Alex Goulder Cracks the Code to Victory in $1,100 Mystery Bounty
The $1,100 Mystery Bounty event at the 2025 Mediterranean Poker Party has officially wrapped up, smashing its guarantee by creating a massive prize pool of $1,496,000 from a field of 1,496 players. The action took nearly 16 hours to unfold, culminating in a thrilling final table at the Merit Royal Diamond Hotel Casino & Spa.
The event saw Alex Goulder emerge as the champion, dominating the final table by eliminating seven out of the nine players. Goulder’s journey ended with a roller coaster heads-up battle against David Vinayagamoorthy, where he ultimately clinched the title and took home the $85,000 first-place prize.
$1,100 Mystery Bounty Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alex Goulder | United Kingdom | $85,000 |
| 2 | David Vinayagamoorthy | Norway | $58,000 |
| 3 | Yilu Yuan | China | $42,500 |
| 4 | Emad Ghadamian | Iran | $31,500 |
| 5 | Jakub Sterba | Czech Republic | $23,000 |
| 6 | Mekan Yusupov | Turkey | $17,000 |
| 7 | Andrey Pateychuk | Russia | $13,000 |
| 8 | Roman Stoika | Russia | $10,500 |
| 9 | Mazen Halabi | Lebanon | $8,560 |
Winner's Reaction
After claiming the prestigious title, Alexander Goulder took a moment to reflect on his victory.
"I guess it still doesn't feel real," said Goulder. "The final table, for sure, was a blur. It's one of the biggest titles of the series, but when I’m standing here with the trophy, it will hit."
Asked about his recovery plan after such an intense day, Goulder responded, "Sleep, but that's hard to do when you're so wired after a win like this. It's been a long day, and there’s still so much more to come in the series. The plan is to just keep playing."
When questioned about his first time playing under the lights, Goulder admitted, "It’s not my first time, but definitely the most successful. I’ve been here before, but this is a whole new experience for me."
Reflecting on his performance, Goulder was humble, saying, "I didn’t think anything surprised me about myself today. I mean, when you're running well like that, the cards kind of do the work for you. Winning all-ins, knocking people out with the best hand, and even getting lucky when you don’t have the best hand—it didn’t take too much skill on my part."
Goulder also gave credit to his supporters, "Definitely my wife and my kids—well, my baby daughter is a little too young to understand what's going on. But my son, Daniel, was cheering me on the whole way, and I had some great friends supporting me as well."
On his history opinion of the Merit venue, he added, "This is my third or fourth time here at Merit. I love it here, even though I’ve never had much success before. But I keep coming back, and this is a good start."
The Final Day
When the cards got in the air at noon local time, the 224 players who had made it through to Day 2 had already secured at least $800 for their efforts. However, each player had their eyes set on the top prize and the eye-popping $100,000 bounty that awaited one lucky player.
In the opening two hours, almost 60% of the field hit the rail as players took their chance to go bounty hunting. Among those on the lucky side of the bounty hunt was Mariia Aleksandrova, who pulled the largest available bounty, worth a staggering $100,000. At that point, she had already made more than what the tournament winner would earn, all thanks to selecting the right envelope.
As the field continued to dwindle down to the last two tables, Goulder built up a big stack. First, he eliminated Dzmitry Budai from the tournament, and then, thanks to a stroke of luck, cracked Mekan Yusupov’s pocket aces with a backdoor flush holding ace-nine.
With the chip lead and momentum on his side, Goulder quickly shifted into overdrive, sending Naryman Yaghmaie to the rail in 11th place. It wasn’t long before he burst the final table bubble, with his ace-high holding up against Salim Usmanov’s two live cards.
Final Table Action
As the final nine players took their seats at the live-streamed final table, Goulder was quick to make his mark. He used pocket sixes to send Mazen Halabi out in ninth place. Not long after, he eliminated one of the most decorated players at the table, Roman Stoika, with a queen hitting the river to send Stoika home in eighth.
The momentum continued to shift in Goulder’s favor as he started to pull away from the rest. A bit of bad luck befell Andrey Pateychuk, who was knocked out by David Vinayagamoorthy. Then, Yusupov exited in sixth after check-shoving second pair, only to see Goulder call with a better kicker, claiming another bounty at the final table.
At this point, Goulder held over half of the chips in play and seemed nearly unstoppable. However, Emad Ghadamian wasn’t about to go down quietly. After Jakub Sterba ran into his pocket aces to bust, Ghadamian and Goulder clashed, and it was Ghadamian who ended up worse off. Ghadamian check-shoved with a straight draw, but Goulder called with top pair. No help on the turn or river meant that Ghadamian was eliminated in fourth, and only three remained.
Yilu Yuan, who had been playing tight after picking off a huge bluff from Stoika, was the next to fall. Yuan’s ace-eight was no match for Goulder’s king-seven, and with that, the tournament moved to heads-up.
Heads-Up Battle
Goulder entered heads-up with a 2:1 chip lead, but things quickly started to unravel. On the very first hand, Goulder bluffed away half of his stack with just king-high, allowing Vinayagamoorthy to claim an early advantage after calling down with second pair. It looked like Vinayagamoorthy had found a crack in Goulder’s game.
But Goulder quickly bounced back. After turning a flush against Vinayagamoorthy’s top pair, Goulder doubled up and regained the chip lead. Slowly but surely, Goulder chipped away at Vinayagamoorthy’s stack, grinding him down to a short stack.
Finally, Goulder shoved from the small blind with ten-eight, and Vinayagamoorthy, with just nine big blinds remaining, called with king-high. Goulder had his first opportunity to seal the win—and in true Goulder style, he flopped the nuts. Vinayagamoorthy was left drawing to a chop, but by the turn, it was all over.
Goulder had done it. He was the 2025 Mystery Bounty Champion. Be sure to tune back into PokerNews tomorrow for more action from the 2025 Mediterranean Poker Party.