Ryan Van Sanford Wins in Jacksonville ($421,068)

Just three days after his 21st birthday, Colorado native Ryan Van Sanford has won the WPT bestbet Bounty Scramble!

This newly formatted $5,000 event drew a big field of 461 entries to the felt in Jacksonville, including 40 players with $2,500 bounties on their heads. Over the course of three tournament days, that field was whittled down to just six, and those finalists reconvened inside bestbet today to play for the title.

Van Sanford began the day with the big stack, and he quickly set about shrinking the table. On the 30th hand of the day, short stack Corey Hochman got the last of his chips in with [KdQh] against Van Sanford’s [AsQs], and the [Ac7s6s7c2c] board reduced the table to five.

Van Sanford took care of the dangerous Jason Helder in hand #56, the latter making a reasonable shove preflop with [KsQs]. Van Sanford quickly called with the superior [AhTd], though, and the board ran out [7d7c6s4hJh] to send Helder off in fifth place.

Jared Reinstein was next to fall on hand #89, content to flip for his tournament life with [8s8h] against the [AsTd] of Chris Bolek. Things looked safe for Reinstein with one card to come, but a [Ts] on the river gave Bolek the pot and the knockout. Just like that, there were three left.

More than 50 hands passed before the next knockout, and it was the behatted crowd favorite Brian Reinert who was next to fall, done in by another coin flip. His [AhKs] was unable to find any help against Van Sanford’s [JcJh] on a board that ran [Jd9h7c3d6h]. Reinert’s elimination cued the money presentation and the start of heads-up play.

From there, the road to victory was just 15 hands long for the youngster, winning 12 of the 15 to coast to the win. Bolek had been chipped down around 2 million when he took his stand with [Td7h] on a [Th9s6s] flop. Van Sanford called the shove with [Ts8d], though, in a dominating position and two cards from a WPT title. The turn [2s] and river [Qs] were blanks, ending Bolek’s day as the runner up.

Van Sanford was left standing alone under the bright lights, and he was soon joined on stage by the Royal Flush Girls, Mike and Vince, and a group of friends to pose for the winner’s photos.

For his work this week, Van Sanford collects $421,068 in cash, a Hublot King Power Unico watch, a pair of Monster 24K headphones, and the title of WPT Champion.

That’s it from Jacksonville, but Season XIII is just heating up. Across the pond, the WPT500 at Dusk Till Dawn is under way, and the Main Tour heads to Montreal in less than 10 days for its annual visit to Quebec.

Thanks to bestbet staff for being such hospitable hosts this week, and to Joe Giron for providing the photos you’ve seen throughout the last three days of action.

We’ll see you at the next one!