Second Flight Complete; Ramdin, Eslami, Woodward, Smith and Tehan Advance
The second flight of tables for the $10,000 ESPN Bounty Shootout at The Bicycle Casino in Bell Gardens, California wrapped up on Friday with the last five spots at the final table being secured. Those five players who will be returning Saturday for the final table are Victor Ramdin, John Smith, Joe Tehan, Matt Woodward and Ali Eslami.
Ramdin was the first player to advance and did so after beating Jesse Martin heads up. Ramdin moved on with four bounties, but that’s not the story here. Ramdin won the $5,000 Main Event at The Big Event on Thursday night after defeating Joe Hachem. He scored $500,000 for that win and it would be unthinkable if he could also win the ESPN Bounty Shootout at the same stop with such top-notch competition.
Although Shawn Buchanan and Al Janedi are tied for the bounty lead with five apiece, they were eliminated prior to making the final table. Here’s how the bounty race stands going into the final table.
| Bounty Leaders | |
|---|---|
| Shawn Buchanan* | 5 |
| Sameer Al Janedi* | 5 |
| Victor Ramdin | 4 |
| Jonathan Duhamel | 4 |
| John Smith | 4 |
| Joe Tehan | 3 |
| Ali Eslami | 3 |
| Shane Schleger | 3 |
| Pat Walsh | 3 |
| Alex Keating | 1 |
| Matt Woodward | 1 |
The final table will commence at 2:00 PM PST out on the West Coast. The stakes will be raised as every bounty will be worth $10,000 and the winner is set to take home a first-place, winner-take-all prize of $171,700. Be sure to stay tuned to PokerNews for all of the live reporting from the floor.