The first of three days of the €3,000 EPT Mystery Bounty at the 2023 PokerStars European Poker Tour presented by Monte-Carlo Casino?? is in the books. The field played twelve levels of 40 minutes each and unlimited reentries were available to players throughout the entire day. This led to plentiful action from the 581 registered players and when the dust settled, 167 of them remained to take a stack into Day 2.
Players who did not have any chips to bag at the end of the night need not fret, however, as late registration is still open until the start of Day 2 which will take place Thursday, May 4th at 12.30 p.m. local time. This also marks the moment the mystery bounties will come into play. €1,000 of each buy-in will be allocated to the bounty prize pool and each player who scores a knockout will receive a token that they can redeem for an envelope containing a mystery bounty at any moment of their choosing.
Liu Chun Keat had no shortage of practice delivering coups de grace on Day 1, as he already eliminated several players on his way to a final tally of 368,500. He will take over 184 big blinds into Day 2, far and above everyone else.
PokerStars Ambassador Sam Grafton also amassed a big stack today, bagging 247,500 chips at the end of play. Grafton started off strong early on his first bullet and would never need a second one to end up with a top ten stack. Grafton has already found success earlier this EPT by winning the €10,200 event with this very same Mystery Bounty format. Bracelet winner Fabio Peluso, meanwhile, sits in fifth place on the leaderboard, as he ended up with 318,500 chips.
Top 10 Chip Counts on Day 1 of the EPT Mystery Bounty
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Liu Chun Keat | Malaysia | 368,500 | 184 |
| 2 | Igor Yaroshevskyy | Ukraine | 347,500 | 174 |
| 3 | Gerard Carbo | Spain | 340,000 | 170 |
| 4 | Franck Makaci | France | 338,500 | 169 |
| 5 | Fabio Peluso | Italy | 318,500 | 159 |
| 6 | Stephen Kehoe | Ireland | 284,500 | 142 |
| 7 | Ramzi Karam | Lebanon | 256,500 | 128 |
| 8 | Recep Aydemir | Turkey | 254,000 | 127 |
| 9 | Sam Grafton | United Kingdom | 247,500 | 124 |
| 10 | Florian Duta | Romania | 243,000 | 122 |
Chess Master and Twitch streamer extraordinaire Alexandra Botez also found her way into Day 2. Botez was sitting on a big stack throughout the early stages of Day 1, but eventually fell down to a below-average stack of 63,500. Other notables who bagged and tagged at the end of the day include Bruno Lopes (191,000), Will Kassouf (121,000), Nacho Barbero (111,000), and Martin Jacobson (45,000).
UK’s Carl Shaw and Ian Hamilton, meanwhile, made full use of the unlimited reentry format, valiantly firing seven bullets each. They did, however, not succeed in taking a stack into day 2. They will have one more chance to register tomorrow before the start of play if they wish to do so. Other familiar faces who did not make it through Day 1 include Alec Torelli, Dominik Nitsche, Alejandro Lococo, and Kalidou Sow.
When play restarts at 12.30 p.m. local time, the blinds will resume on Level 13 at 1,000/2,000 with a 2,000 big blind ante. Those who decide to make a (re)entry last minute will receive the starting stack of 30,000 chips, equating to 15 big blinds. The levels will continue to be 40 minutes long, with breaks of varying lengths scheduled after every three levels.
