After a crazy and chaotic day of wild Houston poker, the 71 players that returned from a total field of 627 have been whittled down to one man left standing. When the dust settled, it was Kassim Panjwani who claimed the victory in the Champions Club Winter Poker Open $460 Mystery Bounty.
Panjwani completed his night with a heads-up win over runner-up Moe Tokko when his flopped pair held up against Tokko's overs and gutshot. For the win, Panjwani claimed $28,720 and the trophy, while Tokko took home $19,790 for his second-place finish.
This is now Panjwani’s second-largest score, as his second-place finish in a WPT Venetian Deepstack back in 2021 earned him a nice payout of $67,118.
Mystery Bounty Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kassim Panjwani | $28,720 |
| 2 | Moe Tokko | $19,790 |
| 3 | Vladyslav Shovkovyi | $12,700 |
| 4 | Derek Normand | $9,200 |
| 5 | Brian Winter | $7,015 |
| 6 | Jonathan Park | $5,700 |
| 7 | Aleta Chapman | $4,740 |
| 8 | Trung Pham | $3,790 |
| 9 | Erin Parisien | $2,870 |
Action of the Day
The room was abuzz with excitement throughout the day as players took their shots at pulling the bounties, with all eyes set on the grand prize of $15,200. Almost immediately, Benjamin Harris pulled the second-largest bounty worth $10,000 and ended up pulling several more good ones throughout the day.
Nicholas Toralba also caused a scene when he pulled back-to-back $5,000 bounties… and let the room know it with an unforgettable reaction!
The field was quickly trimmed down to 27 and still, players kept falling to the wayside in rapid fashion. It was during this time that Tokko began his run when he knocked out Samuel Beard with aces versus kings in a huge pot that catapulted him into the chip lead.
He held this title for quite some time until it was Panjwani who took over when he scored a double knockout when he held with the nut straight in a three-way all-in for a 6-million chip pot!
To top it off, he then went and pulled the $15,200 bounty! What a sequence!
Final Table
Before long, the field was cut down to the final ten and they sat there for a good while until it was Ben Harris who fell victim to the Panjwani war machine when his king-four lost to ace-five.
Even once the players were at the final table and the pay jumps became bigger, the chips were still flying all over the place and three were eliminated in the first 15 hands!
The first to go was Erin Parisien when she got it in preflop with queen-jack but failed to improve against the ace-king of Vladyslav Shovkovyi and was eliminated in 9th place.
Right behind her was Houston regular Trung Pham who got it in with ace-king himself but could not survive the flip against Tokko’s queens, sending him out in 8th.
Next was Aleta Chapman who got it in preflop with pocket eights against the over cards of Brian Winter and Panjwani, but Winter ended up hitting trip kings to scoop, sending Chapman out in 7th place.
Twelve hands later, it was Jonathan Park who moved all in with ace-ten and was called by his good friend Shovkovyi to put him at risk with queen-jack. A ten appeared on the flop for Park, but a queen came on the turn for Shovkovyi and the river bricked to eliminate him in 6th place.
Brian Winter, who was fresh off a win in the Monster Stack and was sitting at his second final table this week, finally met his end at the hands of Panjwani. He also got it in with ace-ten but was out-kicked by ace-jack and ultimately hit the rail in 5th place.
Next to go was Derek Normand who always seems to make deep runs in these fields but he was out in fourth place when he called off a shove from Panjwani with ace-six suited but ran into ace-queen suited. Both a a six and a queen appeared on the flop leaving Normand drawing slim and the river ace only added a little salt to the wound as he exited in fourth.
During this time, Shovkovyi was the chip leader for a while after he score a huge double through Panjwani, but then he got involved in a hand with Tokko, the only player that had him covered. He tried to pull off a big bluff with ten-high but Tokko just had the goods with trip fives and Shovkovyi was sent to the rail for a third-place finish in dramatic fashion.
Heads-up play between Tokko and Panjwani started with the former as a chip favorite, but after a few hands Panjwani managed to close the gap to only a 5:4 chip disparity.
After battling back and forth for a good while, Panjwani finally took a massive lead when he flopped two pair and Tokko shoved into him on the turn with just pocket nines! This gave him a huge 17:1 chip advantage!
Even so, Tokko was not one to go down so easily and managed to double a few times before he got it all in with queen-eight and was called by ace-seven. A seven appeared on the flop to give Panjwani a pair and the runout changed nothing to eliminate Tokko as the runner-up.
Panjwani was then announced as the victor and awarded with the Champion’s Club Trophy and the grand prize of $28,720!
Up Next: PLO!
With this win, another tournament here at Champions Club in Houston, Texas, is in the books, but there is still much more in store as the $1,100 PLO $150k GTD continues tomorrow and then the Main Event $1,500 $1Million GTD kicks off on Wednesday with plenty of other side events in between! As always, stay tuned into PokerNews, as we will be the only place to get all of the action at the Champions Club Winter Poker Open!
