Last Cowboy Standing - Luke Snyder Writes Another Chapter In His Las Vegas History Book

The old saying goes, "it's better to be lucky than good". Well, on Saturday night at the Mandalay Events Center in Las Vegas, Luke Snyder was both. Coming into the event Luke wasn't a favorite to win especially with a season average of 33%, riding only 12 of 36 bulls he had gotten on.  But when the favorites, Valdiron de Oliveria, Silvano Alves and LJ Jenkins all bucked off early, the door was open for Snyder, who had already ridden his first two bulls for 88.00 and 90.50 respectively.

Going into the third and final round only four cowboys remained, Pistol Robinson, Aaron Roy, Sean Willingham and Snyder. After both Robinson and Roy bucked off, the final two showdown was set.  If both cowboys, Willingham and Snyder, stayed on for the 8 seconds the event would move on to a fourth round between the two.  But, Snyder had other plans.  Once he saw Willingham inadvertently slap Slim’s Ghost at 7.9 seconds, which led to no score, he knew what he had to do. Snyder proceeds to cover his third bull of the night, the only cowboy of 40 to accomplish that feat and the only cowboy to have two 90-point rides.

With that ride, Luke Snyder became the first ever Last Cowboy Standing with a payday of $216,500. $216,500 is the highest one-day payout of the 2011 Professional Bull Riders Built Ford Tough Series season, and the second highest in history.

It is the second big payday in Las Vegas for Snyder, who won the PBR Built Ford Tough World Finals and $263,000 in 2001 as a 19-year-old.  He also captured the 2001 PBR Rookie of the Year title as well. Saturday’s event was the 300th of the 28-year-old’s career, the third most in PBR history.

As the arena was emptying, Snyder told reporters, "I can't stop smiling....this is enough to turn an entire season around." 

And in typical cowboy fashion, Sean Willingham, who was disappointed and contended he was out of position and too far off the bull to have slapped, said that was happy for Luke and that all the cowboys pull for each other.

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