The 2022 Poker Masters has officially ended. It reached its climax on October 3 when ARIA Resort & Casino's PokerGO studio hosted its last $50,000 buy-in no-limit hold 'em tournament.
Jason Koon won $666,000 in the event, and his lifetime poker tournament earnings increased to over $41.4 million. Reports state he is the seventh player on the all-time money poker list. Besides, it was the poker pro's 15th final table and second title this year.
Koon's latest victory earned him 408 Card Player Player of the Year (POY) points, and he has a total of 4,104 points now. Still, he has $6 million in POY earnings, and he holds the 15th position in the POY race standings that Global Poker funds.
The poker player informed Jeff Platt, PokerGO's commentator, that he hasn't played many events but has performed exceptionally in the few tournaments he has participated in. Koon likes spending time with his family, and he has improved his poker strategy of late.
Koon earned 400 PokerGO Tour (PGT) points from the latest Super MILLION$ win, and he has 449 points in total in the series since he earned 49 points after finishing sixth in Event No.9. Yet, he finished second in the Poker Masters Purple Jacket race.
Sean Winter won the jacket and $50,000. He finished first and second in two $25,000 buy-in high rollers on the series' final day. Koon is third in the PGT points race after his Poker Masters victory.
The Final Table's Payouts and Points
- Jason Koon – $666,000; 408 POY points and 400 PGT points
- Adrian Mateos – $444,000;340 POY points and 266 PGT points
- Scott Seiver – $296,000;272 POY points and 178 PGT points
- Erik Seidel – $203,500;204 POY points and 122 PGT points
- Seth Davies – $148,000;170 POY points and 89 PGT points
- Mikita Badziakouski – $92,500;136 POY points and 56 PGT points
Action At the Final Table
The $50,000 buy-in tournament attracted 37 entrants who formed a $1,850,000 prize pool. Yet, only six finalists shared the money despite seven entrants advancing to Day 2.
Other players who joined Koon included Daniel Negreanu (six-time bracelet champion), Mikita Badziakouski (bracelet winner), and Erik Seidel (nine-time bracelet champion). Seth Davies lost a huge chunk of his stuck in a preflop cooler after Adrian Mateos' pocket aces beat his A-K suited.
Davies had 20 big blinds only when a pocket pair held up. He got on the cooler's wrong side after his pocket jacks faced Negreanu's pocket sixes, and a jack on the flop turned odds. The river and turn didn't help Negreanu, and he busted the money bubble.
Badziakouski followed him in sixth place as he used J-8 suited to defend a big blind. Also, he used a pair of eights to get the money in. an open-ended straight flush draw turned Scott Seiver's set of tens.
The river didn't help Badziakouski, and he finished sixth with $92,500, thus increasing his lifetime poker tournament earnings to over $40.5 million. Davies had the smallest stack for almost an hour. He used A-10 to move all-in and trailed Koon's A-J.
The board earned Koon more chips and eliminated Davies in fifth place with $148,000. Seidel got the chip lead when four-handed action kicked off. But, he lost it and dropped to the bottom of the chip standings after doubling up Mateos.
Unfortunately, Seidel exited the event through a three-way-all-in and finished fourth with $203,500. Seiver's run ended after he used Q-J to shove almost 15 big blinds from the button, but it faced Koon's pocket sixes in the small blind.
Koon got a 4,690,000:2,710,000 chip advantage over Mateos in heads-up action that lasted for over an hour. The former increased his lead to over 4.5:1 when the dealer dealt the final hand. Koon went all-in using KHeart Suit6Heart Suit while Mateos used ASpade Suit2Spade Suit to check.
A KSpade SuitJClub Suit2Club Suit flop prompted Mateos to check-call an 80,000 wager, and 3Heart Suit appeared on the turn. He rechecked while Koon wagered 325,000 in the 400,000-pot using the top pair. Mateos used the bottom pair to call, and 5Spade Suit completed the board.
Mateos checked again, but Koon put him all-in. The former later made a hero call, but the latter showed the better pair, thus ending his run in second place with $444,000.
