Patrick Leonard was down to 57,000, which he jammed in as first to act. Vladimir Korzinin three-bet to 125,000 in middle position, after which chip leader Ren Lin four-bet jammed in the cutoff.
The action folded back to Korzinin, who thought for a bit and then folded, leaving himself a healthy 303,000 to play with.
Patrick Leonard: K♥J♠
Ren Lin: 10♠10♣
Leonard lost the flip when the 3♦8♣3♠7♥7♣ board ran out low. He quickly took his exit while Lin extended his lead, playing nearly 130 big blinds.
Yahor Dambrouski made a raise to 10,000 under the gun. Aliaksei Boika called in the cutoff, followed by Alexander Zubov on the button. The action went to Jamil Wakil in the big blind, who squeezed in a three-bet to 45,000.
Dambrouski folded before Boika back-jammed his stack of 147,000. Zubov got out of the way but Wakil made an instant call with the covering stack.
Aliaksei Boika: A♦A♣
Jamil Wakil: K♥K♦
Wakil had run into the ultimate cooler, and the J♥5♣7♥7♦7♠ board could not save him from doubling up Boika.
Ognyan Dimov opened to 10,000 from under the gun, and was faced with a three-bet jam to 100,000 from Aliaksei Boika in the cutoff. Action folded back to Dimov, who made the quick call with the covering stack.
Aliaksei Boika: 9♣9♦
Ognyan Dimov: A♦K♣
Boika's pocket nines were ahead in a race, and he shipped the pot after Dimov missed the Q♣J♠4♦8♦5♥ runout.
Adrian Mateos raised to 10,000 in the hijack and was three-bet to 30,000 by Diogo Coelho on the button. Mateos check-called 17,000 on the Q♠8♣3♦ flop before both checked the 8♠ turn.
The A♠ river was also checked by Mateos, this time facing a bet of 80,000 from Coelho. He instantly folded as Coelho won the first pot of the day.
At another table, Dimitar Danchev only lasted one hand as Teun Mulder was seen stacking his chips.
On nearly every PokerStars European Poker Tour stop in the last few years, one can hardly miss the appearance of Elias Gutierrez. The Spanish pro, who many old-school online players know as "SinKarma", is usually followed by a camera crew as he has been shifting his attention to live poker and content creation.
No different was it yesterday at the 2024 PokerStars European Poker Tour Cyprus that is taking place at the Merit Royal Diamond Hotel Casino & Spa. As usual, Gutierrez showed up and registered for the $10,200 Mystery Bounty at the second-ever EPT Cyprus and spun up his starting stack of to 428,000, a stack of 85 big blinds when play resumes. This netted him a second place on the leaderboard, with only the jovial Chinese high-stakes regular Ren Lin acquiring more chips, 578,000 of them.
Ren Lin
Gutierrez's run in the $10,200 Mystery Bounty has thus started well, and not for the first time. In fact, Gutierrez seems to perform well in this specific event at EPT stops, with all of his final tables since his focus has shifted coming from the five-figure Mystery Bounty events. His best placement was third at EPT Prague 2023, so Gutierrez will be eyeing his first PokerStars trophy today.
Of course, Gutierrez and Lin are not the only mainstay names with a big stack, with players such as Yulian Bogdanov, Tom Vogelsang, Diogo Coelho, Teun Mulder, and Artur Martirosian all bagging an above-average stack, finding themselves in the top ten of the 26 returning players.
Start of Day 2 Top Ten Chip Counts
Rank
Player
Country
Chip Count
Big Blinds
1
Ren Lin
China
578,000
115
2
Elias Gutierrez
Spain
428,000
85
3
Vladimir Korzinin
Estonia
425,000
85
4
Yulian Bogdanov
Bulgaria
405,000
81
5
Tom Vogelsang
Netherlands
405,000
81
6
Diogo Coelho
Portugal
367,000
73
7
Teun Mulder
Netherlands
347,000
69
8
Artur Martirosian
Russia
288,000
57
9
Marcelo Bonanata
Uruguay
271,000
54
10
Alexander Zubov
Russia
270,000
54
Just outside the top ten sits Spanish phenom Adrian Mateos with 255,000, while his fellow super high roller Aleksejs Ponakovs tops the bottom half of the field with a stack of 209,000. Also among the shorter stacks are Dimitar Danchev (160,000), Felipe Ketzer (118,000), Vicente Delgado(110,000), and Julien Sitbon (107,000).
Adrian Mateos
With 62 entries on Day 1, the cash prize pool sits at $291,400 while there is $310,000 to collect in bounties. However, late registration is open until Day 2 starts at noon local time, so those numbers are expected to grow. The tournament will restart in Level 11: 2,000/5,000 with a 5,000 big blind ante, with the mystery bounties coming into play from Level 13 onwards. All levels will be 30 minutes in length throughout the day.
The $10,200 Mystery Bounty will crown a winner today, so stay tuned to PokerNews to find out who will have the luckiest bounty pulls and who will take home one of the first Spadies of EPT Cyprus.
