PokerStars launched its first mystery bounty tournaments during the recent New Year Series, changing the $109 Sunday Million into this exciting format. The switch proved popular, with 16,234 entrants creating a $1,623,400 prize pool. PokerStars decided to up the ante during the New Year Series Afterparty, running a $5,200 buy-in mystery bounty event guaranteeing $1 million.

Including re-entries, 171 high rollers bought into the $5,200 Mystery Bounty Main Event resulting in a $145,000 overlay, which was quite surprising considering how well the New Year Series.

The top 20 finishers helped themselves to some of the $500,000 regular prize pool. Players like PokerStars’ Parker “tonkaaaa” Talbot, Christoph “26071985” Vogelsang, and Talal “raidalot” Shakerchi were among the in the money finishers.

NYS Afterparty: $5,200 NLHE 8-Max Mystery Bounty Main Event

Austrian star Leonard “Grozzorg” Maue was the first of the nine finalists to find himself void of chips. Maue’s ninth-place finish came with a $16,490 reward.

Belarusian “AcidVaule” was the next to fall ($20,277), and they were joined on the sidelines by Rodrigo “SELOUAN1991” Selouan ($24,933) and Aliaksandr “Alexgirs” Hirs ($30,659).

The final five became four and then three after the untimely demise of two Brazilian grinders. First, Pedro “PaDiLhA SP” Padilha bowed out in fifth ($37,699) then Pablo “pabritz” Brito Silva ran out of steam in fourth place ($46,356).

The $5,200 PokerStars Mystery Bounty Main Event progressed to its heads-up stage following the exit of Thailand’s “Oledjan,” a finish worth $57,001. That elimination left Thomas “WushuTM” Muehloecker in a one-on-one clash with the Belarusian legend Ilya “leqenden” Anatsky.

Either of the heads-up players would have made a worthy champion, but only one man would be able to claim that title. It was Muehloecker who came out of the final battle unscathed and with the $86,186 top prize in tow. Add $27,777 worth of mystery bounties to that score, and Muehloecker banked an impressive $113,963 for his victory. Anatsky reeled in $70,091.

Two other big mystery bounty tournaments ran alongside the $5,200 edition. The $1,050 version drew in a crowd of 949 players who fought it out for the lion’s share of the $1 million prize pool.

Latvia’s “xpronto” finished top of the tree, resulting in a $70,279 prize landing in their PokerStars account. The Latvian eliminated 10 opponents on their way to victory and double-digits worth of mystery bounties totaled $11,648, meaning they took home $81,927.

A $109 buy-in mystery bounty drew in 5,685 entrants, who created a guarantee-busting $1,337,000 prize pool. Including the 11 mystery bounties they won, “$oloBlanco” walked away with $70,205 and the title of champion.

$12.5 Million Carnival Series Features Mystery Bounty Main Events

The wait for the next big money mystery bounty tournaments at PokerStars won’t be long because the Carnival Series Main Events are played to this exciting format.

A trio of No-Limit Hold’em mystery bounty events take place on February 4, coming with buy-ins of $11, $109, and $1,050, and guaranteed prize pools worth $250,000, $1 million, and $750,000 respectively.

Pot-Limit Omaha players can get in on the mystery bounty hype train, too. PLO players have a $215 buy-in, $100,000 guaranteed Carnival Series Mystery Bounty Main Event to get their teeth into on February 4.

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