Wild Finn delivers Triton comedy as Hrabec wins $40K Mystery Bounty

The Triton Super High Roller Series Monte Carlo festival continued Monday with Day 2 action in Event #3: $40,000 NLH Mystery Bounty. The 155 entries (94 unique) generated a prize pool of $3,100,000 with 27 players paid and $686,000, plus bounties, for the eventual winner. With a $40,000 minimum bounty attached to each elimination – and a top bounty of $400,000 – the action in Event #3 came fast and furious. 

When the feeding frenzy ended, Roman Hrabec stood alone atop the winner's podium as the last bounty hunter in the field, adding a second Triton title to his resume. 

Following the conclusion of Event #1: $25,000 WPT Global Ultimate Slam and Event #2: $30,000 NLH – both of which were won by first-time Triton champions – the best of the best returned to the tables in Monte Carlo to test their skills in another high-stakes tournament. After Day 1 play whittled the field down to just 39 remaining hopefuls, players restarted Day 2 – now with mystery bounties in play – still outside the money. Both Lewis Spencer and Mikita Badziakouski shared bubble boy duties as they were eliminated simultaneously on separate tables, splitting the minimum cash evenly. 

'This is too strange'

With the money bubble burst, players resumed the hunt for mystery bounties, and eliminations came quickly. Unsurprisingly, with so much of the prize pool devoted to the mystery bounty prizes, there were some interesting confrontations driven purely by the pursuit of a knockout. In one such instance, Ossi Ketola caught some backlash from his opponent after winning a massive pot – and a bounty – in suspect fashion. 

While Triton events aren’t known for comedy, it was a genuinely hilarious moment courtesy of the Finnish wildman Ketola. With 12 players left, Fahredin Mustafov raised to 160,000 UTG and Webster Lim moved all-in from the cutoff with his last 800,000. Ketola flicked one chip in to call from his stack of 1,440,000 and Mustafov made the call behind. 

Mustafov:
Lim:
Ketola:

Flop:

The action went check-check and the dropped on the turn. Ketola checked again, Mustafov moved all-in, and Ketola flicked in another single chip to make the call. The completed the board, sent Lim to the river, and left Mustafov bewildered. After 30 seconds or so, he decided he couldn’t let it lie.

The Triton SHRS delivers a top-tier comedic moment.

“Did you see me, I open preflop?” Mustafov asked. Ketola looked blankly at him. “You see me, my raise? You see my raise?”

“Errr…” said Ketola. 

“Preflop,” said Mustafov. “No?”

“How did the action go?” asked Ketola. 

“Ah, you don’t remember,” said Mustafov.

“Oh yeah, yeah, you, yeah, yeah, I saw it, I saw it,” said Ketola, leaving Artur Martirosian and Roman Hrabec in hysterics. “You went like 150 or something… I played it like a r****d, though.”

“Oh my god, oh this is the purest moment in poker TV history,” declared Henry Kilbane on comms.

“It’s only funny when you talk this way,” said Martirosian. 

“No, because maybe he didn’t see me,” continued Mustafov. “I know he plays strange, but this is too strange to call here, yeah?”

Ketola just carried on stacking his chips, saying, “I don’t even know how to stack the f*****g chips.” 

The final eight

The bounty-hunting frenzy brought play to a final table of eight in relatively short order. Austria's Samuel Mullur started the final table as the overwhelming chip leader, with second-place Lucas Greenwood holding a slight edge over Hrabec in third, Martirosian in fourth, and Ketola in fifth. Both Morten Klein and Punnat Punsri began proceedings in need of a spin, sitting sixth and seventh, respectively, but neither were in the immediate danger zone like Ren Lin. 

An international chip count: eight players from eight different countries reached the final table in Event #3.

As expected, the allure of the bounty prizes drove the action at the final table. Accordingly, when Klein flopped top pair with on a board after defending his big blind from an early position open, he moved all-in over the top of Lin's continuation bet. Lin called quickly and turned over his . With more than 80% equity to score the early double, Lin needed to fade Klein's five outs, but the turn improved his opponent to two pair and left him in need of a favorable river. The wasn't the card Lin needed and his run ended with an eighth-place finish. 

Royal flush alert

Following Lin's exit, the middling stacks grew further clustered as Mullur pressed his advantage and Punsri slipped into the danger zone. During this period of play, Ketola smashed another turn card to make a royal flush. 

The hand started with four players, but only Ketola, with , and Martirosian, with connected strongly on the flop. With 80% of a royal flush, Ketola check-called Martirosian's continuation bet while the other players fled the scene. The turn brought home the elusive hand and the action went check, check. On the river, Martirosian's hand improved to a no-good full house and Ketola checked the action to him once more. 

After some consideration, Martirosian fired out for a near-pot-sized bet and Ketola moved all-in almost immediately. In a spot where some players might not even consider folding, Martirosian took his time to think through the spot before correctly pitching his cards back to the dealer and living to fight another day.

Artur Martirosian thought the river helped him, but he was turned dead by Ossi Ketola's royal flush.

As it turns out, that day came rather quickly as, soon after, Martirosian's heroic fold led him to a much more favorable scenario, waking up with a premium pocket pair when facing an all-in from Punsri on the short stack. The Russian moved all-in over the top and Mullur called behind to put both players at risk. 

Martirosian:
Punsri:
Mullur:

In great shape to double up, Martirosian needed to fade his opponents' two immediate outs and did so across the runout, scooping a bounty in the process as he sent Punsri to the payout desk in seventh place. 

Unfortunately for him, Martirosian's run came to an end shortly after when he moved all-in from the button with . Mullur re-shoved from the small blind with and had his opponent drawing thin on the flop. The turn and river completed the board and, despite his impressive performance, Martirosian was eliminated in sixth place. 

Ketola falls in fifth, Greenwood and Klein follow 

Ketola's run came to an end when he moved all-in over the top of an open from Mullur, still the chip leader at this stage. With , Ketola's holding rated to be strong enough to commit his chips against Mullur's wide opening range, but this time the chip leader had it. 

Ketola was in need of an immediate three-outer against Mullur's , but the flop added four additional outs to his arsenal. The turn left him with only those four gutshot straight draw outs, however, as Mullur made top set, and the river was a total brick to put a stop to the Finn's epic run. 

Greenwood followed suit not long after when he committed his short stack with in a blind versus blind confrontation. Hrabec, in the big blind, made the call with , poised to score the knockout and the bounty. The runout offered no improvement to either player, but Hrabec's king-high remained best and Greenwood's run ended with a fourth-place finish. 

Klein ran into it in a hand against Hrabec after an ill-timed slowplay saw his opponent turn a full house. 

Klein:
Hrabec:

Flop:  

Initially, it looked as though Hrabec would lose a chunk of his stack, but Klein's check back on the flop brought in the turn. With his full house, Hrabec lead the turn for a large sizing and Klein matched the bet. On the river , Hrabec moved all-in and, with a little less than a pot-sized bet remaining, Klein called, only to see the bad news. 

Hrabec vs. Mullur 

The heads up battle saw Hrabec start with a near 2:1 chip lead over Mullur and, before play began, the two players agreed to a deal. With $220,000 remaining in the prize pool, Hrabec and Mullur struck a deal to set aside $35,000 to play for while they walked away with $587,000 and $526,000, respectively. Along with the prize money set aside, the two players still had the remaining bounties in play to fight for.

Hrabec kept his foot on the gas, taking multiple pots with pure aggression and extending his chip lead even further. The final hand of the battle saw both players connect with the board strongly in a limped pot. Mullur, with just over 10 big blinds remaining, completed from the button with and Hrabec checked his option with . The board offered Mullur nearly half of the equity with an open-ended straight draw and flush draw while Hrabec made top two pair. 

Roman Hrabec had to fade Samuel Mullur's boatload of outs.

Facing a check from his opponent, Mullur bet his draw only to see Hrabec come over the top with an all-in. The Austrian called it off and the cards hit their backs. Hrabec needed to fade a good portion of the deck to secure his second Triton SHRS title and the turn left him one card away from doing so. Mullur needed to hit to stay alive, but the river failed to bring home either of his draws. 

$40K Mystery Bounty final table results

^{Images Courtesy of Triton Poker}