Rodrigo Seiji Crowned 2022 EPT Prague €10,200 Mystery Bounty Champion

The traditional 2022 PokerStars European Poker Tour Prague stop at the Hilton Prague hotel has crowned the first winner of a high-stakes competition. Brazil's Rodrigo Seiji entered the final day in Event #3: €10,200 Mystery Bounty with the most chips and eventually accumulated them all after coming out on top of a short-lived heads-up duel with Dutch poker pro Jorryt van Hoof.

With the late registration still open for the first two levels, the field was boosted by another 16 players and that brought the total field size up to 68 entries. This created a cash prize pool of €319,600 while another €340,000 were allocated for the Mystery Bounty prize pool. Seiji earned a cash prize worth €95,880 and claimed the final three bounties of the night for another €27,500.

Runner-up Van Hoof took home €62,320 in cash and pulled in two €25,000 bounties thanks to a spectacular four-way all-in. The most successful bounty hunter was, however, Steve O'Dwyer, who grabbed the two most precious bounty envelopes worth €50,000 each and claimed another two small add-ons for his bankroll despite having to settle for seventh place.

Final Results Event #3: €10,200 Mystery Bounty

It wasn't the first time the Brazilian poker pro with merits in the online arena and live circuit alike has lifted a PokerStars spadie trophy for the winner shots. As a matter of fact, Seiji won a € 2,700 Mystery Bounty during the rescheduled 2021 EPT Prague festival earlier this year for the biggest score so far. Out of a field of 655 entries, he walked away with a cash prize of €240,655, and that payday wasn't surpassed this time.

However, the latest result will vault the Brazilian above $1 million in recorded cashes on The Hendon Mob as he continues to make strides on the international poker scene. Seiji was up against tough opposition including the High Roller regulars Daniel Dvoress, Orpen Kisacikoglu, Adrian Mateos, Anton Suarez, Juha Helppi, Juan Pardo, Pedro Marques, Jean-Noel Thorel, and Mike Watson. However, none of them earned a share of the cash and bounty prizes with the exception of Watson, who made a small profit in the event after reentering on Day 2.

The Mystery Bounty prizes came into play after the first break of the day and by then, only 21 hopefuls were still in contention. O'Dwyer seemed unstoppable for a while and also picked the golden envelope after his first knockout, as he earned a €50,000 payday. The American with Irish roots repeated the same feat soon after to lock up a six-figure payday for his efforts.

Among his victims were Marques, Thorel, Hwany Lee and Sam Greenwood. Near the cash money bubble, Mark Hammond went on a hot streak when he doubled twice to leave Greenwood short and knocked out Pablo Brito Silva. It was then O'Dwyer who claimed the bounty for eliminating Greenwood to let the cash bubble burst and reduce the field to the final nine.

However, the tides were changing soon after and the most entertaining hand of the day unleashed a four-way all-in. Van Hoof had doubled twice and then knocked out Ognyan Dimov and Emil Bise while doubling through Hammond. The Dutchman didn't redeem his only two bounties until later on and added €25,000 for each of them to his bankroll.

O'Dwyer fell from grace when he lost two hands to Jamil Wakil and had to settle for seventh place, he was followed to the payout desk by Conor Beresford and Hammond. During four-handed play, the lead changed multiple times and Seiji eventually pulled ahead of the pack while Maher Nouira went from top spot to fourth-place finisher. Wakil was the one to collect the bounty and chips but ended up second-best to Seiji when his turned trips were doomed.

Heads-up play saw Seiji with a comfortable lead and he never surrendered the top spot despite the valiant efforts of Van Hoof. Ultimately, it needed a bad beat to seal the victory when ace-ten came from behind versus ace-king.

This concludes the first five-figure buy-in of the festival at the King's Casino Prague on the ground floor of the Hilton Praguel and the next high-stakes competitions are just around the corner. The following two days will feature €25,000 Single-Day High Rollers and the PokerNews live reporting team will be back then to provide all the action.