Ashton Griffin Wins NAPT Venetian High-Roller Bounty Shootout
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 poker world 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 and 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’ 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.
Related Poker Tournaments News:
- PokerStars.net North American Poker Tour High-Roller: Ashton Griffin Wins
- The Online Railbird Report Vol. 25: Cole South and Ashton Griffin Bank Wins
- The Online Railbird: Ashton Griffin Top Dog with $111,723 During Midweek Action
- PokerNews Podcast: Run Ashton, Run feat. Ashton Griffin and Mer “PeachyMer” Brit
- Ashton Griffin – Poker Player Profile
- PokerStars.net NAPT Venetian Day 2: Lichtenberger Takes Over
- The NAPT on ESPN: Seiver Leads Bounty Race in $25,000 Shootout at the Venetian
- ESPN: No Decision Made Whether to Broadcast NAPT Los Angeles
- North American Poker Tour, Canterbury Park Forge Partnership
- The Online Railbird Report: Ivey Returns, Dwan Crushes, and Antonius Stages a Comeback
- Future of PokerStars North American Poker Tour Unclear
- North American Poker Tour Heads to Mohegan Sun
Poker argot:
- FREE CARD - A card dealt after all players checked in a betting round.
- DRAW - [1] A class of poker games characterized by players being dealt 5 cards face-down and later having the opportunity to replace some of the original 5. "Draw poker" and "Five-card draw" are examples of usage. [2] In stud and Hold'em games, the set of cards that will be dealt later can be collectively called "the draw". [3] To discard some number of cards and have dealt an equal number of replacements.
- MARKED CARDS - Cards that have been (illegally) altered so that their value can be read from the back.
- FLOP - [1] In Hold'em, the first three community cards, dealt simultaneously. [2] To deal a flop, or to make a hand on a flop. "I flopped trips".
- CASE - The fourth card of a particular rank, as in "he folded the case 9" when describing where all the 9s were in a hand. Comes from the game of Faro where an employee of the house, called the "case keeper". kept track of the number of each rank of card remaining.
- BEE No. 92 (TM) - Trade name for the "diamond back" cards frequently used in casino games. Compare: RIDER BACK.
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