This past week, the 2026 PokerStars European Poker Tour Monte Carlo event took place, and once again, the high-stakes action was memorable.
A game with nine of the biggest players in poker battling for a winner-takes-all stood out as one of the best in the series.
The special invitational tournament had a €100,000 buy-in and featured a no-limit hold'em format.
Additionally, the organisers of the event added another €100,000 to the prize pool, making the total payout for the event an astonishing €1,000,000 for the winner.
After more than seven hours of intense poker, Jason Koon walked away from the event as the champion and added another seven-figure payday to his winnings.
A Lineup Filled With Poker Superstars
The combined career earnings of the nine players were more than $448.9 million.
The star-studded lineup included Stephen Chidwick, Mikita Badziakouski, Daniel Dvoress, Patrik Antonius, Ben Tollerene, Artur Martirosian, Aleksejs Ponakovs, Kayhan Mokri, and Jason Koon.
Before any card was dealt, Koon tweeted about how excited he was to be playing against such high-level opponents.
PokerStars has assembled one of the toughest lineups imaginable and tomorrow we are going to play a winner-take-all sng for €1,000,000. Tune in. @PokerStars
— Jason Koon (@JasonKoon) May 5, 2026
Jason Koon Adds Another Huge Victory
Koon was the last man standing after insane action, taking home the title and a $1,174,900 cash prize.
This score marks his 17th time winning well over one million dollars in a tournament.
He is now one of the few players in the history of poker to earn more than $73.8 million in live tournament earnings.
Early Eliminations Shape the Tournament
The tournament lasted approximately 7 hours and 30 minutes because all players wanted to win it all.
It took over two hours for the first player to be eliminated.
Mikita Badziakouski was eliminated in 9th place by losing his pocket kings lost to Aleksejs Ponakovs' set of tens.
A few moments later, Ponakovs continued to build on his momentum by eliminating Daniel Dvoress in 8th place when his pocket aces held up against Dvoress’ pocket nines.
Ponakovs and Patrik Antonius played a massive hand.
Ponakovs had tens, and Antonius had aces, and when the board fell, Antonius made a wheel straight.
This hand could have eliminated Ponakov, but he survived.
As players continued to eliminate each other, the atmosphere at the table became tense, and every decision and hand was vital.
Big Clashes Lead to a Dramatic Finish
The comeback of Ponakovs happened when he doubled through Koon with trip sevens off the flop; at this point, he made a full house to keep himself alive.
However, he was eliminated in sixth place after running into Chidwick’s A-Q suited while holding pocket deuces.
Patrik Antonius was next busting in fifth place when he went all-in with Q-J and Artur Martirosian called with A-5, which held up and kept Antonius from improving.
Martirosian lost a pivotal hand to Koon as he flopped top pair with an ace to Koon’s two pair (7-6) on the flop and eventually went out in fourth place.
Stephen Chidwick finished third after an incredible hand against Kayhan Mokri.
Chidwick had 
and Mokri had 
.
The flop came 
and Mokri's hand held.
Chidwick now had only a few chips and shoved with pocket tens but lost the flip to Mokri, who held Q-J.
This set the stage for a heads-up match between Koon and Mokri.
Koon started the heads-up match against Mokri with an impressive stack of chips, holding 6,050,000 chips compared to Mokri's 2,950,000 chips, which was more than double Mokri's stack.
However, the heads-up match came to an abrupt ending in a highly dramatic final hand.
Mokri shoved all in from the button with 
and Koon made the call holding 
.
The flop fell 
, both players flopped a pair, and it seemed like the pot would be chopped.
However, when the 
hit the turn, Koon also was on a flush draw.
When the 
landed on the river, Koon completed his flush; he won the hand and the title of champion American poker player.
With that hand, Jason Koon officially won the prize of €1,000,000 winner-take-all and added yet another trophy to his already impressive arsenal of trophies.
You can watch all the action on YouTube.
