Gab Yong Kim Holds Chip Lead Going Into Day 3 of €3,000 EPT Mystery Bounty
The PokerStars European Poker Tour at the Hilton Prague continued today with an action-filled Day 2 of the €3,000 EPT Mystery Bounty. Between the Day 1 entrants of yesterday and the late registrants of this morning, this Mystery Bounty Tournament attracted 787 entrants, up 11 players from the same tournament last year.
Of those, 304 players found their seats this morning to battle it out over the felt, as the Mystery Bounty tokens were introduced. After 10 hours of play, only 16 remain.
As the dust settled it was Gab Yong Kim who bagged the chip lead having accumulated 3,790,000 by the end of Level 27 tonight. Following behind is Pavlos Xanthopoulos who is the only other player to eclipse the three million chip mark having amassed 3,265,000 by the end of proceedings.
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gab Yong Kim | Korea | 3,790,000 | 76 |
| 2 | Pavlos Xanthopoulos | Greece | 3,265,000 | 65 |
| 3 | Robert Schulz | Germany | 2,395,000 | 48 |
| 4 | Marius Gicovanu | Romania | 1,770,000 | 35 |
| 5 | Ioannis Poullos | Greece | 1,755,000 | 35 |
| 6 | Ioannis Oikonomidis | Greece | 1,665,000 | 33 |
| 7 | Aleksandar Tomovic | Serbia | 1,500,000 | 30 |
| 8 | Youngshin Im | Korea | 1,390,000 | 28 |
| 9 | Cornelis Van Gent | Netherlands | 1,345,000 | 27 |
| 10 | Adam Martinsson | Sweden | 1,060,000 | 21 |
Bounty Action
As Day 2 got underway, the focal point for every player quickly became the Mystery Bounties on offer. For each opponent they managed to eliminate, the player would be able to claim a token that would grant them the opportunity to pull a mystery bounty. While there was plenty of fortune on offer, it was the three €50,000 bounties that captivated the attention of the field.
Iurii Senchylo was the first player to pull the elusive €50,000; this singular bounty pull represented Senchylo's third biggest live cash to date. Senchylo is no stranger to success on the EPT series having come 3rd in €500 No Limit Hold'em at EPT Barcelona for €17,750 just a few months ago. Senchylo is still in contention for the trophy as he takes through a stack of 875,000.
Mats Nylander was the second to pull a €50,000 bounty; this singular bounty pull represented Nylander's second-biggest live tournament cash to date. Nylander didn't manage to cash in this event, but will surely be more than happy with his payday.
Jelle Moene was the final recipient of the €50,000 bounty. Moene had a deep run today coming in 26th place alongside an additional payout of €7,280.
Ioannis Oikonomidis was the first person to have pulled the €25,000. This is Oikonomidis' second five-figure score of this series after finishing 13th in the €2,200 Eureka High Roller for €27,750. Oikonomidis has also secured a top 10 stack going into Day 3.
Day 2 Action
The PokerStars Team Pro were out in full force, including the likes of Parker Talbot, Alejandro Lococo and Benjamin Spragg.
Although Talbot managed to double up on the first level of the day, it wasn’t meant to be as he busted before reaching the money.
The same couldn’t be said for the likes of Spragg and Lococo as they both managed to to cash the event, coming 59th and 53rd respectively.
Spragg busted in a particularly brutal fashion as his pocket kings got cracked by the jacks of opponent Pavlos Xanthopoulos.
With just one major bounty of €25,000 left, the focus of the tournament floor is starting to switch to the looming first-place prize of €246,802.
Day 3 restarts tomorrow, on Friday December 15 at 12 p.m. local time. The players will complete their two table redraw and action will resume with 11 minutes and 51 seconds left at Level 27, which features blinds of 25,000/50,000 with a 50,000 big blind ante.
The PokerNews live reporting team will be back tomorrow to bring you more coverage of the Europen Poker Tour Mystery Bounty here at EPT Prague as we play down to a winner, so stay tuned.