After a quick-fire Day 2 at the Hilton Prague, Hungary's Andras Nemeth emerged victorious in the €10,200 Mystery Bounty at the 2024 PokerStars European Poker Tour, defeating Michail Manolakis in a back-and-forth heads-up battle.
Nemeth took home a total of €132,980 (inclusive of bounties) after besting the 42-entry field, which generated an overall prize pool of €406,980.
This victory represents Nemeth's fifth triumph at an EPT event, a remarkable record which cements his status as one of the most accomplished tournament players in the world. The Hungarian started Day 2 as the chipleader, and was never far away from the top of the standings in a high-quality performance.
Nemeth found a huge river hero-call to put him in a commanding position three-handed, and although Manolakis found two double-ups to bring matters back to even, Nemeth kept his composure and ultimately finished off his stubborn opponent.
Manolakis can take solace in a quality performance and in beating his previous combined lifetime recorded cashes of $40,514 in one score, after taking home €89,300 (including bounties).
"It feels really nice, this is my first tournament of the festival so it's a great feeling to get off to a good start, especially for the mindset, so a very nice start," said Nemeth.
"The hero-call was a hand where I called it correctly after I'd maybe made a mistake a couple of hands previously. It felt like a good combination to call in theory, and I felt my opponent could be bluffing at a reasonable frequency. Ace-high was going to be beating all his bluffs so I decided to go for it.
"When you have a chip lead, it's easy to feel like you are close to winning the tournament, and when I doubled him up twice I could have let myself feel like it's slipping away. But the key for me is to stay focused and take each hand at a time. I didn't get carried away at any stage, whether I was ahead or behind."
| Place | Player | Country | Prize | Bounties | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Andras Nemeth | Hungary | €67,980 | €65,000 | €132,980 |
| 2 | Michail Manolakis | Greece | €44,300 | €45,000 | €89,300 |
| 3 | Nikita Kuznetsov | Russia | €30,500 | €40,000 | €70,500 |
| 4 | Ilia Pavlov | Russia | €22,700 | 0 | €22,700 |
| 5 | Morten Klein | Norway | €17,700 | €10,000 | €27,700 |
| 6 | Niklas Astedt | Sweden | €13,800 | €40,000 | €53,800 |
Six entrants at the start of Day 2 brought the field to 25 players, increasing the overall number of entrants to 42, which generated a cash prize pool of €196,980 and a bounty prize pool of €210,000. There were a number of early exits as Sonny Franco, Scott Margereson and Steve O'Dwyer all departed in the first level.
After bounties came into play at the start of Level 13, the action heated up and Candido Cappiello spiked the flop to pick off Espen Jorstad and claim a bounty token. Nikita Kuznetsov got in on the bounty action when he busted Simone Andrian in a three-way all in where all players held pocket pairs.
The final table was set when Lander Lijo departed, with only six places earning a return on investment.
At the outset of the final table, Manolakis held the chip lead, closely followed by Nemeth. Kuznetsov completed the top three, albeit some way behind. Cappiello was the first player to exit when he succumbed to Nemeth, and he pulled a €10,000 bounty as he departed.
Kuznetsov then took a significant pot against Niklas Astedt when pocket rockets and Big Slick collided. Astedt claimed the stack of Elias Suhonen to bring about the bubble, which burst promptly when Kuznetsov had Maksim Vaskresenski's ace dominated.
Action slowed down after that, and it was some time before Astedt exited in sixth after running into the pocket sevens of Morten Klein with only one overcard. Astedt was undoubtedly suitably consoled by pulling the biggest bounty of €40,000.
Klein departed in fifth after getting unlucky with Big Slick versus Nemeth, and the final three were set when Kuznetsov overcame a precarious preflop position to send Ilia Pavlov to the rail in fourth.
Nemeth found the previously mentioned river hero-call against Manolakis to put him in a commanding position. Still, Manolakis doubled through the Hungarian twice in short order to retake the lead.
Kuznetsov's journey came to an end in third when he jammed from the small blind but found Nemeth had woken up with an ace behind him.
Nemeth held a slight lead at the start of heads-up play, but Manolakis took several small pots to gradually build a 3:1 chip advantage. Nemeth found a double when his ace-high held against king-high to bring the stacks back to even.
Nemeth proceeded to pick off a bluff from Manolakis, and the Greek's demise came about shortly after when Nemeth spiked an ace on the turn to overcome Manolakis' flopped second pair.
