POTD #152 Triton Jeju II $150k FT. Jason Koon Gets One Through Kayhan Mokri

Plus I defend Steve O'Dwyer's taste in rap music share my own playlist

In POTD #143, I wrote about Aleks Ponakovs rising up the ranks in the online and live tournament scene. Another post-COVID fast riser is Kayhan Mokri; he did not cash a live or online event with a 10k+ buy-in until March 2022. When I first played live with him in EPT Paris he was a high stakes cash player on Pokerstars and he has continued playing a lot of big heads up matches. He has battled top bosses in NL, PLO and PLO5, but his most watched matches were several 7-figure matches vs. shit-posting racist troll and children’s casino impresario Ossi Ketola. Kayhan is also a troll, but unlike “Monarch,” he has a funny and charismatic table presence. His trollish antics consist of engaging in funny banter, not in saying slurs to impress teenage edgelords.

He is also on a bit of a live Super High Roller heater, having won tournaments at Triton Jeju II, EPT Barcelona 2025, Triton Monte Carlo 2024, EPT Cyprus 2024, and two titles in EPT Barcelona 2024. (That includes the €100k three-day SHR and chopping a €20k single-day with some Canadian poker player and noted Substacker, who shares a hairline with Kayhan.) So Kayhan is a charming 31-year-old who is winning SHRs all over the world, playing in big private games, and battling top bosses. What doesn’t he have? Unfortunately, his knowledge of rap music is limited and his taste is mediocre. During Triton Monte Carlo 2024 he expressed displeasure at the playlist POTD subscriber Steve O’Dwyer shared with him, so I told him that I would make him a playlist to improve his taste in rap, but like many of my side projects, it fell by the wayside. However, this POTD entry feels like a good time to complete my playlist.

I tried to keep things structured, so I capped my playlist at 100 songs, did not allow repeat artists¹, and tried to pick a mix of personal favourites and songs firmly ensconced in the rap canon. I will be sharing that playlist for POTD readers and Kayhan below. The list is by no means comprehensive, and the playlist is sequenced alphabetically by artist. Today I will look at a hand Kayhan played at the $150k NLHE FT in Jeju this fall vs. Jason Koon. How does his play compare to my playlist? Let me know below.

Triton Jeju II 2025 $150K NLH 8-Handed – Event #7
(50k/125k/125k) (SB/BB/BBA) Final Table. 6 Remain.
1st. 4.107M, 2nd 2.796M, 3rd 1.846M, 4th 1.521M, 5th 1.222M, 6th 957K

Mario Mosbock (3.5M) folds UTG, Kayhan Mokri (4.17M) raises HJ to 250k with A♥️9♥️, Wang Ye (5.2M) folds the CO, Samuel Mullur (2.1M) folds OTB, Jason Koon (4.735M) calls in the SB, Yu Zhang (2.8M) folds BB.

Flop (750k) 8♣️5♦️5♥️: Jason checks, Kayhan bets 200k, Jason calls

Turn (1.15M) 7♣️: Jason leads 350k, Kayhan folds and Jason wins with T♦️9♦️

The sims for today’s hand were created for Octopi Poker’s vault. Octopi has kindly unlocked part of The Vault so POTD readers can see their sims, which will be linked below. If you’d like to subscribe to Octopi Poker to see more hands in The Vault. Sign up using code: PUNT for 50% off the 1st month for monthly subscriptions and 2 free months for annual subscriptions

Octopi Vault Replay
Preflop sim
Postflop sim

What Kayhan Was Thinking

You raise suited aces in the HJ; when Jason calls in the SB, he has a pretty tight and specific range that mostly misses 855 rainbow. Kayhan wants to c-bet a wide variety of hands, and A9 with a backdoor seems like a fine hand. Jason has a pretty specific range preflop and on the flop; by the time the 7c rolls off, Jason has very few hands that Kayhan is currently beating, and even though he is getting a good price, it’s rare that an ace, 9 and 6 will all be live for him. Plus, he doesn’t want to play a big pot vs. Jason, so he folded.

What Sam Thinks

Raising preflop is the only option for Kayhan, and his size is correct. On the flop, I think he has a mixed bet, but I’d lean towards checking, because I don’t think we are getting called by worse or folding out better often enough. I’d rather bet a hand like AhKh that pushes a little more equity vs. worse ace-high hands, can still call a check-raise, and has a little less playability in x/x lines compared to A9 because AK can’t turn straight draws. Betting is fine, though. I think the turn fold is just too tight. Jason only bets 30% pot and we have ace high and a gutshot; we need to call the turn bet with something, and this seems like a hand that needs to continue and seems close even if Jason is never bluffing. Obviously I know Jason can bluff here, because he was bluffing, but even if Jason is under-bluffing in this line, I still think you need to call.

What Sim Thinks

This is the third sentence in this newsletter saying you should raise A9s in the HJ. Do it. Jason’s preflop call is also the majority play. Jason often leads the flop with his range because he covers Kayhan, and Kayhan responds by rarely raising Jason’s flop lead. However, every hand in Jason’s range mixes checks, so it’s not a mandatory play for Jason to add. Kayhan is 50/50 to bet the flop with Ah9h, so I was likely checking it too often, but it’s possible if Jason is leading less than the solver that A9 checks more often. I was right that AhKh prefers betting to Ah9h. Jason mixes calling and raising on the flop, but he never folds and calling is the most common play. Quads and 54s are the only combos Jason has that are pure or almost-pure raises.

Jason rarely leads the turn— only 3% with range— but Td9d leads around 15% of the time, making it one of the highest-frequency leads from the SB. It’s possible we would see some more turn leading if the SB played a flop strategy that involved less leading, but either way I doubt we will see very much leading from the SB.

Kayhan’s turn fold is very costly; he never folds flush draws or straight draws. His mixed continues are hands like KQ high and AT. However, to Kayhan’s credit, A4 with a low straight draw pure folds, which I would not have found. Ah9h is making about three times as much as Qh9h, which also never folds on the turn with a gutshot and two overcards to an eight. A9 is making so much more than Q9 because A9 can still show down a winner unimproved. When you have a bad draw, but not the worst draw, and your hand beats bluffs, and you’re in position facing a 30% pot bet, you need to call, even if it feels like you’re going to have trouble winning the hand.

Final Thoughts and Grade

Many notable final table hands, including most of the hands I’ve covered in this series with Octopi, were big pots that led to new chip leaders or eliminations. Executing in those pots is key, but it’s always important to focus on the smaller pots, the ones are not always the most consequential but occur much more frequently. Kayhan plays a lot of heads-up poker and knows that a great way to achieve a big win rate HU is to exploit people who over-fold to small bets. I am sure Kayhan knows that ace high and a gutshot is too good a hand to fold to a third-pot bet, but he either he made an incorrect read on Jason or over-weighted the tournament considerations, and he made a tight fold vs. a small bet in a spot where you rarely fold any of your range. If he’s folding A9 here, he might be folding twice as often as he’s supposed to, which is really costly in the long run.

C

1. For those curious, I considered songs featuring artists to be totally different artists. Which is why Devin The Dude - “Lacville ‘79” and Devin the Dude (ft. Andre 3000 and Snoop Dogg) - “What a Job” can both be on this playlist. However I could not decide between “All Caps” and “Accordion” and they’re both two minute long songs, so I included them both.