Lex Veldhuis Among Final 22 Players Chasing First Place and Top Bounty After €3000 EPT Paris Mystery Bounty Day 2
PokerStars ambassador and popular streamer Lex Veldhuis bagged and tagged after Day 2 in the €3000 mystery bounty event at the PokerStars European Poker Tour Paris. After a rollercoaster day, the Dutchman finished 19th in chips, bagging 530,000. Along with him are 21 other players remaining out of the 787 that have started. All of them still have a shot at the top bounty of €75,000, as only one of the two has been pulled today. They are of course also fighting for the €243,656 first prize from the €1,328,456 prize pool.
Chip leading those remaining is Martin Stausholm with 2,440,000 chips, which will be over 60 big blinds at the start of Day 3. Closing out the top three stacks are Gerard Rubiralta Cortes (2,000,000) and Jan Bednar (1,965,000). Other notables include Christopher Dowling, who is on the hunt for his third final table this EPT Paris, and Jonathan Proudfoot.
Top 10 Chip Counts after Day 2
| Place | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Martin Stausholm | Denmark | 2,440,000 | 61 |
| 2 | Gerard Rubiralta Cortes | Spain | 2,000,000 | 50 |
| 3 | Jan Bednar | Czech Republic | 1,965,000 | 49 |
| 4 | Christopher Dowling | Ireland | 1,777,000 | 44 |
| 5 | Humberto Lopes Galindo | Spain | 1,540,000 | 39 |
| 6 | Philip Shing | United States | 1,465,000 | 37 |
| 7 | Joachim Haraldstad | Norway | 1,420,000 | 36 |
| 8 | Jonathan Proudfoot | United Kingdom | 1,285,000 | 32 |
| 9 | Pascal Heinrichs | Germany | 1,000,000 | 25 |
| 10 | Fouad Baali | France | 960,000 | 24 |
Day 2 Action
Late registration was still open until the start of Day 2, and many players took the option to buy-in at the last possible moment. Among those who did so, but failed to make the money are Parker Talbot and Fedor Holz.
111 players would reach the money, and with the staggering speed of play it did not take long to get there. Things would not slow down after the bubble burst, and many players had to say their goodbyes before the end of the day. Pieter Aerts, Morten Mortensen and Andrea Ricci were all eliminated before the end of day, but took home some money as a consolation prize.
Bounties Galore
Of course a big part of a mystery bounty event is the draw of the bounties themselves. Danut Chisu had the best day at the bounty desk, pulling both the top prize of €75,000 and another envelope containing €20,000. A third, more common, amount of €1,000 rounded out Chisu's catch, and he took home €96,000 in bounties, as well as €6,250 for finishing in 28th place. The two second biggest bounties of €35,000 fell victim to Conor Bergin and Aleksandar Tomovic, while Boris Angelov took home the last €20,000 bounty. As mentioned before, one top prize of €75,000 is still up for grabs for the players returning to Day 3.
The remaining 22 players will return to their seats on Friday Feb. 24th, and the blinds will resume with level 25: 20,000/40,000 with a 40,000 big blind ante. All levels will be 40 minutes long until the final three players, when they will be halved.
Stay tuned to PokerNews for live reporting of the action all the way to the winner, as well as the other tournaments that are happening here in the Hyatt Regency Paris Étoile at our EPT Paris main hub.
board, but Shing's ace-high prevailed on 
, and Le was eliminated from the tournament.
and Sandev continued with a bet of 40,000. Bednar check-raised to 125,000 which got Lykov out of the hand, but Sandev called.
and Bednar sized up a bet of 190,000. Sandev still called and the 
completed the board. Bednar slid out a stack of 500,000, putting Sandev to the test for his remaining 362,000. After much deliberation and an incoming headache, Sandev dropped in a call. 
for a missed straight draw while Sandev held 
to claim the massive side pot. Chen, meanwhile, was ecstatic to table his 
but failed to hit it on the river 
.
runout changed nothing and Galindo earned another bounty chip.
and a big pot brewing between three players. Jan Bednar checked from under the gun before Gianluca Speranza bet 140,000 from the hijack. Gerard Rubiralta Cortes folded his button and the action was back on Bednar.
runout and was eliminated. 
and Seo check-called another bet of 115,000 from Proudfoot. The 
while he passed over a double-up.
