Humberto Lopes Galindo Triumphs in EPT Paris €3,000 Mystery Bounty (€258,656)

After 13 levels of play, Day 3 of the €3,000 Mystery Bounty at PokerStars European Poker Tour Paris concluded with Humberto Lopes Galindo crowned champion. Galindo despatched Fouad Baali in heads-up play to capture the title, trophy, and the €243,656 designated for the winner. As well as being awarded the lion's share from the regular prize pool, Galindo claimed an additional €15,000 in mystery bounty prizes for a final score of €258,656.

The tournament was heavily attended, recording 787 entries. Those players generated a total prize purse of €2,115,456, split into two prize pools. The regular prize pool contained €1,328,456, while the rest was tucked away inside the mystery bounty envelopes.

The biggest mystery bounty prizes were €75,000 and €35,000, of which there were two each. Danut Chisu was the first player to pull the big one, which he did on Day 2. Aleksandar Tomovic and Conor Bergin each pulled the €35,000 prize. The final big bounty went to Joachim Haraldstad, who claimed the delightful payday late on Day 3.

Final Table Results

Day 3 Recap

Twenty-two players returned for Day 3, and the action was fast and furious from the get-go, with nine players eliminated in the first three levels of the day. PokerStars Ambassador Lex Veldhuis was just one player to hit the rail in the early stages. Sunho Yoo and Pascal Heinrichs had Broadway, while Veldhuis had a pair of aces. Yoo and Heinrichs split his bounty chip and shared the €1,000 prize Vedhuis' bounty yielded.

His two eliminators would soon follow him out the door along with the start-of-day chip leader Martin Stausholm and Georgi Sandev. More players then headed to the wrong side of the rail to bring about the final table.

Ireland's Christopher Dowling looked like he would make his third final table of EPT Paris after achieving the feat in the €1,100 FPS Main Event and a Pot-Limit Omaha side event. However, his pocket sevens were bested by the king-queen of Natan Chauskin to leave him short. He was all-in the next hand but was flushed away by Gerard Rubiralta.

The final table then kicked off with a double bust-out. Galindo's pocket queens held out against the pair of nines held by Fabian Niederreiter and the ace-king of Jan Bednar, who finished in ninth and eighth place, respectively.

Rubiralta, the runaway chip leader for much of the day, then doubled up the likes of Jonathan Proudfoot and Galindo to reduce his advantage when the players returned from the second break of the day.

Shortly after, Chauskin was eliminated in 7th place after losing a massive flip to Haraldstad, which netted the latter the chip lead. Chauskin's pocket tens were ahead against the Norwegian's ace-king until a king appeared on the river.

Thirty minutes later, Galindo and Proudfoot were all in from the blinds, with the latter at risk of elimination. Proudfoot's dominated ace could not improve against Galindo's ace-jack. He collected €49,300 for his sixth-place finish, and a further €17,000 in bounties for his biggest-ever live tournament cash.

Or Suliman then became the big stack after he felted Haraldstad. The former had pocket kings and was up against ace-queen. The pocket pair remained best on the runout. However, Suliman's time at the top of the chip counts was soon over as Rubiralta flopped two pair against his ace-king.

With Martin Kabrhel sitting on the sidelines holding eight bounty chips, Haraldstad returned to the room to redeem the six bounty tokens he was holding. The first four envelopes were all of the €1,000 variety, but the fifth envelope was the big prize of €75,000. Haraldstad and his friend burst into excitement while Kabrhel wondered if he made the right choice by waiting to draw.

The chip lead would then hop back and forth between Galindo and Rubiralta before the elimination of Suliman. Rubiralta once reached the peak of the chip counts after his king-queen out-flopped the Israeli's ace-seven. However, the Spaniard then found himself next out of the door after losing a 17.1 million chip pot to Galindo. Baali then finished him off.

The Frenchman was inactive for large parts of the day and managed to ladder up without doing too much. He found premium hands at the right time. On the second hand of heads-up play, he doubled into the lead with king-jack.

However, Galindo soon regained the chip lead after grinding Baali down, and on the final hand of the night, Baali jammed with deuces and was called by king-ten. Galindo paired up on the flop and held to see out the victory.