Last year’s inaugural Mystery Millions event at the World Series of Poker was extremely popular, but it was put to shame by the 2023 version, which drew 18,188 entries, the most ever for a $1,000 WSOP event. The tournament, which is still in progress, is so big that there were two million-dollar bounties instead of a single one last year. Both were pulled on Sunday.
Shant Marashlian nabbed the first one, drawing out the suspense by revealing one digit at a time. When he saw the “1,” he just went for it, revealing the six trailing zeroes. Speaking with PokerNews after his bounty pull, Marashlian said he was still focused on the tournament at hand, adding: “I don’t know if I’m being cynical, but I’m thinking about taxes already.”
To spread the joy, he gave $1,000 to each player at his table.
Patrick Liang did his reveal like Marashlian, though he unveiled the zeroes more slowly, finally jumping up and down in celebration when he saw all the commas. To spread the joy, he gave $1,000 to each player at his table. Liang was due for some good luck, as he explained in an interview after his pull that he had a brain tumor two years ago, rendering him blind for a couple months.
“So, I mean, life was very tough for a while.”
Marashlian eventually finished 138th in the tournament for $7,380 and Liang came in 62nd for $17,700, plus an additional $25,000 bounty prize.