Marcel Kessler of Germany has taken the title in the €5,000 High Roller Mystery Bounty, claiming his maiden live trophy and largest career score after a dominating final table performance. Kessler, whose volume is primarily online, came into the final day as the chip leader, and relinquished the lead only briefly during an interesting heads-up battle against Sweden’s Ludvig Sterner.
The match would ultimately come to an end when Sterner check-raised a huge flopped combination draw, and barreled the turn and river when it missed – Kessler finding a good call with his second pair pocket queens.
Kessler and Sterner claimed all the available bounties between them – Kessler taking home a total payday of €103,008, while Sterner was consoled with a bankroll boost of €38,820.
€5,000 High Roller Mystery Bounty Results
The event obtained a total of 39 entrants, generating a €180,648 prize pool, to be split evenly in cash and bounty payouts. Six places were paid as follows:-
1. Marcel Kessler (Germany) – €103,008*
2. Ludvig Sterner (Sweden) – €38,820*
3. Jon Kyte (Norway) – €14,000
4. Sam Grafton (United Kingdom) – €10,380
5. Junxian Du (China) – €8,120
6. Leslie Packer (United Kingdom) – €6,320
*inclusive of bounties
Winner’s Reaction
“It feels really nice, it’s been a tough year so far so to ship one feels really good. I am here with my family, my wife and daughter, so to be able to win something with them here is really nice, happy days.
“It’s my first time at the Irish Open, first time in Ireland, and we’ve done some really nice touristy stuff around Dublin. Mixing family time with the poker has been great, the festival is so well run and it’s a great venue for poker.”
“It was a difficult field and tough final table, so it didn’t feel as easy as it might have looked. I felt a bit uncomfortable heads-up actually, I haven’t had much live experience in that regard, and Ludvig was a really tough opponent, so props to him. A really tough hand to finish it for him as well, fortunately I managed to find the call.”
Kessler wasn’t going to take much time to celebrate, as he confirmed he would be jumping straight into the €5,000 PLO High Roller, hunting some more silverware.
Final Table Action
Andrew Hulme came into the final table as the short-stack, and he was first to depart when Junxian Du found a runner-runner flush against his pocket jacks. Du then claimed the scalp of Michael Dwyer in eighth with pocket kings to bring about the bubble.
Kessler leveraged his chip lead expertly at that point, taking down numerous pots unchallenged. PokerStars ambassador Sam Grafton then found a crucial double against the German, before Lars Kampheus bubbled when he ran pocket jacks into Grafton’s pocket queens.
Kampheus’ exit guaranteed the final six a €6,320 payday, with bounties now in play. Leslie Packer was the first player to depart in the money, with Sterner claiming his bounty when his pocket tens held in a race.
Kessler got in on the bounty action when he eliminated Du, who found his top pair tens were behind Kessler’s pocket jacks. Grafton was next to fall, after he three-bet jammed from the big blind with a mediocre ace but ran into Sterner’s pocket queens on the button.
Jon Kyte departed in third when Kessler rivered an ace to usurp the Norwegian’s pair of kings, setting the scene for the final confrontation with Sterner. The heads-up match was cautious in general, and although Sterner pulled level for a brief period, he ultimately came unstuck when Kessler found the call with second pair versus the Swede’s missed draws.
That concludes our coverage of this event, but stay tuned to the Irish Open website for all our coverage of the action from the remainder of the festival.
