In this week’s update of the PocketFives.com Online Poker Rankings, one PocketFiver has received a recent boost thanks to his wins in the high-stakes edition of Event 17 in the PokerStarsSpring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) and Full Tilt PokerSunday Mulligan. Jason JAKoon1985 Koon now holds the 37th best PLB score worldwide and saw his bankroll boosted by a healthy $302,000 as a result of the SCOOP win, marking the largest score of his online poker career. The West Virginia native had fled to the white sand beaches of Hawaii when PocketFives.com caught up to him to discuss his big month of April.

The $2,100 buy-in No Limit Hold’em Cubed event held as part of the inaugural SCOOP attracted a healthy 268 player field. In fact, the top three finishers were PocketFivers. Koon bested Steven SteveyBallGameMerrifield heads-up with Frank gator93Hernandez taking the third spot. One week before his SCOOP victory, Koon finished as the runner up in the UltimateBet $200,000 Guaranteed for $26,000. He told PocketFives.com, “If I won the Ultimate Bet tournament the Sunday before, I would have had a Triple Crown.” It would have been one of the richest Triple Crowns ever acquired on the site.

He’s backed by fellow PocketFiver PureCash25, whom he calls “a really good friend of mine. He’s definitely been the most influential player in my development.” In November of 2008, PureCash25 took third in a $5,200 buy-in event held as part of the Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS) for $262,000. He finished second in the Full Tilt $50,000 Guaranteed on April 12th for $24,000. Koon and his backer brought their friends to Hawaii to celebrate the SCOOP and Sunday Mulligan wins. Koon told PocketFives.com that late in the SCOOP event “I said if I win this tournament, I’ll meet you this weekend in Hawaii. When we got to the final table, PureCash25 said he was booking his flight. I took a couple of my really good friends with me. We brought eight guys out here on us and have had a great time. When I get back, I’m taking my brother deep sea fishing in St. Augustine.”

Koon owns a degree in finance with a minor in philosophy and received his Master of Business Administration from West Virginia Wesleyan. Last August, he took a job selling insurance and by October, his love for poker became his main focus. On his success since leaving his job, Koon commented, “I’ve been trying to think outside of the box and look at the game from a different perspective. I’m trying to combat the strategies that guys like the CardRunners instructors are teaching. It’s hard to do the normal thing nowadays and have a huge win rate.” On his strategies he’s developed over time, he quipped, “Sometimes, they are going to make me look like a fool, but there’s a method behind it.”

Two days after taking down the SCOOP event for over $300,000, Koon was up to his winning ways once again, this time emerging victorious from the pack in the Sunday Mulliganon Full Tilt Poker. He had won over $350,000 in the span of two days and $398,000 during the first half of April. Heading into the final table of the Mulligan, he held 1.5 million chips, 1.2 million more than his next closest competitor. The tournament was the only one he had open from the final two tables on, when he switched gears after developing an active image. He imparted a few helpful words of advice that have led him to great success on the virtual felts: “You have to realize that your opponents are normal people just like you. You can do it if you try hard.”

His PLB score is the 37th best worldwide on the strength of his lucrative month. He now sits perched at #56 in the Rankings and told PocketFives.com, “It’s an honor to be there, but I’m not the 56th best player in the world in tournament play. I’m inexperienced and I’m new. To be in the top 10, you have to be a grinder. I just want to have a good quality of life and don’t want to burn myself out. It’s great to be ranked and good to get some credit, but I want to know that I can play good high-stakes poker.” In March, Koon added a feather in his cap by winning the Full Tilt Poker $1K Monday for $93,000 and appropriately lists his profession in his profile as “Livin the dream.”

With the 2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP) right around the corner, Koon, like other PocketFivers, is looking forward to a chance at proving himself in live play. The tournament series gets underway at the Rio in Las Vegas on May 27th with the annual $500 buy-in Casino Employees event. The next day marks the start of the $40,000 buy-in No Limit Hold’em tournament commemorating the 40th running of the WSOP. Koon revealed his plans for Las Vegas: “I’m going to play everything from $10,000 down in No Limit Hold’em, even the heads-up format.” The Main Event kicks off on July 3rd with the first of four starting days and will once again see its final table pushed back until November.

Aloha from all of us here at PocketFives.com to Jason JAKoon1985Koon for his SCOOP and Sunday Mulligan wins.