Welcome to PokerNews coverage of Event #5: $1,000 Mystery Millions, a special tournament in which at least two players will become millionaires despite the buy-in only costing $1,000.
Four Day 1s have concluded, with $300 from each buy-in going into the bounty prize pool. The bounty prize pool is divided into 950 secret envelopes, with players receiving a mystery bounty envelope each time they eliminate an opponent. At least one of those mystery bounties will tip the scales at a cool $1 million.
Last year, Shant Marashlian and Patrick Liang pulled out $1 million bounties before Tyler Brown came out on top and won the event's bracelet and $1 million top prize. This year's edition of the Mystery Millions has a slightly larger field than 2023, so expect similar payouts and bounties.
Although Adrian Puccio (3,360,000) is the overall chip leader with 950 players remaining, we couldn't help but notice Femi Fashakin (2,600,000) had built a top ten stack. The Nigeria-born Florida resident shot to fame at the 2019 when he closed out The BIG 50, a $500 buy-in affair that drew in a staggering 28,371 entrants. Fashakin banked $1,147,449 that day. Since that impressive result, Fashakin has run deep in several large field events, so look out for him in our updates today and beyond.
Start of Day 2 Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chips | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Adrian Puccio | United States | 3,360,000 | 84 |
| 2 | Antonio Galiana | Spain | 3,230,000 | 79 |
| 3 | Pete Chen | United States | 3,150,000 | 68 |
| 4 | Bradley Coultas | Israel | 2,730,000 | 68 |
| 5 | Liran Betito | United States | 2,720,000 | 68 |
| 6 | Justin Geronsin | United States | 2,705,000 | 65 |
| 7 | Jesse Rockowitz | United States | 2,600,000 | 65 |
| 8 | Femi Fashakin | United States | 2,600,000 | 65 |
| 9 | Mircea Ionescu | Romania | 2,595,000 | 65 |
| 10 | Nicholas Lee | United States | 2,580,000 | 65 |
The lure of $1 million mystery bounties proved strong for hundreds of poker players considered household names. David "ODB" Baker (1,630,000), John Riordan (1,290,000), Christian Harder (1,125,000), Roberto Romanello (1,015,000), Nick Schulman (845,000), Ryan Leng (76,000), and Alex Foxen (625,000) are among the returning players.
Cards are in the air from 11 a.m. local time, with the plan to play 17 levels, each spanning 40 minutes, or until only five players remain, whichever comes first. Mystery bounties are in play from the start of Day 2, but they cannot be redeemed until after 4 p.m. local time.
Stay with PokerNews as we bring you live and exclusive coverage of the Mystery Millions.
