The inaugural Mystery Bounty Series wrapped up at PokerStars on July 1 with the crowning of the $109 buy-in, $1 million guaranteed Main Event champion. Polish grinder “filipkow81” will forever be known as that champion after they overcame a 9,483-string field to bank $55,899, including mystery bounty payments.
Day 1 of this event took place on June 30, and some juicy mystery bounties were awarded. Malta-based player “Akhtabut” may have fallen in 337th place, a finish ordinarily worth $185.10. However, they pulled out a monster-sized $100,000 mystery bounty before the crashed out, making them the Main Event’s biggest winner!
“tripandy” of the United Kingdom will also look back on this event with fond memories despite busting in 538th place. That’s because they collected one of the two $50,000 mystery bounty payments before seeing their stack handed over to an opponent.
Mystery Bounty Series Main Event Final Table Results
| Rank | Player | Country | Bounties | Prize | Total Prize |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | filipkow81 | Poland | $1,514 | $54,385 | $55,899* |
| 2 | m4gicriver | Hungary | $689 | $46,784 | $47,473* |
| 3 | gabrielvmn | Brazil | $856 | $30,390 | $31,246* |
| 4 | krasav4k11 | Andorra | $3,647 | $21,834 | $25,481 |
| 5 | whitecillar3 | Ukraine | $449 | $15,687 | $16,136 |
| 6 | Camila “ | _CáKons_ | ” Kons | Brazil | $54,379 |
| 7 | Tankki31 | Finland | $648 | $8,097 | $8,745 |
| 8 | antbrave | Ukraine | $2,633 | $5,818 | $8,451 |
| 9 | Pixna95 | Slovenia | $606 | $4,180 | $4,768 |
*reflects a heads-up deal
“Pixna95” was the shortest stack at the start of the final table’s action and was the first finalist heading for the exits. “Pixna95” decided to limp in from a six big blind stack with pocket fives before getting the rest of their short stack into the middle on a nine-four-nine-flop showing two hearts. “krasav4k11” called the shove with eight-seven of hearts and improved to a flush on the river.
Ukraine’s “antbrave” busted on the very next hand, open-shoving 11 big blinds with pocket eights from early position and losing a coinflip against the ace-king of “krasv4k11.”
The tournament lost its third player in almost as many hands when “Tankki31” snap-shoved from under the gun with king-nine for six big blinds, and “krasav4k11” continued their one-player wrecking spree by calling with queen-six. “Tankki31” paired their king on the flop, and “krasav4k11” paired their queen. The turn was a brick, but the river was a six, gifting “krasav4k11” two pair and sending “Tankki31” to the rail.
Brazilian Camila “|_CáKons_|” Kons was the chip leader as six-handed play began, but they were the next player out of the door. First, they lost a chunk in a pot with “filipkow81” when the latter bluffed all-in on an all-diamond nine-eight-king board with queen-jack and got there against ace-king by hitting a queen and jack on the next two streets.
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They then check-raised all-in on the turn with an open-ended straight draw, but the top pair top kicker of “gabrielvmn” held to make Kons go from hero to zero. However, Kons pulled a $50,000 bounty earlier in the tournament, which should have made defeat easier to take.
It took less than 50 minutes for the tournament to wrap up from that point. “whitecillar3” bowed out after three-betting all-in for 4 big blinds with ace-ten after “filipkow81” had opened from under the gun. The initial raiser called with ace-eight of hearts and spiked an eight on the flop.
“krasav4k11” started the final table like a house on fire but spent the latter part of the final table card and situation dead. They shoved from the cutoff for only 2.5 big blind with pocket tens, “filipkow81” three-bet from the button with pocket fives only for “m4gicriver” to four-bet shove from the big blind with ace-queen. “filipkow81” folded, and the ace-queen won courtesy of a queen on the flop.
The final three discussed a deal but could not come to an agreement, so the tournament continued. “gabrielvmn” saw their tournament end in a third-place finish almost immediately after the impromptu break, three-bet shoving with queen-ten and losing to the king-queen of “filipkow81.”
The tournament paused again so the heads-up players could discuss a deal, and those discussions proved more fruitful. With a deal in place, the heads-up duo resumed play and got about crowning a champion.
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“filipkow81” had a substantial chip lead over “m4gicriver” at the start of heads-up, and it proved too much of a bridge for the chasing player to gap. They looked set to double up and extend the tournament’s running during a thrilling hand, but that hand proved to be the final one of the Mystery Bounty Series Main Event.
“flipkow81” min-raised to 20,000,000 on the button with pocket king before snap-called the 162,018,577 shove from “m4gicriver,” which they made with pocket sevens. An eight-eight-seven flop gifted “m4gicriver” a full house and left “filipkow81” drawing thin; they had less than 17% equity in the hand. However, the soon-to-be-champion realized that equity when a eight peeled on the turn, improving them to a stronger full house! No miracle one-outer on the river for “m4gicriver” meant they had to make do with a second-place finish, while the Polish star came out on top.
PokerStars Mystery Bounty Series Results
Check out the table below for a full list of the Mystery Bounty Series results. Event #5 is missing from the table as it vanished from the PokerStars lobby before this article was written, and Event #26 does not feature because it was cancelled while in-play.
*all payouts include mystery bounty payments
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