At the beginning of 2023, namely, January 2-8, the poker scene greeted Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa with its ‘The Return’ series.
The most surprising thing is that the scale is just astonishing. On January 2-3, the Mystery Bounty event featured a $2,200 buy-in with guaranteed perks worth $1 million. This is in addition to the regular prize pool. Two flights are scheduled for January 2 at 11:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m.
All in all, participants are guaranteed more than $4M during the week. Mystery Bounty is going to produce the most buzz, in addition to $3M from the following Main Event.
A detailed discussion of the Mystery Bounty and major events awaits everyone dreaming of visiting the Atlantic City casino below.
The secret of the popularity of Mystery Bounty poker tournaments
Mystery Bounty cannon go unnoticed by many and this is for a reason, which Borgata’s Director of Poker Operations, Vincent Alonge Jr., explained as follows.
“Mystery Bounty will make our property completely alive and full of energy as we prepare for The Return. Borgata’s Poker Room never stops being innovative to offer the best tournaments for our guests.”
Mystery Bounty events were first introduced in Las Vegas a few years ago. Since then, they gained popularity, which was quite predictable. The reason is a bounty that can even exceed the prize of the winner and reach $500-$250,000.
- On the 1st Day, there are no bounties. The remaining 300 players on Day 2 are eligible for them.
- The Mystery Bounty pool is available. From it, the player can select a prize after winning a bounty, which is then removed from the pool. The number of prizes is determined beforehand.
- Prizes can be collected at once or after the tournament is over.
- The player learns the value of a knockout after drawing the Mystery Bounty prize.
- The following prizes are available:
- $250,000 — 1
- $100,000 — 2
- $50,000 — 3
- $25,000 — 4
- $10,000 — 5
- $5,000 — 11
- $2,500 — 24
- $1,000 — 20
- $500 — 230
Borgata didn’t hesitate to give $1M as bounties
Other MGM Las Vegas properties like Aria and MGM Grand also ran successful Mystery Bounty events over the summer. Now, Borgata has decided to join the party.
In the summer of 2022, three venues ran Mystery Bounty events, which turned successful and found happy winners, including Matt Glantz from Pennsylvania. In 2023, Borgata made a decision to join Aria, MGM Grand, and others and also hold the series.
The tournament prize pool is as follows:
- Buy-In: $2,200
- $1 million is the bounty pool, awarded on Day 2 only in the form of 300 prizes of different sums.
- After 1,000 entries, the bounty pool reaches $1 million, and all buy-ins go to the prize pool.
Schedule of ‘The Return’
The two years of waiting for ‘The Return’ have passed, and players from NJ are finally happy to greet it.
The series comprises five events now. But if everything goes fine, the scale will be expanded in the year to come.
- Event 1, January 2-3: $2,200 NLH Mystery Bounty (guaranteed $1M in bounties)
- Event 2, January 3: $560 NLH Satellite Qualifier to Main Event – 1 in 10 win
- Event 3, January 4-8: $5,300 NLH Main Event – $3M guaranteed; $1M guaranteed to the main winner
- Event 4, January 6-7: $2,100 NLH 1K Bounty – $150,000
- Event 5, January 7-8: $1,100 NLH Survivor – $100,000