button in SafariAll-Ladies Heads-Up Duel Kicks Off New PokerNews PowerStack Season at RGPS Dallas
Table Of Contents
After six Day 1 starting flights and an exciting Day 2 filled with plenty of all-in action, the $300 PokerNews PowerStack Mystery Bounty has officially came to a close, with Shannon Lee capturing a career-best score of $17,842, along with an additional $3,100 in bounties, her first RGPS ring, and the trophy.
The event marked the start of the RunGood Poker Series to Palace Poker in Grand Prairie, Texas, with the inaugural stop held back in the spring for the Passport Season edition. This time around, the event kicked off the RGPS Golden Expedition fall calendar, with only 79 players returning on the final day from a sizable field of 648 entries.
Lee defeated Lynn Samples after a brief heads-up match to earn the lion’s share of the $162,000 prize pool, $64,800 of which was dedicated to the mystery bounties.
"Excited, awesome," were the two words that came to mind when Lee described how she was feeling after hitting a new high score. "I really enjoy the challenge more than the hardware, but it is nice to have a piece of hardware to show from the winnings that I've made," she said, referring to the ring and the trophy.
$300 PokerNews PowerStack Mystery Bounty Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Shannon Lee | United States | $17,842 |
| 2 | Lynn Samples | United States | $11,883 |
| 3 | Javier Urreiztieta | United States | $8,752 |
| 4 | Nicholas Burnett | United States | $6,520 |
| 5 | Gi Yi | United States | $4,913 |
| 6 | Anwesh Baisyat | United States | $3,746 |
| 7 | Peter Clive | United States | $2,890 |
| 8 | Ted Bodnar | United States | $2,256 |
| 9 | Kevin Small | United States | $1,782 |
Returning After a 15-Year Hiatus
Lee discussed the beginnings of her poker journey, which started long before the poker boom when most players were introduced to the game.
"My stepfather got me started playing poker in the 90s. I started reading books about it and then I bought the WSOP app for the Xbox 360. I played that until I could win the tournaments and get a cash roll on that game. Then I started playing live and I played a lot of different home games in the early 2000s."
She went on to explain how she took a long break from the game after giving birth to her daughter, but has picked up right where she left off.
"I've been playing for a long time, but I took off after I had a kid. I took off for about 15 years I guess, and now she's a senior in high school. So, I started playing again about a year ago, and I've been really doing good."
Approach to the Mystery Bounty Format
Lee explained that she navigated the mystery bounty portion of the tournament by keeping her eye on the end goal and not putting too much focus on the bounties themselves.
"It didn't change my strategy because I wasn't after the bounties, I was after the final money. Because if you go after the bounties you're gonna lose your stack. So I wasn't worried about knocking people out for that. I was just more focused on getting to the end of the tournament."
She added that she viewed the bounties as more of a bonus, and her attitude was that whatever happens with them happens.
"Whatever bounties you get, you get. I ended up with, let's see, $3,100. I only got 3 bounties, but one of them was $2,500."
Women Shine on the Final Day
The women of the Dallas poker scene showed up to compete on the final day of action, with Lee, Samples, and Shannon Eason earning the largest shares of the prize pool. After exiting in 10th on the final table bubble, Eason still had one bounty to cash in after pulling the top $10,000 bounty earlier in the day. Much to her surprise, she pulled the second-largest bounty as well, worth $7,500, giving her the equivalent of a first-place payout in bounties alone.
Lee attributes the fun, welcoming environment in Texas card rooms to helping women thrive in a male-dominated game.
"I think here in Texas we have a lot of women that play, and I think we're very competitive. I think a lot of men will tell you that the women are very competitive. I think it's also everybody just lets everybody play. Nobody's trying to bully anybody, as far as women versus men kind of thing."
