Jason Koon has won the $60,000 NLH 7-Handed Event #6 at the Triton Super High Roller Series in London to claim the trophy and $1,570,000 first prize – not to mention his eighth Triton Title.
Day 2 brought back 32 players (from a total of 104 entries), just over half of whom were to take home prizes from the $6,240,000 total prize pool. Exiting on the way to the money spots were many who used the ultimately unrewarding afternoon as a warm-up for their entry into the later $200k NLH 8-Handed event, including Nick Petrangelo, Sean Winter, and eventual bubble finisher Paul Phua.
Chip and no chair
The bubble stretched through a tense hand-for-hand hour with Phua running afoul of a live-card shove from Santhosh Suvarna, whose jack-ten rivered two pair against ace-queen. “Gamble gamble,” said Suvarna, as a resigned Phua got his final single chip in (and lost) the next hand. “I am so lucky always!”
Suvarna’s luck ran out when he was eliminated in 12th place ($112,000); also among those making the money but not the final table were David Malka (16th for $98,000), Sam Greenwood (13th for $112,300), and Leon Sturm (10th for $128,000).
Although at one point Jose “Nacho” Barbero looked to have been a top-spot contender, his late-stage flip with ace-king vs. Matthias Eibinger’s pocket queens saw the top of Argentina’s all-time live tournament money list hit the rail instead in 9th place ($156,000).
Perhaps appropriately for a 7-Handed event, the final table spent a long time with seven players after Alex Kulev was eliminated by eventual champion Koon in 8th place as the shorter stacks manoeuvred their way around elimination. It was 2022 WSOP Main Event champ (and this week’s $20,000 Triton Mystery Bounty winner) Espen Jørstad who busted to Justin Saliba in 7th ($277,500).
Maintaining a chip lead that had rarely been seriously threatened throughout the day, Koon was still on top when he eliminated Phil Ivey in 6th place for $363,000 – Ivey’s second cash of the week after finishing second to Jørstad in Event #3. Koon took turns busting players with Saliba who subsequently took out Matthias Eibinger in 5th ($460,600).
Dan Smith, however, had been nipping at the heels of the chip lead off and on for a while, just taking it four-handed. At this point, the wheels of his trophy bid slowly fell off and his run ended in 4th place ($571,000).
Saliba picked up his biggest live cash to date ($690,000) for his 3rd place finish, leaving Koon with a 2:1 chip lead vs. Rodrigo Daher Selouan. A dramatic third pair river call from Selouan (Koon holding two pair) saw the end of the brief heads up battle, both players earning over seven figures for their efforts over the last two days.
“It might be getting old for you, but I like it,” deadpanned Koon when interviewed immediately after his win, picking up his unprecedented eighth Triton title. Koon now has over $23 million in Triton earnings alone, with 35 cashes total. It would take quite a run at the next few Triton Super High Roller stops for anyone to even come close.
