€3,000 Mystery Bounty Day 1 | 2023 PokerStars EPT Monte Carlo

€3,000 Mystery Bounty

Day 1 Completed

05-03-2023 01:19 UTC+2

Sam Grafton Bags Big on Day 1 of €3,000 Mystery Bounty

Frank Visser

Level 12 : Blinds 1,000/2,000, 2,000 ante

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 grâce 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.

Tags: Alec Torelli Alejandro Lococo Alexandra Botez Bruno Lopes Carl Shaw Dominik Nitsche Fabio Peluso Franck Makaci Gerard Carbo Ian Hamilton Igor Yaroshevskyy Kalidou Sow Liu Chun Keat Martin Jacobson Nacho Barbero Ramzi Karam Recep Aydemir Ricardo Caridade Sam Grafton Stephen Kehoe Will Kassouf

05-03-2023 01:15 UTC+2

Day 2 Seat Draw

Frank Visser

Level 12 : Blinds 1,000/2,000, 2,000 ante

Table	Seat	Player	Country	Chip Count	Big Blinds
1	3	Ramin Hajiyev	Azerbaijan	139,000	70
1	4	Israel Zilberman	Israel	41,000	21
1	5	Aliaksandr Hirs	Belarus	85,500	43
1	6	Wagner Ripper	Brazil	136,000	68
1	7	Conor Bergin	Ireland	26,000	13
1	8	Maria Konnikova	USA	114,500	57

2	1	Vlado Banicevic	Montenegro	54,000	27
2	3	Tomas Jozonis	Lithuania	81,000	41
2	4	Razvan Belea	Romania	27,500	14
2	5	Florian Duta	Romania	243,000	122
2	6	Ilya Nikiforov	Russia	227,500	114
2	7	Nicolas Julien	France	59,000	30

3	2	Aleksandar Tomovic	Serbia	37,500	19
3	3	Sadri Saleh	Canada	47,500	24
3	5	Nuri Hadioglu	Turkey	105,000	53
3	6	Mathieu His	France	56,000	28
3	7	Sam Benoliel	France	47,500	24
3	8	Paul Tasso	France	43,500	22

4	1	Oliver Weis	Germany	161,500	81
4	2	Sam Grafton	United Kingdom	247,500	124
4	3	Jean-Pierre Boulad	France	127,000	64
4	4	Benjamin Souriau	France	35,500	18
4	5	Ehsan Amiri	Australia	109,000	55
4	6	Franck Kalfon	France	109,500	55

5	2	Wai Sim Kok	Malaysia	104,500	52
5	3	Nacho Barbero	Argentina	111,000	56
5	4	Michel Bouskila	Australia	106,000	53
5	5	Elias Gutierrez	Switzerland	26,000	13
5	7	Zhang Fen	China	169,500	85
5	8	Dan Djorno	France	103,500	52

6	1	Gadir Aliyev	Spain	85,000	43
6	2	Andrew Chen	Canada	146,500	73
6	4	Gregory Donabedian	France	46,000	23
6	5	Ran Shahar	Israel	5,500	3
6	6	Bruno Lopes	France	191,000	96
6	7	Lucas Silva Rocha	Brazil	72,000	36

7	4	Jamie Nixon	United Kingdom	124,000	62
7	6	Jon Kyte	Norway	140,500	70
7	7	Ido Aboudi	Israel	23,000	12

8	2	Gianluca Speranza	Italy	73,000	37
8	3	Lucas Scafini	Brazil	35,000	18
8	4	Davidson Nahshon	Israel	51,000	26
8	6	Oliver Huber	Germany	101,500	51
8	8	Ori Elul	Israel	176,500	88

9	1	Terence Etim	United Kingdom	193,000	97
9	2	Jeremie Zouari	France	133,000	67
9	3	Heesoo Im	South Korea	48,500	24
9	5	Ken Demlakian	Australia	146,000	73
9	6	Kent Roed	Norway	185,000	93

10	2	Oleksii Ievchenko	Ukraine	96,000	48
10	3	Emmanuel Terrazzoni	France	31,000	16
10	4	Ibrahim Ghassan	Lebanon	44,500	22
10	5	Zhewen Hu	Hong Kong	121,000	61
10	6	Cedric Schwaederle	France	83,000	42
10	7	Fahad El Mechraa	France	143,500	72
10	8	Soraya Estrada	Spain	148,000	74

11	1	Saar Wilf	Israel	38,500	19
11	3	Ekrem Sanioglu	Turkey	45,000	23
11	5	Aurelien Russo	France	70,500	35
11	6	Ricardo Caridade	Portugal	52,500	26
11	7	Recep Aydemir	Turkey	254,000	127
11	8	Yves Piacentino	France	42,000	21

12	1	Mehdi Chaoui	Morocco	123,500	62
12	2	Anton Kraous	Bulgaria	116,000	58
12	4	Edouard Mignot	France	66,000	33
12	5	Luigi Dalterio	Italy	36,000	18
12	6	Kiryl Liudvikevich	Latvia	20,500	10
12	8	Ayaz Chandirli	Azerbaijan	98,000	49

13	1	Robbie Schiffbauer	USA	100,500	50
13	2	Jimmy Kebe	France	61,500	31
13	3	Pierre Zerbib	France	242,000	121
13	4	Stefan Dimitrov	Bulgaria	61,500	31
13	6	Selahaddin Bedir	Turkey	100,000	50
13	8	Nikolai Mamut	Russia	41,000	21

14	1	Aliaksei Boika	Belarus	103,000	52
14	2	Frederic Daoud	France	48,500	24
14	3	Aylar Lie	Norway	82,000	41
14	5	Georgios Karakousis	Greece	94,000	47
14	6	Francois Pradervand	France	76,000	38

15	1	Martin Norberg	Sweden	110,500	55
15	2	Andrea Crobu	Italy	72,000	36
15	3	Ignacio Sole Aparicio	Spain	195,000	98
15	4	Patrick Gaonach	France	49,500	25
15	5	Liu Chun Keat	Malaysia	368,500	184
15	7	Frederic Delval	France	153,000	77

16	1	Mehdi Tafer	France	238,000	119
16	3	Boris Kolev	Bulgaria	124,000	62
16	4	Alexander Shelukhin	Russia	176,000	88
16	5	Evgenii Fidchuk	Ukraine	159,000	80
16	6	Alexandru Danes	France	34,000	17
16	8	Rui Bouquet	Portugal	161,500	81

17	1	Michal Mrakes	Czech Republic	102,500	51
17	2	Lukasz Grossmann	Poland	183,500	92
17	4	Florian Montes	France	137,500	69
17	5	Tibor Nagygyorgy	Hungary	94,500	47
17	6	Fahredin Mustafov	Bulgaria	67,000	34

18	1	Dominykas Mikolaitis	Lithuania	118,000	59
18	2	Yuichi Sumida	Japan	167,000	84
18	3	Hrayr Grigoryan	Armenia	113,500	57
18	4	Christian Cinque	Italy	38,000	19
18	5	Andrey Andreev	Russia	78,000	39
18	7	Ali Kamran	Argentina	158,500	79

19	1	Adrian State	Romania	50,000	25
19	4	Rodrigo De Barros	Brazil	39,000	20
19	5	Quan Zhou	Hong Kong	38,000	19
19	6	Demosthenes Kiriopoulos	Canada	52,500	26
19	7	Marian Mitran	Romania	53,000	27
19	8	Pascal Dayot	France	115,500	58

20	1	Marian Ciurea	Romania	23,000	12
20	3	Volodymyr Legkyi	Ukraine	167,500	84
20	4	Oliver Bosch	Austria	225,000	113
20	8	Laurent Polito	France	47,000	24

21	3	Aviv Meiri	Israel	105,500	53
21	5	Arthur Conan	France	80,000	40
21	6	Weiran Pu	China	83,000	42
21	8	Martin Jacobson	Sweden	45,000	23

22	1	Will Kassouf	United Kingdom	121,000	61
22	3	Alan Goasdoue	France	229,000	115
22	4	Ramzi Karam	Lebanon	256,500	128
22	5	Christophe Larquemin	France	165,000	83
22	6	Alexandra Botez	USA	63,500	32
22	8	Stephen Kehoe	Ireland	284,500	142

23	1	Jonathan Ventura	France	12,000	6
23	3	Sylwester Fortuna	Poland	35,500	18
23	4	Nicolas Vayssieres	France	149,500	75
23	5	Philip Sternheimer	United Kingdom	83,000	42
23	6	Marian Dumitrache	Romania	17,000	9
23	8	Nikita Kuznetsov	Russia	60,000	30

24	1	Rui Querido Martins	Portugal	25,500	13
24	2	Ghassan Bitar	Lebanon	163,500	82
24	3	Antoine Labat	France	30,000	15
24	4	Marec Boyer	France	186,000	93
24	5	Yigit Aksoy	Turkey	49,500	25
24	8	Julien Veyssiere	France	45,500	23

25	1	Jessica Teusl	Austria	50,000	25
25	2	Antoine Saout	France	30,500	15
25	3	Roberto Romanello	United Kingdom	67,000	34
25	6	Thomas Eychenne	France	51,500	26
25	7	Jean Chicheportiche	France	45,500	23
25	8	Jon Vallinas	Spain	69,500	35

26	1	Murad Akhundov	Azerbaijan	123,000	62
26	2	Marco Regonaschi	Italy	59,000	30
26	5	Ramzey Idriss	Lebanon	18,000	9
26	6	Atanas Malinov	Bulgaria	43,500	22
26	7	Vladyslav Potomkin	Ukraine	150,000	75
26	8	Karim Abdelmoumene	France	79,000	40

27	1	Sergi Miralles	Spain	56,500	28
27	5	Didier Pitcho	France	108,000	54
27	6	Takumi Odani	Japan	69,000	35
27	7	Jerome Ruefenacht	Switzerland	93,000	47
27	8	Alexandru Papazian	Romania	94,500	47

28	1	Mohamed Mehalleg	France	28,500	14
28	2	Gerard Carbo	Spain	340,000	170
28	5	Walter Treccarichi	Italy	74,500	37
28	6	Fabrice Maltez	France	48,000	24
28	7	Ken Okada	Japan	56,000	28
28	8	Christophe Benzimra	France	109,000	55

29	1	Fabio Peluso	Italy	318,500	159
29	2	Manuel Pestana	Brazil	74,000	37
29	3	Takushi Shiratori	Japan	151,500	76
29	4	Oleh Okhotskyi	Ukraine	77,000	39
29	6	Alessandro Pichierri	Italy	121,000	61
29	7	Dominik Panka	Poland	101,000	51

30	4	Igor Yaroshevskyy	Ukraine	347,500	174
30	5	Marius Kudzmanas	Lithuania	195,000	98
30	6	Lazar Bartha	Romania	93,500	47
30	8	Franck Makaci	France	338,500	169

05-03-2023 00:35 UTC+2

End of Day 1 Chip Counts (full)

Frank Visser

Level 12 : Blinds 1,000/2,000, 2,000 ante

Player	Chips	Progress
Chun Keat Liu	368,500	285,500
Igor Yaroshevskyy	347,500	347,500
Gerard Carbo	340,000	250,000
Franck Makaci	338,500	338,500
Fabio Peluso	318,500	318,500
Stephen Kehoe	284,500	124,500
Ramzi Karam	256,500	106,900
Recep Aydemir	254,000	254,000
Sam Grafton	247,500	27,500
Florian Duta	243,000	68,000
Pierre Zerbib	242,000	146,500
Mehdi Tafer	238,000	238,000
Alan Goasdoue	229,000	36,500
Ilya Nikiforov	227,500	-17,500
Oliver Bosch	225,000	225,000
Ignacio Sole Aparicio	195,000	24,000
Marius Kudzmanas	195,000	124,500
Terence Etim	193,000	193,000
Bruno Lopes	191,000	66,500
Marc Boyer	186,000	159,500
Kent Roed	185,000	155,000
Lukasz Szymon Grossmann	183,500	183,500
Ori Elul	176,500	176,500
Alexander Shelukhin	176,000	176,000
Fan Zhang	169,500	169,500

Read full

05-03-2023 00:06 UTC+2

The End of Day 1

Frank Visser

Level 12 : Blinds 1,000/2,000, 2,000 ante

With that, Day 1 has reached its completion. Stay tuned for full chip counts and a full recap of all the action today.

05-03-2023 00:04 UTC+2

Chen Scores Final Elimination of Day 1

Frank Visser

Level 12 : Blinds 1,000/2,000, 2,000 ante

On the last hand of the night, Besiana Antoni shoved her final 22,000 in the middle from early position. The action folded to Andrew Chen in the big blind and he swiftly made the call.

Besiana Antoni: 7♦5♦
Andrew Chen: 8♣8♦

''Wow, a cooler!'' Will Kassouf could not help but comment while the Q♦K♣3♠3♣7♠ board was dealt out. Antoni made a consolation pair on the river but it was no good.

Andrew Chen scored the last knockout that is not going to be worth any money. Play has ended and from tomorrow on, the bounties will come into play.

Player	Chips	Progress
Andrew Chen	152,500	86,000
Besiana Antoni	Busted

Tags: Andrew Chen Besiana Antoni

05-02-2023 23:52 UTC+2

The Final Four Hands of the Night

Frank Visser

Level 12 : Blinds 1,000/2,000, 2,000 ante

The tournament director has announced that there will be four more hands played before all remaining players bag and tag for tomorrow.

05-02-2023 23:45 UTC+2

Kraous Busts Roca to Move Above 100K

Matt Hansen

Level 12 : Blinds 1,000/2,000, 2,000 ante

Manuel Roca was all in for his last 21,000 and Anton Kraous put him at risk.

Manuel Roca: A♣10♥
Anton Kraous: K♠K♦

The board ran out 9♥6♥6♣5♣5♦ and Kraous held on with pocket kings to send Roca to the rail and move above 100,000 as Day 1 winds down.

Player	Chips	Progress
Anton Kraous	119,000
Manuel Roca	Busted

Tags: Anton Kraous Manuel Roca

05-02-2023 23:42 UTC+2

Nikiforov Downs Da Silva

Frank Visser

Level 12 : Blinds 1,000/2,000, 2,000 ante

Ilya Nikiforov open-raised to 4,000 from early position before Leonardo Da Silva pushed his stack of 35,500 in the middle from the hijack. The action folded back to NIkiforov, who asked for a count. When that was given to him, he made the call to put Da Silva at risk.

Leonardo Da Silva: A♥J♥
Ilya Nikiforov: A♣K♥

Da Silva flopped a flush draw on 6♥4♥Q♠ and the 10♣ turn brought him even more outs. Too many, as some would say, as Nikiforov's ace-king held when the 9♣ river completed the board.

Nikiforov is now playing near 250,000 chips and is among the bigger stacks in the room.