HomeTAIPEI CITY, Taiwan – From 251 entries in two Flights yesterday, the Asian Poker Tour (APT) Mystery Bounty (Event #1) the 61 remaining runners now converge anew this time seeking a spot in the final 26 to be eligible for bounty prizes worth over NT$600,000.00 (US$19,677.00) and a cash prize pool that has nearly doubled its original guarantee at the Chinese Texas Hold’em Poker Association (CTP Club) here.
Cards go in the air at 1:00PM (UCT+8) and everyone left knows that they are just 35 eliminations away from being paid at least NT$10,000.00 (US$314.00) but would also be on the radar for the NT$288,000.00 (US$9,033.00) top prize and one of three bounties worth NT$109,000.00 (US$3,420.00) if they get to bust out a player.
This event will reach fever pitch once the ITM Bubble is burst because moving forward, every person who eliminates a player will draw from envelopes that contain the Mystery Bounties that range from NT$8,000.00 (US$251.00) to the aforementioned NT$109,000.00. In some cases–if a player cans multiple eliminations–that the bounty prizes collected may surpass the cash prizes who for placing.
In the recently concluded APT 2022 Philippines, local favorite Don “Pusang Gala” Carmona amassed almost PhP500,00.00 (US$8,510.00) in bounty prizes, which was a lot more than the PhP144,200.00 (US$2,408.00) he received for finishing in sixth place. This is what makes this event unique.
Don “Pusang Gala” Carmona (L) got almost half a million pesos wirth of bounties in the APT 2022 Philippines Mystery Bounty event
Heading into the finale, Hsu Yi Yang sits atop the leaderboard with 265,500 in chips while Wei Chun Liu enters at second with 262,500. Interestingly, Cheng Hsin Liu (who is currently in third place) will start the day right beside the chip-leader in the seat assignments. His holdings are at 231,500.
Of the remaining players, only two foreigners made the cut in Ori Kossonogi of Israel and Belgium’s Kristof Segers.
The excitement brought about by the Mystery Bounty finale is momentarily overshadowing the commencement of two more events today as Day 1 of both (Event #2) the NT$86k (US$2,697.00) Super High-Rollers and (Event #3) the NT5,700.00 (US$179.00) NLH plus another satellite to the Main Event later in the day.