It was the largest prize to be given out thus far of the summer in the form of $1,968,927 hard-earned money, and it was given to quite possibly the hardest-working player in the game. Jason Koon topped a field of 171 entries in Event #32: $50,000 High Roller to claim his second World Series of Poker bracelet.
Entering the final day as an overwhelming chip leader, Koon had plenty of expectations on himself to reign victorious at the end of the day. But he knew it was going to be a battle with many of his talented and really close friends still in the mix, including his heads-up opponent Andrew Lichtenberger and third-place finisher Ben Tollerene.
"The challenges of playing against them is they're the best players in the world. It's hot, it's bright, the pressure is high, the stakes are high. But Ben and I have just been soaking it in."
With his victory today, Koon will surpass Justin Bonomo for third on the all-time money list with a whopping $66 million in career earnings at the live felt. Koon has made it clear on several occasions how privileged he feels to be able to compete in this game for a living, especially at the highest stakes and at the highest level.
"I've dedicated my entire life to being very good at this game. Every person in here is trying to win. It's not like these guys have been around for 2 or 3 years. You're talking to guys who have multiple decades of resumes and somehow we're still here and we're playing the biggest game and winning. It's amazing."
There is no shortage of support for Koon who continues to balance personal life and staying on top of his game to bring home title after title. Koon gave a shoutout to his wife, who is able to make his life easier when he has big days in his office on the horizon.
"It's all possible because of her. Stumbling home at 1 a.m. after bagging to wake up and help me get ready and not expect much from me. On days when poker is slow for me, I am all in as being a dad and try to pick up the slack the best that I can. But without her, I couldn't do any of this."
Final Table Payouts
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jason Koon | United States | $1,968,927 |
| 2 | Andrew Lichtenberger | United States | $1,312,610 |
| 3 | Ben Tollerene | United States | $914,634 |
| 4 | Brock Wilson | United States | $650,074 |
| 5 | Sergey Lebedev | United Kingdom | $471,473 |
| 6 | Viktor Blom | Sweden | $349,068 |
| 7 | Reagan Silber | United States | $263,944 |
| 8 | Aliaksei Boika | Belarus | $203,919 |
Final Day Split Into Two Halves
There were ten players who returned to felt for the third and final day with hopes of getting their hands on the elusive WSOP jewelry. Only two players had ever done it before, and it just so happened that it was the two left standing when it all mattered.
A couple of players entered the day with less than 10 big blinds, one of whom was Dominykas Mikolaitis. The Lithuanian was first to hit the rail in a blind versus blind encounter with Viktor Blom that saw the online phenom spike a pair on the river. Chongxian Yang was another short stack to start the day and an attempt to triple up went sour when Lichtenberger turned over pocket queens. Yang was unable to overcome the uphill battle, which started the ascent of Lichtenberger up the leaderboard.
Aliaksei Boika was hoping to improve on his runner-up finish from earlier this summer in the $25,000 Heads-Up Championship, but his run fell short in an epic cooler that saw one of the largest pots of the tournament awarded. Lichtenberger turned a straight at the same time Boika hit a set of aces, setting up for all of the chips to go in the middle on the river.
Reagan Silber was happy to sit back and watch the fireworks around him while he laddered up the pay table. However, he finally picked up a premium hand in the form of ace-king suited but was outdone by the inferior king-queen of Sergey Lebedev to hit a flush. A couple more significant pots went the way of the big three (Koon, Lichtenberger, and Tollerene) before Blom pushed his short stack in the middle. Once again, Koon woke up with the goods in the blinds and had Blom drawing dead by the turn.
The final five players took a two-hour break in lieu of the PokerGO stream that would resume later in the afternoon. When the action resumed, it was the same song and dance with Lichtenberger picking up where he left off. A dominating ace against Lebedev, and a pair on the flop as well, was enough to bring the field down to just four players, all Americans.
Brock Wilson had been relatively quiet throughout the final day despite holding a massive chip lead at one point late on Day 2. Wilson did manage to earn a few extra dollars with all of the surrounding chaos. However, he will look back on one key fold against Koon where he could have chopped the pot, but instead left himself in desperation mode. Wilson also found himself in a dominated position against Lichtenberger and was unable to find any help on the runout.
That left the three most experienced players and close friends to battle out for the title and the biggest share of the prizepool. Tollerene had a challenge in front of him as the shortest of the three stacks, but there were still plenty of big blinds in play to maneuver a stack. Tollerene started to gain some traction when a massive pot broke out between Koon and Lichtenberger. An insane setup saw Koon roll over pocket aces while Lichtenberger held pocket kings. Koon staved off elimination and doubled himself into a massive lead.
Lichtenberger managed to fight back with a double-up of his own, which left Tollerene scrambling once again. It all came to a head when Lichtenberger jammed from the small blind with a suited gapper and Tollerene called off with a strong ace. 'Lucky Chewy' flopped top pair and Tollerene was unable to recover, leaving the final two to battle it out.
It was a back-and-forth affair that saw both players hold the chip lead on multiple occasions. However, things closed out with Koon winning pot after pot in the latter stages which led to the first all-in and call. Lichtenberger was best preflop with ace-high but Koon had two live cards to hit. He wasted no time turning the tables with a pair of kings on the flop. Lichtenberger picked up a straight draw as well but the runout bricked and Lichtenberger was forced to settle for a second-place finish for the second time in this event.
That wraps up the PokerNews coverage for this event but there are many others currently on the go, including the $100,000 High Roller that kicked off earlier today.
