Oleg Vasylchenko overcame and defeated a field of 56 Enrico Camosci Heads up to win the €74,673 first place prize here at 2023 PokerStars European Poker Tour Prague.
In addition to his first EPT title, Vasylchenko secured four mystery bounties totaling €80,000 en route to his victory, bringing his most recent win to €154,673.
Vasylchenko’s victory comes after a long history of close contests. Prior to today, Vaslychenko had made four EPT final tables in recent years, but was never able to win the title.
“It feels great. I longed for it.” [an EPT title] “I’ve made multiple final tables for ten years and I’m really happy I won.”
Vasychenko, who came to the final table as a big stack, said he was a little disappointed to have missed out on the biggest bounties drawn by him Elias Gutierrez.
“I was in good shape to make some bounties, but you actually have to make some hands. I didn’t have the opportunity.” [Gutierrez] I’m a little frustrated about this. But it was fine. At least I got a trophy!”
In the end, Gutierrez secured five of the nine mystery bounties, making him the highest prize winner of the tournament, having earned €238,150 between his third place finish and the bounty prizes.
€10,200 Mystery Bounty Final Table Results
| Location | player | country | Price | Bounty price | total price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Oleg Vasylchenko | Ukraine | €69,673* | €80,000 | €154,673 |
| 2 | Enrico Camosci | Italy | €58,277* | €0 | €58,277 |
| 3 | Elias Gutierrez | Spain | €38,150 | €200,000 | €238,150 |
| 4 | Marcelo Bonanata | Uruguay | €28,950 | €0 | €28,950 |
| 5 | Dimitar Danchev | Bulgaria | €22,350 | €0 | €22,350 |
| 6 | Masato Kashiwabara | Japan | €17,100 | €0 | €17,100 |
| 7 | Paul Newey | England | €13,150 | €0 | €13,150 |
| 8th | Antoine Labat | France | €10,550 | €0 | €10,550 |
*Denotes heads-up deal
Tamas Adamszki takes home his second EPT Prague Trophy in the €50,000 Super High Roller
Final Table Action
Day 2 began with several players short on stack due to the turbo structure of the event. As expected, the final table got off to a brilliant start, with Antoine Labat, Paul NeweyAnd Masato Kashiwabara Everyone was eliminated in eighth, seventh and sixth place within the first half hour of the game.
Vasylchenko secured the first few mystery bounties after eliminating Labat, collecting a Draw Again bounty of over €10,000. This resulted in an additional bounty of €25,000. However, it was Gutierrez who claimed the lion’s share of the Mystery Bounty prize pool by far.
After Labat’s elimination, Gutierrez scored the next three eliminations, including Dimitar Danchev after getting him all-in preflop and catching a queen on the turn.
Gutierrez wasted no time before drawing his first two bounties. He selected the lucky envelopes which contained the main prize of €100,000 and the second prize of €50,000. Gutierrez saved his third bounty for the first break of the day and promptly won another €25,000. This brought his bounty winnings to an incredible €175,000 – more than double the prize for first place.
Marcelo Bonanata, who started the day as one of the short stacks, managed to double several times and temporarily took the chip lead in four-handed play. However, his momentum quickly faded. After losing some sizable pots to Vasylchenko and Camosci, Bonanata went with king-queen shoove and lost a race to Gutierrez’s pocket fives, leaving him in fourth place. Unsurprisingly, upon elimination, Gutierrez drew the highest available bounty of €25,000, bringing his total bounty to €200,000.
It seemed to be Gutierrez’s day, but shortly into three-handed play he lost a big pot after playing top pair on Vaslychenko’s trips. Vasylchenko secured the remaining chips from Gutierrez as his pocket fives remained best against his sailboats.
The heads-up fight between Vasylchenko and Camosci proved to be short. Already in the fifth hand of the game, Vasylchenko went ahead with pocket fives and was called by Camosci, who held Ace-Deuce. The board went off without a sweat for Vasylchenko and he took his first major live tournament win at the EPT.
