What would you do if you pulled one of the two $1 million bounty prizes in the $1,000 buy-in Mystery Millions event at the WSOP?
Sprint around the casino? Take your top off and sink to your knees, sobbing?
It didn't take long for the crowds to find out on Day 2 of the event today. Valentyn Shabelnyk, of Ukraine, stepped up to the treasure chest, with bounty emcee Jeff Platt narrating alongside him, and quickly pulled out one of the two jackpots.
And his reaction? A wry smile, and then... no, that was it, as he rushed back to the table to defend his big blind. He gave his table mates a couple of unenthusiastic fist bumps before one of them asked, "Is this you really, really, really excited?"
Shabelnyk has $1,263,505 in tournament winnings, and the $1 million bounty is more than double his previous biggest cash. Perhaps he's saving his celebrations for the second pull.
Jessica Welman and Will Jaffe said what everyone was thinking.
DJ Buckley snags second $1 million bounty
The second $1 million bounty has been claimed by Daniel 'DJ' Buckley.
Buckley reacted with a bit more excitement than Shabelnyk and his supporters watching on certainly let their joy be heard. The Minnesota-based player broke into a huge grin as he unveiled his winning envelope, holding it aloft for all to see. Then it was high fives and hugs all around as Buckley celebrated with his buddies.
"A million, baby! You deserve it, kid," said one of Buckley's friends as the two embraced.
Mystery bounty fever hits WSOP
The mystery bounty format has taken over tournament poker in the last few years and, no exception, the WSOP Mystery Millions has quickly become one of the most popular events of the summer.
The four Day 1 starting flights this year drew a combined total of 18,409 entrants (221 more players than this event last year) to create a massive prize pool of $16,199,920. Only 950 of those players managed to fight their way to Day 2 of the event, where the bounties kick in. $300 out of each buy-in was set aside for the bounty prize pool, which stood at a whopping $5,523,000.
949 Mystery Bounty envelopes await the Day 2 combatants who manage to score a knockout -- check out the breakdown of the bounty prize pools below.
Bounties up for grabs
| Number of Bounties | Bounty Prize |
|---|---|
| 2 | $1,000,0000 |
| 1 | $500,000 |
| 1 | $250,000 |
| 3 | $100,000 |
| 5 | $50,000 |
| 38 | $25,000 |
| 17 | $10,000 |
| 38 | $5,000 |
| 46 | $2,500 |
| 798 | $1,000 |
Mystery Millions past
Last year, Tyler Brown took home the bracelet and the $1,000,000 top prize in the Mystery Millions event to give himself an early lead in the 2023 Player of the Year race. The big bounties went to Shant Marashlian and Patrick Liang who both managed to pull the highly-coveted $1,000,000 envelopes.
In 2022, Matt Glantz -- a founding member of Team Lucky -- snagged the million-dollar bounty. No surprise, Glantz considers the Mystery Millions his favorite event "by far" and detailed his exact strategy for success in these mystery bounty formats in an interview with PokerOrg. He said pulling the bounty "felt like I won the lottery". Tell that to Shabelnyk.
