Mystery Kid Wins EPC High Roller;

The King's Million European Poker Championship (EPC) at the King's Resort in Rozvadov produced two new champions, with a mystery player known as Mystery Kid taking down the €3,000 No-Limit Hold'em High Roller and Kyriakos Kesidis winning the €600 Monster Stack.

Mystery Kid Survives a 19-Hour Final Day

The €3,000 NLH High Roller carried a €500,000 guarantee and drew 162 entries once late registration closed. The guarantee was not surpassed, and the top 23 finishers were paid from the prize pool.

The event proved exceptionally demanding, with the final day running a relentless 19 hours. For Mystery Kid, the result was not his first deep run of the week: he had recently finished second in the €250 Mini Main Event.

At the final table he endured a genuine roller coaster. In one key confrontation, MajikMike cracked his pocket aces with K-6, hitting a runner-runner straight and leaving Mystery Kid among the shortest stacks in play. He recovered, however, and went on to defeat Romanian player Mihai Tabac in heads-up play.

In the decisive hand, Tabac moved all in as a bluff with 8d 6s, and Mystery Kid called with Jh Jd. The jacks held, securing the champion the top prize of €110,300.

€3,000 EPC High Roller Final Table

• 1. Mystery Kid (Israel) — €110,300
• 2. Mihai Tabac (Romania) — €71,200
• 3. MajikMike (Italy) — €47,600
• 4. coolstorybro (Poland) — €32,900
• 5. Paul Adrian Runcan (Romania) — €23,600
• 6. Martynas Racinskas (Lithuania) — €17,600
• 7. Jakub Štěrba (Czech Republic) — €13,600
• 8. Davit Mikhanashvili (Georgia) — €11,000
• 9. Attila Koncz (Hungary) — €9,200

Fifth Bullet Turns into a Title for Kesidis

The €600 Monster Stack attracted enormous interest, with registrations totalling 2,903. The original €1 million guarantee was comfortably surpassed, and the total prize pool reached €1,480,530.

Champion Kyriakos Kesidis lived something of a fairy tale. After busting in the initial flights four times, he chose to fire a fifth bullet despite friends advising against it. That last attempt paid off: he entered the final day as chip leader among the last 24 players.

When the tournament was down to four players, the remaining contenders agreed to an ICM deal. In the play-off for the trophy and the remaining cash, it appeared that a Croatian player nicknamed BUNJO was headed for victory. He eliminated German player Lowkey in fourth place and then Romanian Dan Sfarlea in third.

Kesidis, however, pulled off a successful double-up in heads-up play and then found the card he needed in the decisive hand. Holding Qs 7s against Ac 3h, he saw the board run out Kh Jd 5d 9d 7c. The lucky seven on the river gave him the trophy and a career-defining victory.

A tremendous result was also achieved by Ján Bendík, winner of the 2016 EPT Monte Carlo Main Event, who fought his way to fifth place.

€600 Monster Stack Final Table

• 1. Kyriakos Kesidis (Greece) — €146,800*
• 2. BUNJO (Croatia) — €123,200*
• 3. Dan Sfarlea (Romania) — €104,600*
• 4. Lowkey (Germany) — €108,900*
• 5. Ján Bendík (Slovakia) — €50,000
• 6. Gal Naim (Israel) — €37,500
• 7. Dalibor Dula (Czech Republic) — €28,000
• 8. Jan Ticháček (Czech Republic) — €21,100
• 9. Jaime Jose Balala Lebre (Portugal) — €15,700

• Four-way ICM deal

What the Two Results Show

Both events illustrate familiar tournament dynamics. In the High Roller, a 162-entry field against a €500,000 guarantee meant the overlay was absorbed by the house rather than the players, while the 19-hour final day underlined how deep structures can stretch stamina as much as skill.

The Monster Stack told a different story: a €600 buy-in with 2,903 entries generated a prize pool of €1,480,530, well beyond the €1 million guarantee. Kesidis's path — four failed flights before a fifth bullet — is a reminder that re-entry formats reward persistence, though the cost of multiple bullets is a factor players should weigh carefully.

The four-way ICM deal in the Monster Stack is also a common feature of modern tournament poker. Such deals redistribute remaining prize money according to chip stacks and payouts, and are typically followed by a play-off for the trophy and any leftover cash. The final hand of that play-off, with Kesidis's Qs 7s prevailing against Ac 3h after a seven on the river, decided the title.

For Mystery Kid, the week's work produced a second-place finish in the €250 Mini Main Event and then the High Roller title, a rare double deep run in the same series. For Kesidis, the win represents the standout result of his career to date.