Simone Andrian opened to 2,100 from middle position and was called by Ian Hamilton on the button. Nicolas Vayssieres three-bet to 8,000 which folded out Andrian. Hamilton had other ideas and jammed as the big stack and was snap-called by Vayssieres, who had 28,300.
Nicolas Vayssieres:
Ian Hamilton:
The flop gave the EPT London Main Event winner an open-ended straight draw with he completed on the turn. The river completed the board and sent the Frenchman to the rail.
Thanisorn Saelor opened to 2,000 from the hijack and Anton Wigg three-bet to 5,500 from the cutoff. Saelor four-bet jammed for 23,400 and Wigg snap-called.
Thanisorn Saelor:
Anton Wigg:
Saelor was dominated and received no help from the flop or turn. Wigg bumped his fist on the table to tell his opponent "good game," but it was a premature move as the dealer then put down the to earn Saelor the double.
Tamer Kamel was all in for around 40,000 against fellow Brit Tamer Kamel, who had him covered.
Tamer Kamel:
Kuljinder Sidhu:
The flop looked good for Kamel's jacks, but the turn did not. However, the then peeled off on the river to improve him to a set and he let out an audible sigh of relief as Sidhu went straight to his phone.
"I think I would have to walk around for two minutes," Jon Kyte said about the rollercoaster runout.
As the dealer was counting out Kamel's stack, the eagle-eyed Jack Sinclair, yet another Brit at the table, noticed that his chips weren't in perfect stacks of 20 and Kamel was owed an extra 200.
"Went right by us!" said Kyte, who was seated between Sidhu and Kamel.
"I wasn't going to miss that one!" said Sinclair.
"Too many British people at the table," laughed Kyte.
Day 1 of the €3,000 EPT Mystery Bounty at 2022 PokerStars European Poker Tour Prague has wrapped up after 12 levels of play and saw EPT London Main Event champion Ian Hamilton bagging a stack of 216,500 to put him among the chip leaders as he looks to make another deep EPT run.
Hamilton, a young British grinder who took down the EPT London Main Event in October for a career-best £664,400, will return on Day 2 to compete against the 232 players who bagged on Day 1, including chip leader Iliodoros Kamatakis of Greece (329,000), Lars Garp of Sweden (268,500) and Fiodor Martino of Italy (228,000).
€3,000 EPT Mystery Bounty Day 1 Top Ten Chip Counts
NAME
COUNTRY
CHIP COUNT
BIG BLINDS
1
Iliodoros Kamatakis
Greece
329,000
219
2
Lars Garp
Sweden
268,500
179
3
Fiodor Martino
Italy
228,000
152
4
Mats Ullereng
Norway
220,000
147
5
Ian Hamilton
United Kingdom
216,500
144
6
Bartolomeo Tato
Italy
215,000
143
7
Oleksii Ievchenko
Ukraine
204,500
136
8
Edvin Muhovic
Germany
204,000
136
9
Nozomu Shimizu
Japan
182,000
121
10
Rachid El Yaacoubi
France
180,000
120
Poker Champs Find Bags
The Mystery Bounty event attracted 676 runners for a prize pool of €1,166,880, plus a €676,000 bounty prize pool, and those numbers will surely grow as late registration remains open until the start of play on Day 2.
There was no shortage of poker royalty in the €3,000-buy-in event, including World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event champions Koray Aldemir and Hossein Ensan, that latter of whom is also an EPT champion as he took down the 2015 EPT Prague Main Event for €754,510. Both German poker champions found bags and will return for play on Day 2.
Hossein Ensan
Other notables who survived the 12 levels of play on Day 1 include Adrian Mateos, Alexander Norden, Anton Wigg, Leo Margets, Andras Nemeth and Leonard Maue.
Leo Margets
Some of the big names who weren't fortunate enough to make it to bagging time include Team PokerStars ProsBenjamin Spragg and Alejandro Lococo, EPT London Women's Event champion Jessica Pilkington, Emil Bise and Ghassan Bitar, who took a tough beat when his kings were cracked by the ace-ten of Hamilton.
Alejandro Lococo
We will see if any of those big names jump back into the action as late registration will remain open until the start of play on Day 2, which will kick off at 1 p.m. local time on Level 13 with blinds of 1,000/1,500/1,500.
Players will be given a Mystery Bounty Token at the start of Day 2 and can pull a mystery bounty for every player they eliminate. Bounties can be but are not limited to €100,000, €50,000, €30,000, €15,000, €10,000, €5,000, €1,000 and €500.
That wraps up the PokerNews live reporting team's coverage of Day 1 of €3,000 EPT Mystery Bounty, but the team will be back tomorrow to report on the Day 2 action.
flop gave the EPT London Main Event winner an open-ended straight draw with he completed on the 
turn. The 
river completed the board and sent the Frenchman to the rail.
flop or 
to earn Saelor the double.
turn did not. However, the 
