Were you in Connecticut on Tuesday with an extra $25,000 to splash around in a High Roller Tournament? No? Okay, then you aren’t Jason Mercier, Sam Stein, Matt Glantz, Shawn Buchana, Faraz Jaka, or Luis Vazquez. You also aren’t at least $150,000 richer. Course to play in a Poker High Roller Bounty Shootout you almost need to audit a course in poker school just to understand how the tournament works.
The shootout part isn’t so hard. You play each table like a sit ‘n go. Win one, advance to the next. Winner take all. Players in the early rounds were placed at six different tables with only the winner advancing to the final table. All you had to do was beat the folks you were seated with didn’t matter what happened at the other tables. There were five tables of six and one table of five. The last table to finish featured Luis Vasquez in heads up action vs. Peter Jetten. This would have been your table, as it was the one that was short a seat. Perhaps it would have been you heads up with Vasquez or Jetten, fortunately for Vasquez you weren’t there. Instead his final hand played out as he held A9 of hearts.
Preflop Jetten led out for 2,500, Luis Vasquez bumped it up to 8,200 and Jetten made the call knowing he’d have position. The flop was kind to Vasquez as an Ace landed with a Queen and a deuce. Vasquez checked what he thought to be the best hand and Jetten did the firing. 9k into the pot got a call from Vasquez. The turn made two pair for Vasquez as a 9 hit the board, all four suits now represented. Vasquez tapped the table and after some contemplation Jetten did the same. The River was a brick 3. While it was possible one of the two could have been manglind 45 it didn’t look to help either of them.
Vasquez pushed out 16.7k. Almost before Jetten had finished pushing all his chips to the middle Vasquez insta-call let Jetten know the tournament was over for him. He showed a missed draw with J10. Vasquez mowed down every one of his opponents pocketing 20k in bounties (5k per victim). The only problem with his late win? Vasquez would go to the final table with less chips than the other winners.
Already, qualified for the final table Shawn Buchanan who just earlier got involved in his last pot with Steve Sung. Buchanan held Ac2c. When Steve Sung limped from the button Buchanan hid his ace by checking from the big blind. The flop flushed him out of hiding when it hit him square in the nose. AsQc5c. Top pair and a flush draw for Buchanan, who had to be congratulating himself on the inside for his deception with his starting hand.
Tuned out Sung must have had something too. After a Buchanan check Sung led out for 1,500. Buchanan gladly checked-raised double S to 3,500. Sung put another 3k on top and Buchanan asked the kid how much he had left. Buchanan put the just short of 20k in the middle of the pot and Sung under his hoodie and sunnies made the call. Sung held a familar also A2, though he had no draw. Buchanan was freerolling for the first table in the shootout.
This happened earlier between the two, but the song did not remain the same, because Buchanan missed his last freeroll but this time a club leaked out on turn and meaningless 10 hit the river and it was all she wrote for Steve Sung. Poker writers everywhere started thinking of song/Sung related cliches.