Fehim Hajdari Ready for the Hunt after Grabbing Chip Lead on Day 1 of €3,000 Mystery Bounty
After an eventful Day 1 of the €3,000 Mystery Bounty at the 2023 PokerStars European Poker Tour Prague, 159 players filled their bags with chips at the Hilton Prague for Day 2. They survived the carnage that dwindled the field down from the original 642 to just them, however, they will likely be joined by more bounty hunters as registration is still open until the start of Day 2.
Coming out ahead of the field is Fehim Hajdari from Denmark, who filled his end-of-day bag with 310,000, more than 10 starting stacks and 155 big blinds when play recommences. He will be in a prime position to take some scalps at the start of the second day, which is when the mystery bounty element of the tournament will come into play.
Following closely is Alexandru Danes, who collected 306,500 on Day 1, while South Korean superstar Gab Yong Kim sits in third place on the leaderboard, having bagged 301,500 chips. Also finding themselves in the top ten are French regular Julien Sitbon (238,500), and Kim’s fellow countryman Moonho Seo (235,000).
End of Day 1 Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Day 2 Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fehim Hajdari | Denmark | 310,000 | 155 |
| 2 | Alexandru Danes | France | 306,500 | 153 |
| 3 | Gab Yong Kim | South Korea | 301,500 | 151 |
| 4 | Adam Martinsson | Sweden | 299,000 | 150 |
| 5 | Anton Kotliar | Israel | 295,000 | 148 |
| 6 | Alvaro Gomez | Spain | 276,000 | 138 |
| 7 | Razvan Sabau | Romania | 270,500 | 135 |
| 8 | Julien Sitbon | France | 238,500 | 119 |
| 9 | Moonho Seo | South Korea | 235,000 | 118 |
| 10 | Andre Sammour | Lebanon | 232,500 | 116 |
Also making it through to Day 2 is PokerStars Ambassador Benjamin Spragg. "Spraggy" managed to accumulate 180,000 chips throughout the day, resulting in an above-average stack for Day 2. Other notable names who bagged big include EPT winner Simon Brandstrom (215,000) and the ever-present Danut Chisu (186,000).
Many others were less fortunate, as Spragg’s fellow Red Spades Fintan Hand and Alejandro Lococo both fired one bullet but failed to make it to the end of the day. Podcast duo Adam McKola and Rory Jennings also both showed up, but fizzled out at one point or another. Meanwhile, Dimitrias Angelakos could be described as the unluckiest player of the field, having fired nine bullets without finding a bag.
However, they can all opt to try one more time as the late registration does not close until play begins on December 14th, at 12:30 p.m. local time. All late registrants will get the starting stack of 30,000 chips and will start in Level 13: 1.000/2,000 with a 2,000 big blind ante.
At that time, the mystery bounty tokens will also be distributed. Each player who has chips at the start of Day 2 will receive one of the tokens, which they have to pass to the player who knocks them out. Won tokens can then be exchanged for an envelope containing a mystery bounty after the second break of the tournament, around 5:15 p.m. local time. With €1,000 of each buy-in going to the bounty prize pool, these bounties can range from low four-figure to high five-figure payouts.
The exact value and number of the bounties will be announced on Day 2, so be sure to come back to PokerNews to not miss any of the bounty madness.