Pavel Plesuv Comes All the Way Back to Win ��3,000 Platinum Pass Mystery Bounty
Sometimes all you need is a chip and a chair...and some luck in the case of Pavel Plesuv. Down to his last two big blinds, Plesuv came all the way back to capture the title in the ��3,000 Platinum Pass Myster Bounty at this year's PokerStars European Poker Tour London.
Plesuv will be taking home ��154,426 for his efforts after defeating Santhosh Suvarna in an epic heads-up battle. This was the fifth time Plesuv reached the heads-up stage of a tournament on the EPT dating back to 2016 and the third win of his career on the tour. The poker pro has amassed over $5.6 million in career tournament winnings with the majority of it coming on European soil.
The man from Moldova has not been playing much of the higher-stakes buy-ins as of late but this win will give him some renewed confidence. He will also be adding 11 bounties on top of the first-place prize for an additional ��20,000 when he appears at the payout desk. As for his heads-up rival, Suvarna will earn a cool ��96,700 plus some bounty money as well, pushing his total into the six-figure mark.
Final Table Payouts
| Place | Player | Country | Prize (GBP) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Pavel Plesuv | Moldova | ��154,426 |
| 2nd | Santhosh Suvarna | India | ��96,700 |
| 3rd | Iacopo Brandi | Italy | ��69,100 |
| 4th | Robert Macsim | Romania | ��53,100 |
| 5th | Sebastien Jung | United Kingdom | ��40,850 |
| 6th | Yasuhiro Waki | Japan | ��31,450 |
| 7th | Blaz Zerjav | Slovenia | ��24,200 |
| 8th | Bruno Soutavong | France | ��19,850 |
Action from Day 3
Day 3 began with 16 players returning to their seats with their sights set on the lion's share of the prize pool that was still up for grabs. Oh, and there was also a PSPC Platinum Pass waiting in one of the remaining envelopes. However, it didn't take long for that prize to be snagged up by Hannes Jeschka who was the first to be eliminated on the day. Jeschka headed to the treasure chest to redeem three of his unclaimed bounty tickets and one of them happened to be the coveted Platinum Pass that will earn him a direct entry into the PSPC this coming January in the Bahamas.
It was smooth sailing from there as the final table was reached in an orderly manner but that is when the action seemed to stall out. Once Paul Tedeschi was eliminated in ninth place, Bruno Soutavong followed to the payout desk when his aggressive style backfired. His nut-flush draw ran into Iacopo Brandi's set and Soutavong was unable to catch up.
Many players fell into the short stack at the table on multiple occasions but one thing stayed consistent and that was the big stack of Plesuv ever since the start of the day. Blaz Zerjav and Yasuhiro Waki put up a good fight but eventually, they succumbed to the blinds and bowed out in seventh and sixth place respectively. Sebastien Jung also made a climb up the leaderboard at one point, but a cold deck didn't allow for him to get anything going afterward.
The start-of-day chip leader was Robert Macsim who battled his way up to a fourth-place finish. A cooler eventually finished him off when his pocket tens ran into the pocket kings of Suvarna. That allowed Suvarna to take over the chip lead for the time being. However, after the elimination of Brandi, Plesuv regained his crown and took a slight lead into the heads-up match.
A monster hand at the start of the heads-up match went in the favor of Suvarna who flopped a full house. Plesuv was unable to get away from his turned two pair and was left with less than two big blinds at the time. Just when everyone thought the match was over, including Plesuv, the deck had other things to say about it. In three consecutive hands, Plesuv was all in and at risk and won all of them, including two of them coming from behind. That momentum carried forward for the next two levels and by now we all know how that finished.
That wraps up the PokerNews coverage for this event but there are still a couple of days remaining at the EPT stop at Hilton Park Lane so keep it tuned in here for all of the latest updates.