Shaun Deeb Denied Seventh Bracelet at the Death in Mystery Bounty WSOP Event

This year’s packed 2024 World Series of Poker Europe schedule has 15 events and there have been none more exciting that the most recent, the $1,820-entry event being a ‘Mystery Bounty’ tournament that awarded plenty of prizes when players eliminated others deep in the event. Eventually, after a thrilling final table, it was Amir Mozaffarian who prevailed, winning his first-ever WSOP bracelet days after coming second in the €5,000 Pot Limit Omaha bracelet event.

The Greatest Bounty

There were a huge 515 entries in Event #9, the Mystery Bounty WSOPE event, with over $533,000 in the prizepool to be claimed by the top 78 finishers. Plenty of household names to poker fans busted inside the money but outside the top table of the event, with Czech player Martin Kabrhel departing in 70^th place for $1,500, Indian poker player Ankit Ahuja coming 51^st for $1,580 and Philipp Krieger busting in 55^th place for the same amount as Ahuja.

Krieger, however, won the biggest bounty on the day and across his three eliminations of other players, won a total of $54,000 – almost as much as was claimed by the runner-up in the event. Krieger eventually lost his stack to Shaun Deeb who after earlier being much shorter, ran up his stack and looked a lock for the final table.

Close to the last eight, American Ramana Epparla, the overnight chip leader, departed for $1,840 in 33^rd before previous bracelet winners Gabi Livshitz (23^rd) and Fabio Peluso (22^nd) both won $2,410 as they too left before the last table in the tournament was formed. Another former WSOP bracelet winner Tobias Peters crashed out for $2,875 in 15^th place and when Ondrej Goetz bubbled the final table in ninth for $4,435, the pieces were set for one last, dramatic table to find a bracelet winner.

Zizka Sees His Snowmen Melt

As the final table kicked off, it was the Romanian player Viorel Gavrila who held the most chips but they were fairly evenly split and no-one was running away with the title easily. The Ukrainian player Yehor Shumeiko busted in eighth for $5,700 when his queen-six busted to German player Amir Mozaffarian’s ace-king.

Soon, seven were down to six. One of two Americans to make the final table, John Armbrust cashed for $7,550 when he lost out to the early pacesetter Gavrila. The Romainian flopped the straight with six-five against Armbrust’s eight-seven, as a flop of 9-8-7 had something for everyone but less for the at-risk player. No seven or eight came to save Armbrust and the field was down to half a dozen hopefuls.

It was the Czech Republic player Zdenek Zizka who left in sixth for $10,200 in sixth place after his pocket eights, or ‘snowmen’ perished. All-in pre-flop, Zizka lost to the Italian Lorenzo Arduini’s pocket tens as a board of A-A-K-Q-2 threatened to split the pot only to leave Zizka out in the cold after the river.

Shaun Deeb Hits the Dust

“Having a [WSOP] bracelet is one of the most desired things you can get.”

Arduini may have own that hand, but his rise came immediately before his fall. All-in with ace-king, he lost in a huge clash against Paco Kaplan’s pocket jacks. The German made a set of jacks on the flop and held to send Arduini home with $14,150 in fourth place.

Shaun Deeb had been a big player at the final table and at one point looked in command of his destiny as he pushed for a seventh WSOP title. Two major hands lost to bluffs by Mozaffarian took the shine off his stay, however, and once short, Deeb’s shove with king-four was called by Mozaffarian with king-nine. The German player saw it home to eliminate Deeb for a score of $20,050 as he bowed out three places short of glory.

Down to three, it was the final table leader Gavrila who busted for $40,500. All-in with jack-four when short, he too was taken out by the eventual winner as Mozaffarian’s ace-six prevailed and he headed into the final battle for the bracelet with a 4:1 chip lead. Soon, that was a big enough advantage to force action from Kaplan, who was all-in for 12 big blinds with queen-five and couldn’t catch king-six across the T-8-4-J-J board.

“Having a bracelet is one of the most desired things you can get as a poker player,” Amir Mozaffarian said after the event. “I was really riding the rollercoaster today. My stack was up and down so much and then I was winning a lot of flips, so I thought oh, maybe there is something possible today. I had a huge chip lead, but the job is never done, never because Shaun [Deeb] is a really, really good player and is very dangerous. Nothing is safe when you have a chip lead.”

Deeb’s dream may have died on the vine close to the fruit being picked but for Amir Mozaffarian it was a famous victory as he claimed his first-ever WSOP bracelet in Rozvadov.