Friday, March 29, 2019 7:29 PM Local Time
James Shearer Collects Final Bounty
James Shearer - Event #2 Winner
James Shearer claimed his first World Series of Poker title after collecting the final bounty of Event #2 at Horseshoe Council Bluffs. The 31-year-old Lab Technician ultimately outmatched 97 opponents in the $400 buy-in, No-Limit Hold'em Bounty tournament, winning $6,761 and a debut gold ring.
At the end of Day 1, Shearer bagged a healthy stack, finishing as third in chips with around 150,000. He successfully doubled that amount on Day 2 and entered the unofficial final table as chip leader.
“I took a couple hits early on, so I was just kind of biding my time, but the guy I was heads up with took out five people within one limit,” Shearer explained. “All of a sudden, it was four… three… and we’re just sitting there, and he has all the chips and it was just kind of crazy to even attempt to dent his stack.”
Shearer stood his ground as one of the big stacks for a while. However, the real catalyst of the table was Jose Mendoza. In true Bounty-Hunter fashion, Mendoza began picking up knockouts left and right, eventually leaving just him and Shearer heads up for the ring.
“We kind of went back and forth,” said Shearer. “But, the last three hands, either Jose or myself had pocket fours. We showed twice when we didn’t get to showdown, and then, I had pocket fours when he went all in so it seemed almost fitting.”
The final hand pitted Shearer’s pocket fours against Mendoza’s ace-jack. Holding strong, the small pocket pair secured the title for Shearer and the celebration was on for the Omaha, Nebraska native.
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