"Perfect Match for Me": Jason Koon Sports PokerStars Patch at First Event Since Becoming Ambassador

Chad Holloway PR & Media Manager

Dec 09, 2024 3 min read

Just last month, Jason Koon was revealed alongside Caitlin Comeskey as a PokerStars US Ambassador.

"It's awesome. I'm thrilled,” Koon told PokerNews while 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.”

PokerNews caught 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.

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.”

Jason Koon Triton Poker Series Titles

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