Jason Koon overcame one of the toughest high roller fields on the poker calendar to win the PokerStars Championship Bahamas Super High Roller and a career-best $1,650,300. For the 31-year-old, the win brought back memories of time when he was playing smaller buy-ins but dreaming bigger.

“My first PCA, I was walking out of the casino and before I knew Scott Seiver that well, I saw him walk by me with headphones on, walking to the final table of a $100K or a $25K and being like ‘hell yeah, that’s Scott Seiver and he’s going to play the final table of this $100K’,” said Koon. “I was trying to satellite into the Main. I was thinking, one day I hope I can play those $25Ks and $100Ks. Sitting there with the trophy in front of me was just kind of a surreal moment.”

Over the last six months Koon has recorded eight cashes, six of them for at least six-figures and total earnings of $3,909,741. Along with this Super High Roller he’s also won the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Main Event and the WPT Five Diamond Poker Classic High Roller.

“It’s just ridiculous. Poker tournaments are silly. That’s all I can say,” said Koon. “I don’t know how much of that is bias is from like ‘oh, I’ve been running well so I’m going to come in and feel good’ and when you’re running bad that’s not the case.”

Koon started the final table with the third-biggest stack, trailing only Charlie Carrel and Dan Colman, but got to work on moving up the chip counts. Just and hour into play Koon raised to 100,000 from the button before Bryn Kenney, who won this event last year and has cashed in the event two other times, moved all in for 655,000. Koon called and tabled and Kenney turned over . The flop kept Kenney ahead and the turn was no harm, but the completed Broadway for Koon and eliminated Kenney in seventh place.

Almost two hours later, Carrel picked up his first elimination of the final table. Carrel raised to 205,000 from the button before Connor Drinan moved all in from the big blind for just under 700,000. Carrel called and tabled which put him well ahead of Drinan’s . The flop put Drinan ahead and gave him a gutshot straight draw. The turn flipped the script though and left Drinan drawing thing on the river. The river gave Carrel top two pair and eliminated Drinan in sixth.

Byron Kaverman was the next victim, falling victim to Dan Colman in a blind-vs-blind batle. Action folded to Colman in the small blind and moved all in, Kaverman called off his 720,000 stack. Colman had while Kaverman had . The flop put Colman ahead and neither the turn or river were any help for Kaverman and he was out in fifth.

Just over an hour later a pair of back-to-back eliminations got the tournament to heads up. Carrel raised to 225,000 from the button before Daniel Dvoress moved all in for 2,000,000. Carrel called and tabled , having Dvoress’ dominated. The flop gave Carrel even more reason to breathe easy, but the turn gave Dvoress a flush draw. The river completed Dvoress’ flush but filled up Carrel to send Dvoress to the rail in fourth place.

On the very next hand Colman raised to 3,000,000 and Carrel called from the button. Colman turned over but got bad news when Carrel showed . The board was no help for Colman and he was out in third place.

After being responsible for eliminating both Dvoress and Colman, Carrel began heads-up play with Koon holding 8,700,000 of the 12,500,000 chips in play. Over the course of the next two hours, with neither player interested in looking at chop numbers, Koon turned the tables on Carrel and finally put the young Brit away. The two checked through a flop of and turn. Carrel bet 400,000 after the river and Koon moved all in. Carrel called off his remaining stack and then mucked his after Koon showed for two pair and the win.

The $100,000 buy-in event attracted a total of 54 entries with 41 unique entries for a total prizepool of $5,239,080.

Final Table Payouts

1. Jason Koon – $1,650,300
2. Charlie Carrel – 1,191,900
3. Dan Colman – 759,660
4. Daniel Dvoress – 576,300
5. Byron Kaverman – 445,320
6. Connor Drinan – 340,540
7. Bryn Kenney – 275,060