita Badziakouski | $92,500 |
Koon, who broke through the $40million career tournament winnings barrier with the victory, told PokerGO's Jeff Platt afterwards: “I haven't played many tournaments, but I guess the ones I have played have gone pretty good. I've played a lot less and hung out with my family, but when I've come to play I've really been focused and I feel like I've played some of my best poker this year."
2022 Poker Masters Leaderboard Top 10
| 1 | Sean Winter | 466 |
| 2 | Jason Koon | 449 |
| 3 | Nick Schulman | 361 |
| 4 | Erik Seidel | 309 |
| 5 | Alex Livingston | 291 |
| 6 | Andrew Lichtenberger | 279 |
| 7 | Cary Katz | 271 |
| 8 | Adrian Mateos | 266 |
| 9 | Jeremy Ausmus | 242 |
| 10 | Martin Zamani | 223 |
