The Bicycle Casino Bounty Shootout and the NBC National Heads-Up Championship

by Chad Holloway

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In my last blog I talked about the first half of my trip to Los Angeles for The Big Event at the Bicycle Casino, which you can find somewhere on here. This time I’m going to continue with Part II and the Bounty Shootout (BSO) that took place at the same venue, the Bicycle Casino. It started with nine tables of nine players each, for a total field of 81 players. Each table played down to a winner, which comprised the final table that was filmed for broadcast on ESPN. Some of the players who played, but failed to make the final table, were Chris Moneymaker, Orel Hershiser, Richard Lyndaker, Daniel Negreanu, Vanessa Rousso, Allen Kessler, Shaun Deeb, and many more. The final table ended up being pretty stacked, including an appearance by Victor Ramdin, who was the winner of The Big Event Main Event just two days prior. Talk about a heater.

Aside from Ramdin, the final table also included John Smith, Shane Schleger, Matt Woodward, Alex Keating, Pat Walsh, Ali Eslami, Joe Tehan, and Jonathan Duhamel, the reigning World Series of Poker Main Event Champion. Unfortunately, Ramdin was the first player eliminated after he ran middle set into Smith’s top set just twenty minutes into play. Any BSO tends to be long, boring, and tedious, at least until the blinds pick up. This one was no different. It took 16 hours before the final table wrapped at 6:30 in the morning. Here is how the final table of that event ended up:

So while I was in L.A., the NBC National Heads-Up Championship was being held in Vegas. One of my favorite things to do is fill out a bracket with predictions prior to the event, much like filling out a March Madness bracket for the NCAA. Many others do the same and it has turned into a friendly competition in the poker community. As the reigning ESPN Fantasy Poker League Champion, and an expert in fantasy poker, I was looking forward to putting my knowledge to use and constructing some successful predictions. Unfortunately things didn’t quite turn out as I planned. Here is how my bracket looked:

If you compared this with the actual results, you’ll see I went a pathetic 18-45! Not the magnificent run I was hoping for; in fact, I didn’t have either Chris Moneymaker or Erik Seidel, the eventual finalists, making it out of the first round. It didn’t help that I picked Eric Baldwin to win and he was eliminated in the first round; likewise, Laak, who I also had in the finals, exited in the second round. At least I did a little better in my March Madness bracket.

My next stop is going to be the World Series of Poker Circuit in St. Louis between April 6^th-13^th. Not only will I be covering the Main Event for PokerNews, but I’m going down early to play a few rings events. Who knows, maybe I’ll capture one and have to hit the circuit trying to qualify for this $1 million National Championship Freeroll. That would sure be nice, but it’ll be fun either way. In the meantime, be sure to follow me on Twitter @ChadAHolloway and check out my daily articles on PokerNews.com.