Wednesday, June 25, was a hot one in Thessaloniki, not only speaking about the weather. The cards at the Regency Casino Thessaloniki were absolutely burning; the deck was on fire during Day 2 of the €250 PKO. The first multi-day event of the 2025 Greek Poker Odyssea would see its conclusion, with all remaining players battling it out for the unique trophy and the €5,271 first-place payout, not counting the bounties. One particular card would prove to be crucial in the outcome of the tournament, but, in the end, victory belonged to one of the most experienced players in the mix.
Seven from Heaven
There’s really no surprise that one of the earlier events of the festival managed to score 190 entries; live bounty tournaments are crazy fun, allowing players to loosen up their game slightly when calling off an opponent’s shove.
Out of the 190 total entries, 33 players moved on from Day 1 (which was played June 24). This created a €41,800 prize pool, and €19,000 of that amount was up for grabs in the form of bounties. Needless to say, it was the wild west in Thessaloniki.
The 33 players took their seats at 14:00 on Wednesday, and ten more of them would have to be eliminated before the remaining competitors would be in the money, guaranteed a €263 min-cash. Nikolaos Valtatzis (2,465,000) entered the second day as a massive chip leader; in fact, he had more than double that of Ioannis Diamantopoulos and Konstantinos Daskalou, who tied in second place on the chip count with 1,130,000 each.
The field was packed with man skillful poker players, but two who stood out in terms of earlier results were Fotios Ntamaris and Theodoros Ampelikiotis. Ntamaris was the one of them two who entered Day 2 with the smallest stack. It wouldn’t take long, however, before he would double up Ioannis Atzaris. Ntamaris would go on having a few exchanges of chips with tablemate Glenn Brown; one of the very few players who didn’t wave the Greek flag.
In fact, Brown made an impressive call for his tournament life against Ntamaris on the bubble, just moments before Anastasios Kougioumtz would become the unfortunate bubble boy. Things didn’t slow down when the remaining 23 players were in the money. The CEO of poker.pro, Jason Glatzer, had survived hand-by-hand despite being relatively short. Eventually, he ran his ace-queen into the pocket rockets of his very good friend Ntamaris to be eliminated in fourteenth place.
Don’t get it twisted, though; it wasn’t all smooth sailing for Ntamaris. He had quite the rollercoaster of a tournament, and eventually, he was eliminated by Brown in tenth place. Such, the final table of nine players was set, and things were starting to get serious.
Christos Mekras entered the final table with a mere seven big blinds, and he was the first one to go as Vasileios Karagiannis finished him off in ninth. Shortly thereafter, Nikolaos Valtatzis, Michail Mitkoudis, and Vasileios Karagiannis all went out in fairly reasonable fashion.
When only five players remained, though, crazy things started to happen. The most crucial hand of the night, arguably, went down between Brown and Ampelikiotis. The two warriors were all in pre-flop; Ampelikiotis was the player at risk against chip leader Brown, but he hit a two-outer on the river to stay alive.
From there on, Ampelikiotis put the pedal to the metal. He picked up pocket queens on the button to eliminate Grigorios Thanos in fourth, and shortly thereafter, his 7♦5♦ cracked the pocket nines of Miltiadis Zografos. The three remaining players may have been somewhat shallow at this point, but nevertheless, Ampelikiotis was the chip leader.
After some pre-flop controversy, though, it was Brown who eliminated Stavros Kokotsakis in third place, and such, he evened out the stack sizes prior to the heads-up battle. It wouldn’t be too long of a duel, though, and when Brown shoved his two-pairs into the trip sevens of Ampelikiotis, it was game over for the Brit. He had to settle for second place, and such, Ampelikiotis was now the undisputed winner of the €250 PKO.
€250 – Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize | Bounty Prize | Total Payout |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Theodoros Ampelikiotis | Greece | €5,271 | €4,000 | €9,271 |
| 2 |  Glenn Brown | Great Britain | €4,305 | €1,395 | €5,700 |
| 3 | Stavros Kokotsakis | Greece | €2,750 | €1,065 | €3,815 |
| 4 | Miltiadis Zografos | Greece | €1,897 | €745 | €2,642 |
| 5 | Grigorios Thanos | Greece | €1,338 | €680 | €2,018 |
| 6 | Vasileios Karagiannis | Greece | €855 | €1,395 | €2250 |
| 7 | Michail Mitkoudis | Greece | €715 | €350 | €1,065 |
| 8 | Nikolaos Valtatzis | Greece | €615 | €805 | €1,420 |
| 9 | Christos Mekras | Greece | €524 | €300 | €824 |
It’s no news that there are small margins in poker. When they were five-handed, Ampelikiotis hit one of the remaining two sevens on the river against Brown to stay alive in the tournament. Then, funny enough, he eliminated Brown heads-up to claim the title with trip sevens. Don’t get it twisted; Ampelikiotis didn’t get his hands on the trophy thanks to Lady Luck. As previously mentioned, he was one of the most experienced players in the field, scoring impressive results at events such as the EPT and the Kings of Tallinn. He is a worthy winner, no doubt about it.
On Thursday, June 26, poker.pro will report from day 2 of the €450 Monsterstack Mystery Bounty. At 14:00, the 25 remaining players will take their seats. The poker.pro live reporting team will follow the tournament from start to finish, and the action will surely be mesmerizing.
