99 advance to Mystery Bounty finale, ‘Hot Sauce’ leads

PASAY CITY, Philippines – In what was a record-breaking turnout, the Mystery Bounty (Event #1) had 99 players go through to battle for a piece of the more than PhP5M (US$88,165.00) prize pool plus a shot at three bounties worth PhP288,000.00 (US$5,044.00) when action resumes in the opener of the APT 2022 Philippines at the Grand Wing Casino, Newport World Resorts here. 

The first order of business when the cards fly at 1:00PM (UCT+8) is to be among the 35 participants that makes it to ITM to be eligible for the over PhP1.7M (approximately US$29,800.00) in Bounty draws. 

The champion of this event will walk away with PhP746K (US$13,069.00) and will earn the designation of beating a record field of 346 entries. 

Six-time APT side event winner Richard “Hot Sauce” Marquez sits atop the leaderboard with 257,000 in chips as the Pangasinan-native made full use of his lone bullet to pace the field despite having less entries in his flight (Flight A had 265 entries while Flight B had 281). 

Richard Marquez – Mystery Bounty Introduction Event champion

Marquez, who triumphed in the inaugural version of this event earlier this year, is in a unique position to replicate his feat, but must also fend off his closest pursuers in Oleg Mordassov of Switzerland (second with 231,000) and fellow Filipino Marco Espela (third with 217,500). 

Meanwhile, Event #2 (the 2-day VIP High-Rollers) with a buy-in of PhP215.000.00 (US$3,503.00) and Event #3 (the 2-Day Head-Hunter–with a PhP5k bounty) with a PhP22,000.00 (US$385.00) will also commence  today (September 7th) while another satellite to the Day 1A of the Main Event takes place at 6:00PM guaranteeing non-stop action on the felt in the 35-table competition facility.