Josh Adkins Wins WPT bestbet Bounty Scramble ($331,480)
Table Of Contents
A new name was added to the World Poker Tour Champions Cup on Tuesday as Josh Adkins grabbed the title at WPT bestbet Bounty Scramble in Jacksonville, Florida. Adkins defeated a field of 349 entries in the $5,000 event, winning $331,480, counting his WPT Tournament of Champions seat.
Adkins told WPT reporters he was playing in his first tour event, much like recent champion Aaron Van Blarcum. Previously, Adkins, who said he mainly plays cash games, had only about $20,000 in cashes.
"Playing my first WPT and to win it, I don’t have words," he said.
Official Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Home Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Josh Adkins | U.S.A. | $331,480* |
| 2 | Tan Nguyen | U.S.A. | $210,988 |
| 3 | Josh Kay | U.S.A. | $155,340 |
| 4 | Jason Lee | U.S.A. | $115,340 |
| 5 | Jonathan Cronin | U.S.A. | $87,170 |
| 6 | Jeff Cunningham | U.S.A. | $66,457 |
The tournament, one of few big bounty events on the worldwide calendar, featured $2,500 bounties on select high-profile players. It sported a $1 million guarantee that was surpassed by a fair amount with more than $1.6 million in the final prize pool.
Two-time WPT champ Marvin Rettenmaier was the last bounty standing — earning himself a little prize — but he went down in 17th place. Other big names making deep runs included Jake Schwartz, Dan Shak, Sam Panzica and "LFG Podcast" host Jamie Kerstetter.
Former WSOP Main Event champ Joe McKeehen advanced to the unofficial final table with a big stack, but he'd slide from there and bust ninth. According to the live updates, he lost a big flip and then had kings cracked by ace-queen.
Josh Kay picked up the chip lead going into the official final table when he won queens over ace-king to end Day 3, while Adkins sat in second place, still having more than 80 big blinds.
Kay Dominates Early
Although Adkins had the chip lead early on for a bit, it was mostly the Josh Kay show at the start of the final table.
He scored the first three eliminations, sending out short stacks Jeff Cunningham and Jonathan Cronin, the latter in a kings over ace-king cooler. Jason Lee followed them after sinking all the way to five big blinds, and Kay had more than half of the chips three-handed.
However, his fortunes turned from there. First, Tan Nguyen doubled through him in two races, hitting Broadway on the river once and then having nines hold against ace-jack.
Adkins Charges Back
Meanwhile, Adkins sank to 16 big blinds and was the shortest stack. He got it in with three outs holding A♥7♣ against Kay's pocket queens but managed to survive with an ace on the turn.
Then, Kay raised to 360,000 at 60,000/120,000/120,000 in the small blind and Adkins called. Kay bet the 5♣8♣2♦ flop for 360,000 and Adkins raised him to 1.1 million. Kay moved all in on a bluff with K♣10♦ and Adkins snap-called with slowplayed aces, fading a backdoor flush after the J♣ turn to leave Kay on crumbs. The Michigan native busted shortly after that, still looking for a WPT title after three runs into the final seven.
Adkins had the chip lead heads up with Nguyen and it only took a few hands for him to secure the win, although he got lucky to do so. The two got stacks in with Nguyen's A♣K♣ dominating A♥Q♥. No matter for Nguyen as the J♠Q♦Q♣ flop gave him the lead and he faded any tens or kings hitting the board to knock out his fellow Florida grinder in second.
