Poker pro Ashton Griffin edged out DoylesRoom personality Hoyt Corkins heads-up to win the PokerStars North American Poker Tour (NAPT) High-Roller Bounty Shootout at the Venetian. The $25,000 buy-in tournament awarded a top prize of $460,000.
The final table was stacked with a mix of veterans and young guns of the industry, with one former World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event champion, Peter Eastgate, who became the youngest winner ever of the $10,000 buy-in tournament in 2008 at the tender age of 22. Joe Cada would shatter Eastgate’s record one year later. Eastgate was the first casualty of the seven-handed High-Roller Bounty Shootout final table after pushing pre-flop with pocket eights and running into Scott Seiver’s pocket jacks. Eastgate could not catch up, but he collected $75,000 for reaching the final table plus a $5,000 bounty for any player knocked out along the way.
The next to go was Brett Richey, who first doubled up with A-K against A-8. On the following hand, he looked down at A-Q and pushed again. Griffin made the call and showed K-Q of clubs, giving Richey a commanding lead pre-flop and a tantalizing opportunity for another double up. The board read 4-4-4-7, setting Richey up for success, but a king on the river gave Griffin the win.
Young gun Faraz “The-Toilet” Jaka, who earned his online moniker after playing an inordinate number of suited cards as a beginner in poker, pushed all-in from the small blind with Q-10 and was up against Seiver’s A-J of clubs. The flop gave Seiver top pair and a flush draw to boot; Seiver won the pot with a boat. Jaka landed in fifth place in the made-for-television tournament.
Seiver then pushed with Q-10 and ran into Corkins’s A-K. Corkins turned two pair to seal the win in the hand and Seiver, a WSOP bracelet winner, was eliminated from contention. Corkins had doubled through Seiver just prior to the latter’s final hand with pocket jacks against Seiver’s wired pair of fives. Corkins turned a set to send Seiver’s chip stack plummeting.
Joe Cassidy was eliminated from the NAPT Venetian High-Roller Bounty Shootout after moving all-in from the small blind with A-2 of diamonds. Griffin, sitting in the big blind, woke up with A-9 and made the call. A nine came on the flop and Cassidy was ousted. Entering heads-up play in Las Vegas, Griffin held a 2:1 chip lead over Corkins, who is fresh off a win in the World Poker Tour’s (WPT) Southern Poker Championship.
Two hands into heads-up play, a winner was determined. Corkins called all-in with 9-3 on a flop of 4-5-9. However, Griffin held 9-8, out-kicking Corkins and handing him the final table’s winner-take-all $460,000 grand prize. He cashed in a Pot Limit Omaha preliminary event during the 2009 WSOP Europe for £15,000. One year prior, Griffin landed in seventh in the Latin American Poker Tour’s (LAPT) San Jose, Costa Rica stop for $29,000.
All was not lost for Seiver, however, who collected a $100,000 bonus courtesy of PokerStars for knocking out the most number of players. Seiver single-handedly sent all six of his opponents at his first round table to the rails and two more at the finale for a total of eight.
Four hours of coverage on ESPN2 will be dedicated to the NAPT Venetian High-Roller Bounty Shootout and Main Event. The action kicks off on April 19th and will air according to the following schedule:
April 19th: Venetian $25,000 High Roller Bounty Shootout: 9:00pm to 11:00pm ET
April 26th: Venetian $25,000 High Roller Bounty Shootout: 9:00pm ET
April 26th: Venetian $5,000 Main Event: 10:00pm ET
Next up for the NAPT is a trip to Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Connecticut. The $5,000 buy-in NAPT Mohegan Sun Main Event kicks off on April 7th and runs through the 11th.
