The Mystery Bounty attracted 146 runners to the tables with 19 making the cut into the next round. Vietnam’s Bien Mai enjoyed a late game surge to zoom to the top and bag a dominating 862,000 stack (86 bb). In second rank was Canada’s Thomas Lee with 64 bb, and to round out the top three was Slovakia’s Andrej Desset who delivered the bubble to close with 53 bb.
Mai’s fast rise happened in two big hands against Taiwan’s Chao Ting Cheng. The first hand saw the board complete (Ah0910 2 5 with a pot of 175,000 brewed. Mai checked, Cheng fired 85,000, Mai shoved, Cheng tank-folded.
The second hand was about the same. On a board that completed 88927 and 240,000 in the middle, Cheng bet 100,000, Mai check-raised all in again, Cheng tank-folded. Shortly after, Andrej Desset railed a player with 1010 standing firm against A10 to burst the bubble and wrap up Day 1A.
Date: January 20, 2024
Buy in: USD 800
Guarantee: USD 200,000
Day 1A: 146 entries (119 unique)
ITM: 19 players
Day 1B: January 21, 2024 at 11:30am (30 min blinds)
Day 1C: January 21, 2024 at 4pm (25 minute blinds)
End of Day 1A – 19 players
| Rank | Player | Flag | Stack |
| 1 | Bien Mai | Viet Nam | 862,000 |
| 2 | Thomas Lee | Canada | 646,000 |
| 3 | Andrej Desset | Slovakia | 536,000 |
| 4 | Renji Mao | China | 453,000 |
| 5 | Mr. Fendy | Indonesia | 395,000 |
| 6 | Oleg Titov | Russia | 350,000 |
| 7 | Dmitrii Gnusaev | Russia | 318,000 |
| 8 | Sean Joseph Keeton | United Kingdom | 277,000 |
| 9 | Eike Soren Strub | Germany | 267,000 |
| 10 | Anthony Cierco | France | 249,000 |
| 11 | Chao-Ting Cheng | Taiwan | 237,000 |
| 12 | Rolands Norietis | Latvia | 236,000 |
| 13 | Conor Mark Berry Grimsley | United Kingdom | 235,000 |
| 14 | Maximilian Detlef Horst Von Nolting | Germany | 192,000 |
| 15 | Bin Yang | China | 158,000 |
| 16 | Younghun Moon | Korea | 131,000 |
| 17 | Ville Jyrki Santeri Pohjalainen | Finland | 109,000 |
| 18 | Chul Woong Joo | Korea | 101,000 |
| 19 | Yoay Ram | Israel | 97,000 |
