Just last month, Jason Koon was revealed alongside Caitlin Comeskey as a PokerStars US Ambassador.
"It's awesome. I'm thrilled,” Koon told PokerNewswhile wearing a PokerStars patch at the World Series of Poker Paradise, his first stop since the announcement. “It's the perfect match for me, there's no doubt.”
PokerNewscaught up with Koon on Saturday before the start of the Triton Million, the first collaboration between the Triton Poker Series and the “new” WSOP now owned by GGPoker. It was a unique tournament that paired a businessman or businesswoman with a poker pro – each putting up a $500,000 buy-in – and then competing in respective fields on Day 1.
“I'm very ready to go to work. Vinny Lingham is my partner,” Koon shared. “We're just buddies. We play cash games together. We met each other that way. He was coming and we just talked about it, it was an obvious fit.”
According to Wikipedia, Lingham is a South African-born American Internet entrepreneur who is the co-founder & CEO of an identity protection and management startup based in California called Civic. He was also previously the founder and CEO of Gyft & Yola, Inc.
As for Koon, no one has won more titles on Triton Poker as he has 10 victories over his 53 cashes totaling $28,899,785. Only Bryn Kenney has more Triton earnings with $45 million. So, does his Triton experience give him any sort of advantage in the big buy-in events?
“I think most of the people here are pretty seasoned,” Koon humbly offered. “This is a massive buy-in and definitely, it's going to affect people in different ways, but that's unpredictable. You don't really know how that's going to happen until you play with people. But I would say 80% of the field is ready for this thing.”
As for the pageantry associated with the new stage setup during Triton’s first event with the WSOP, Koon was succinct: "Very Triton-y, which is awesome. This is a big one.”
Koon got off to a hot start in the tournament after Alex Foxen attempted a bluff. In Level 1 (2,000/3,000/3,000) the board read 2♠5♣Q♦10♥8♦when Foxen bet a hefty 290,000 and Koon thought long and hard before saying, “I just have a pair. Ok, I have aces.”
He then called and showed the A♦A♥, which bested the K♣J♣of Foxen. Koon ended up bagging 1,525,000, which put him 26th out of the advancing 67 players from Day 1 and was much better than his cohort as Lingham failed to survive the day.
Unfortunately for Koon, he busted four levels into Day 2 after he missed a flush draw against Kayhan Mokri.
https://twitter.com/tritonpoker/status/1865866392995860676
While Koon’s Triton Million came up short, he did share that he plans to fire a few more tournaments while in the Bahamas.
“I'm going to play some bigger ones. I'm going to play all the super high rollers.”
| Date | Stop | Tournament | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| November 2023 | Triton Super High Roller Series Monte Carlo | Event #13: $26,000 PLO Turbo | $365,000 |
| August 2023 | Triton Super High Roller Series London | Event 16: $$63,000 Main Event | $828,000 |
| July 2023 | Triton Super High Roller Series London | Event #6: $63,600 NLH 7-Handed | $1,570,000 |
| May 2023 | Triton Super High Roller Series Cyprus | Event #11: $100,000 Main Event | $2,451,082 |
| May 2023 | Triton Super High Roller Series Cyprus | Event #2: $20,000 NLH 7-Handed | $663,000 |
| March 2023 | Triton Super High Roller Series Vietnam | Event #10:$50,000 NLH Turbo | $574,000 |
| May 2022 | Triton Poker Series Madrid | Event #13: €150,000 Short Deck Ante Only | $1,863,228 |
| March 2019 | Triton Super High Roller Series Jeju | Event #5: HK $1M Short Deck Ante Only | $2,840,945 |
| March 2019 | Triton Super High Roller Series Jeju | Event #7: HK $1M NLH Triton Refresh | $973,306 |
| May 2018 | Triton Super High Roller Series Montenegro | Short deck Ante Only 1M | $3,579,936 |