Jason Koon triomphe enfin (243.981$)
The 2021 World Series of Poker has crowned a new gold bracelet winner at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino. One of poker's biggest names has finally joined the elusive winner's circle. Out of a field of 57 entries in Event #11: $25,000 Heads-Up No-Limit Hold'em Championship, American poker pro Jason Koon came out on top of hard-fought duel with Hungary's Gabor Szabo to get the monkey off his back.
The top eight finishers out of the 32-player bracket earned a portion of the $721,625 in prize money while all those who won their match in the round of 64 also had their buy-ins refunded. Eventual winner Koon was among them and came out on top of six heads-up matches to claim the top prize of $243,981. For Szabo, the runner-up finish came a consolation prize of $150,790 while the semi-finalists Henri Puustinen and Daniel Zack received $89,787 for their efforts.
Prior to his final duel with Szabo, Koon said "I don't vlog, I don't stream, I just play the game," and that's exactly what he did throughout the last three days. The freshly minted GGPoker global ambassador defeated Chris Brewer, Nicolai Morris, and Johannes Becker to reach the money stages. In the round of eight, he only needed 13 minutes to eliminate Jake Daniels and then came out on top of Finnish heads-up specialist Henri Puustinen en route to the final heads-up match.
| Road to the Final | Jason Koon | Gabor Szabo |
|---|---|---|
| Round of 64 | Chris Brewer | Bye |
| Round of 32 | Nicolai Morris | Johan Guilbert |
| Round of 16 | Johannes Becker | David Peters |
| Round of 8 | Jake Daniels | Mikita Badziakouski |
| Round of 4 | Henri Puustinen | Dan Zack |