Roman Hrabec Captures Mystery Bounty Title

An array of poker superstars arrived to play the latest Triton Poker Series event in Monte Carlo. After No Limit Hold’em events dominated the early action at the festival, the third event was a Mystery bounty tournament. In the end, it was the Czech high roller regular Roman Hrabec who took down the title as he beat Austrian sensation Samuel Mullur after the two men agreed a heads-up deal.

*prize awarded after ICM deal heads-up.

Bubble Bursts with Two Inside

There were 155 total entries in the third Triton Poker Series Monte Carlo event, as the $40,000 buy-in was multiplied up to a prizepool of $3.1 million in the Monaco province. In the end, the bubble burst with two players busting in simultaneous hands. Both Mikita Badziakouski from Belarus and the British player Lewis Spencer busted in 27^th place, splitting the min-cash for a return of $15,500 each.

With the buy-in split into bounties and the regular prizepool, early bust-outs fell short of making their money back, with Alex Foxen (24^th for $31,000), Hossein Ensan (20^th for $37,000) and Jesse Lonis (18^th for $37,000) all losing a little despite winning. Others made it into clean profit by their positions alone, with Alexandre Reard (14^th for $47,000), Bulgarian Fahredin Mustafov (10^th for $59,000) and Greek player Alex Theologis, who bubbled the final eight for a score of $70,000.

Once the final table was set, it was the Austrian player Samuel Mullur who led the remaining players, and he had a huge lead, sitting behind 104 big blinds. Next in line was Luc Greenwood on 61 big blinds, so there was a balance of power towards the Austrian that was felt keenly by all of his opponents.

Lin Leaves, Martirosian Makes Miraculous Fold

The first player to lose their seat at the final table was the Chinese player Ren Lin for $84,000. All-in with pocket aces on a flop of Q-4-2, Lin lost to Morten Klein’s queen-five when a five landed on the turn to send a disappointed Lin home in eighth place. There was an amazing fold with seven players left, as the Finnish player Ossi Ketola made a Royal Flush, only for Russian poker hero Artur Martirosian to fold a rivered full house in spectacular fashion, preserving his stack.

Martirosian trebled up in the next hand as his correct play was rewarded with pocket kings against two ace-high hands to boost his stack. Soon seven became six, as Punnat Punsri of Thailand busted for $116,000 to Martirosian. The Russian had momentum, but No Limit Hold’em is cruel and so it proved yet again. Martirosian lost to Roman Hrabec’s queens before ace-six ran into Mullur’s ace-king to end the Russian’s involvement for a score of $159,000.

It was the Finnish player Ketola who lost in fifth place for $207,000. All-in with ace-ten of diamonds, he was unable to usurp Mullur, who this time had woken up with pocket queens. Another queen on the turn gave Mullur a set of ladies and while Ketola will have been disappointed with the end result, his first-ever Triton cash was a huge one and he’ll be back for more.

 Mullur Misses Out

The final four were barely in their seats before Luc Greenwood was getting out of his to join the rail. All-in with king-six, Greenwood was dominated to defeat by the king-nine of Roman Hrabec and made his way home with $260,000 in winnings. The Czech player had grabbed the lead in the process, and he would soon have another bounty.

Norwegian player Morten Klein called off his stack with pocket jacks on the river of a board showing 8-8-6-6-5 but was undone by Hrabec’s queen-six after slow-playing the best hand paid off handsomely. Heads-up had arrived but with both Hrabec and Mullur happy to talk about a deal, the numbers were agreed on with Hrabec’ chip lead worth $587,019 and Mullur claiming $526,981, with just $35,000 and the trophy now on the line.

Mullur survived the early skirmishes but after falling 3:1 behind in chips, was all-in with seven-four of diamonds on a flop of T-9-8 with two diamonds, Hrabec calling with the superior ten-nine for two pair. No diamonds or straight cards came on turn and river and that was all she wrote with Mullur just missing out on glory and Hrabec claiming his second Triton title.