All the bounties have been claimed and a winner has been crowned in the $1,100 NLH Mystery Bounty as the 2023 PokerStars North American Poker Tour (NAPT) Las Vegas comes to a close. Claiming the PokerStars Spade and top prize of $24,650 was Canada’s Timothy Rutherford, who climbed back from a steep heads-up deficit in the nearly empty tournament room to defeat Qing Liu.
The Mystery Bounty event drew 265 entries for a prize pool of $254,400 before a stacked final table formed that included Arizona grinder Jordan Spurlin (8th – $3,440), Florida crusher Mark Dube (6th -$5,000) and poker author Dylan Linde (5th – $6,500).
NAPT Mystery Bounty Final Table Results
| PLACE | PLAYER | COUNTRY | PRIZE (IN USD) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Timothy Rutherford | Canada | $24,650 | |
| 2 | Qing Liu | United States | $15,370 | |
| 3 | Robert Natividad | United States | $10,975 | |
| 4 | Joseph Marchal | United States | $8,440 | |
| 5 | Dylan Linde | United States | $6,500 | |
| 6 | Mark Dube | United States | $5,000 | |
| 7 | Anze Smajd | Slovenia | $4,120 | |
| 8 | Jordan Spurlin | United States | $3,440 |
The Canadian’s victory over Liu was as unlikely as they come as he was down to crumbs during heads-up play before securing three consecutive doubles to overcome Liu, who had collected seven bounties and was looking for one more.
“It was pretty nice, got a little lucky there heads-up down to three bigs,” Rutherford told PokerNews in a winner’s interview. “But you know, that’s how poker goes sometimes and I’m glad to be on the fortunate end of it.”
Rutherford, who adds to his $474,528 in live earnings, didn’t go on the bounty haul that his heads-up opponent did but managed to ladder up to heads-up play to eventually take it down.
“(I) pretty much just waited for the cards, tried to pick a few spots here and there,” he said. “After that, I just let Lady Luck handle the rest.”
Reichard Ruptures, Bounties Fly
All 42 players who returned for Day 2 were in the money and were quick to get their chips in the middle in an attempt to pick up a coveted bounty. Most coveted of all were the four $10,000 bounties in play, though there were also more than a dozen $5,000 bounties up for grabs.
Bounties in Play
| Value | Total Number of Bounties |
|---|---|
| $10,000 | 4 |
| $5,000 | 13 |
| $2,000 | 2 |
| $1,000 | 23 |
| $500 | 1 |
Day 1 chip leader Josh Reichard got off to a hot start by growing his stack and picking up one of the $5,000 bounties. The midwest poker legend later picked up a $10,000 bounty, but that would be the end of Reichard’s run-good.
Not long after the two-table redraw, Reichard went on an extreme downswing that saw him doubling up four of his opponents, two of them in the same hand as he ran eights into the aces and kings of Joseph Marchal and Spurlin.
Some other players who fell ahead of the final table include Daewoong Song (17th – $1,640), Camille Brown (16th – $1,640) and PokerStars Ambassador David Kaye, who fell on the unofficial final table bubble as his king-seven couldn’t beat out the ace-ten of Spurlin.
Once the final table formed, Jordan Spurlin and Anze Smajd picked up the last two $10,000 bounties on their ways out in 8th and 7th place. Next to go was Mark Dube, three-bet jammed with deuces and was called by Natividad with ace-king. Dube was ahead until an ace on the river confirmed his elimination in sixth place.
Linde also fell after a three-bet jam into Big Slick as his ace-eight was dominated by the cards of Rutherford, who ended up hitting Broadway to put an emphasis on the fourth-place elimination.
After knocking out Natividad in third place, Liu had a formidable chip lead and seemingly a lock on winning the trophy as he entered heads-up play.
“If you win can I keep the trophy?” Rutherford asked Liu.
“Good deal for you!” Liu replied.
As is turned out, Rutherford would win the tournament and get the trophy as he doubled up a sub-ten big blind stack before again doubling as his dominated queen-seven out-flopped Lui’s ace-seven. Another double with nines against fives gave Rutherford the lead before a final hand that saw Rutherford winning a final flip to close out his parlay.
As Rutherford darted off for winner’s photos, Liu cashed in on his seven bounties and pulled the remaining four $5,000 bounties and three $1,000 bounties for a total of $23,000. Rutherford didn’t have a sweat as he returned to collect on his two bounties, but he was more interested in his newly acquired trophy.
“The trophy’s always nice to put on the shelf when you get home.”
That wraps up the PokerNews live reporting team’s coverage of the NAPT Mystery Bounty on the tail end of the first NAPT festival in 12 years. Be sure to check out the NAPT Las Vegas reporting hub for coverage of other events.
