Spain’s Rafael Navas helped himself to a career-best live poker tournament score plus his first World Series of Poker Circuit rung after he came out on top in the £560 buy-in Mystery Millions event at the 2023 WSOP Super Circuit London festival.
Navas only began his live poker career in 2022 but has already racked up more than $300,000 worth of cashes, with nine of his results yielding five-figure scores. Until binking this £560 Mystery Millions tournament, Navas’ largest haul weighed in at €67,637, his reward for a third-place finish in the €1,100 WPT Prime Madrid Main Event in September 2022. Navas can now brag of an £80,000 score, or £96,500 if you include the bounties he collected on his way to victory.
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Dozens of players receive mystery bounty payments ranging from £500 to a cool £58,000. The aforementioned Navas clinched £16,500 worth of bounties, while fellow finalist Gary Miller pulled out £15,250.
The aptly named Duncan Riches received £25,000, while Mauro Suriano and Daniel Harwood bagged £26,000 and £26,500, respectively. Jay Villegas, who until this event had less than $4,000 in recorded live earnings, pulled out a £50,000 mystery bounty, while Hanna Mdanat Yazan Jeries hauled in a massive 58,000!
£560 Mystery Million Final Table Results
| Rank | Player | Prize | Bounties | Total Prize |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rafael Navas | £80,000 | £16,250 | £96,250 |
| 2 | Victor Ilyukhin | £48,000 | £1,000 | £49,000 |
| 3 | Gary Miller | £32,000 | £15,250 | £47,250 |
| 4 | Shaun Walbridge | £22,000 | £6,500 | £28,500 |
| 5 | Alexander Clark | £15,600 | £2,000 | £17,600 |
| 6 | Leon Campbell | £12,000 | £3,500 | £15,500 |
| 7 | Michael O’Brien | £9,000 | £6,000 | £15,000 |
| 8 | Michael Carney | £7,000 | £1,000 | £8,000 |
| 9 | Jun Li | £5,000 | £2,000 | £7,000 |
Each of the nine finalists locked in at least £5,000 for their efforts, and it was ninth-place finish Jun Li that collected that sum. Li also banked £2,000 worth of bounties for a total haul tipping the scales at £7,000.
Michael Carney crashed out in seventh for £7,000 (£8,000 with bounties) and was joined on the rail by Michael O’Brien, whose seventh-place finish came with a £9,000 payout plus £6,000 from the mystery bounty prize pool.
Sixth place and £12,000 (£15,500 with bounties) went to popular British grinder Leon Campbell before Alexander Clark crashed out in fifth for £15,600 (£17,600 with bounties).
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Shaun Walbridge, whose last live result was in January 2019, finished fifth for £22,000 (£28,500 with bounties), with the elimination of Gary Miller in third sending the Mystery Million to the heads-up stage. Miller walked away with £32,000 plus an additional £15,250 worth of scalps for a total haul worth £17,250. Miller, who won the 2018 WPT500 in London, recently passed through $1 million in live earnings.
Victor Ilyukhin and Navas locked horns and butted heads in a one-on-one battle for the title. Either player would have made a worthy champion, but it was not to be Ilyukhin’s day. He crashed out in second for £48,000 plus another £1,000 in bounties, leaving Navas to claim the WSOPC ring, £80,000 prize money, and £16,250 from the mystery bounty prize pool. A good day at the office, indeed.
Philipp Krieger Captures PLO Hi-Lo Title
Germany’s Philipp Krieger outlasted 43 opponents in the £1,100 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo event to become a WSOP Circuit ring winner and recipient of £14,000. Krieger finished third in the €2,000 Eight Game Mix at the 2022 WSOP Europe festival, and 11th in the $1,500 PLO Hi-Lo event at the 2023 WSOP, defeated Tron McEntee heads-up to become a WSOPC champion.
Only seven of the 44 entrants saw a return on their investment. Omaha specialist Daniel Ezekiel had to make do with the £2,000 seventh-place prize, while Maximilan Sanders followed up his final table appearance in the €330 PLO event at ESPT Castellon with a sixth-place finish worth £3,000.
Vastal Thakkar bowed out in fifth for £4,000 before Ian Hunter became the hunted and was cut down in fourth for £5,000.
Third place and £6,180 went to the 2019 GUKPT Luton champion Vikrum Mehta before Krieger resigned McEntee to a career-best £8,500 score, reeling in the £14,000 top prize for himself.
| Rank | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Philipp Krieger | £14,000 |
| 2 | Tron McEntee | £8,500 |
| 3 | Vikrum Mehta | £6,180 |
| 4 | Ian Hunter | £5,000 |
| 5 | Vastal Thakkar | £4,000 |
| 6 | Maximilan Sanders | £3,000 |
| 7 | Daniel Ezekiel | £2,000 |