After more than 14 hours of battling it out on the felt on the final day of the $1,600 Mystery Bounty as part of the 2022 Wynn Summer Classic, France’s Paul Tedeschi took home the title and $232,474 in addition to $82,500 in bounties following a heads-up deal with Roscoe Light.
"I'm feeling super good," Tedeschi stated after his victory. "This was my last tournament of the series and in Las Vegas. I was losing like every day, every day, every day, and then for the last one, finally, I get it!"
Across three starting flights, 2,190 entrants attempted to grab a piece of the $3,175,500 prize pool. However, only 239 survivors made it to Day 2 with a min-cash of $2,350 and an opportunity to take home a six-figure score, even if they finished nowhere near the final table, thanks to the mystery bounty format.
Every time a player eliminated an opponent, they were given a chance to pull a slip of paper from a drum and instantly win between $500 and $100,000. There were three $100,000 bounties up for grabs, and they were claimed by Andrei Stoenescu, David To, and Shouyi Gao. Those who didn't find the highest prize still had a shot at big money, as five $50,000 bounties and eight $25,000 bounties were also claimed by fortunate folks on the felt.
$1,600 Mystery Bounty Final Table Results
| PLACE | PLAYER | COUNTRY | PRIZE |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Paul Tedeschi | France | $232,474* |
| 2 | Roscoe Light | United States | $229,058* |
| 3 | Viliyan Petleshkov | Bulgaria | $127,213 |
| 4 | Adrian State | Romania | $91,152 |
| 5 | David To | United States | $67,512 |
| 6 | Tom Kinney | United States | $52,367 |
| 7 | Nicolas Plantin | France | $42,110 |
| 8 | Michael Marder | United States | $34,957 |
| 9 | Jason Nablo | United States | $29,549 |
*Denotes Heads-Up Deal
Action of the Day
The day started with 239 returning players, and the action started swiftly with the incentive of the mystery bounty. The first top bounty was found prior to the first break by Stoenescu, and within those first two hours of the day, the field was already whittled down to nearly half.
After the first break, the players grinded it out on the felt for a few more hours, and just before they headed off to the dinner break, To pulled the second $100,000 bounty. Then near the end of the dinner break, Gao decided to redeem one of his mystery bounties, and as luck would have it, he excitedly pulled the final top bounty prize.
Several notables were in the field but they fell at various points during the day, including Shannon Shorr, Ryan Laplante, Jason Wheeler, Sohale Khalili, Karina Jett, and Shankar Pillai.
When the remaining contenders returned from dinner, the eliminations continued quickly and three tables turned into ten players in roughly two hours. During this time, a short-stacked Tedeschi scored two doubles in a short period, and he never relented from there en route to his eventual victory.
Play then slowed down considerably with the final table on the horizon. It took another hour and a half before Kurt Jewell was eliminated in tenth place, and the remaining players converged on a single table, with Tedeschi having built his stack up to the chip lead.
The eliminations once again continued at a brisk pace, as Jason Nablo fell in ninth to Tedeschi, before eventual runner-up Light won a massive pot that propelled him to the top of the counts when his pocket queens held and he eliminated Michael Marder in eighth and Nicolas Plantin in seventh.
Tom Kinney was next to go in sixth when his pocket kings were cracked by Light, and David To made his way to the payout desk soon after in fifth when his ducks couldn't hold against Tedeschi. Adrian State was then pipped by Tedeschi's superior ace and was knocked out in fourth place.
Viliyan Petleshkov was the clear short stack when three-handed play began and ran right into Tedeschi's pocket aces to bring the tournament heads up with fairly even stacks. All of the players at the final table were knocked out by either Tedeschi or Light, and the two remaining players went on a short break. They discussed a deal before resuming play and ultimately settled on an agreement that gave Tedeschi the title and the glamorous Wynn trophy.
