The Mystery Bounty format is the latest craze in poker, with almost every live series featuring at least one of these events. Online poker sites worldwide have also picked up on this trend, expanding their offering with this novel format.
As pokerfuse recently reported, PokerStars seems to be working on adding mystery bounties to its platform, and it will be interesting to see what the room has been working on behind the scenes.
In the meantime, if you have been itching to jump into some mystery bounty tournaments and see what all the hype is about, or if you’re already hooked on the new format, these are the top poker sites offering mystery bounty tournaments right now.
- Deposit $20 and get $30 worth of free play
- One of the best mobile apps
- Biggest MTT guarantees
888poker — Mystery Bounties Galore
For those players looking to get a taste of the mystery bounty action, 888poker is the place to be. The operator added this format in September 2022, and it has proven massively popular with players across the board.
Several mystery bounty events are available on the site every week, and you can join the fun regardless of your bankroll. Buy-ins start as low as $1 and go up to $109.
Mystery Bounty Tournaments at 888poker
- $1 Mystery Bounty – $100 GTD – $10 top bounty (1)
- $2.20 Mystery Bounty – $150 GTD – $15 top bounty (1)
- $5.50 Mystery Bounty – $400 GTD – $40 top bounty (1)
- $11 Mystery Bounty – $1000 GTD – $100 top bounty (1)
- 16.50 Mystery Bounty – $1000 GTD – $100 top bounty (1)
- $22 Mystery Bounty – $1500 GTD – $150 top bounty (1)
- $109 Sunday Mystery Bounty – $10,000 GTD – $1000 top bounty (1)
The tournaments are structured in two phases. The first phase lasts for 16 levels, and there are no bounties during this time. Starting with level 17, mystery bounties come into play, and for every eliminated player, the winner is awarded one random bounty from the pool.
As with most KO tournaments, 50% of the buy-in goes towards the regular prize pool, while the other 50% goes into the mystery pool.
GGPoker — Mystery Bounties During Big Series
The GGPoker app was the first major poker platform to introduce mystery bounties. This happened in May 2022, and the room got the ball rolling with a single weekly tournament where the biggest bounty offered was $100,000.
Despite the mystery bounty format being so popular, the room does not offer many tournaments featuring it. You will mostly find them on the schedule of GG’s big series. Right now, GGPoker is hosting the Omaholic series, and the Main Event is played as a mystery bounty, with the top bounty set at $50,000.
The tournament takes place in two stages. There is the initial phase, during which no bounties are available, and the name of the game is survival.
This stage is followed by the final phase, which is when the fun starts. You will be awarded a random bounty amount for every player you eliminate. As an RNG determines this, there is no way to predict when someone will win the biggest bounty — which is part of what makes these games so thrilling.
- Or get up to $100 worth of rewards
- Available in many regulated markets
- Great MTT schedule including WSOP events
Mystery Bounty Tournaments and US Online Poker
US online poker players looking to play mystery bounties have only one option — WSOP.com, which offers the format on its Michigan and Pennsylvania clients.
Both WSOP PA and WSOP MI feature a nice selection of mystery bounty events, so all players can get a taste of this fun format:
- $5 buy-in – $1000 GTD – $150 top bounty
- $10 buy-in – $800 & $1500 GTD – $100 & $240 top bounty
- $20 buy-in – $1200 GTD – $150 top bounty
- $50 buy-in $4000 & $5000 GTD – $500 & $750 GTD
The structure is the same as that on 888poker, with bounties kicking in on level 17. However, at WSOP, a bigger percentage of the overall prize pool is reserved for the top bounty.
MI and PA players, head to WSOP.com and try your hand at the hottest poker format of 2023.
- Up to $100 in free play with first deposit*
- Top-quality software
- Compete for WSOP bracelets & rings
What About Other Poker Rooms?
As of right now, 888poker and GGPoker are the only two rooms offering mystery bounties. It seems PokerStars will be joining the party soon, and although we do not have any new details, in a pokerfuse podcast last year, Chris Straghalis, Director of Online Poker Experience for PokerStars, hinted that the Red Spade might take a somewhat different approach.
Back then, Straghalis emphasized that, in the current setup, bounties tend to kick in fairly late, usually when players are already in the money. This takes away from the experience and results in some frustration, so this is one of the problems the operator was looking to address before joining the latest trend. So, we could see some interesting changes and innovations once the format goes live on the platform.
As for other operators, Unibet hinted at the possibility of adding tournaments that have some mystery bounty elements, but the operator does not believe that the average field sizes are big enough to sustain mystery bounty events in their usual format.
All in all, both players in the US and the ROW have access to some online mystery bounty events, and once PokerStars goes live with the format, those options will become even better.
Learn more about the best online poker sites in MI, best online poker sites in NJ, and the best online poker sites in PA in our complete guides!
