It has been 33 long months since Triton Poker last assembled a group of elite poker players to play the best high-stakes poker series on the planet. But the painful waiting is now finally over.
Today at the Merit Crystal Cove Resort & Casino, in Girne, Cyprus, Triton Series made its return — and it was as if we had never been away.
The opening event of a four-tournament festival played through its first 10 levels, with 75 entries (including 31 re-entries) of $50,000 apiece. That means there is already more than $3.5 million in the prize pool, for what is the smallest buy-in event on the schedule.
Registration is still open until the start of Day 2 tomorrow, so the prize pool hasn’t stopped growing yet.
Despite the absence, there was everything we have come to know and love — the best players demonstrating their full range of skills — plus an exclusive live stream, with cards-up coverage and expert commentary.
A great number of familiar faces returned to the felt, but there were were also at least 13 players making their first appearance at a Triton event, from at least 11 countries. All are likely to stay for the full week, which culminates in a $125K short-deck event on April 6.
But to focus again on today’s action: the chip leader at this stage is one of our old timers: Hong Kong’s Elton Tsang. Tsang was bouncing along steadily for most of the day until he won a huge pot on the feature table in the final level. His benefactor was the US-based Bosnian player Ali Imsirovic, who was returning to Cyprus after winning in the Super High Roller Bowl here last time.
Elton Tsang
But after both Tsang and Imsirovic made two pair, kings and jacks, they got it all in. Tsang had an ace kicker, which beat Imsirovic’s eight.
“He ended up donating all his chips to me,” Tsang said. But even though he maintained the chip lead to the end of the day, Tsang refused to believe he had anything locked up yet. “It’s still too early,” he said, when asked if he was confident he could win it.
In a field where almost everybody is a superstar, it’s difficult to pull out other names to highlight. But all poker fans will have been delighted to see Phil Ivey show up for Day 1 action — and bag the only other million-chip stack in the room. (Starting stack was 200,000.) Ivey has one Triton title to his name, from Montenegro in 2018, so he’s about due another.
Phil Ivey
Among the Triton debutants is Russia’s Artur Martirosian, who has won on the European Poker Tour and has heaps of online accolades. Martirosian is trying to continue that form on the Triton tour and has started healthily. He sits in third. Full chip stacks for the remaining 34 players appear at the bottom of this post.
Artur Martirosan
Play resumes at 1pm tomorrow, at which point registration will close and we’ll have the final figures for this tournament. But three hours later, the $100K buy-in no limit hold’em event gets started, promising all of the same but doubled.
If you have the luxury of choice, table selection in live poker games is essential if you want to increase your win rate either as a professional or an enthusiastic amateur.
Great table selection in poker is akin to watching a football game from the sidelines before joining the team that’s winning 10-0, fighting someone half your size, or entering the donkey derby on the back of a stallion sired from Red Rum.
So how do you select the most profitable table?
Here are a few tips.
Player Attributes
We know how excited you get when the ripple of riffling chips first enters your eardrums, but we’re suggesting you keep your powder dry for a short while before taking your seat.
If your locale has multiple tables, spend time watching the action from behind the rail. Pay particular attention to the emotional disposition of players. Frustration, anger and rage are surefire signs of an impending loss of the stuff that hits the proverbial fan. Over-exuberance (coupled with a few too many drinks) is a sign of a Loosey Goosey. Boredom, stillness and stoicism are signs of the rock.
Age can also play an important role.
Stereotypically, a table full of old-timers signifies a calmer storm than a younger man hellbent on playing every hand from the midst of a Kansas grade tornado.
The Fish
How many fish do you need for a game to be profitable?
One.
Just one.
And if you’re in a game, and you can’t find one, then it’s you.
If your goldfish bowl is dry, or you are the one being battered next to your chips, you need to leave immediately.
It seems a simple proposition, but many players get caught in the silk webbery of the sunk cost fallacy.
We’ve all been there.
It doesn’t make logical sense.
But it happens.
We find ourselves stuck in a game that’s full of card sharps and we stay put, refusing to leave until we’re back in the Johnny Cash.
Don’t fall for that one.
Seat Selection
When you spot the fish, your number one goal is to find a seat as close to his right as you can. Close the action on the fish, and you will print money.
But beware of your desire for approval.
When you ask the dealer for a seat selection chip and use it when someone leaves the table, you’re signifying a status move. Slide that baby towards the dealer, and you’re telling everyone at the table that you believe you have an edge.
The games’ winners will make that play.
The games’ winners don’t care what people think of them. But so many do.
Maybe when you were younger, your parents didn’t pay you enough attention, and it made you feel like you weren’t good enough. In reaction, you grew up desiring approval from others. You played the outside-in game and became a world champion at it.
In this case, the part of you frozen in trauma may think twice about changing seats for fear that the rest of the table will look down upon you.
And.
If that’s you, perhaps you would be better off playing for the football team that’s winning 10-0, fighting someone half your size, or stomping all over those donkeys on your way to winning the derby.
Welcome to the debut of the series, delving into the lightbulb moments that shone so brightly they changed the way players thought about the game en route to the higher echelons of high stakes poker.
In episode #1 of the series, Michael Soyza shares his lightbulb moments.
Soyza’s Poker Accolades
Michael Soyza rose to prominence as a No-Limit Hold’em (NLHE) tournament star by defeating a field of 605-entrants, including Rainer Kempe, heads-up, to claim the $111,520 first prize in the NLHE Accumulator side event at the Aussie Millions.
That run spurred Soyza on to tremendous tournament success, most notably picking up seven titles on the Asian Poker Tour (APT), leading the Global Poker Index (GPI) to crown him as the Asian Player of the Year for 2018.
Soyza’s focus soon shifted towards the West, where he won a side event at the European Poker Tour (EPT) in Barcelona and banked more than half a million dollars after taking down a Mid-States Poker Tour (MSPT) event in Vegas, both in 2018.
In 2019, Soyza began plying his trade on the Triton Poker Tour and had so far cashed in four events, winning more than $3m in prize money, including a personal best $1.4m for taking down a side event at the 2019 Jeju stop.
At the time of writing, Soyza has earned more than $8.3m playing live tournaments at the highest level in the business, including competing in the $1m buy-in Triton Million: A Helping Hand for Charity in 2019.
Here are Soyza’s lightbulb moments.
Discovering Pre-Flop Starting Ranges
“Discovering pre-flop starting ranges was a big moment for me,” said Soyza. “Tom Dwan was the inspiration for me back in the day. Initially, when I started playing poker, my go-to was to go by feel. I didn’t have any solid pre-flop strategies or consistent ranges. I was pretty much flailing around in the dark. Despite that, you could offset this lack of skill with pure aggression back in the day. After my lightbulb moment, I learnt how ranges interacted with each other and where a decent amount of edge came from, leading to a deeper understanding of poker and an increase in my win rate.”
Discovering PioSOLVER
“I learnt about PioSOLVER during a poker seminar conducted by Fedor Holz in China in 2017,” shared Soyza. “The first time I saw a sample of PioSOLVER output, it blew my mind. It completely changed my poker perspective, and I learnt that I was a complete fish. PioSOLVER taught me the fundamentals of GTO in poker and a probabilistic mindset which is imperative to getting better at the game.”
Discovering How to Compile Data Into Concepts
“Memorising huge amounts of PioSOLVER output is difficult,” shares Soyza. “As such, learning how to identify patterns and develop general concepts around the data available was key for me to prepare for as many unknown spots as possible beforehand. You then have to learn to validate these concepts after the outcome of a hand to refine them.”
Discovering ICM and ICM Software
“ICM is a major part of tournament play and can make or break your win rate,” says Soyza. “Understanding what ICM is and how it affects the game is paramount in tournaments. Learning how to use ICM tools like HoldemResources Calculator and ICMIZER greatly improved my skill level and even helped with my overall understanding of the game.”
Now it’s your turn.
What are your lightbulb moments?
Triton Poker finally makes a return to continue its aim to bridge diverse communities together to engage the global audience through its prestigious poker tournament that is to take place live at the Merit Hotel and Casino in North Cyprus from April 2 – 7, 2022.
Known for its generous guarantees, the tournament will cover exciting events boasting star-studded attendees and amazing prize pools. Furthermore, poker enthusiasts from across the globe can once again tune in to Triton’s official YouTube and Twitch channels to enjoy world-class poker entertainment live on the felt.
As our aim has always been to bridge the gap between the poker community and the world through philanthropy, it is essential that our tournaments make a come-back to aid this process. We look forward to welcoming all our familiar and loved players who have waited patiently for this day.
Triton Poker Cyprus – Special Edition at Super High Roller Series will be held across six days, and feature the following games; NLH 6 Handed, NLH – 8 Handed, Short Deck Ante.
Triton Poker Super High Roller Series 2022, Bali – A Helping Hand for Charity from February 17th to March 1st, 2022.
Set against a backdrop of Bali’s lush scenery and rich heritage, the event is set to showcase to its audiences what the beautiful island has to offer. Known to many as Land of the Gods, Bali captivates through its pure natural beauty of colourful ceremonies, looming volcanoes and iconic terraced rice fields – a true paradise to behold.
We are thrilled to finally be back and plan to continue delivering exclusive coverage of our highly anticipated season kick-off to our growing audiences across multiple platforms and look forward to presenting the thrills and excitement our tournaments have to offer. We are always working tirelessly to continue to innovate our live poker tournaments, bring exclusive and exhilarating poker entertainment anytime, anywhere all the while channeling meaningful charitable initiatives to the less fortunate.
The 2022 season starts off with our partnership with Jacob & Co as the Exclusive Official Timekeeper for the highly anticipated line-up.
Catch our unparalleled live coverage on our official Triton Poker Twitch, YouTube, and Facebook channels and on our soon-to-be-launched app – Triton Poker Plus.Further details are available here for more information.
Held in London during 2019, the prestigious competition still holds the record for being the most expensive poker tournament of all time and will now be available for all viewers with an internet connection to enjoy.
Episodes 1 and 2 of the post-produced series will make its digital debut starting Thursday September 23rd, 2021, on the Triton Poker YouTube channel, with the duo of poker legend Daniel Negreanu and television personality Ali Nejad as your commentators.
Triton’s innovative structure pitted an array of the world’s most talented poker players such as Bryn Kenney, Daniel’ Jungleman’ Cates, and Tom’ durrrr’ Dwan against high profile businessmen (and businesswoman) such as Paul Phua, Tony G and Haralabos Voulgaris in one of the richest purses in sports and gaming history.
In the entry fee of £1,050,000, £50,000 was taken from each buy-in and distributed to over 15 charities globally, including the One Drop Foundation, Raising for Effective Giving (REG), and the Malaysian Red Crescent.
The tournament previously aired on television with NBCSports in the United States, Canada’s TSN channel, FreeSports in the UK, Sport 5 in Israel, and across several Eastern European countries.
After previously broadcasting in several regions such as Canada, Israel, and the United Kingdom, Triton has penned a TV deal with NBC Sports to showcase coverage of the biggest televised poker tournament of all time.
The 10-episode series remains one of the most innovative poker tournaments in recent memory, with 54 professionals and businessmen (and woman) creating an incredible prize pool of £54million and a 1st place prize of £19million.
In addition, £50,000 was collected from each participant totaling £2.7million, donated to various charities around the world.
Daniel ‘Kid Poker’ Negreanu and television personality, Ali Nejad, guide you through exclusive behind-the-scenes player testimony and the stunning highs and brutal lows of all the play-by-play action.
Depending on your location, here is the NBC broadcast listing schedule: Wednesdays at 5pm PT – NBC Sports Bay Area Thursdays at 9pm ET- NBC Sports Philadelphia+ Fridays at 10pm CT – NBC Sports Chicago Saturdays at 11pm ET – NBC Sports Boston Sundays at 8pm ET – NBC Sports Washington
Triton Poker has signed a TV deal with FreeSports to showcase coverage of the Triton Million: A Helping Hand For Charity, a £1m buy-in event that took place in London, 2019. FreeSports will spread the Triton Poker love to 22 million homes in the UK through their free-to-air model.
The Triton Poker Super High Roller Series may be on an imposed hiatus, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get your fix of the biggest high-stakes poker tour in the world.
The first of ten episodes will hit UK TV screens on Thursday, October 1 at 10:00 pm, and is available on several UK networks such as Freeview HD channel 64, Sky HD channel 422, Virgin HD 553, TalkTalk 64, and BT Vision channel 64. Additionally, the series will also be available on the FreeSports online player, downloadable at www.freesportsplayer.tv.
The Triton Million remains one of the most innovative and incredible poker tournaments of its time with 54 pros and business people alike creating a £54m prize money, and a £19m first prize, the biggest in the history of the game.
The Triton Million recently broadcast on Canada’s largest sports network TSN, Sport 5 in Israel, and Sport 1 across several Eastern European countries.
Frank Sinatra may have sung it, but it’s a dream stitched into the double helix of everyone ejected into this world, and for most the gestation period continues into the grave.
But ‘most’ isn’t ‘everyone.’
Some buck the trend.
Like the people sending ‘success’ screaming through the ventricles and atriums, radiating and reverberating a reverent YES! YES! YES!
People like Timofey ‘trueteller’ Kuznetsov.
During a tete-a-tete in Jeju, South Korea, a ball of wax must have taken possession of my cochlea, because I swear that he told me that he set the goal to make $1m playing online poker at Paul Hardcastle’s age.
If I’m going to write about it, I had better do my due diligence, so I contacted him.
Kuznetsov did create an ambitious poker goal when 19, and hit it within three-years. Only it wasn’t $1m.
I had missed a crucial zero.
It was $10m.
Kuznetsov grew up in Novosibirsk, on the banks of the Ob River in Siberia, the third most populous city in Russia, and a place of serene beauty according to Kuznetsov, waxing lyrical over his school walks through the vast forestry that blocked out the horizon.
The Russian star describes the people of Novosibirsk as ‘nice’ and calls it a ‘healthy’ place to grow up thanks to the clean forest air. Novosibirsk is home to a sizable scientific contingent. Still, Kuznetsov’s mother was a doctor; his father, a businessman, peddling in music stores, video rentals and toy shops. Little wonder that Kuznetsov would develop a keen fondness for games citing ‘Heroes of Might and Magic 3’, ‘Monopoly’, ‘Alias’, ‘FIFA’, and ‘Chess’ amongst his favourite games, outside of poker.
The University Years
The eldest of three children all born within nine years, Kuznetsov left his home city, moving to Moscow aged 17, to study mathematics and applied theory of probabilities at Moscow State University. To give you a sense of the support Kuznetsov received from his parents at that age, they also moved to Moscow at this time.
The brilliance of Kuznetsov’s mind became apparent very early in life. Moscow State University has one of the most respected math departments in the world, and Kuznetsov was one of the top young mathematicians in Russia at that time.
“I was positive about the future during those years,” recalls Kuznetsov. “I harboured hopes of becoming involved in stocks or hedge funds, and for a time, I entered some consulting competitions, thinking I may end up working for an organisation like KPMG.”
It sounded like a plan.
Plans change.
“A friend won $7k playing online poker in a few months,” recalls Kuznetsov, “I thought that was pretty cool, and as I am competitive, love playing games, and there was money to be won, I thought, why not give it a go?”
Kuznetsov loved poker instantly as it allowed him to combine his passion for mathematics with his love for gaming. Candidly, Kuznetsov wanted to be a high stakes poker player and believed it was possible.
“Many smart people have believed they could play high stakes poker, and eventually went broke,” said Kuznetsov’s close friend and high stakes star, Furkat Rakhimov. “Timofey was different because he had the skills to match his ambition.”
That Ambition
A 19-year-old Kuznetsov began to realise that poker was more than a pastime. It was a way to make some serious money. So Kuznetsov set his first poker goal – to make $10m playing online poker.
An illusion?
Delusion?
A naive sense of confusion?
“I was overconfident in a way, but sometimes overconfidence doesn’t hurt,” said Kuznetsov.
After depositing $25 on partypoker, Kuznetsov began playing 1c/2c, and within his first six months, he broke the $10k mark, a milestone he says was one of his most significant.
By this time, Kuznetsov had decided that he would never work a single day in his life. Poker would be his vehicle for success. At first, his parents didn’t think it was a good idea, especially given how gifted he was.
“They assumed I would have a great career in finance and wondered what the hell I was doing with my life playing cards,” said Kuznetsov.
Kuznetsov won $40k playing online cash games, and decided to continue with his university studies, but turn his back on the planned summer school position with KPMG. It was a decision that his parents supported.
$5/$10
Then came Kuznetsov’s first big challenge.
$5/$10.
After cruising through the menu of delicacies available at $2/$4 and $3/$6 establishing a 5bb/100 win rate, Kuznetsov kept donating it through $5/$10 shot taking.
“Bad luck is always a part of it,” said Kuznetsov, “but that time, I was unknowingly lucky that I didn’t run good right away.”
Kuznetsov is pointing to the problem of running so good that when you stare at your reflection, you see Phil Ivey. You don’t put in the work because you think you’re the nuts. The $5/$10 walls forced Kuznetsov to study, and that’s where Phil Galfond enters the fray.
“I studied hard, and during this time, I stumbled across Phil Galfond’s old No-Limit videos, which opened my eyes on a couple of key thinking patterns in poker,” said Kuznetsov.
After four months of $5/$10 driving a stake through his heart and countless nights of seeing the spectre of Phil Galfond standing by the side of his bed, Kuznetsov got lucky – his exams forced a clean break from the game.
Deprived of the one thing, he loved, at this critical juncture in his career, turned out to be life changing.
The Break
The story of the poker player refusing to return to school to concentrate wholly on poker is a well-trodden path, but not for Kuznetsov. The Siberian native finished the full five years of his maths degree even specialising in probability theory.
Once the exams were in the bag, Kuznetsov returned to poker, and “something had changed,” said Kuznetsov.
Upon returning to the tables, Kuznetsov had a $40k bankroll. He made $70k EV and $40k profit in his first month back. By the end of the second month, Kuznetsov had earned another $100k, and that happened again in the third month. By the end of the year, Kuznetsov’s bankroll had risen from $40k to $1.7m playing mostly 25/50 cap games – quite the soufflé.
“My subconscious finally had a break to decompress, analyse and properly encompass the missing parts of the puzzle I’d received from Phil’s videos.” Said Kuznetsov. “It was the second year of my poker career, and I thought it couldn’t go any better, but turned out I was wrong.”
By this time, Kuznetsov’s online avatar’ trueteller’ had become recognised as one of the best, if not the best, short-stack poker player during that period.
“The action never seemed to die,” said Kuznetsov. “I had people playing me every day at 50/100 -200/400 mostly, some 500/1k. I couldn’t believe how much money I was making and took a total of two days off poker in the next year and a half.”
By the time Kuznetsov had reached his 22nd birthday, he had achieved his $10m goal.
Mathematical Olympiads
Is poker a game of nature or nurture?
It seems Kuznetsov leaned more towards the nature side of that complicated question.
Here’s his good friend Furkat Rakhimov to explain.
“Timofey competed in Math Olympiads, which are high-pressure global competitions, which test your creative thinking skills. It makes your mind very adaptable and capable of thinking about new subjects deeply on a time limit and is very good for poker.”
And if you wondered ‘how good?’
“Recently, we discussed a short deck hand, questioning if 89s is better against AK or AQ on AQ7 board with a backdoor,” said Rakhimov. “It took Timofey two seconds to tell me that there are 16 runouts against the first hand, and 15 runouts for the second to win. I was like holy moly! How does he do that?!”
The International Math Olympiad is the most prestigious math tournament in the world. Aimed at pre-college students, it’s the oldest of the International Science Olympiads stretching back till 1959. It’s that prestigious, in the former Soviet Union and other Eastern European countries, the schools would select the teams years in advance, and specially train the kids to compete.
Kuznetsov not only learned to improve his mathematical dexterity, but he also learned how to compete, and he loved it.
“I won my first math contest when I was seven,” said Kuznetsov. “I recently found letters to my grandparent bragging about the results. Hard evidence that those tests were deeply important for me from the start.
“I did the team and individual contests; normally the concept is that you have about 4 hours for 4-8 problems and they are very hard, sometimes crushing hard. The feeling of cracking one was the highest I felt during ten years I participated. I’ve travelled to several cities in Russia and twice to Kazakhstan to participate. My biggest achievements are a bronze medal in the final of the All-Russian Olympiad and silver in the Asian Pacific Mathematics Olympiad both in 2008. I was and still am very proud of those results.”
So Kuznetsov accrued his mathematical knowledge early doors. The kid was a smart cookie, but what about the sugar?
“I was very much inside my head until very late on,” said Kuznetsov. “I would say I was very introverted until 21/22. It was at this time that I realised that being introverted didn’t make me happy. I didn’t reflect emotionally. I didn’t feel. I was lonely.”
Kuznetsov worked on this aspect of the game of life, ultimately conquering his emotionally intelligent end bosses, but his process came at a price.
“People aren’t aware of how hard it is to manage emotions and play well when you’re losing, especially live and big. As I became more social and emotional, I started to feel more, and realised for the first time what tilt was. I had to face it, and fight it, and that’s been one of my biggest challenges.”
“Live”.
“Big”.
When did that happen?
The Transition to Completeness
In 2014, Kuznetsov began feeling contemptuous towards the No-Limit Hold ’em cash games and started playing 2-7 Triple Draw, PLO, and other mixed games on Full Tilt.
Here’s Rakhimov to reminisce on the 2014 Full Tilt era.
“For those who don’t know, that year, the action on Full Tilt was crazy in all the games – 400-800nl deep with ‘MalACEasia’, 2-7td 1k-2k, O8 1k-2k, mixed games, always jumping in the highest stakes games right away with no preparation and learning on the fly.”
It’s during this ‘crazy’ time that an opportune moment arose for Kuznetsov – one that sent his career on a whole new trajectory.
“I was playing triple draw online, and with Gus {Hansen}, and one-week ‘Samrostan’. And we all lost a lot, and the game stopped,” reminisced Kuznetsov. “For a few weeks there was no action above $10/$20 No Limit, and I was stuck a lot. It hurt. I needed to find big action, and nobody was willing to play big. Then I heard about the Macau thing and said, “Let’s go!”
The Phil Ivey Game
If you want proof that Kuznetsov learned and earned plenty in Macau, then have a listen to this little tale.
After some time playing live, Kuznetsov had the idea to compete with Phil Ivey in a mixed game match.
“For all of us young players, Ivey was like a god of poker,” said Rakhimov. “There were no programs that would help you get ready for limit games, and also Timofey is kind of an intuitive player that always prefers practice. After practising mostly in PLO, and heads-up HORSE on his phone with his friends during live Macau games, he decided he was ready.”
The match started in late 2015, and Rakhimov remembers railing the game intensely because “I admired a guy who took his chance to play a Phil Ivey who had been at the top of the food chain for 20+ years.”
Rakhimov remembers that the game never seemed to end with the pair competing for 25-30 hours straight, and then back on it after a few hours of sleep. After months of fighting, and with Kuznetsov leading, the game came to an end.
How did Kuznetsov feel about beating the best in the business?
He told Rakhimov that he felt like he had played Mortal Combat for five straight years, eventually beating the End Boss ‘Shawkan’.
A Bump in The Road
After Macau, Kuznetsov took his game to Bobby’s Room in Las Vegas, one of the most famous high stakes poker rooms in the world.
“It’s the toughest poker game by far in the world,” said Rakhimov. “The difference of this mix is that limit games turn into pot-limit games, which makes it way more complicated. Timofey had no experience in those games at all!”
It showed.
After losing $750k on the first night, Kuznetsov continued dusting every single session until the regs gave him a special VIP seat. For the first time since he began competing, trueteller looked around the room and couldn’t find the sucker.
That year, Kuznetsov lost ‘a lot,’ but his competitiveness drove him to practice like a banshee, competing in games such as pot-limit Badugi, pot-limit 2-7 triple draw, BigO, etc.
Within a year, the Bobby’s Room regs had removed the name of ‘trueteller’ from the VIP seat.
Today, he’s one of the most formidable players in that game.
The Best Player in the World?
It’s challenging to rank cash game players, in terms of the best in the world, but his peers believe Kuznetsov is right up there.
Wiktor ‘limitless’ Malinowski called him the ‘Messi of Poker.’
Rui Cao said he is ‘the smartest person I know. He’s fearless and deserves everything he has now. I was always cosy and overconfident, and he humbled me.”
Daniel’ Jungleman’ Cates calls him one of the ‘best professional gamblers there is.”
Rob Yong called him a ‘modest’ guy; ‘humble’, and always willing to help other people – a ‘natural born wizard.’
Phil Galfond, the man who Kuznetsov credited with ‘filling in the blanks’, said, “I have nothing but positive things to say about Timofey. Despite how incredibly tough he is as a player, his kindness, intelligence, and sense of humour make him a pleasure to have at the table.”
And his good friend Furkat Rakhimov?
“Not only is he the best player in the world, he’s also the best friend, the kindest person – a true genius.”
As poker players, amateur and pro, we’ve all spent a few orbits in the presence of greatness, but when that presence is Jason Koon, it never really leaves your orbit. Many of us spend our time doing, doing, doing – not Koon. Triton Poker’s Ambassador epitomizes how one should live one’s life, not from the act of finishing your sentences (that’s not his style), but through his sheer ‘being’.
A great man.
A fantastic poker player.
And one day.
A loving father.
And that’s where we’ll begin.
The silhouette that would become Jason Koon first hit a blood-soaked blanket, 35-years-ago, in Charleston, West Virginia. Koon had a tough childhood, beaten by a father bereft of the boyhood love that all of us crave from the XY presence in our life.
“My relationship with my father is non-existent,” said Koon. “I’ve done a lot of work around forgiveness, and I don’t hold resentment in my heart. The experience negatively fuelled me to get to where I am. Anger can be an incredible motivator.”
Koon’s father left when he was aged 8 or 9, a period of his life that he calls ‘chaotic’, but free of mental and physical abuse. His mother moved the family to Lewis County, where he grew up in a small hollow in the mountains, spending hours upon hours figuring out the theme of his life from the middle of a lake.
“We lived in a small farmhouse, the neighbours had chickens and horses, but we weren’t farmers,” said Koon. “As a kid, I used to go to the lake and fish. Despite growing up poor, I never felt freer or happier.”
Swinging and Sprinting
It wouldn’t be long before Koon exchanged the rod for a baseball bat and mitt, and he harboured hopes of playing in the minor leagues. As he grew, Koon developed a turn of speed and joined the track team. Lacking the financial funds needed for college, the track and not baseball became Koon’s likeliest route to a scholarship, and so that’s where his focus turned.
It’s at this time that Koon’s legendary competitiveness shone to the fore. Nobody in his family had ever gone to college, and despite not being turned on by academic success, it was a milestone he wanted, badly.
“I wanted to say I did it,” said Koon.
And he did.
Naturally strong, and athletic, Koon put everything he had into being the finest physical specimen he could be. Still, there was a sacrifice, but also awareness.
“It didn’t occur to me until after uni, how much I respected the liberation that comes with knowledge and thinking,” said Koon. “When that clicked, I started to develop my mind.”
The Hip
The opportunity to develop his mind came during a moment of tragedy. A hip injury meant that Koon couldn’t compete for the first time in his life. Fortunately, for him, his friend turned him to online poker, and the rest, as they say, is history.
“I always felt like I had some value, something bigger than what I was that moment,” said Koon. “That confidence helped me retain the drive to learn and to improve. Going through walls has always been easy for me. Because I have always had it in the back of my mind that I can do it.”
Meeting Bianca
It wasn’t merely his competitiveness and physicality that Koon found on the track – he also found the most important person in his life.
“I met Jason in 2007, my freshman year of college,” said Bianca Armstrong Koon. “I was 18, and Jason 22. We were both attending West Virginia Wesleyan on a track scholarship. My first impression of Jason was that he was a bit intimidating. He was known for getting into altercations at the local bars and could often be spotted walking around campus in a cut-off. It was obvious, Jason was a confident guy with a lot to prove, and he was also very giving.”
Poker
Only, he didn’t have a lot to give.
Koon’s hip problem and college tuition had created a $115,000 hole, but that didn’t deter him. With $7k in his bankroll and a fabled stubborn persistence, Koon quit a job that had the capability of a six-figure annual income to give himself a shot at being a pro poker player.
“I was broke and in debt, but I knew I could make it,” said Koon.
How many of us would have taken the path of least resistance; took the job, and killed our dream.
Not Koon.
“You need the courage to decide what you think is best for you,” said Koon. “You have to value yourself and not rely on the judgment of others. I knew there was a chance I could fail and that people would mock me. I was terrified of that, but not enough to accept it.”
Koon was about to create a new path of least resistance leading to $31.1m in live tournament earnings, and who knows how many millions more playing in the highest stakes cash games in the world.
With the deck beckoning, many factors led to Koon’s success, and one of them was the courage to choose to make his stamp on the world, and not settle for Stud Terkel’s ‘Monday to Friday sort of dying’.
“Many people are happy in that structure,” said Koon. “It’s not a bad thing to be in that spot if you can do it with a smile on your face and feel good about your life. It’s not for me.”
The Grind
After turning his back on convention, Koon stared at the wall that was poker and ran through it. Getting to the top, and staying there takes persistence, drive and a propensity to graft, qualities that Koon has in droves.
“I often find myself overworked, and when that happens, I become tired, and my weaknesses become exposed,” said Koon. “That’s when anger surfaces and stress builds.”
The universe didn’t hand Koon his vicissitude of fortune. He earned it through sheer blood, sweat and hard work, as witnessed by his friends.
“Fortunately for me, Jason and I rarely cross paths at the poker table because we specialise in different games,” said Phil Galfond. “I think part of the reason he has excelled at the game is that he believes if he doesn’t outwork everyone else, he won’t be able to compete at the highest levels. He’s much more naturally gifted than he gives himself credit for, but that attitude has served him very well.”
Ben Tollerene agrees.
“One thing that stands out to me about Jason as a poker player is how insanely competitive he is. He has a level of intensity and effort that is unique to him, and while I think it causes him a lot of pain, due to how often you experience losing in poker, it also makes him great.”
Koon understands the price, but it’s one he’s willing to pay because the opportunity costs of not playing now are too high.
“I want to have kids, and when that happens, everything will slow down,” said Koon. I need the discipline to stick to that idea. I have to make sure that happens. The biggest problem is always working on the balance of letting off the throttle, and working on the damage that I carry.”
Standing Next to Every Great Man
Koon is a talented man, but he’s going to need some help if he wants to be a father, and that’s where we return once more to the person Koon credits as being the most influential person in his career – no, scratch that – in his life.
Bianca.
“When she came into my life she started calling me out on things I didn’t know I was doing wrong. She would say that’s not socially acceptable, cussing, spouting negative energy. She kept me in check, and was so supportive, always making sure I have everything I need.”
Bianca’s value etched in his tournament results. When they met, Koon was known as a fair to middling tournament player with $2.5m in earnings. Today, he is one of the greatest, with more than $31.1m.
The Koon’s friendship blossomed into romance in 2015, when the pair met in Napa with Jason buying Bianca a case of wine, asking her to keep on to it for their’ future anniversaries.’
“He moved into my apartment the next week,” said Bianca. “You get to know someone very quickly living in a 400 sq ft apartment. I learned about Jason’s childhood trauma and how he handled hardship.
“You could see the struggle of someone who worked so hard to succeed at poker; fitness challenges, perfecting nutrition, being a great partner, but couldn’t shake the inner turmoil from his childhood when dealing with his emotions.
“After many long talks, the walls started to come down for Jason. Maybe for the first time, he felt safe. He became less defensive and more aware of how he was reacting to situations.”
Team Koon
While Bianca may be the captain of Team Koon, she is by no means the only member. Koon has surrounded himself with some of the smartest minds on and off the table, and he still pinches himself, today, when he looks around at his compadres.
“I never thought I would get to the level I did in poker,” said Koon. “When I started, I didn’t have the right group around me. Luckily, I found mutual value with the best people and players, developing strong relationships, and over a decade, we’ve all gotten better. Poker is the thing that we all love and dive into, and some of my buddies are the best poker players in the world and much more gifted than me. They’ve put me on their back and pushed me to the level I am at now. It’s surreal.
So how did it happen?
Fate?
Magic?
The Poker Gods?
You’ll find the answer in service.
Service
“I want to create comfort and safety for everyone I care the most about,” said Koon. “I want to impact their lives, so it’s a net positive for everyone, not just financially, not just emotionally. I want to grab the people who have looked after me, and I want us all to move forward together. To be of deep value to the people I am closest with and be in line with what’s best and fulfilling for me.”
Koon’s desire to take care of those who have shown up for him is not a feeling confined to his mind. It shows in his actions and is witnessed by those he loves.
“I would describe him as a man, as a great friend who truly cares about bringing up those around him, truly cares about others around him having success and having a good life,” said Koon’s good friend, Seth Davies. “You’ll hear or sometimes see people who have a lot of jealousy even with their friends even with people they like, but he doesn’t have that at all he truly wants everyone around him to have success and be happy, and he’s not jealous of that.”
“It’s essentially impossible to speak about Jason’s character without sounding like a Hallmark card,” said Phil Galfond. “Beyond the friendly and positive guy everyone sees, he consistently goes out of his way to put other people before himself. He has done 5-10 times as many favours for me as I have for him. I can’t keep up. He’s as caring, supportive and thoughtful a friend as you could hope for.”
“When I think about Jason as a friend: loyal and genuine are the two words that come to mind,” said Ben Tollerene. “He’s always there for his friends in a way that is sincere and lets you know he truly cares about you. He also can bring people together to create memorable, shared experiences. I’ve always appreciated that about him.”
And from the person who’s known him the longest?
“I think Jason’s a completely different person than when I met him in college’ said Bianca. “He has nothing to prove at this point. He prefers to stay out of the public eye: the less flash, the better these days. And I love that! He still radiates intensity, especially when he’s in work mode. He’s also dramatic, and that leads to lots of laughs.
“I admire him for his work ethic and stamina to play the games he plays. He’s great at optimising his entire life. From morning routines to sleep cycles. He has zero leaks and has little time for people that aren’t moving in the same direction.”
He is also an impressive figure when he busts out those old cut-offs.
So what does the future hold for Koon?
“Something shitty happened to me as a kid,” said Koon. “My dad fucked me over in so many ways. So I want to be the full time all in dad. There is a balance that happens in life. Maybe, I would be this lazy, unmotivated spoiled brat if my father had treated me better. Who knows, but what I do know, is I will be a great dad as a result of this.”
