MPP|EAPT Grand Final Cyprus – Brandon Sheils Grabs Two $10K Packages!
In the competitive world of poker, the Mediterranean Poker Party (MPP) and the EAPT series are set to converge in the first week of May, drawing countless players to the beautiful island of Cyprus. Among them, a considerable number have earned their seats through the virtual felts of GGPoker or by battling it out in live satellite tournaments.
However, it's the innovative twist on satellite qualification of these live tournaments that's really turning heads.
Brandon Sheils, hailing from Birmingham (UK), was a participants of the special live satellite at the Dusk Till Dawn Poker Club in Nottingham between the 9th and 14th of April. For a buy-in of £340, all players were looking to take home the biggest part of the guaranteed prize pool of £100,000 (+added $10K MPP package).
Once the mystery bounties were in play, Brandon and his table mate Yiannis Liperis, busted out someone from the tournament. Both were allowed to take one of the envelopes, but Yiannis gave his prize to Brandon. While Brandon first took a bounty prize of £450 for himself, he grabbed the $10K MPP package for Yiannis.
Schedule MPP | EAPT Grand Final 2024 (Cyprus)
| Date | Buy-in | Tournament Name | GTD Prize Pool |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thu 2 - Sat 4 May | $1,100 | No Limit Hold'em - Luxon Pay Mystery Bounty | $1,000,000 |
| Sat 4 - Tue 7 May | $2,200 | No Limit Hold'em - EAPT Grand Final | $2,000,000 |
| Sun 5 - Mon 6 May | $10,400 | Pot-Limit Omaha - MPP High Roller* | $500,000 |
| Mon 6 - Tue 7 May | $25,500 | No-Limit Hold'em - MPP Super High Roller* | $1,000,000 |
| Mon 6 - Sun 12 May | $5,300 | No Limit Hold'em - MPP Main Event | $5,000,000 |
| Tue 7 - Wed 8 May | $25,500 | No-Limit Hold'em - MPP Super High Roller* | $1,000,000 |
| Wed 8 - Thu 9 May | $51,000 | No-Limit Hold'em - MPP Super High Roller* | $2,000,000 |
| Thu 9 - Sun 12 May | $1,100 | No Limit Hold'em - EAPT Cyprus | $500,000 |
| Fri 10 - Sat 11 May | $10,400 | No Limit Hold'em - MPP High Roller | $1,000,000 |
| Sun 12 May | $10,400 | No Limit Hold'em - MPP 6-Max High Roller | $500,000 |
*Highlighted Tournaments have just recently been added
'I'm gonna look so disappointed when I get a massive one for someone else'.
— Dusk Till Dawn (@DTD_Club) April 14, 2024
Brandon Shiels was one of the first players to pull from the Flight To MPP Mystery Bounty drum today, he also pulled an envelop for friend and tablemate Yiannis Liperis.
One of them won £450 cash,… pic.twitter.com/Hty9LkwJhc
Further into the tournament, Brandon got two more opportunities to grab one of the MPP packages. It turned out to be a good day for him, as he pulled another £10K package this time!
After pulling a $10K MPP package for tablemate Yiannis Liperis in the early stages yesterday, Brandon Shiels had two more Mystery Bounty pulls at the business end of the tournament...
— Dusk Till Dawn (@DTD_Club) April 15, 2024
Karma was restored as he pulled £2K cash & the other $10,000 package!
Find out more about the… pic.twitter.com/iP8iQtIGHW
This was reason enough for PokerListings to get a hold of the lucky winner, who we've been following for quite some time. Brandon Sheils is probably best known for streaming online poker, as well as creating content such as poker tutorials for his social media channels.
Melvin, PokerListings: Hi Brandon! We've been following you for as while now on social media. It's thanks to these channels, we found out you had an interesting way of collecting two full packages for the MPP event in Cyprus. Can you share how you experienced this epic run?
Brandon: ''My friend Yiannis (Liperis) didn’t want to be filmed so he told me to pick his envelope and I had one too myself. So we agreed to swap some action and I pick my bounty first, then his. I picked £450 for myself and for him the $10k pack with around 30 players left. Then after we swapped more for future bounties, but he busted and with 6 left. I had 2 more bounties after that and pulled the next $10k pack for myself.''
Melvin, PokerListings: People who follow you on social media, have a view of your poker career as you are sharing your runs and travels. Besides interacting with the crowd and live streaming what you've done, you also came up with new video content on your YouTube Channel. Is there something we can expect in this regard during, or ramping up, to the MPP event?
Brandon: ''I’m always in two minds about vlogging as when I did it for the WSOP, it was very time consuming and the videos didn’t do as well as other more simple ones have. I could make one video for the trip depending on how the experience is, but I’ve not committed to anything mentally yet.''
Melvin, PokerListings: When looking at the schedule of MPP, what are key tournaments for you to play? And what aspects do you consider when choosing the tournaments that you will be playing? Of course, you have the package, but in case of any other tournaments you will play.
Brandon: ''Good structures, big prize pools and buy in range. I’ll play the two $1k events, the $2k, and the $5k. I will re-enter if needed as I sell action to make the bigger games affordable and if I’m there it’s to maximise volume.''
Melvin, PokerListings: The last edition of the MPP event in Cyprus dates back to 2022. This year, the EAPT event will have its Grand Final during this series as well. Have you heard about the EAPT before? From May 17-27 they will be at the Dusk Till Dawn in Nottingham. What's important for you when selecting live events?
Brandon: ''I only heard of them recently but I likely will play at DTD for that event. For me it depends how accessible and buy-in range/prize pool/how I’m feeling. DTD is around one hour drive, so it’s easy enough but if a lot of the events take place on Sundays, I tend to avoid them in favor of playing online.
I go all in for the Vegas WSOP festival for live poker and pick and choose others through the year. If day 3 of an event is the Sunday or day 2 starts at 12 and is already in the money, then I’m much more likely to play as I won’t miss online Sunday unless deep into the event already.''
Melvin, PokerListings: You've been playing poker professionally for a while now, right? You seem like, or at least give the impression, that you keep it all in order quite well. What keeps your mind at ease when it comes to swings in poker. Are there any poker players you're most impressed by and why?
Brandon: ''Yeah, I play professional from the get-go, 18 years old. I guess it’s about focusing on being present and grateful and catching yourself whenever you notice bad narratives start to form that won’t serve you. I’ve played from abundance and from entitlement and the difference is huge in terms of how well I play and feel.
I try to put in as much practice as possible on and off the table to maintain this. Meditation, journaling, good sleep, exercise, good study routine, reasonable bank roll management and breaks. It’s more learning to be in tune with yourself.
I also advocate psychedelic therapy a lot and owe a lot of my success to it but it’s a method not much known yet! As for players I’m impressed by it’s anyone who can put the time and effort in despite bad variance and downswings over long periods of time. I respect pads a lot (Patrick Leonard) as he works very hard and gives out so much free content + likes to help others.
But in terms of more live poker faces it’s more the people you haven’t heard of yet that are still turning up and maintaining their sanity and cheerfulness I do specifically like the crazy guys too that put people in difficult spots and find bluffs that are very hard to find like your Michael Addamo’s of the world.''
Stay Tuned With PokerListings
We will keep you posted about all the results throughout the Mediterranean Poker Party and the EAPT Grand Final in Cyprus. Brandon Sheils is just one of many qualifiers who will be joining the felt at the Merit Royal Diamond Hotel in Cyprus, and hopefully he'll take his epic poker story even further! In the upcoming week, we'll look into another qualifying story, so stay tuned!
