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.
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).
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.
