Ashton Griffin Wins Full Tilt Heads-Up Championship
May 26, 2009
Full Tilt’s $25,000 Heads-Up Championship is one of the most awaited tournaments in the online poker community. Finally, the premier event with a prize pool that spiked up to $1,575,000 concluded after two action-packed days of sheer poker brilliance. In the end, Ashton ‘theASHMAN103′ Griffin emerged on top of a field of 63, besting poker notables including Erick Lindgren, Andy Block, John Juanda, Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfon, Phil Ivey, Tom “durrr” Dwan, Brian Townsend and recent FTOPS winner Gavin Smith.
A lot of the poker luminaries were sent packing in the first round. Ivey and Smith were the first two to go. Lindgren, Juanda, Bloch and Galfond also didn’t fare too well as they all didn’t make it to round two. In Round 2, other favorites such as Dwan, Scott “mastrblastr” Seiver, Steve “stevebets” Jacobs and Scott Montgomery were sent home.
With only 16 players battling it out for the money, eventual winner Ashton ‘theASHMAN103′ Griffin found himself face-to-face with none other but the defending champion David Singer. Fortunately for Griffin, he defeated Singer who fell just shy of the money in 12th place. David Pham was another poker pro who was destined to be on the bubble.
There were eight players left and only four would return to fight for victory. When the dust cleared, it was David “Raptor” Benefield, James “WinnerFish” Kilarjian, Griffin and Blair “yogiblair” Anderson who survived to face off. Anderson who was facing off against Griffin was set to make a comeback but was booted when his pocket fives proved to be no match to Griffin’s Queens. Kilarjian also failed to make it when his top pair didn’t improve to beat Benefield’s overpair.
During the championship match, Benefield took an early hit when his top pair ran against Griffin’s top and bottom pair. Griffin suddenly had a 5-1 lead and Benefield just never recovered. On the last hand, Benefield gambled on an open-ended straight draw. Unfortunately for Benefield, Griffin’s set of nines held up. Benefield won $315,000 for his runner-up finish while Griffin won $551,250.
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