The 2024 European Poker Tour Cyprus festival kicked off late last week, and already there have been four high-stakes tournaments that have wrapped up in the first six days of action. The events, which featured an assortment of buy-ins between $10,200 and $25,000, paid out more than $3.6 million in collective prize money.
This series runs from Oct. 9-20 at Merit Royal Diamond Hotel & Spa (pictured above) and will feature a total of 10 events with five-figure buy-ins. Below is a closer look at the results from the first four.
EPT Cyprus $10,200 No-Limit Hold’em Mystery Bounty
The first high-stakes event of the series was a $10,200 buy-in mystery bounty no-limit hold’em affair. With 75 entries, there was a total of $727,500 in prize money to be awarded.
The top 20 finishers earned a share of the main prize pool, with Marcelo Bonanata securing the largest chunk as the eventual champion. The Uruguayan was awarded $156,800 and 420 Card Player Player of the Year points for the win, which was the first recorded live victory on his tournament resume.
Two-time bracelet winner Aleksejs Ponakovs finished second for $141,500. This was the first of several early final-table finishes for the Latvian pro, so stay tuned for more on him later.
Other big names that ran deep included Yulian Bogdanov (6th), two-time bracelet winner Santhosh Suvarna (5th), and Super High Roller Series Europe $25,000 pot-limit Omaha champion Tom Vogelsang (4th).
| Place | Player | Earnings | POY Points |
| 1 | Marcelo Bonanata | $156,800 | 420 |
| 2 | Aleksejs Ponakovs | $141,500 | 350 |
| 3 | Vladimir Korzinin | $78,300 | 280 |
| 4 | Tom Vogelsang | $87,700 | 210 |
| 5 | Santhosh Suvarna | $34,600 | 175 |
| 6 | Yulian Bogdanov | $96,500 | 140 |
| 7 | Manuel Fritz | $24,700 | 105 |
| 8 | Alexander Zubov | $31,300 | 70 |
| 9 | Valeriy Fokin | $11,000 | 35 |
EPT Cyprus $12,300 No-Limit Hold’em Bounty
The next event also awarded bounty payouts, but these were of the non-mystery variety. The $12,300 buy-in no-limit hold’em event saw 54 entries made before registration closed, which built a prize pool of $635,040.
It took just a single day to play down to a champion, with Armenia’s Aren Bezhanyan taking down $247,840. This was the largest live score yet for Bezhanyan, surpassing the $107,567 he earned for a win in a $2,583 buy-in at the High Roller Summer Festival at Sochi Casino & Resort this summer.
Biao Ding finished third in this event for $85,700. The rising high-stakes star now has more than $11 million in career cashes after this latest score.
| Place | Player | Earnings | POY Points |
| 1 | Aren Bezhanyan | $247,840 | 300 |
| 2 | Alexandr Chernikov | $112,400 | 250 |
| 3 | Biao Ding | $85,700 | 200 |
| 4 | Casimir Seire | $75,400 | 150 |
| 5 | Boris Kolev | $51,700 | 125 |
| 6 | Aliaksei Boika | $31,500 | 100 |
| 7 | Atanas Malinov | $24,500 | 75 |
| 9 | Vicente Delgado | $6,000 | 25 |
EPT Cyprus $20,000 No-Limit Hold’em
Two-time bracelet winner and 2015 EPT Deauville main event champion Ognyan Dimov emerged victorious from a field of 47 entries in the $20,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em event, securing $253,876 after closing out the win.
While Dimov secured the title, an apparent heads-up deal resulted in runner-up Kayhan Mokri walking away with the largest payout for the event ($260,800). Mokri is now sitting in 100th place in the 2024 POY race standings presented by Global Poker. The Norwegian has won two titles and made five final tables so far this year, including successfully defending his title in the €100,000 buy-in at EPT Barcelona after winning that same tournament in 2023.
Ponakovs finished third for $139,900, while recent Super High Roller Bowl IX runner-up Juan Pardo placed fourth for $103,800. Ren Lin recorded his 16th final table of the year by surviving to the final six. He earned $63,200 and 120 POY points for this latest strong showing. Lin now has 4,776 in total points, good for 12th on the POY leaderboard.
| Place | Player | Earnings | POY Points |
| 1 | Ognyan Dimov | $253,876 | 360 |
| 2 | Kayhan Mokri | $260,800 | 300 |
| 3 | Aleksejs Ponakovs | $139,900 | 240 |
| 4 | Juan Pardo | $103,800 | 180 |
| 5 | Markkos Ladev | $81,200 | 150 |
| 6 | Ren Lin | $63,200 | 120 |
EPT Cyprus $25,000 No-Limit Hold’em
There were 57 entries made in the first of three $25,000 buy-in events at this series, resulting in a prize pool of $1,368,570.
The top prize swelled to $417,570, with Elias Gutierrez being the player to secure the trophy and that sum. The Switzerland resident now has more than $1.1 million in recorded scores after adding this career-best score to his tally.
The top eight finishers earned a share of the prize pool, including several top POY contenders. Aleksejs Ponakovs recorded his third final-table finish of the series, placing seventh for $68,400. He has now cashed for $349,800 and 695 points so far at this stop. That brings his final-table total for the year to 11, with 4,547 points accrued along the way. As a result, he is now the 14th-ranked contender in the POY standings.
Enrico Camosci, fresh off of a big showing at the WSOP Europe finished sixth for $89,000. With one title and nine final-table showings in 2024, Camosci has climbed to 26th in the POY rankings (3,913 points).
Adrian Mateos also cashed, earning $198,400 as the third-place finisher. The four-time bracelet winner from Spain has now made 18 final tables in 2024, with three titles won. The Spanish superstar has accrued 9,064 POY points and nearly $9.9 million in POY earnings along the way, making him the number one player in the POY race. He now has a 764-point lead over second-ranked David Coleman.
| Place | Player | Earnings | POY Points |
| 1 | Elias Gutierrez | $417,570 | 420 |
| 2 | Alexander Zubov | $273,700 | 350 |
| 3 | Adrian Mateos | $198,400 | 280 |
| 4 | Dimitar Danchev | $150,500 | 210 |
| 5 | Artsion Lasouski | $116,300 | 175 |
| 6 | Enrico Camosci | $89,000 | 140 |
| 7 | Aleksejs Ponakovs | $68,400 | 105 |
| 8 | Zhendong Li | $54,700 | 70 |
Photo credits: Rational Intellectual Holdings Ltd. / Danny Maxwell, Manuel Kovsca.
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