The remaining two players agree to an ICM deal, with Gab Yong Kim holding a slight chip advantage over Andrej Tekel. They will now play for the remaining tokens, with one €5,000 and two €1,000 bounties left to scoop, as well as the illustrious EPT trophy.
South Korea's Gab Yong Kim has won the €3,000 Mystery Bounty at the 2023 PokerStars European Poker Tour Prague for €214,674 after defeating heads-up opponent Andrej Tekel of Austria in what proved to be a back-and-forth heads-up battle.
Kim came into Day 3 as the chip leader and continued to build his stack throughout the day, "I felt good, I really thought I could win," said Kim talking about his day. He continuously used his aggression for success, "I knew I could put a lot of pressure on the final table."
He used to play a lot more cash games, but now he just focuses mostly on tournaments. It's easy to see why he does, as he has had a lot of success, with $2,580,215 in live earnings not including today's victory. On top of the lion's share of the tournament prize pool, he also collected a total of 13 bounties, earning an additional €40,000.
Like other tournaments at this stop, the Mystery Bounty event attracted a sizable field of 787 runners for a prize pool of €1,350,492, that didn't include the bounty prize pool featuring three €50,000 bounties. Only 16 players returned on Day 3 and eight made the final table including Aleksandar Tomovic of Serbia, and Pavlos Xanthopoulos of Greece.
Final Table Results
Place
Player
Country
Payout
Bounties
Total Prize (EUR)
1
Gab Yong Kim
South Korea
€214,674*
€40,000
€254,674
2
Andrej Tekel
Austria
€186,278*
€12,000
€198,278
3
Ioannis Oikonomidis
Malta
€110,110
€59,000
€169,110
4
Pavlos Xanthopoulos
Greece
€84,690
€24,000
€108,690
5
Ioannis Poullos
Greece
€65,150
€17,000
€82,150
6
Henri Kasper
Estonia
€50,120
€50,120
7
Aleksandar Tomovic
Serbia
€38,560
€2,000
€40,560
8
Igor Pihela Jr
Estonia
€29,660
€6,000
€35,660
*Denotes heads-up deal
Bounty Action
There weren't many Bounty sweats on Day 3, as the three largest bounties had already been claimed. On Day 2 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 finished 15th place, adding €12,740 to his bounty prizes.
Mats Nylander was the second to pull a €50,000 bounty, but didn't manage to cash in this event. Jelle Moene was the final recipient of a €50,000 bounty, who managed to battle his way to 26th place and collect an additional payout of €7,280.
However, Day 3 still had the second-largest bounty available of €25,000, with Ioannis Oikonomidis claiming it once again. There were only two bounties awarded worth €25,000, and miraculously Oikonomidis was the receiver of both. Oikonomidis claimed a total of seven bounties, for a total of €59,000.
The Day 3 field of 16 dwindled down quickly as players including Russia's own Vladimir Troyanovskiy (13th - €15,290), Romania's Marius Alexandru (10th - €20,575), and Dutch Cornelis van Gent (9th - €20,575) were eliminated. Alexandru and Van Gent went out on the final table bubble, busting on different tables during the same hand and splitting the tenth and ninth payouts.
The first casualty of the final table took a little over an hour with Igor Pihela Jr hitting the rail in eighth place when his pocket tens ran into the kings of Tekel.
Thus began the heads-up battle, Kim had a dominating chip lead with three players left but when they reached heads up, the chips were relatively close. They made an ICM deal, with Kim taking €214,674 and Oikonomidis locking up €186,278.
That wraps up the PokerNews live reporting team's coverage of the exciting €3,000 EPT Mystery Bounty. Be sure to check out the live reporting hub for coverage of other EPT Prague events.