Jason Koon might just love the Bahamas a bit more now

Seems like the American pro cracked the code of the PCA High Rollers. After taking down the $100,000 Super High Roller last year, he won the $25,000 Single-Day High Roller at the 2018 PCA.

The event was the third big buy-in tournament at the Caribbeans this year. Cary Katz and Steve O'Dwyer have already lifted trophies in the air as the former took down [3] the $100,000 Super High Roller, while the latter won the $50,000 [4]. The $25k High Roller generated 53 entries, with the creme of the poker world showing up to play.

Even though some of them couldn't enter the tournament since they are still battling in the Main Event, there were plenty of top-notch players, who were "lucky enough" to have some time to kill after busting out early from the Main. Not surprisingly many of them decided to buy into the $25k. The dealing started after the first 13 players bought in, with the likes of Daniel Negreanu, Erik Seidel, Ben Tollerene or Chance Kornuth. The field continued to grow during the day, as notable players like Isaac Haxton, Steffen Sontheimer or Mikita Badziakouski joined the fun sometime later

The first player to bust was none other than Erik Seidel. In his final hand, he opened the button to 3,500 and called the 10,000 3-bet of Chance Kornuth's. Chance continued on the ♦K ♣Q ♥5 flop and Erik came along for the ride. The action continued on the ♥9 turn, with Kornuth barrelling for 18,000. On the ♥Q river, he announced all-in and his opponent quickly called. Chance turned up ♣K ♦Q for the almost unbeatable full-house and Erik was out from the tournament.

As expected in a single-day tournament the action was fast all day. Players reached the nine-handed final table at Level 14. Mikalai Vaskaboinikau from Belarus lead the field with a chip stack of 1,250,000 but Benjamin Pollak had a decent stack in front of him as well.

Igor Kurganov was the unfortunate one to bubble as he busted in 9th place. Igor shoved his last chips with pocket nines and Timothy Adams was happy to call with queens.

Ike "Hollywood" Haxton got 8th for $56,140. He also fell against Adams in a pocket pair vs pocket pair confrontation. Timothy's tens hold against Ike's sevens on the ♦5♣3♥2♥K♦J board.

Isaac was followed by Christopher Kruk who made 7th for $71,580. He open-shoved from the small blind with ♥8♥7 which couldn't overcome the ♦Q♦T of Koon's.

Online tournament sicko, Chris "BigHuni" Hunichen caught 6th spot which was good for $89,840. BigHuni put his last 10 big blind into the middle holding ♣K♣2. Jason Koon re-shoved from the small blind and the two turned up their cards after the big blind folded.

Koon:      
Hunichen:

Board:      

Jason took down the pot and the action continued with 5 players.

Frenchman Benjamin Pollak had all the right to claim his $115,100 at the cage after he busted out 5th. It looked like Koon had all the momentum as Benjamin was also busted by him.

Koon: 
Pollak:

Board: 

Even though Benjamin flopped an open-ended straight draw, he couldn't manage to catch any of his outs on the turn nor the river. The next player out was Nick Petrangelo, who earned $148,780 for finishing 4th. He lost with a king-high flush against the ace-high flush of Vaskaboinikau's.

Final results:

  [5]

He was followed on his way out by Timothy Adams. His Jacks looked good on the ♠T♥5♣3♠7 board, against Mikalai's ♣A♦9, until the ♥A river.

In the heads-up, Vaskaboinikau managed to take the chip lead against Koon, but Jason wasn't too concerned about it as he reclaimed the top spot sometime later.

The Belarussian was eventually out when he shoved the button with ♠K♥6. Jason woke up with aces in the big blind and snap-called.

Board:
 

Mikalai won $304,580 for finishing 2nd while Jason Koon increased his lifetime earnings to $11,2 million with his $421,080 score.

The Main Event is well underway as well, with the field already reduced to 43 players. All of them are good for $22,020 but they clearly aiming at the $1,081,100 first prize. The chip lead belongs to Karl Stark, who sits on 1,148,000 but David Peters follows him closely with a chip stack of 1,117,000. Koray Aldemir, Adrian Mateos and Liv Boeree are also in the field so the next day will certainly bring some exciting action.

Make sure to keep an eye on pokergurublog for the updates.