Mystery Bounty (6,000 TWD)

Crowd favorite Mystery Bounty did not disappoint with the 5M guarantee smashed by the 1,871 entries for a richer TWD 5.5 Million (~$167,500) prize pool. Well before the champion was crowned, YiJhen Ke pulled the largest bounty reward of TWD 600K to add to his earnings in 79th place. Ke walked away pocketing TWD 612,700 placing him roughly in second place based on winnings.

Driving it home was Taiwan's Chi Hoi Au for a payout of TWD 654,000 (~$19,950) plus eight bounties amounting to TWD 63,000 for a combined TWD 717,000 (~$21,650). At the final table, Chi first emerged as chip leader after eliminating Eugene Co in 6th place. However, Shang Yu Lee overtook by railing the next two players. Chi finished off Yu Shen Cheng in 3rd place to go heads up against Lee who was ahead 46 bb to Chi's 26 bb.

A♠ blinds increased, Chi earned a big pot holding J♣ 6♣ on a board 5♠ J♥ Q♣ 2♥ Q♠ against Lee's K♣ 2♣ and continued to surge ahead. He closed it out with A♥ K♣ over Lee's J♦ T♣ on a board 3♦ 8♥ 7♣ 8♦ A♣ . In a post-win interview with SMP, Choi shared,

"Reading the mind is important. Just like the last two hands, I re-raised him. I knew he was throwing. It is also important to know each other's range."

During one of the last few hands, Choi 6♣ 3♦ and Lee 9♣ 8♠ battled at the flop 2♣ 7♠ 6♠ leading to a check-raise by Lee and a three-bet from Choi that Lee called. On the turn 3♥ , Choi shoved and won the pot. He explained his read, "

I had second pair (at the flop) and if I just bet normal, he might just call if he had a 6 or 7 on hand. Most of the time, if he raises, most likely it's a combo maybe. And if I knew his combo draw, I could deny his equity. Because there is no way I could just call the check-raise, I reraised him. If he had a stronger hand like set 7 or set 3, he might shove and not just call. I felt his weakness. At the turn, I hit two pair so I shoved."