This is the story of Rasmus Lundstrum and how you should never give up and fight till the end. He was left with only 3 blinds after he took a bad beat right before the final table and managed to get a little double, then another and another, he even started playing from his short stack and eventually won the heads-up against Akseli Paalanen who was chip-leading the final table until the heads-up.

Even though Rasmus couldn't win a lot of big bounties and two players even won bigger prizes than his €25,850 for first place, but he won the thing that was most important to him - the WSOPC Golden Ring, he played brilliantly throughout the final table and deserved every bit of that gold.



The biggest bounty  €20,000 was pulled right from the first envelope by Steinn Karlsson who finished 15th but cashed the event for €21,650 which is even near how much Lundstrum won. At the end of the day, this is how this format is played, everyone went wild in the hunt for the bounties, and some pots were won in a very strange way.  The only other big bounty that was pulled by a player who did not join the final table was €8,000 by Josep Ramon who bubbled the final table in 10th place.

Akseli Paalanen also did a great job at the final table, at one point with four players left he had about 70% of the chips in play, but couldn't close it out. At least he got some pretty big bounties and even pulled the last big one €10,00 0out of Lundstrum's "hands".

Down below you can see how players finished on the final table.

The Mystery Bounty is over and even when the very last hand of the tournament had played out the excitement wasn't over. Neither for the two players - Rasmus and Akseli - nor the (mostly Finnish) rail which had stood there for quite some time to see it all come to an end. There was still plenty of money, alongside the prize money they agreed on making a deal on, to play for in the golden box, and even if Akseli already had picked up some of his bounties already from it he still had three of those bounty chips to collect. 

Before the final table started Akseli drew four black envelopes in front of the cameras here in the grand ballroom. First, he picked up €2,000, in the next one he got €1,000, and in the third one he took one of the remaining €10K, and in the last one he received €500 making it a good payday no matter what happened. 

The very cheerful crowd, Akseli and our winner Rasmus headed over to the box which still had seven more envelopes to open in one of them there was €10,000 and the rest of the envelopes surely weren't empty with the amount of €500 up to €3,000. Akseli who was a machine here today had another three when the heads-up was over and even if he didn't win that WSOP Circuit ring he was probably really happy anyway as it was going to be a big payday with or without the title to it. 

Rasmus had four of those bounty chips (one chip=one envelope) and Akseli had three. Obviously it was the big one with the 10K both of the players wanted to lay their hand on and they used different strategies to do it. They even let some of their friends draw it for them which made the whole thing even more cheerful and exciting. 

As Rasmus was the winner he got to pick the first envelope which had €1,000 in it. When it was time for Rasmus he sent one of his friends to the box to pick up his one which was €500. Something that made the excitement even bigger as the €10K was still in the game. 

They continued drawing as the excitement rose in the tournament room. As there were three left so was the big check. Rasmus who had two left of those knew that he'd at least catch one of the big numbers as both 10K and 3K was still in. He put his hand down the box and nervously picked one of the envelopes up. Very gently he opened it as the others leaned over to see and when the number finally revealed the check "only" had four and not five digits on it and he secured the 3K as Akseli reached down to pick up one of the last two. One had €500 in it and the other one was the big one. 

After seconds that felt like minutes, Akseli opened the envelope and revealed the check. There it was. The €10,000. Akseli and his friends screamed out of joy and Rasmus received the very last envelope in the box. 

Rasmus Lundstrum made it to the victory after he took a bad beat right before the final table and started on it with just three blinds.  He managed to beat his opponent Akseli Paalanen in the heads-up and is now crowned champion of the €1,100 Mystery Bounty.

Finland's Lundstrum will take home €25,850 which includes €6,000 in bounties and the golden WSOPC Ring. He mentioned that the ring means a lot to him and he will have a memory for life.

Congratulations to the winner, he is now hungry for more as he told our team that he will be joining some more of the side events.

Akseli Paalanen called the 205,000 raise from the big blind and the flop was - Rasmus Lundstrum bet 300,000 and Paalanen shoved his remaining 1,300,000 chips which Lundstrum snap-called.

Akseli Paalanen:
Rasmus Lundstrum:

Paalanen had the straight draw and a top pair for his opponent. The turn wasn't what Paalanen needed, neither was the on the river. His run is over just 1 away from the WSOPC Ring and the glory.

Akseli Paalanen finishes in 2nd place and wins €40,880 since he drew the last 10,000 bounty too. This amount is €15,000 more than what Rasmus Lundstrum got for 1st place.

Akseli Paalanen in the heads-up (red hat)

Level 27: 30,000/60,000 (60,000)
Entries 2/218

A raise to 120,000 from Rasmus who had just lost almost 1,500,000 in a few hands before and a call from Paalonen led to flop on which Rasmus Lundstrum bet 100,000 and got a call.

The turn is where things got scary for both when the dealer turned the - Lundstrum bet 280,000 and got raised to 850,000 by his opponent, Lundstrum took his time and re-raised once again to 1,500,000 which was followed by a call from Paalonen.

They both checked on the river and Paalonen turned for a missed double gutshot and a flush draw. Lundstrum had and won the big pot.

The format of the Mystery Bounty is thrilling as it doesn't matter if you have seven eliminations or one as long as you collect the right envelope in the raffle. The €1,100 Mystery Bounty surely is proof of that with its 218 entries. As the final table began in this tournament the Queens Mystery Bounty kicked off which has 38 entries so far when we're six levels in. There might be even more since the players may re-enter or buy in until the end of the break after level eight. 

Among the runners in this Queens event, there are plenty of familiar faces from the Queens event earlier this week but so far we haven't spotted the ring winner Linda Nguyen but both her runner-up Linda Lahdenpaa and third place finisher Jenny Westerlund. Other familiar faces are Nina Ottesen, Anne Bedeck, Indre Martoviciute, Daiva Byrne, and Sirkka-Liisa Seppala. 

Level 27: 30,000/60,000 (60,000)
Entries 2/218

Rasmus Lundstrum's amazing comeback after a bad beat got him up all the way to the heads-up, he lost a million chips pot before the final table and started on it with just 3 blinds. Now he is the chip leader in the heads-up against Aleksi Paalonen who has been chip leading the final table till the heads-up. 

Both Finns made a deal already and are playing for €3,500, the bounties and the golden jewelry.

Rasmus Lundstrum - 3.695,000


Aleksi Paalonen - 2,845,000

Level 26: 25,000/50,000 (50,000)
Entries 3/218

Rasmus Lundstrum shoved from the small blind and Claudio Cecchi called off his remaining 12 blinds. There was a €4,000 pay jump if Lundstrum won the pot.

Claudio Cecchi:
Rasmus Lundstrum:

A safe flop for Cecchi, then another card peeled and it was indeed the on the turn. The river bricked for the Italian and his hopes of taking the golden ring were over.

Claudio Cecchi finished in 3rd place and collected the sum of (€14,250) which includes around €4,000 in bounties.

Level 26: 25,000/50,000 (50,000)
Entries 4/218

Rasmus Lundstrum opened the pot to 100,000 from the button against the two shortest stacks and Arduini Lorenzo put all of his 440,000 chips in the middle and Lundstrum made the call.

Arduini Lorenzo:
Rasmus Lundstrum:

Lorenzo was slightly ahead and at risk, the flop turned  and Lundstrum was now in the lead with his pair of sevens. Another came on the turn and the river was .

Arduini Lorenzo finished in 4th place, but he gets a massive pay out of €35,300 after pulling €15,000, €7,000, a €5,000 plus a €500 bounty. 

Level 26: 25,000/50,000 (50,000)
Entries 4/218

Another blind versus blind action between Akseli Paalanen and Rasmus Lundstrum. This time Paalanen made it 175,000 from the small blind and Lundstrum called.

We saw a flop of on which the Finn continued with a 100,000 bet, Lundstrum called and the turn was . Same thing happened on the turn, but the price was 175,000.

The river was and Paalanen checked, after a while Lundstrum bet 415,000 which Paalanen called.

Lundstrum turned - he hit his gutshot straight on the river and wins a massive pot worth almost 2,000,000

Level 25: 20,000/40,000 (40,000)
Entries 4/218

Akseli Paalanen is sitting with a stack of about 4,700,000 and all three of the other players are hanging around the 600-700,000 chips mark. With the pay jumps and the bounties in play, Paalanen is putting up the pressure on the other players.

Level 25: 20,000/40,000 (40,000)
Entries 4/218

There was already more than 700,000 in the middle on board and Arduini Lorenzo was heads up against Akseli Paalanen, he checked and Paalanen bet another 550,000. After some thinking Lorenzo made the call and his opponent showed down a set of fours. 

Lorenzo mucked his cards and Paalanen scooped a pot that was almost 2,000,000.

Akseli Paalanen - Chip leading the final table.

Level 24: 15,000/30,000 (30,000)
Entries 5/218

Hand after hand Akseli Paalanen opens and busts players out, this time it was Ritvars Cekalins that jammed his last 10 blinds against the raise, Paalanen called and they showed down.

Ritvars Cekalins:
Akseli Paalanen:

Paalanen was against the hand he just had, the flop came and Cekalins was still doing good, the turn was not very good for him since the gave the Finn a little bit more outs. The river was , which Cekalins definitely didn't need because it completed Paalanen's  1-card flush.

Ritvars Cekalins finished in 5th place and gets a nice payout of €15,950 because he took down one of the €10,000 bounties earlier.

Level 24: 15,000/30,000 (30,000)
Entries 6/218

The last Lithuanian on the final table Albert Ostrovskij shoved from cutoff for 470,000 and once again it was the chip leader Akseli Paalanen who also went all-in from the button. 

Albert Ostrovskij:  
Akseli Paalanen:

The board ran-out in favor of the bigger stack and Ostrovskij got eliminated.

Albert Ostrovskij finished in 6th place and will get a payout of €4,550.

Level 24: 15,000/30,000 (30,000)
Entries 6/218

Finland's Rasmus Lundstrum managed to double up twice against the chip leader Akseli Paalanen first one was with his vs and then Paalanen open-shoved from cutoff with and Lundstrum pocket aces . In just a few hands he got his stack up from 135,000 to 700,000.

Level 23: 10,000/25,000 (25,000)
Entries 9/218

Klaudijus Bajoras went all-in under the gun for his last 175,000 chips, he got a call from Arduini Lorenzo, then Oleksii Natoptanyi jammed from the button for 625,000 and it was followed by another re-shove by chip leader Akseli Paalanen, everyone else folded and it was a 3-way all-in.

Klaudijus Bajoras:
Oleksii Natoptanyi:
Akseli Paalanen:

Two players at risk and they were both drawing very thin after the flop. There was almost no hope for Bajoras already and Natoptanyi needed to hit a two-outer. The next two cards were and and it was over for the shorter stacks. Double Elimination for Paalanen.

7th place and €8,650 for Oleksii Natoptanyi after he drew a €5,000 bounty.
8th place and € 3,050 for Klaudijus Bajoras, unlucky for him he took no bounties.

Level 23: 10,000/25,000 (25,000)
Entries 9/218

Egidijus Digrys raised 75,000 off from his 400,000 stack and got effectively jammed by Arduini Lorenzo who was on the button. Digrys called and they revealed their cards.

Egidijus Digrys:
Arduini Lorenzo:

Digrys was ahead and needed to fade some aces after the flop. The turn was another diamond, which gave Lorenzo too many additional outs for a flush and a gutshot straight. The river was the which meant it was the end for Digrys in the golden ring race.

Egidijus Digrys finished in 9th place and he won 0 bounties, he will collect a payout of €2,500.

Level 23: 10,000/25,000 (25,000)
Entries 9/218


Rasmus Lundstrum was all-in for his last 70,000 chips and got two calls, one of them from Albert Ostrovskij on the big blind who bet the . 

Rasmus Lundstrum:
Albert Ostrovskij:

Lundstrum needed only a queen to stay alive after his opponent had already paired his eight. The turn was and with only one card to go Lundstrum hit the on the river and tripled up.

Check out the players who made it to the final table of the Ring Event #8 WSOPC €1,100 NLH Mystery Bounty.

The big chip leader is Finland's Akseli Paalanen with just a bit over two million chips, right behind is Arduini Lorenzo and everyone else is short compared to these two. Rasmus Lundstrum and Klaudijus Bajoras are left with just a few blinds and they need to spin it up.

Here is the list of players who fell short of making it into the final table. 

Phil Gross got an ugly setup against one of the players where he had two pairs on the flop and his opponent had a made straight. He falls short of making it into another WSOPC Final table after winning his first golden ring just 2 days ago.

Level 20: 10,000/20,000 (20,000)
Entries 10/218

Josep Ramon was left with a few blinds after he lost his last hand and decided to go for it with from the big blind after a raise by Arduini Lorenzo. No luck for Ramon till the river, he finished in 10th place just one away from the final table.

Ramon will take home €2,500 and his €8,000 bounty he drew earlier.

And just like that we are down to the last ten players and already had the first break of the day which also meant raffle time. Several players got to join the raffle action. 

All players from now on get a bounty chip for each player they eliminate and get to stick their hand into the big box of envelopes which contains some huge numbers. The minimum amount they will say €500 and then it's all the way up to the €20,000 one lucky winner will receive. And it's already out there! 

Steinn Thanh Du Karlsson was the first one to reach into those envelopes and he did a very good job picking up the highest amount of them all. He only had one bounty chip and managed to pick just the right one. As soon as the game resumed he was eliminated but still picked up more than the first price in the tournament cashing in €21 650 in total for his efforts here. 

Just after Steinn had plucked his 20,000 win it was time for Ritvars Cekalins and he did a really good job too cashing in €10,000 which there are three of in total amongst all these 27 envelopes. 

Level 20: 10,000/20,000 (20,000)
Entries 10/218

Ritvars Cekalins shoved his over a raise on the final table bubble, he had 234,000 chips and got called behind by another all-in player Josep Ramon, who had 345,000.

Ramon didn't manage to make a pair till the river and is down to 110,000 chips.

Level 20: 10,000/15,000 (15,000)
Entries 12/218

Raise from Albert Ostrovskij and a call from Rasmus Lundstrum on the big blind saw them both go on the flop where Lundstrum check-raised his opponent's 40,000 bet to 115,000 and Ostrovskij re-shoved for 488,000 which was snap-called by Lundstrum.

Rasmus Lundstrum: - Set of threes
Albert Ostrowskij: - top pair, top kicker

Ostrowskij seemed surprised when he saw his opponent's hand, he got some hopes when the dealer put the on the turn which meant he was now drawing for a full house. 

BANG... the river was another ace and Lundstrum couldn't believe it... he said "I want to cry .. " as he started counting the chips for the massive payout he had to give to Ostrovskij, Lundstrum was left with about 130,000 after the sick hand.

Rasmus Lundstrum

Level 20: 10,000/15,000 (15,000)
Entries 14/218

There was a re-draw for the last two tables after another few players busted, we will soon be on the final table if players continue going crazy for bounties. But a lot of the big bounties have already been taken, let's see how players adjust to this situation.

Here is a list of the people who busted in the money.

Level 20: 10,000/15,000 (15,000)
Entries 17/218

Arduini Lorenzo opened up the pot from an early position and got a call from Rasmus Lundstrom for 30,000 chips. Then we had the main aggro player Phil Gross who recently won a WSOPC Ring shove for 332,000 and only Lorenzo called after some thinking. 

Phil Gross:
Arduini Lorenzo:

Phil was feeling great when he saw his opponent's hand and even better on the flop. He managed to hit a pair and held it through the next two cards. Huge pot worth about 700,000 chips goes Phil's way.

Phil got another huge one against blind on blind a few hands later when he won against . Phil drilled a Jack on the flop and got his first Mystery Bounty.

Level 20: 10,000/15,000 (15,000)
Entries 18/218

Pavels Kazakovs raised under the gun,  Arduini Lorenzo, and Phil Gross called the 30,000 raise and Albert Ostrovskij shoved it from the big blind for 175,000. Kazakovs re-shoved and Lorenzo called for a big pot.


Albert Ostrovskij:
Arduini Lorenzo:
Pavels Kazakovs:

Ostrovskij was favorite to triple-up and the flop was clean for him. The turn and river didn't change anything for the pocket pairs.

Ostrovskij  wins a massive pot worth over 550,000 and Lorenzo had 371,000 behind for the side pot, so even though he lost the main pot he is still up in chips.

Level 19: 6,000/12,000 (10,000)
Entries 19/218

Oleksii Natoptanyi shoved his last 90,000 in the middle and Ekrem Atush re-jammed from the small blind.

Oleksii Natoptanyi:
Ekrem Atush:

The flop was safe for the Ukrainian, the dealer then put the on the turn and Atush was now a card away from a mystery bounty envelope. The river was a brick and it ended Natoptanyi's run in the tournament in 19th place and €1,350.

Level 19: 6,000/12,000 (10,000)
Entries 22/218

Egidijus Digrys opened under the gun and Ryhor Karapanau only had 2 blinds left he called the raise and was all in. 3 more calls were followed behind by Mikael Haapaniemi in the middle, Rasmus Lundström, and Josep Ramon completed from the blinds.

The flop was two checks and action was on Digrys who bet 36,000 - only Lundstrom called and they both checked the turn. The river was and Lundstrom checked once again, which led to Digrys betting 60,000 and Lundstrom snap-calling.

Egidijus Digrys:
Ryhor Karapanau:
Rasmus Lundström:

Lundstrom wins a sweet pot and his first Mystery Bounty, Karapanau finished the tournament in 21st place and will take home €1,250.

Level 18: 5,000/10,000 (10,000)
Entries 25/218

Vidar Assersen shoved for his remaining 50,000 chips and Iceland's Steinn Karlsson had him covered right on his left with his 72,000 chips, on the big blind Egidijus Digrys was sitting with a big stack of more than 400,000 and also flicked in the call to play for the bounties.

Vidar Assersen:
Steinn Karlsson:
Egidijus Digrys:

Assersen had the best hand and was very likely to triple up on the flop. Digrys could now hit a six for the win as well, the turn changed nothing, but it was very bad news on the river for Assersen's pocket queens.

Steinn Karlsson wins the bounty and a good pot at start of Day 2.

Level 18: 5,000/10,000 (10,000)
Entries 27/218

Players just took their seats, opened their bags and the chips were on the table.  The top bounty prize is the whopping amount of  €20,000 and its almost as much as the first place prize which is €21,430, so one lucky guy could potentially win more than the player who wins the tournament.

Follow this live blog for more updates through the final day of the WSOPC €1,100 NLH Mystery Bounty Ring Event.

Records after records are broken here as the prestigious WSOP Circuit visits Tallinn for the second time. As the registration closed in the €1,100 Mystery Bounty after ten levels there had been 218 entries made in total creating a prize pool of €209,280 with a first prize of €21,430. 

As the tournament clock stopped here pretty late last night on the 18th level the remaining players were down to the last 27 which means that when we come back we are not only in the money. So is the mystery bounty where one lucky player will receive an astonishing €20,000, one will receive €15,000 and in three of these envelopes there will be €10,000. 

In each break, there will be a mystery bounty raffle for the players who managed to pick up some bounties which the blog obviously will stick around to see and report back to you. 

Chip leader going into today is Arduini Lorenzo from Italy with 597,000. Second in chips, we have the Finn Mikael Haapaniemi with 563,000 and the third is the event three winner Phil Gross with 500,000. 

Play resumes at 1 pm. Shuffle up and deal! 

The Event #3 winner Phil Gross is excited to start!