The Black Chip Bounty is over with Griffin Ristovski winning his first Ring, more than $15.5k, and 12 bounties. He had to face down double-ring winner Ryan Smith heads up, but he held the chip lead throughout.
In the final hand, he was marginally behind when he called off queen-ten against the king-jack for Smith, but he hit his queen on the flop and that was all he needed.
Not only was this Ristovski's first Circuit ring, but it looks to be his first win on the live felt. It will only come second in scores, however, as his top score of $18,321 from 12th in the 2019 WPT Fallsview Poker Classic still looks to be secure, even with the bounties added in.
Ryan Smith was in tough right from the start of heads up against Griffin Ristevski. Ristevski held the lead throughout the heads up match, though Smith was able to get back to about 2:1 behind at one point.
In the final hand, Smith had the best of it when the money went in. He shoved the button with king-jack, and Ristevski called off with queen-ten. That wasn't enough, though, as Ristevski found a queen on the flop of 
and that was enough to send the double-ring winner home without a third.
Ryan Smith was down to 640k when he shoved the button and got called by Griffin Ristovski. Smith was on 
against 
. Smith turned a ten and held to double above 1 million, but he's still the short stack.
Griffin Ristevski has about a 2:1 lead heads-up now over Ryan Smith. Smith was a double-ring winner here at WSOP-C two years ago in May 2022.
I missed the action writing the O'Leary hand, but Owen Beatty quickly followed him to the payout desk for 3rd place money, plus three bounties.
Daniel O'Leary shoved the button but small blind and big stack Griffin Ristevski re-shoved. O'Leary was looking for diamonds with 
against the 
for Ristevski. O'Leary found some hope on the flop of the 
board but the third diamond never came and he was out in4th place for $5,002 plus 12 bounties.
Griffin Ristevski Leads the Final Four.
Player |
Chips |
| Owen Beatty | 1,235,000 |
| Daniel O'Leary | 1,060,000 |
| Griffin Ristevski | 2,850,000 |
| Ryan Smith | 1,005,000 |
Owen Beatty shoved the small, and Daniel O'Leary snapped it off. O'leary was at risk, but found pocket aces in the big blind. Beatty was on 
and flopped some hope with the 
board but it wasn't enough.
That left him with fumes but he doubled the next hand against O'Leary when his king-jack turned trip kings over O'Leary's pocket threes.
Ryan Smith shoved the small blind with 
and Owen Beatty called off with to put himself at risk. The 
board couldn't help Smith, and Beatty rivered his seven.
Josh Ingaldson raised most of his stack from the cutoff, making it 875k. Big blind Griffin Ristevski asked for a look at what he had behind, then re-shoved with more.
Ingaldson called, but was in rough shape with threes against tens. Ristevski hit his ten on the turn on a board of 
and the boat sent Ingaldson to the cage.
Ryan Smith shoved the cutoff for 480k and Josh Ingaldson re-shoved from the button for about twice as much. The rest folded, and Smith was behind with king-eight against ace-queen for Ingaldson.
Ingaldson flopped his queen on the 
board but Smith rivered his king to stay alive. Daniel O'Leary was openly rooting to the ace-queen to win and take it down to 4 left, and after the flop, he called for a queen on the turn.
When the king hit the river he chuckled and said "I probably shouldn't have said that,"
"Ya, you probably jinxed it," stablemate Owen Beatty replied with a smile.
Daniel O'Leary limped from the small blind, then snapped it off when Griffin Ristevski shoved the big. It was a classic race between ace-jack for O'Leary and pocket fives for Ristevski. The 
runout had O'leary calling for the board to pair on the river, but it was ultimately clean for the pair.
Ristevski doubled to a bit more than 2 million while O'Leary, who recently booked back-to-back wins in another local series, still has a bit more than a million.
It's five-handed at the final table of the bounty now after Shane Chief flopped a pair with ace-king but was cracked by a running straight with six-four.
They are down to 6 left now in the Bounty game as Victor Yang just collected $2,149 for 7th place. With 6 players left right now, the average stack is a bit less than 20 big blinds.
They are now seven-handed in the bounty game after James Gibson from Manitoba took 8th place tonight for $1,681. Action is moving pretty quickly as the average stack is less than 15 big blinds right now.
There are now 8 players left in the bounty as BC's Dustin Centanni picked up 9th place tonight fro $1,339.
They are down to the final nine in the bounty now after Tyler Willis was the first to bust. He picked up the last payout of $1,088 with the next bust scheduled to get $1,339.
I haven't been able to follow the bounty much at all tonight, but the field ended up with 308 entries for combined prizes of $101,640. $70,840 of that is in prizes for the end of the night, with the rest in the bounty pool.
Prizes are now updated under the Payouts tab, but the earliest cashers will pocket $420 while the winner tonight will get more than $15.5k in addition to whatever bounties they collect.
Date: May 5, 2024, 5 PM
Start Stack: 20,000
Blinds: 20 Min
Late Entry: 9 Levels (~8:30 PM)
The evening side game tonight is the Black Chip Bounty. For $400 players get 20k in chips for 20-minute levels throughout the day. $100 of the buy-in goes to the bounty while the other $230 goes to prizes.
Players will be able to enter the game for 9 levels of play. Including breaks, that should put the final chance to enter at about 8:30 PM this evening.
This game will be my third priority today, so it may not get much coverage. I'll be focused on Day 2 of the 4-Flight until it awards the ring later today, after which I'll be moving to the endgame of the Seniors. If the Black Chip is still running when the Seniors ring is awarded, I'll finish the night out watching this one. Either way, I'll update the results on this one tomorrow at the very least.
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