Event #32: $50,000 High Roller pulled in 171 entries and among them the best players in the highstakes world, Stephen Chidwick, both Foxens, Mikita Badziakouski, and Adrian Mateos among them. Mateos wouldn’t find the luck necessary to match the skill level…
Adrian Mateos: A♠ A♦
Alexandros Theologis: K♠ K♣
Flop: K♥ 6♦ 5♠
Turn: 2♥
River: 9♠
Another player down on his luck was Phil Ivey, still to cash this year’s WSOP and soon another $50k down…
Event 32: $50K NLH High Roller had one last buy-in before it closed.@philivey took his seat just before late registration closed. Sadly, you won’t find him in the chip counts because his stack has already been distributed to the others.#wsop2025 pic.twitter.com/bkGXrGZUI6
— WSOP – World Series of Poker (@WSOP) June 10, 2025
“Isn’t that every recreational’s dream?” said Keyavash Hemyari when he rivered an ace to beat Ivey’s fishhooks and sending the legend to the rail.
When the bubble arrived on day 2, Pavel Plesuv was a top 10 stack when he picked up kings…
Pavel Plesuv: K♥ K♦
Brock Wilson: 7♠ 6♠
Flop: 8♣ 8♠ 4♣
Turn: 5♠
River: 5♦
Bubble for Plesuv, $102,395 locked up for the remaining 26 players.
The end of the day arrived when Sean Winter ran kings into Koon’s aces and that left 10 players still in the hunt for the near $2million top prize.
Aliaksei Boika’s run ended in dramatic fashion when he turned a set of aces only to find by the river it had filled Lichtenberger’s straight, and then Blom exited courtesy of Koon in a battle of middling aces.
By the time they had reached three contenders for the crown, Koon had to contend with his mentor Ben Tollerene and Andrew “Lucky Chewy” Lichtenberger.
Lichtenberger’s luck was in when he shoved blind-on-blind vs Tollerene, ran into a top-of-range hand, and emerged victorious anyway…
Tollerene: A♠ 10♦
Lichtenberger: 10♠ 7♠
Flop: 7♥ 6♦ 5♦
Turn: J♠
River: 4♠
Tollerene had to settle for 3rd place and a $914,634 payday.
Heads-up saw Lichtenberger try his best to close a 2:1 gap, but eventually, his stack dwindling, he was all-in and at risk…
Lichtenberger: A♠ 10♦
Koon: K♦ Q♠
Flop: 2♠ K♥ J♥
Turn: 8♦
River: 7♣
Jason Koon is your winner for Event #32: $50,000 NLH High Roller. After battling through a 171 high rollers, which included some of the toughest tablemates in poker, @JasonKoon took down $1.9mil and his 2nd WSOP gold bracelet. #WSOP2025 pic.twitter.com/88nj4kMJYU
— WSOP – World Series of Poker (@WSOP) June 12, 2025
Final table results
1 | Jason Koon | USA | $1,968,927 |
2 | Andrew Lichtenberger | USA | $1,312,610 |
3 | Ben Tollerene | USA | $914,634 |
4 | Brock Wilson | USA | $650,074 |
5 | Sergey Lebedev | UK | $471,473 |
6 | Viktor Blom | Sweden | $349,068 |
7 | Reagan Silber | USA | $263,944 |
8 | Aliaksei Boika | Belarus | $203,919 |
“It’s all possible because of her.”
After his victory, which launches him back to 3rd spot in the all-time moneywinners list, Koon revealed his wife was the real strength behind his incredible poker career:
“It’s all possible because of her [Bianca]. Stumbling home at 1 a.m. after bagging to wake up and help me get ready and not expect much from me.”
“On days when poker is slow for me, I am all in as being a dad and try to pick up the slack the best that I can. But without her, I couldn’t do any of this.”
