Aaron Pinson didn’t just win a $500,000 guaranteed tournament at Borgata in Atlantic City. He just about won the entire prize pool.
Okay, that’s a bit of an exaggeration. But the champion of the $2,200 Big, Big Borgata Mystery Bounty, a No-Limit Hold’em tournament with 232 entrants, collected all three of the top bounties. And he, fittingly, defeated Matt Glantz, who memorably pulled the $1 million mystery bounty at the 2023 WSOP, heads-up for the final one.
Here’s How it Played Out
The tournament, part of the Big, Big Series at Borgata, had 24 players remaining on Day 2. They were all in the money, and this is when the mystery bounty phase began.
There were two $50,000 bounties, and none bigger. Pinson was the first to bust a player on Day 2, and he went up and immediately pulled the first $50,000 bounty. He had a 1 in 12 shot of doing so. But it was just the start for him.
Pinson, who has over $2.4 million in The Hendon Mob live tournament cashes, would continue to build up his stack throughout the day. He had already won as much in bounties as first place was set to play. But that didn’t stop him from collecting additional bounties, including a $10,000 pull. And then, he went up and pulled the second $50,000 bounty. But he wasn’t done just yet.
By the time Pinson had reached heads-up play against Glantz, he had accumulated $130,000 worth of bounties out of the $250,000 that were available. Both players had nearly identical stacks. They agreed to chop, giving each player $44,825 from the prize pool. But they decided to flip for the trophy and then each player would go up and pull one of the final two bounties.
Pinson won the flip, so he received the trophy. He pulled his final bounty, and it just so happened to be the second-largest denomination — $25,000. Glantz, by process of elimination, knew his one and only bounty was worth $10,000.
Pinson won $199,825 total, 40% of the entire prize pool. Not a bad day at the office.
