Antoine Labat Earns First EPT Trophy With �10,200 Mystery Bounty Title
The first five-figure buy-in at the 2024 PokerStars European Poker Tour Monte Carlo series has come to an end at the beautiful Sporting Monte-Carlo. After a long day of action, Antoine Labat defeated a field of 93 entrants in the �10,200 Mystery Bounty to earn his first EPT trophy.
Labat took down the largest piece of the �902,100 overall prize pool, which was divided into two sections. He earned �116,800 for the win, along with �40,000 in bounties. The Frenchman outlasted a field that included EPT champions and PokerStars Ambassadors to kick off his series in style in Monaco.
He has come close before, notching eight finishes inside the top five at previous EPT stops. That list includes a runner-up result in the �2,200 Estrellas Poker Tour High Roller at EPT Barcelona last summer, and now Labat finally has a Spade to put in his trophy case.
�10,200 Mystery Bounty Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize (EUR) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Antoine Labat | France | � 116,800 |
| 2 | Felipe Boianovsky | Brazil | � 75,200 |
| 3 | Damian Salas | Argentina | � 53,700 |
| 4 | Jon Vallinas | Spain | � 41,300 |
| 5 | Alex Kulev | Bulgaria | � 33,100 |
| 6 | Bert Stevens | Belgium | � 26,400 |
| 7 | Aliaksei Boika | Belarus | � 21,200 |
| 8 | Ole Schemion | Germany | � 16,900 |
| 9 | Vicente Delgado | Spain | � 13,500 |
Day 2 Storylines
Late registration remained open for the first few levels of Day 2, and the field grew by 24 entries before the prize pool was confirmed. One level later, the mystery bounty tokens were brought into play, and almost immediately, they created some fun among the final five tables.
After losing a flip moments earlier, Pedro Chaves was not aware that he still had 2,000 left. That represented just half of a big blind at the time, with other players at the table counting down the hands until the abandoned stack was forced all in. Just as that was about to happen, the next big blind was selected from the table to balance out the tournament so the 2,000 chips were on the move. One hand before the scenario was about to unfold again, Adrian Mateos busted, resulting in a table break. The two yellow chips were transported to another table, where another rebalance saw Chaves�� stack move yet again.
"This is the craziest thing I've ever seen," remarked Bert Stevens. Finally, the short stack was indeed forced all in from the big blind and the bounty was claimed.
As the tournament moved closer to the money, bounties continued to fly around the room. With 14 players remaining and just 13 getting paid, the two largest bounties were still up for grabs. Artur Martirosian ran into Vicente Delgado��s pocket aces, ending his run on the direct bubble. Martirosian then went over to the bounty desk, where he pulled one of the �50,000 bounty cards to ease his pain of missing out on the money.
Final Table Action
Once the final table of nine was reached, Delgado was the first to go when his queens came up second best against aces.
Ole Schemion hit the rail in eighth after falling to Labat, while Aliaksei Boika lost a flip to finish seventh for �21,200.
After building up a stack earlier in the day, Bert Stevens got his chips in second best to exit in sixth spot.
With play down to five-handed action, Felipe Boianovsky got hot and eliminated the next three players, including Damian Salas who held the chip lead for much of the previous four levels.
That left Boianovsky heads up with Labat, and the two traded the lead several times. In the end, Labat connected on a straight to bust Boianovsky and claim the title.
That concludes PokerNews coverage of the �10,200 Mystery Bounty event, but be sure to check out all of our live reporting from Monte Carlo as the European Poker Tour rolls on.