The 2025 Bombay High Stakes Week came to a fittingly grand finale with the €1,000,000 guaranteed Bombay Anniversary Invitational, an event that embodied everything this exclusive poker week stood for: big names, big money, and even bigger moments.
Held inside the luxurious Bombay Club in Tallinn, this invite-only spectacle could only be entered by either playing the €25,000 Main Event earlier in the week or via personal invitation. Day 1 of the exclusive Bombay Anniversary Invitational drew 86 entries, with 27 players advancing. Another 11 joined before Day 2 kicked off, bringing the total to 97 entries, which is an astounding figure for an invite-only event officially capped at just 64 players, all hosted within the intimate setting of the Bombay Club.
At the end of it all, it was Sweden’s Mounir Tajiou who emerged victorious, defeating Dutch crusher Teun Mulder heads-up to secure a career-best payday of €266,700. Mulder, who had a rollercoaster week in Tallinn, added €172,100 to his bankroll for second place.
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Tajiou’s Career Milestone and Rising Star Status
For Tajiou, this win is more than just a big score. It brings him within touching distance of the $1 million milestone in live earnings and could catapult him to the top or close to the top of the Swedish GPI leaderboard, where he was recently sitting in third place, only behind online legends Viktor “Isildur1” Blom and Niklas “Lena900” Astedt.
But poker fans may already recognize the name as Tajiou has already made waves in Vegas. Just last month, he made waves at the 2025 World Series of Poker Main Event with a deep run to 58th place for $165,000. But it wasn’t the finish that grabbed headlines, it was one of the boldest bluffs of the summer, a stone-cold move against none other than the eventual world champion Michael Mizrachi, which lit up social media.
Tajiou’s passion for poker extends beyond the felt. He co-founded No Filter Poker with fellow Swede Michel Karim, a project born out of necessity after the Swedish state-run Cosmopol Casino shut its doors, leaving players with no legal avenue to play.
Tajiou and Karim didn’t wait around, they were already laying the groundwork for the first No Filter Poker Series in Tallinn, and its success earlier this year drew a packed house of Swedish and international players alike. With the victory at the Bombay Invitational, Tajiou’s vision for player-first poker looks more promising than ever.
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The path to the top was as hard as it gets for Tajiou, as the Bombay Anniversary Invitational featured some of the world’s most dangerous players and high-profile personalities. Lost of them bowed out before the money, as did two legends Phil Ivey, bubbled the event and exited in 14th, and Dan “Jungleman” Cates who went out in 31st.
As said, Tajiou beat Teun Mulder heads-up, who himself had a kind of a redemption arc. After stone-bubbling three events in a row, the Dutch star cashed in the €10K Fast Bounty (2nd place for €47,500) and capped it with another silver medal here. What looked like a cursed week turned into a very profitable one.
David J. Chen, the MIT Computer Science prodigy and youngest-ever PokerGO champion, finished third for €122,900. He’s been on fire recently, following up last month’s $260,000 runner-up finish in the $25K Wynn Summer Classic.
In fourth was German high roller Robert Heidorn (€94,500), who also won the €10K Fast Bounty earlier in the week. Other final table results included Dutch pro Kevin Paqué, who secured fifth place for €75,600, followed by Norwegian businessman Morten Klein in sixth for €60,500. Klein had been one of the most active players throughout the entire week and also placed third in the €10,000 Warm-Up event. George Ana finished seventh for €48,400, while Finnish pro Joni Jouhkimainen rounded out the final table in eighth, taking home €38,700.
13 players made the money, with Andre Scerri sneaking into 13th for €20,000, just ahead of Ivey on the bubble. Notables who didn’t survive included Ottomar Ladva (17th), Taago Tamm (20th), and the start-of-day chip leader Ardo Hanschmidt (27th), who lost momentum early.
Bombay High Stakes Week – €10,000 Bombay Anniversary Invitational
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Mounir Tajiou | Sweden | €266,700 |
| 2 |  Teun Mulder | Netherlands | €172,100 |
| 3 |  David J Chen | United States | €122,900 |
| 4 |  Rober Alexander Heidorn | Germany | €94,500 |
| 5 | Kevin Paque | Netherlands | €75,600 |
| 6 |  Morten Klein | Norway | €60,500 |
| 7 |  George Bogdan Ana | Romania | €48,400 |
| 8 |  Joni Jouhkimainen | Finland | €38,700 |
| 9 |  Ilya Nikiforov | Estonia | €31,000 |
| 10 | Bamdad Garzin | Estonia | €24,800 |
| 11 |  Aleksejs Ponakovs | Latvia | €24,800 |
| 12 | Jelle Moene | Netherlands | €20,000 |
| 13 |  Andre Scerri | Malta | €20,000 |
What’s Next?
With this the Bombay High Stakes Week wrapped, but we’re sure this is just the beginning. The week proved that high-stakes poker can still feel special, and given the success of this and previous editions, it’s fair to say another one is likely just around the corner. We’ll be watching for it.
