Monday night featured the final tables of the PokerStars North American Poker Tour (NAPT) Mohegan Sun High-Roller Bounty Shootout and Main Event on ESPN2. The latter awarded a $350,000 winner take all prize.
Each player had a $5,000 bounty on his back in the Shootout. At the end of the tournament, the player who recorded the most number of bounties would walk away with a prize package to the next NAPT High Roller Bounty Shootout, whose date and location have yet to be announced. Each player who made the final table pocketed up to $60,000.
Immediately making his presence known was Faraz “The-Toilet” Jaka, who took Luis Vazquez to school early. On a flop of Q-5-J, Vazquez checked with A-J and Jaka checked behind with Q-3 for top pair. Another jack on the turn gave Vazquez trips and he led out for 11,000. Jaka called and the river was a six. Vazquez bet 19,000, Jaka raised to 81,000, and Vazquez folded trips face up believing that Jaka had a boat.
After losing a chunk of his chips to Jaka, Vazquez was all-in with 10-5 of clubs against Jaka’s K-10 on a flop of 4-7-10 with one club. Jaka sweated when another club hit on the turn, giving Vazquez a flush draw, but the river blanked out. Vazquez picked up $70,000 for his efforts.
After NAPT Venetian Main Event runner-up Sam Stein hit a two-outer on the river against Matt Glantz, ESPN poker commentator Norman Chad belted off this memorable line: “I don’t want to say that Stein is a luckbox, but when I went to buy a luckbox the other day, it’s now called a Steinbox.” Soon after, Shawn Buchanan and Glantz hit the rails. Jason Mercier recorded his fifth bounty after busting Glantz to lead the pack in that department.
Mercier also served as the executioner of Jaka, whose A-K could not withstand Mercier’s A-7. Mercier then pushed all-in pre-flop with K-10 and ran into Stein’s A-Q of clubs. The flop came A-2-J and Stein was 87% to win. A five on the turn didn’t help matters, but Mercier hit a three-outer on the river when a queen came for a straight. Chad admitted, “Mercier is a huge Steinbox.”
Then, Mercier doubled up holding pocket threes against Stein’s A-J of diamonds. The flop came J-2-6, but a running 4-5 gave Mercier the win with a six-outer on the river. The Team PokerStars Pro member ultimately banked $450,000 for the victory in the Bounty Shootout, while Stein walked away with $70,000.
The second one-hour episode featured action from the NAPT Mohegan Sun Main Event. NAPT Venetian High-Roller Bounty Shootout final table member Scott Seiver was the group’s short stack, while Mike Beasley entered as its chip leader. Four players at the eight-handed finale were at least 40 years old. Young gun Jonathan “FatalError” Aguiar was the first to depart after his A-Q could not improve against Mike Beasley’s pocket tens.
Online poker legend and World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy received only one hand of air time and took seventh, while Derek Raymond hit the rails in sixth place for $115,000. Al Melville was out in fifth when his pocket queens failed to withstand Beasley’s A-Q. Beasley hit an ace on the flop and never looked back; Melville earned $150,000.
Seiver parlayed his short stack into a fourth place finish in the NAPT Mohegan Sun Main Event. Then, Yale Law School second year student and bracelet winner Vanessa Selbst ousted Michael Woods after coming out on the winning end of a race with pocket eights against 10-9. Selbst’s cheering section came armed with incredible energy and a multitude of signs, including one asking Selbst to the prom.
In the end, the Year of the Woman rolled on, as Selbst took down the NAPT Mohegan Sun Main Event title and $750,000. After bluffing off half of his stack, Beasley committed his remaining chips with Q-10, but did not improve against Selbst’s A-8.
Next Monday, NAPT coverage on ESPN2 rolls on at 10:00pm ET with two hours of action from the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure.
