Ashton Griffin Wins NAPT Venetian High Roller Shootout

After playing poker all night, Ashton Griffin still won the shootout.

Ashton Griffin has only been old enough to play tournament poker in Las Vegas for a bit more than a month. The waiting must have killed him, because he’s rushed out of the gate and grabbed his first live tournament victory in the $25,000 NAPT Venetian High Roller Shootout.

The center of attention coming in, Scott Seiver, picked up where he left off on the first day of the tournament – claiming bounties via aggressive play. He made former WSOP Main Event winner Peter Eastgate the day’s first casualty when his J-J held against the Dane’s 8-8, and then he eliminated Faraz Jaka in fifth place with A-J to Jaka’s Q-T. But Seiver would eventually run into the only player left who could catch him in the bounty race, Hoyt Corkins, who eliminated five of his opponents on Day 1 and accounted for ‘s departure from the final table. Corkins’ J-J held against Seiver’s 5-5 to cripple him before finally claiming his bounty with A-K against Q-T.

In order to catch Seiver in the bounty race Corkins would have to eliminate both of his remaining opponents. But when a short-stacked Joe Cassidy moved all-in with suited A-2 after a lengthy  and Griffin called with A-9 the Alabama Cowboy’s opportunity to win the bounty race was gone and Seiver had locked up an extra $100,000. From there Corkins’ only shot at picking up additonal cash was to win the tournament, and facing a 2-to-1 chip disadvantage he decided to adopt a “double up or go home” approach. He shoved all-in on the first hand of heads-up play and got no action from Griffin, but on the second hand of play he got action he didn’t want. Both players flopped top pair, but the young online star had the better kicker. By time the river card had been dealt that ended up being enough to seal the win.

Amazingly enough Ashton Griffin only eliminated four players total from his two shootout tables at NAPT Venetian. On both days he eliminated only two players after letting everyone else at the table do all the heavy lifting. But a $20,000 take on the bounty front won’t be too disappointing for Griffin, who takes home the entire final table prize pool of $455,000, not to mention the first of what will probably be many career tournament titles.