Jason Koon

Born in 1985, Jason Koon has been quite successful in the poker world. Originating from West Virginia, he grew up on and around the farms, although his parents were not farmers. He has always been attracted to nature and outside activities. He played different sports until he finally realized that he was really good in track running. He attended Wesleyan College in West Virginia where he got a B.S. degree in finance and an M.B.A. He used to run track while at college with a lot of success until an injury put a stop to that. He had learned to play poker just before the injury, playing in the small stakes games with friends, but after the injury left him incapacitated to compete in running he took serious interest in the game, reading and learning a lot. He made his first online deposit, and within six months, he was already beating the games for substantial amounts. After he graduated from the college, he got a job selling group insurance, but he quit in the fall of 2008 to pursue poker full time, although people surrounding him were trying to convince him it was a bad idea. Playing online under the nicknames “jakoon1985” and “NovaSky”, he has proven them wrong. His online tournament cashes, according to Pocketfives.com are nearly $3.5 million. His largest cash came in 2011 when he finished runner-up in the FTOPS event #24, besting more than 4,000 players. Interesting fact about this event is that, although Koon officially finished in the 2nd place, he actually won $100k+ more than the first place finisher through the deal that was made earlier at the final table. Other notable finishes include a SCOOP title that brought him nearly $300k in cash. His live results are quite impressive as well. His biggest cash came as the result of the 2nd place finish in the 2013 Bellagio Cup, when he took home $316,000. Other cashes include 4th place in 2010 WPT Festa Al Lago for $225,000 as well as 4th place in the 2012 PCA High Roller good for $272,000. Although he does not have any bracelets or big titles to his name on the live circuit, his tournament cashes stand at about $2.4 million. After the Black Friday hit, Jason Koon moved out of USA to Vancouver, Canada, with couple of good friends, so that he could keep doing what he does best – crush online poker. Although he found Vancouver quite different from his home town, he liked the fact that there were a lot of outside activities that he could enjoy, like hiking and fishing and other things that he used to love doing back home. He says that he never could have imagined that he would get to the level where he is in terms of poker, and he is very happy and satisfied that things worked out this way for him.