Oleg Vasylchenko Makes Light Work of the EPT Prague €10K Mystery Bounty

December 12, 2023

Oleg Vasylchenko has overcome a 56-entry field and defeated Enrico Camosci heads-up to win the €74,673 first-place prize here at the 2023 PokerStars European Poker Tour Prague.

Along with his maiden EPT title, Vasylchenko claimed four mystery bounties en route to his victory, totalling €80,000 to bring his final payday €154,673.

Vasylchenko's win comes after a long history of close calls. Before today, Vaslychenko had four EPT final tables under his belt over the past several years but was never able to take down the title.

"It feels great. I was craving for [an EPT title] for ten years," Vasylchenko said. "I made several final tables, so I'm really glad I won it."

Vasychenko, who entered the final table as the big stack, explained that he was a bit disappointed to miss out on the largest bounties, which were pulled by Elias Gutierrez.

"I was in good shape to make some bounties, but you actually need to make some hands. I didn't get the opportunities that [Gutierrez] got, so I'm kind of frustrated about that. But it was fine. At least I got a trophy!"

Gutierrez ended up claiming five of the nine mystery bounties, leaving him as the highest cash winner of the tournament after earning €238,150 between his third-place finish and the bounty prizes.

€10,200 Mystery Bounty Final Table Results

*Denotes heads-up deal

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Final Table Action

Day 2 began with several short-stacked players as a result of the event's turbo structure. As expected, the final table got off to a blazing start, with Antoine Labat, Paul Newey, and Masato Kashiwabara all being eliminated in eighth, seventh, and sixth place respectively within the first half-hour of play.

Vasylchenko claimed the first couple of mystery bounties after eliminating Labat and pulled a €10,000 + Draw Again bounty. This resulted in an additional €25,000 bounty. However, it was Gutierrez who, far and away, claimed the lion's share of the mystery bounty prize pool.

Following Labat's elimination, Gutierrez scored the next three eliminations, including Dimitar Danchev after getting him all-in preflop and catching a queen on the turn.

Gutierrez wasted little time before drawing his first two bounties. He picked the lucky envelopes that contained the top prize of €100,000 and the second prize of €50,000. Gutierrez saved his third bounty for the first break of the day and promptly won a further €25,000. This brought his bounty earnings to a staggering €175,000 — more than double the first-place prize.

Marcelo Bonanata, who started the day as one of the short stacks, managed to double up several times and, at one point, took the chip lead during four-handed play. However, his momentum quickly fizzled out. After losing a couple of sizable pots to Vasylchenko and Camosci, Bonanata shoved with king-queen and lost a race against Gutierrez's pocket fives to bow out in fourth place. Unsurprisingly, Gutierrez drew the highest available €25,000 bounty following the elimination to bring his total bounty prize to €200,000.

It looked to be Gutierrez's day, but soon after three-handed play began, he lost a big pot after running top pair into Vaslychenko's trips. Vasylchenko claimed the rest of Gutierrez's chips as his pocket fives remained best against the latter's sailboats.

The heads-up battle between Vasylchenko and Camosci proved to be a short one. On just the fifth hand of play, Vasylchenko shoved with pocket fives and was called by Camosci, who held ace-deuce. The board ran out sweat-free for Vasylchenko, and he picked up his first major live tournament victory on the EPT.

Live Reporter

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