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Sam Grafton – Photo Credit: Eloy Cabacas, Rational Intellectual Holdings Ltd
Sam Grafton won the Mystery Bounty event at the European Poker Tour Monte Carlo tournament series on April 27 to take home the top prize worth $104,753 against a talented field of international challengers. The accomplished British poker pro saw his lifetime earnings grow to $13.2 million as a result of securing his recorded live tournament title.
One of those half-dozen victories for the PokerStars Ambassador came when he won the $200,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em invitational at the Triton Mediterranean series back in September of last year for a cool $5.5 million. This was also his fifth tournament cash of 2023.
The €10,200 buy-in no-limit hold’em event attracted a field of 74 entries to create a total prize pool worth $372,146. The top 11 players all cashed for at least $9,309, and the two players that secured that min-cash before the final table was set were two-time World Series of Poker gold bracelet winner Joao Vieira (10th), and Kayhan Mokri (11th).
The tournament had €370,000 available in the bounty prize pool, and third-place finisher Conor Beresford won five bounties (including one of the two €50,000 bounties) to collect €127,650 from that pool. Jose “Nacho” Barbero grabbed the other €50,000 bounty, and the other top bounties worth €25,000 went to Erik Seidel and Artur Martirosian.
The second day of the tournament saw 29 players return, and it took close to 12 hours of play to crown a champion. Grafton held the chip lead when the final table began, and he took out Paul Newey in ninth place to push his early advantage further.
Barbero was eliminated in seventh place for his 11th cash of the year, and the 105 Card Player Player of the Year points he received took his lead in the 2023 POY race presented by Global Poker up to 5,235 points.
Grafton continued to hold his lead when he took out Julien Sitbon in sixth place, but the chips really started to fly at that point as multiple players took turns out at the front of the pack. When the heads-up final began the situation was dire for Grafton as he faced nearly a 14:1 chip disadvantage against WSOP gold bracelet winner Sam Greenwood.
Grafton fought back thanks to three doubles to even up the chip counts between the final two. Grafton then hit a two-outer on the most consequential hand when he was all in with pocket threes and made a set on the flop against the pocket jacks of Greenwood to take a commanding lead of his own.
Greenwood took his last stand when he called all in with the board reading A
7
4310 with 102, but Grafton held 52
for a turned straight. Greenwood was eliminated in second place, and took home $67,624 in prize money. The poker professional from Canada increased career earnings to $31.9 million, and he is now ranked 18th place on the poker’s all-time money list.
Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Payout | POY Points |
| 1 | Sam Grafton | $104,753 | 420 |
| 2 | Sam Greenwood | $67,624 | 350 |
| 3 | Conor Beresford | $48,311 | 280 |
| 4 | Artur Martirosian | $37,183 | 210 |
| 5 | Maksim Vaskerenski | $28,569 | 175 |
| 6 | Julien Sitbon | $22,738 | 140 |
| 7 | Jose Barbero | $18,190 | 105 |
| 8 | Guram Andronikashvili | $14,552 | 70 |
| 9 | Paul Newey | $11,610 | 35 |
The European Poker Tour Monte Carlo tournament series will continue running until May 6 at Sporting Monte-Carlo, and you can find the schedule for the series right here.
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