Antoine Labat is Mystery Man for $160,000 Win at EPT Monte Carlo

Taking home his first-ever EPT title in Monte Carlo, the new Mystery Bounty champion was French player Antoine Labat as he beat Brazilian player Felipe Boianovsky heads-up for a score of $125,00 plus over $46,000 in bounties. With other stars of the felt such as WSOP Hybrid Main Event winner Damian Salas and German poker legend Ole Schemion making the final table, it was unmissable drama on the French Riviera for poker fans.

Martirosian Can’t Make the Money

With the €10,200 ($10,910) Mystery Bounty event seeing 93 entries overall, almost half a million dollars was up for grabs in terms of prizes, with a healthy chunk of that in bounty form. Top bounty prizes were €50,000 and one of those was claimed by the man who would miss out on the official money places. Russian player Artur Martirosian is one of the most respected players in the poker world, but he fell in 14^th as he called off a river bet from Vicente Delgado with just ace-king for ace-high. Delgado had shoved with pocket aces on a board showing T-T-7-7-5 but wasn’t bluffing and Martirosian, so often a big winner, bit the dust.

Once the bubble had burst, several players were more than happy to risk their stacks in attempts to spin up their short stacks. Welsh Triple Crown ( EPT, WPT and WSOP) winner Roberto Romanello lost with ace-queen to Damian Salas’ pocket nines as a cruel flop brought both an ace for the Welshman but a nine for the Argentinian too.

Soon, the nine-handed final table had been reached. American Byron Kaverman busted in 12^th for $9,300 and the French player Thomas Santerne followed soon afterwards in 11^th for $11,540. Down to ten players, one more needed to bust for the last nine to be formed and it was the Estonian poker professional Ilya Nikiforov who missed out on the final table photos. All-in from early position with ace-seven, he was called by Dublin-based Bulgarian Alex Kulev with jack-queen of diamonds which flopped a queen and held through the rest of the board to send Nikiforov home with $11,540.

Boika Busto as Salas Soars

With nine players remaining, Spanish pro Vicente Delgado made his bow, crashing out for a score of $14,440. All-in with pocket queens, only two hands were ahead of Delgado’s pre-flop but Damian Salas called with one of them, turning over pocket aces. An ace on the flop was the proverbial sledgehammer being used to kill a butterfly and Delgado made his way to the rail.

Next to go was Ole Schemion, the German high roller losing to Antoine Labat as the eventual winner won with a better flush draw when Schemion shoved on the turn thinking that he needed to find a diamond. As it happened, only a queen or a deuce would save him but neither arrived and he won $18,075 in eighth place.

Aliaksei Boika fell in seventh place as the Belarussian lost a coinflip. All-in with ace-queen, Damian Salas’ pocket sixes held to send Boika home with $22,675. Not long after, Bert Stevens, also known as ‘girafganger7’ online, busted too. All-in with ace-deuce, the Belgian player was dominated to defeat by Felipe Boianovsky with ace-jack. A flop of J-9-J was all that was needed to reduce the field to five, Stevens heading  home with $28,250.

Labatt Cool as Ice Heads-Up

All-in with king-queen, Bulgarian player Alex Kulev busted next, claiming $35,400 in fifth place. He started and ended his final hand behind Brazilian player Felipe Boianovsky’s ace-king and a king-high board sent the Dublin-based player home outside the final four. While Boianovsky was buoyant, Spanish player Jon Vallinas was low on chips and experienced a bad beat to bust. All-in with ace-eight against Boianovsky’s jack-eight, the Brazilian’s hearts made a flush to send the Spanish player home in fourth for $44,175.

Having led for so much of the tournament, Argentina’s 2020 WSOP Hybrid Main Event winner Damian Salas will have been distraught to miss out in third place for $57,450. All-in with nine-deuce, Salas saw Boianovsky’s jack-nine dominate him to an exit just before the heads-up battle.

The Brazilian Boianovsky led the final battle with 6,385,000 chips to Antoine Labat’s 2,915,000 but trip queens enabled Labat to double and soon after, he put his own chip lead to good use. All-in with ace-four against the Brazilian’s queen-ten pre-flop, a board of J-9-7-7-8 gave the French player his first-ever EPT title and the top prize of $125,000, with Boianovsky forced to settle for $80,450 in second place.

Photographs courtesy of Manuel Kovsca for PokerStars, the home of the 2024 European Poker Tour.