21 Year Old Poker Prodigy Wins NAPT Venetian Shootout
Tweet ShareMarch 2, 2010 by Mike Ferguson · Leave a Comment
It was high stakes heaven: Entry was by invitation-only from PokerStars.net to the North American Poker Tour (NAPT) Venetian High Roller Bounty Shootout. First place prize was a whopping $460,000, with a bounty of $5,000 placed on all players.
Forty-nine top-rated players accepted the challenge and were broken up into groups of seven determined by a random drawing, then seated at seven tables total. A $5,000 cash bounty was deducted from each player’s $25K buy-in to be grabbed by any player knocking a fellow player out of the tournament.
Additionally, PokerStars.net kicked in an extra $100,000 cash bonus to be awarded to the player who bagged the most bounties. (With a total of eight scalps on his belt, PokerStars.net player Scott Seiver claimed that award.)
Team PokerStar Pros were in full attendance and Joe Cada, Peter Eastgate, Hevad Khan, Daniel Negreanu, Joe Hachem, Barry Greenstein, Vanessa Rousso, Chris Moneymaker, Greg Raymer, Dario Minieri, John Duthie and Steven Paul were in the house.
Celebs and world-class pros playing included Annie Duke, Jennifer Tilly, Phil Laak, Phil Galfond, Antonio Esfandiari, Yevgeniy Timoshenko and Joe Sebok.
The tourney was played in a sit’n'go manner and the top seven winners from the opening rounds made the final table and first round prize of $75,000.
Play at the final table began Thursday, February 25, each player beginning with a chipstack of $150,000. Making up the field were Joe Cassidy, Faraz Jaka, Peter Eastgate, Scott Seiver, Ashton Griffin, Hoyt Corkins, and Brett Richey.
When the shootout was over Ashton Griffin the 21-year-old Internet whiz kid was the last man standing, and he now goes into the books as the first NAPT $25K Bounty Champion.
In just about every major tourney these days we are seeing the generation of twenty-something’s who grew up online dominating the tables.
This was Griffin’s largest live tournament to date, yet his story comprises one of the most remarkable comebacks in online poker history. In the summer of 2007 he went busto with a bankroll of $10,000 and was mowing lawns for chump change in North Carolina. Eventually he scraped together around $700, and with that, combined with $84 in rake-back, parlayed the paltry sum into a $1 million bankroll in a period of only 12 months at Full Tilt Poker, using the handle theASHMAN103.
It was a very good year for the young lad. Also in 2008 he took top spot in FTOPS Event #22 ($100 PLO Re-Buys) for $85,146 then flew 5 days later to Costa Rica and made it to the final table at the LAPT San Jose for an additional $28,956.
Final Table results. (The number in parenthesis = bounties claimed)
1st: Ashton Griffin (USA) – $560,000 (6)
2nd: Hoyt Corkins (USA) – $100,000 (5)
3rd: Joe Cassidy (USA) – $95,000 (4)
4th: Scott Seiver (PokerStars.net Player, USA) – $215,000 (8)
5th: Faraz Jaka (PokerStars.net Player, USA) – $95,000 (4)
6th: Brett Richey (USA) – $90,000 (3)
7th: Peter Eastgate (Team PokerStars.net Pro, Denmark) – $85,000 (2)
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