Jason Koon Inducted Into Poker Hall of Fame Ahead of Tonight's WSOP Finale

^{Jason Koon celebrates his Poker Hall of Fame induction in front of a cheering crowd at the WSOP Main Event final table. (Photo: courtesy of the World Series of Poker)}

During the 2026 World Series of Poker, there was much discussion about changes to the process for choosing new members for the Poker Hall of Fame. Despite updates that now allow for multiple inductees, the status quo persisted, and only one new member was selected. For the Class of 2026 to the Poker Hall of Fame, only poker professional Jason Koon was deemed worthy of election from an otherwise excellent cast of nominees. 

Meanwhile, the 2026 WSOP Main Event reaches its conclusion today at Horseshoe Las Vegas, where Lucas Jumalon and Lauri Saaskilahti will play heads-up for the $10 million top prize.

New Voting System, Same Result

Before this year’s process for the Poker Hall of Fame began, it was announced that the living Hall members who vote on the inductions would have a different process than usual. 

In the past, these living Hall members received 10 votes to do with as they chose. The public would still choose the nominees, but the Hall tried to implement a new system this year that could have produced more than one inductee.

The 33 living Hall members were each given four votes, which they could allocate to one person or spread among four candidates. Any player who received votes from two-thirds of the Hall members (22 or more) would receive automatic induction. If no one were able to reach that number, then only the top vote-getter would be inducted. 

The introduction of the changes created the theoretical potential for up to six new inductees, since 33 voters times four votes each equals 132 total votes. But alas, this didn’t come about since Koon received 23 votes (one more than the 22 required), making him the only candidate to clear the bar. 

There are also rumors that not every one of the 33 living Hall members cast a vote this year. If this is the case, it would be worth reworking the voting process to ensure that everyone participates. Should even a handful of Hall members decide not to vote, it then places the decision-making process in the hands of an even smaller group. 

Poker Hall of Fame Welcomes Jason Koon

For 2026, Jason Koon is the sole inductee for the Poker Hall of Fame. The announcement came on August 3 during ESPN’s broadcast of the Main Event. 

For the past 20 years, Koon has been one of the monsters on the tournament circuit. He currently sits in third place on the all-time money list with over $77 million in career earnings. Koon has earned 18 different seven-figure scores in his career and has won two World Series of Poker bracelets. Perhaps the biggest plus for Koon is that he is one of the most respected players in the game, among his fellow pros and other industry personnel, and that his conduct is always above board. 

Koon shared a statement on X expressing gratitude to his supporters and reminisced on the victory.

“When I found poker, I was immediately and forever in it,” he wrote. “It was my path to independence, my teacher in handling defeat and most importantly the vessel for introducing me to a large portion of the greatest relationships in my life.”

The Main Event's Final Two Face Off Tonight

This week has seen the 2026 WSOP Main Event final table convene to crown the next World Champion. The Horseshoe has been the scene of some great poker action, even if it’s occasionally felt more like a coronation than a competition. Twenty-two-year-old Lucas Jumalon, of Spokane, Washington, has dominated play since Day Seven of the tournament and arrived at the final table as the only player with more than 100 million in chips (194 million, to be exact).

It isn’t for a lack of trying from the other eight players at the table. With Jumalon’s chip stack size, he was able to play fast and loose, entering pots that a player wouldn’t normally attempt. Shorter-stacked opponents have had to be a bit more limited in their approaches. It has resulted in Jumalon making the final two and maintaining a monster stack through the final table. 

EMBED: 
2026 WSOP Main Event finalists Lauri Saaskilahti of Finland (left) and Lucas Jumalon of the United States (right), both sporting sunglasses, will battle for poker's biggest prize at Horseshoe Las Vegas. (Photos: courtesy of the WSOP)

That second player has been the thorn in Jumalon's side, though. Finland’s Lauri Saaskilahti has been able to challenge Jumalon on multiple occasions, including one situation where Saaskilahti was able to double through the chip leader. Saaskilahti has caught some good fortune, knocking out fan favorite Han Feng when he rivered a straight against Feng’s pocket Aces to rocket up the leaderboard. 

Feng also turned heads online and at the Series when he showed up in a $200, pink-feathered Donquixote Doflamingo costume, straight out of the One Piece anime series.

Tonight, these two men – Jumalon with 328 million chips, Saaskilahti with 225 million – will decide the 51^st man to win poker’s World Championship. Five players have won multiple Main Events in the 57-year history of the WSOP: Johnny Moss (3), Stu Ungar (3), Doyle Brunson (2), and Johnny Chan (2). If Jumalon holds on, he’ll be the first player since Koray Aldemir to lead the final table as chip leader from the start, AND he will become the second-youngest player to win the Main Event. 

If Saaskilahti earns the victory, he will be the first Finnish player to win the World Championship and the first European pro to win it all since Espen Jorstad in 2022.

The Horseshoe will be the place to be tonight, as poker crowns its latest legend. Let the games begin!