Nineteen more events have now been completed in Bounty Builder Series, with the huge fields and comparable prize-pools continuing. Here’s the very latest from the tables:
BOUNTY BUILDER SERIES NEWS BULLETIN
Seoane makes is two in BBS: During the Bounty Builder Series held in June, Miguel “¿¿toneecho??” Seoane beat 782 players in a $109 buy-in event, banking more than $11K. Everything scaled up a notch as Seoane did it again last night, this time prevailing from a field of 210 entries in the $1,050 buy-in Event #139. The difference in buy-in made a significant difference in prize too, with Seoane’s victory earning him $45,653.41, including bounties. It was the most anyone won in Bounty Builder Series over the past couple of days. It was hard earned too, with Seoana having to beat the double WCOOP champion Rafael “pycadasgalax” Furlanetto heads up.
King of the Hill: Scott Hill, aka “D_DIGGLER99”, has been playing MTTs on PokerStars for at least nine years, with a long forgotten Blogger-based blog starting and finishing in January 2012. But Hill’s career has lasted far longer than his blog, and has included numerous highlights, including victories in both the Sunday Warm-Up, in 2013, and the Sunday Million three years later. Hill can add another line to his resume, after he won Event #133 of the Bounty Builder Series on Tuesday, beating a field of 545 entries in the $530 Bounty Builder High Roller Special Edition. His final opponent was the UK-based Andrés “wisopekeño!” González, who has a fair number of achievements himself, but Hill closed it out for $44,373.11. Artur “mararthur1” Martirosyan was third, underlining the quality of this field.
João Mathias Baumgarten
A couple more for familiar Brazilians: Just last month, Brazil’s “BrunoBezerr4” came to our attention for winning an $11 NLHE 8-Max Turbo during WCOOP, picking up close to $9K after outlasting a huge 11,761-entry field. BrunoBezerr4 has reinvested wisely, and last night added a Bounty Builder Series victory too, winning the $55 NLHE event over a field of 5,993 this time. His total prize came in at $30,187.09, including bounties, and offers further vindication that he’s doing something very right in these big MTTs. The same applies to João Mathias “joaoMathias” Baumgarten, whom we wrote about winning the Super Tuesday in 2016, among other successes. He’s a former World No 1, according to Pocket Fives and last night won the $109 HORSE event during Bounty Builder Series. It earned him $6,307.93, including bounties.
SCHEDULE & RESULTS | BOUNTY MATHEMATICS | ALL BLOG REPORTS
Manuel Ruivo doing his thing live
Still no big deal for Ruivo: Another player we know all about is Manuel “fellatiado” Ruivo, who once told us that winning the Sunday Warm-Up was no big deal, and then went on to win a SCOOP title. We’re sure nothing is still going to his head, but Ruivo is now a Bounty Builder Series champion too, having outlasted a field of 894 entries to win last night’s $215 NLHE Turbo. It was worth $28,744.16, including $16,020.24 in bounties, and came after beating Pascal “Päffchen” Hartmann heads-up.
Joao Barbosa: Portuguese whiz still at the top
Barbosa leads the way: Ruivo is one of a growing contingent of Portuguese players based in the Netherlands to play poker, all of whom seem to enjoying great success. They’re still led by perhaps the elder statesman of Portuguese poker, Joao “joaovbarb” Barbosa, who picked up a Bounty Builder title of his own last night. Barbosa, who is a former EPT champion, won the $109 buy-in Event #140 for $16,792.57, including bounties. Barbosa has been playing at the highest level for at least a decade, and continues to prosper both live and online.
vojta555cz checks Sikorski: Sebastian “p0cket00” Sikorski is one of online poker’s most celebrated talents, but finds his name still on the list of players who have inexplicably never won a WCOOP tournament. We followed his progress this year, but he drew another blank. Last night, Sikorski got all the way down to the last two, of 613 entries, in Event #131 of the Bounty Builder Series, a $215 NLHE 6-Max event. But Sikorski didn’t win this one either. That’s because Sikorski’s final opponent, “vojta555cz” of the Czech Republic, proved too strong. vojta555cz ended up with $17,699.57, including bounties, while Sikorski had to settle for about six grand less.
Tech gremlins affect Monday schedule: An unfortunate technical outage meant the cancellation of 10 Bounty Builder Series events on Monday night, as well as the resumption of the held over Sunday Million. The prize pools in all events were divided among remaining players, in accordance with PokerStars’ tournament cancellation policy. After issues were resolved, four tournaments did play through — three of which were won by Russians, and one by a Brazilian.
Arsenii “josef_shvejk” Karmatckii: Add a BBS event to his list
Two of the Russians are particularly well known. Arsenii “josef_shvejk” Karmatckii has won twice in WCOOP and once in SCOOP and has lifetime cashes of close to $5.3 million, according to Pocket Fives. He has a further $1.7 million in live tournament winnings, including a recent third-place finish at the EPT Sochi High Roller. The man from Sverdlovsk won Event #128 on Monday, which was a 6-Max Hyper Turbo and earned him $21,067.32, including bounties, in two hours, 13 minutes.
“Aleks Better” was one of the stars of this year’s Stadium Series, winning two events and finishing runner up in another. The second of those was a PKO event with a $530 buy-in, which clearly served as excellent practice for the same player’s victory on Monday in a similar tournament during the Bounty Builder Series. Event #125 was another $530 buy-in PKO tournament, albeit with a turbo structure, and Aleks Better was the last man standing from a 394-entry field. The win was worth $26,806.70, including $11,346 in bounties.
STAT TRACKER
Tournaments completed: 132
Entries: 579,638
Prize pools: $20,672,436
First-place prizes (inc. bounties): $2,491,522
Tournaments starting today: 14
Note: Eleven tournaments were cancelled and prize money distributed to remaining players, in accordance with PokerStars cancellation policy. Totals from these tournaments are not included above.
LATEST RESULTS
(Scroll table left to right to see full results)
| Tournament | Entries | Prize pool | Winner | Country | Bounties | Prize | Total |
| BBS-125: $530 NLHE [8-Max, Turbo] | 394 | $197,000 | Aleks Better | Russia | $11,346.64 | $15,460.06 | $26,806.70 |
| BBS-126: $55 NLHE [8-Max, Turbo] | 2,670 | $133,500 | eduardo_adl | Brazil | $4,186.78 | $8,361.71 | $12,548.49 |
| BBS-127: $5.50 NLHE [8-Max, Turbo] | 7,157 | $35,069 | Alkoshonok | Russia | $1,448.40 | $2,094.87 | $3,543.27 |
| BBS-128: $215 NLHE [6-Max, Hyper-Turbo] | 515 | $105,451 | josef_shvejk | Russia | $12,881.23 | $8,186.09 | $21,067.32 |
| BBS-129: $2.20 NLHE [6-Max] | 6,997 | $13,714 | RusMar000 | Kazakhstan | $431.84 | $814.69 | $1,246.53 |
| BBS-130: $22 NLHE [6-Max] | 4,222 | $84,440 | deeva3006 | Germany | $2,484.07 | $5,116.42 | $7,600.49 |
| BBS-131: $215 NLHE [6-Max] | 613 | $122,600 | vojta555cz | Czech Republic | $8,595.29 | $9,104.28 | $17,699.57 |
| BBS-132: $109 NLHE [8-Max, Turbo] | 961 | $96,100 | BLEFE GOD | Brazil | $6,008.59 | $6,751.24 | $12,759.83 |
| BBS-133: $530 NLHE [Bounty Builder HR SE] | 545 | $272,500 | D_DIGGLER99 | Canada | $23,638.60 | $20,734.51 | $44,373.11 |
| BBS-134: $55 NLHE | 5,993 | $299,650 | BrunoBezerr4 | Brazil | $12,117.72 | $18,069.37 | $30,187.09 |
| BBS-135: $109 HORSE | 369 | $40,000 | joaoMathias | Brazil | $2,751.89 | $3,556.04 | $6,307.93 |
| BBS-136: $215 NLHE [8-Max, Turbo] | 894 | $178,800 | fellatiado | Netherlands | $16,020.24 | $12,723.92 | $28,744.16 |
| BBS-137: $22 NLHE [8-Max, Turbo] | 5,532 | $110,640 | Husa888 | Czech Republic | $4,447.92 | $6,740.82 | $11,188.74 |
| BBS-138: $55 PLO [6-Max, Turbo] | 808 | $40,400 | NationalPPP | Malta | $2,827.32 | $2,891.71 | $5,719.03 |
| BBS-139: $1,050 NLHE | 210 | $210,000 | ¿¿toneecho?? | UK | $27,515.61 | $18,137.80 | $45,653.41 |
| BBS-140: $109 NLHE | 1,305 | $130,500 | joaovbarb | Netherlands | $8,015.35 | $8,777.22 | $16,792.57 |
| BBS-141: $11 NLHE | 5,926 | $58,075 | VictorLsouza | Brazil | $2,206.86 | $3,432.63 | $5,639.49 |
| BBS-142: $530 NLHE [Turbo] | 319 | $159,500 | GreenBoo | Latvia | $12,835.92 | $12,911.93 | $25,747.85 |
COUNTRIES LEADER BOARD
After a stellar couple of days for Brazilian players, the South Americans are back breathing down the necks of Russia. Only one victory separates the two powerhouse nations, with no one else within nine.
Latest standings:
21 — Russia
20 — Brazil
11 — Netherlands
10 — Germany
9 — UK
6 — Austria
5 — Czech Republic, Romania, Sweden
4 — Argentina, Canada
3 — Latvia, Poland
2 — Belarus, Finland, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Malta, Uruguay
1 — Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Gibraltar, Japan, Lebanon, Mexico, Moldova, Mongolia, Uzbekistan
COMING UP
Something for everyone as the Bounty Builder Series continues:
Wednesday:
BBS-143: $5.50 NLHE, $30K Gtd
BBS-144: $55 NLHE, $85K Gtd
BBS-145: $530 NLHE, $125K Gtd
BBS-146: $22 NLHE [Heads-Up, Turbo, Zoom Total KO], $75K Gtd
BBS-147: $109 NLHE [8-Max], $250K Gtd
BBS-148: $11 NLHE [8-Max], $125K Gtd
BBS-149: $22 PLO [6-Max], $40K Gtd
BBS-150: $530 NLHE, $150K Gtd
BBS-151: $55 NLHE, $200K Gtd
BBS-152: $109 NLHE [8-Max, Hyper-Turbo], $100K Gtd
BBS-153: $215 NLHE [8-Max, Turbo], $125K Gtd
BBS-154: $22 NLHE [8-Max, Turbo], $75K Gtd
BBS-155: $2.20 NLHE [8-Max, Turbo], $10K Gtd
BBS-156: $109 NLHE [Turbo], $100K Gtd
Thursday:
BBS-157: $1.10 NLHE [8-Max], $7.5K Gtd
BBS-158: $11 NLHE [8-Max], $60K Gtd
BBS-159: $109 NLHE [8-Max], $115K Gtd
BBS-160: $55 NLHE [6-Max, Turbo], $80K Gtd
BBS-161: $215 NLHE, $250K Gtd
BBS-162: $22 NLHE, $150K Gtd
BBS-163: $55 PLO8 [6-Max, Turbo], $35K Gtd
BBS-164: $1,050 NLHE [8-Max, Thursday Thrill SE], $300K Gtd
BBS-165: $109 NLHE [8-Max, Turbo], $150K Gtd
BBS-166: $11 NLHE [6-Max, Hyper-Turbo], $30K Gtd
BBS-167: $530 NLHE, $175K Gtd
BBS-168: $55 NLHE, $150K Gtd
BBS-169: $5.50 NLHE, $30K Gtd
BBS-170: $215 NLHE [8-Max, Turbo], $100K Gtd
