The North American Poker Tour Mohegan Sun $25,000 high roller bounty shootout recently finished up. The event was filmed by the NAPT Live and ESPN as they captured the action at the felt. The final table was very exciting and it was Team PokerStars pro Jason Mercier who earned the first place win.
Six players made the final table and they had survived the field of thirty five players from day one. Everyone began with a new chip stack which was 150,000. Blinds began at 600/1,200 with a 100 ante. Each player had a $5,000 bounty on their head.
Six handed play would last for about two hours before the first player would be eliminated. Luis Vazquez would go up against Faraz Jaka with 10-5 suited. Jaka had K-10 and managed to take the hand from Vazquez who was out in sixth place.
The next player to be eliminated was Shawn Buchanan. He moved all in holding Q-10 on a flop of Q-10-4. Mercier called with K-3 suited clubs and he got an enough clubs on the board to get a flush and the win. Buchanan was knocked out in fifth place.
Matt Glantz then moved all in with pocket tens preflop and Mercier called with pocket queens. The board was no help to Glantz and he was out in fourth place. Later on Sam Stein managed to catch up with Mercier when he went up against the pro. Stein’s pocket Aces were too much for Mercier and Stein’s chip stack grew to almost even with Mercier.
Mercier then earned his sixth bounty when he beat Faraz Jaka who was then eliminated in third place. This would leave Mercier and Stein to compete in heads up play. When heads up play began the two poker players would have only just over 60,000 chips difference between them. The match would stay pretty even until about an hour in when Mercier would start to pull ahead.
However Stein would make a move and end up taking a good bit of Mercier’s chips, gaining the lead in the process. Mercier would then spend the next hour trying to earn back the chip lead. By the time the dinner break rolled around Mercier would have gained back his lead.
After the dinner break, Stein got on a roll and earned the lead again. The players would exchange the lead several times before Mercier would move all in preflop with K-10. Stein made the call with A-Q suited and the board ran A-J-2-5-Q. Mercier earned a Broadway straight on the final card and he would double up to stay in the game.
On the final hand Mercier was all in again with pocket threes. Stein called with A-J suited diamonds. The board came J-6-2-4-5 and Mercier would double up yet again. On the final hand Stein was forced to go all in with 9-3 and Mercier held 10-6 which was just enough to claim the win.
Final Results:
1st: Jason Mercier — $450,000 (7 bounties)
2nd: Sam Stein — $75,000 (3 bounties)
3rd: Faraz Jaka — $80,000 (4 bounties)
4th: Matt Glantz — $70,000 (2 bounties)
5th: Shawn Buchanan — $80,000 (4 bounties)
6th: Luis Vazquez — $70,000 (4 bounties)