The final day of the North American Poker Tour (NAPT) Venetian stop proved to be a marathon affair for the seven players seated at the final table of the High Roller Bounty Shootout event. Thankfully, they get a day’s rest between round one of play and the final table, but the nearly twelve-hour long table would test the players’ stamina nonetheless.  In the end, it was actually the player who was the most fatigued who grabbed the title as a sleep-deprived Ashton Griffin played his way to victory.

The Bounty Shootout began on Tuesday when 49 players gathered at the Bellini Ballroom in the Venetian to take part in the $25,000 buy-in invitational event. Of that crop of players, only the seven who defeated their first round tables advanced to play on Thursday, where they would vie for the top prize of $455,000. The winner take all format meant players would need to take risks and gamble it up in order to be the last man standing, but it did not mean that the rest of the field would walk away empty-handed.

Each player at the final table won $75,000 for defeating their round one table, plus they received $5,000 for each player they were able to knock out of the event. PokerStars.net also sweetened the prize pool by offering an extra $100,000 payout to the player who accumulated the most bounties over the course of the two-day event. Heading into the final table, online poker pro Scott Seiver had the most bounties thanks to a tour de force performance at his first table, in which he eliminated every single player to claim victory. Hoyt Corkins, Joe Cassidy and Faraz Jaka were all poised to catch up with Seiver and his six bounties though, as each of them accumulated four bounties each prior to the start of the final table.

The final table was rounded out with former WSOP Main Event Champion Peter Eastgate and online cash game players Griffin and Brett Richey, which made for a final table line-up heavy on online experience with Corkins representing the old school live pros. It would take four hours before the table lost a player and the man to make the first exit was Eastgate. He ran his pocket eights into Seiver’s pocket jacks to hit the rail in 7th and up Seiver’s bounty tally to seven.

Richey was the next player to fall when his A-Q failed to hold up against Griffin’s K-Q and Jaka busted out in 5th place courtesy of Seiver. With eight bounties to his credit, Seiver appeared to be the man to beat, but he would end up hitting the rail in 4th place. Seiver lost a chunk of his stack when he doubled up Hoyt Corkins holding pocket fives to the Alabama cowboy’s pocket jacks and got it in shortly thereafter holding Q-10 to Corkins’ A-K. The ace high board gave the pot to Corkins and left Seiver on the sidelines to sweat whether or not he would grab the bounty prize.

Three-handed play proved to be a lengthy affair, and even started to take its toll on one of the players. Griffin was apparently unable to sleep the night before the final table and spent it playing online rather than catching some zs. The decision caught up to him in the waning hours of play and he was spotted taking cat naps in between hands and sleeping on chairs during the breaks.

Three-handed play may have dragged on for a while, but in a matter of minutes the tournament went from three-handed to over and done with. After Griffin eliminated Cassidy in 3rd place, thereby locking up the bounty prize for Seiver, heads-up play lasted just two hands before a winner was determined. On the final hand of play, Corkins raised preflop, Griffin called and the duo saw a flop of 954. A series of bets and raises resulted in all the chips getting in the middle. Corkins held 93 for top pair, while Griffin showed 98 for top pair, better kicker. The turn came 7 then the river the J to give Griffin the pot and the match, while Corkins had to settle for a payout of $100,000 from his bounties and first round victory.

Griffin also received money for his first round win and bounties, bringing his total winnings in the event to $560,000, which is his biggest live score to date.

Here are the final table results and the payouts each player received from their first round win and bounties:

1st: Ashton Griffin – $560,000
2nd: Hoyt Corkins – $100,000
3rd: Joe Cassidy – $95,000
4th: Scott Seiver – $215,000
5th: Faraz Jaka – $95,000
6th: Brett Richey – $90,000
7th: Peter Eastgate – $85,000

**Photo courtesy of the PokerStars Blog

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