Stephane Gabarre Bags the Chip Lead on Day 1 of the �3,000 EPT Mystery Bounty
Day 1 of the �3,000 Mystery Bounty here at the 2024 PokerStars European Poker Tour (EPT) Paris has wrapped up after 12 levels of play and saw Stephane Gabarre bagging a stack of 401,500 to put him at the top of the leaderboard as he looks to make a deep EPT run.
Gabarre's best live cash came just a few short days ago, when he finished 17th in the �2,200 France Poker Series for �22,040 here in Paris. The French grinder will return on Day 2 to compete against the 213 players who bagged on Day 1, including other top stacks Elie Dib (372,500), Christian Rotundo (357,500), and Jonathan Proudfoot (276,500).
�3,000 EPT Mystery Bounty Day 1 Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Name | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Stephane Gabarre | France | 401,500 | 201 |
| 2 | Elie Dib | Lebanon | 372,500 | 186 |
| 3 | Christian Rotundo | Italy | 357,500 | 179 |
| 4 | Jonathan Proudfoot | United Kingdom | 276,500 | 138 |
| 5 | Ram Sanati Faravash | Australia | 276,000 | 138 |
| 6 | Jaume Alomar | Spain | 272,500 | 136 |
| 7 | Bruno Ribeiro | Brazil | 272,000 | 136 |
| 8 | Salomon Azria | France | 264,000 | 132 |
| 9 | Ricardo Caridade | Portugal | 259,000 | 130 |
| 10 | Pavels Spirins | Latvia | 252,500 | 126 |
The Mystery Bounty event attracted a massive 827 runners for a prize pool of �1,395,976 plus a �827,000 bounty prize pool, and those numbers will surely grow as late registration remains open until the start of play on Day 2.
Of the remaining 213 who found a bag, PokerStars Ambassador Elias Gutierre was among them as he amassed a stack of 174,500 heading into Day 2. Gutierre is fresh off a 7th-place finish where he collected a payout of �22,900 in the �10,200 Mystery Bounty here in Paris, and looks to capture his first EPT Title.
Other notables who survived the 12 levels of play on Day 1 include Julien Sitbon, Ankit Ahuja, Olga Iermolcheva, and Leo Margets.
Notables who weren't fortunate enough to find a bag include PokerStars Ambassadors Parker Talbot, Ramon Colillas, Alejandro Lococo, and Maria Konnikova who found herself coolered with only 10 minutes left on the clock as her kings ran into aces.
We will see if any of those big names jump back into the action as late registration will remain open until the start of play on Day 2, which will kick off at 12:30 p.m. local time on Level 13 with blinds of 1,000/2,000/2,000.
Players will be given a Mystery Bounty Token at the start of Day 2 and can pull a mystery bounty for every player they eliminate. Bounties can be but are not limited to �100,000, �50,000, �30,000, �15,000, �10,000, �5,000, �1,000 and �500.
That wraps up the PokerNews live reporting team's coverage of Day 1 of �3,000 EPT Mystery Bounty, but the team will be back tomorrow to report on the Day 2 action