2026 WSOPC Calgary Jan – Event #5: $600 Mystery Bounty NLH

It was a bit of a marathon in the Mystery Bounty, with the final hand playing out 15 hours after the first hand was dealt. The game was played 6-handed for several levels, reducing the stacks to barely 10 big blinds on average.

Once Benny Bruneau busted in 6th, the pace picked up a bit and things were done within two levels from then. When Bradley Bishop and Zoran Kaniski got heads up, Kaniski was very short, with Bishop holding most of the chips in play. It didn’t last long before Kaniski shoved a suited king, but ran into ace-three for Bishop. Both players missed the board, so the ace-high played for the win.

Betrand Laroque shoved a suited ace, and Bradley Bishop called with more. He had king-queen, and flopped his king, then rivered his queen for two pair and the win.

Harpreet Padda shoved and got a call from Bertrand Laroque with a bit more. Padda was looking for three outs with ace-nine against pocket nines. The flop looked promising for a counterfeit, but when the K♥K♣Q♦6♠10♠ was complete, the nines were still good.

Bradley Bishop raised to 550k, then called when Weston Pring shoved his big blind. Bishop called with a bit more, but Pring was best with ace-king in ten-jack. Pring was looking good until the river on 4♣3♦6♠8♠J♠.

The stacks are very short now, and Bertrand Laroque shoved for just a few bigs, and was called off by Zoran Kaniski. Kaniski had king-queen against ace-ten, and Laroque turned a ten for the win.

Just before they moved to the Poker Room, Benny Bruneau ended his night in 6th place. The final five are now setting up in the poker room to play it out, with the average stack at barely 10 bigs.

They’ve been six-handed for several levels now, and the stacks are getting pretty short. The average stack is less than 15 bigs now.

Zoran Kaniski shoved 700k from the cutoff, and Bertrand Laroque called from the big blind with more. It was basically a flip between king-jack for Kaniski and ace-ten for Laroque.

Laroque hit a ten on the flop, but Kaniski turned his king, then rivered a straight for the double. The Chrome room is closing at 6 AM, so they’ll be packing up after this level to move to the poker room to finish it out.

Harp Padda raised early to 300k, and Weston Pring shoved 1.235 million from the button. It folded back to Padda, and after some counting and math, he said, “I think I have to bro”.

It was a flip between tens for Padda and ace0king for Pring. Padda stayed ahead for most of the board, but Pring hit the river of 6♣5♠Q♣8♥A♥. Pring is near 3 million now, while Padda is down to about 500k.

Bradley Bishop shoved 680k under the gun, and Jack Vaccarello shoved less two to his left. Everyone else folded, and Vaccarello was in rough shape with ace-five against cowboys for Bishop. The kings held on a runout of 4♠2♦J♠K♥10♠.

Bradley Bishop raised the cutoff to 240k, then tank-called when Zoran Kaniski shoved just over a million from the button. It was a fair fight between K♥J♥ for Bishop against A♦10♦ for Kaniski.

Kaniski smashed the flop and held when the board ran 4♠10♣10♥3♠9♣.

Benny Bruneau opened to 160k under the gun, and it folded around to Zoran Kaniski on the button. He shoved for 590k, both blinds mucked, and Brunea called it off with more

It looked like Kaniski might hit the rail, as he was on king-queen against pocket queens for Bruneau. Kaniski turned a straight draw, but then rivered his king to pip the queens.

Bertrand Laroque leads the final seven players with 2.7 million. Benny Bruneau is also playing more than 2 million. Below is a look at the full stacks going into Level 26, with the average stack now at about 20 big blinds.

The field is down to 7 left now after Allen Alejandro hit the rail while I was out of the room. The remaining players are off for a break in about 2 minutes, and I’ll get a full round of chip counts during the break.

Sunny Lubana was left short after a big hand that saw Zoran Kaniski triple up from the small blind. Lubana opened to 125k, and Benny Bruneau called from the middle.

Kaniski shoved for 275k, and both players called, then checked it down through the 2♣7♣5♣8♠7♠ board. Bruneau showed king-jack of diamonds, but it was no good against a five for Kaniski. Lubana mucked his hand, and was out shortly after.

Jaki Knelsen was the first player off the final table. I missed the action while I was working on the pictures.

They are at the final table now, with 10 players left. Ross Carlton was the bubble tonight when he couldn’t get there against the pocket eights of Bertrand Laroque. Stay tuned for final table pictures.

They are down to 11 left in the Mystery Bounty, on the bubble to the 10-handed final table. Daren Dichrow ended his run in 13th place tonight, while John Hamling took 12th.

Lawrence Gerard shoved early for 60k before Kris Steinbach min-clicked to 90k. Robbie Roscoe Reshoved for 220k from the button, and Benny Bruneau called from the big blind.

Bruneau led for 250k on the 4♥J♥9♣ flop, Steinbach tank-shoved, and Bruneau called it off with more. He hit the nine with ace-nine, while Steinbach was on a pair of kings, Gerard on jack-ten of clubs, and Roscoe on pocket sevens.

Steinbach was ahead, but Bruneau found an ace on the river for two pair to send all three other players home. Meanwhile, two players busted from the other table, to bring the game to 13.

Place	Player	Prize
14	Gavin Guan	$1,143
15	Kris Steinbach	$1,143
16	Robbie Roscoe	$1,143
17	Lawrence Gerard	$1,143
18	Jean-Phillipe Heroux	$981

After Daren Dichrow doubled up Bradley Bishop, he was the short stack at the table, but managed to get another double-up to leave Harp Padda as the shorty. In the next hand, Allen Alejandro opened the hijack to 70k, and Padda called from the short stack, as did Jaki Knelsen in the big blind.

The flop came J♦J♣5♦ and after a check from Knelsen, Alejandro bet 100k. Padda called for less, and Knelsen folded. Alejandro hit the five with ace-five, but Padda’s J♠9♠ found trips and held for the win to stay alive.

Bradley Bishop shoved the small blind, and Daren Dichrow called from the big. Bishop had ten-deuce of diamonds, but ran into ace-eight for Dichrow. Bishop found a ten on the turn to improve enough to take it down.

“I didn’t look,” he said sheepishly as Dichrow counted out the 145k double up.

They are down to 18 left in the Mystery Bounty now, and the final big bounty is now in play. See below for the recent bustouts in the money, with the full list under the Payouts tab.

Place	Player	Prize
19	Stacey Diederich	$981
20	Amarjot Brar	$981
21	Michael Tran	$981
22	Matthew Piasecki	$981

Sunny Luibana is the leader to start Level 21 of the Mystery Bounty tonight, with 20 players left. See below for a look at the remaining players, stacks, and seats.

They are down to 22 players left now, with about 10 minutes to play until the next break. I’ll get some chip updates at the break — meanwhile, below is a look at the recent cashers, with the full list under the Payouts tab.

Place	Player	Prize
23	Wille Scott	$981
24	Deron Noksana	$981
25	Cary Emerson	$981
26	Victor Ma	$981
27	Laura Mccollom	$865
28	David Stingl	$865
29	Denis Amirault	$865
30	Adrian Chan	$865

The Mystery Bounty field is down to 30 players left now. I’ve been working on cleaning up the end-of-day action from the final flight of the Mini Main, so I haven’t been watching this one too closely so far.

At the last break, Sunny Lubana was the big leader, with more than 1 million, while the next biggest stack didn’t even have 500k in front of them. I’ll update stacks again in about 30 minutes after the next break.

Place	Player	Prize
31	Steven Dejarlais	$865
32	Micah Quinn	$865
33	Michael Baldwin	$865
34	Steven Kirsh	$865
35	Dustin Hurl	$865
36	Carmela De Ciantis	$783
37	Sebastien Fallu	$783
38	Matthew Osorio	$783
39	Robert Laing	$783
40	Bryan Fisher	$783

The action is moving quickly in the Mystery Bounty since they hit the money, and the field is now down to 40 players left. See below for a look at the first group of cashers, and just a reminder that I’ll post recent cashes in posts, with the full list maintained under the payouts tab.

Place	Player	Prize
41	Nicolas Menard	$783
42	Bradley Thompson	$783
43	Junxiang Wang	$783
44	Jacob Todd Parent	$783
45	Keith Sarnoski	$746
46	Sean Cardoso	$746
47	Fanhao Kong	$746
48	Kyle Rosnes	$746
49	Steven Tabinski	$746
50	Levi Mcateer	$746
51	Hamish Tong	$746
52	Varanpreet Sidhu	$746
53	Mehmet Siginc	$746
54	Brenda Robertson	$746
55	Matthew Daniel Kipper	$746
56	Randal Lee Trautwein	$746
57	Randon Owen Jones	$746
58	Youssef Hmama	$746
59	Ross Wilson	$746
60	Mathew Maharajh	$746
61	Faramarz Ghorbani	$746
62	Ric Malingin	$746
63	Brandon Chow	$746
64	Jason Maurer	$746
65	Gregory Taylor	$746
66	Nickolas Eugene Leslie	$746
67	Chad Robert Koran	$746
68	Aaron Tylek	$746
69	Kamalpreet Gill	$746

The Mystery Bounty is on the bubble to the money and the bounties now with 70 players left. The clock is paused with 4:53 remaining in Level 16, and two minutes will come off the clock manually for each hand played until the next elimination.

The Mystery Bounty is now four off the money spots as Level 16 begins. The clock will be paused shortly for the bubble play when they get to 70 left, and once they get down to 69, the bounty barrel comes out, and players can start salivating over the $11,440 top bounty prize.

The bounties are in, and the big bounty tonight is worth $11,400. The bounties go into play when they hit the money at 69 players, but only one $11,400 goes into the pool then, with the second one going in with 18 left. See below for a look at all the bounty values.

The prizes are in, and the full list is under the payouts tab. A total of 69 players will get paid tonight, with the first player cashing out for $746, with more than $29k up top for the winner.

Top Ten Payouts for Mystery Bounty

I’m still waiting for the prizes to be posted for confirmation of the numbers, but it looks like the Mystery Bounty ended with 457 entries for more than $220k in combined prizes. If that number holds, 69 players should be getting a piece of the prizes, with the bounties kicking in when they hit the money.

I’ll get the prizes posted as soon as I see them.

Just 30 minutes remain in the entry period for the Mystery Bounty, and entries are nearing 450. Just under 200 players are still alive at the felt with just under 15 minutes to play in Level 10.

There’s a break following this level, and entries are closed at the end of the break.

There is about an hour left to enter the Mystery Bounty now, and the field is over 400 entries. That puts the combined prizes over $200k, with $82k of that in the bounty pool.

There is one more level to play after this one before the next break, and entries will be closed when they sit down for Level 13 at about 8:40 PM.

Level 8 is about to begin, with the field now at 369 entries. There are still 229 players at the felt as Level 8 begins, and with 90 minutes still left in entries, it looks like this field will cap 400 before it all closes down at about 8:40 PM.

The Mystery Bounty players are back in their seats after the first break, and the field capped 300 entries while they were out. There are now 303 entries, with 216 players still active, and just over two hours left to enter this game.

The Mystery Bounty players are on their first break of the day, and the action is set to resume in about 10 minutes in Level 6 with blinds at 400/800/800. The field is at 294 entries as the break begins, with more than 200 players still active at the felt.

There are five more levels of open entry following the break, with entries set to close at the start of Level 11 at about 8:40 PM.

About 20 minutes remain in Level 5, with the first break of the day scheduled following this level. The field is up to 270 entries now, and it looks like they’ll be close to 300 or more by the time they head out for their break.

The combined prizes are now over $130k, with $54k of that in the bounty pool, and the rest waiting for prizes at the end of the night.

Just under 20 minutes are left in Level 4, with the first break of the day to follow Level 5. As expected, there are quite a few familiar faces in the crowd today, including Saskatoon’s Sunny Lubana, Whistler’s Matt Hall, Rob Lothian, Bash Ramahi, Terry Langdon, Teo Sanchez, and Victor Ma. That doesn’t even scratch the surface, but it’s a start.

Just over 10 minutes remain in Level 3, and the field is now over 200 entries. There are stll 189 live bodies at the tables, with total entries now at 208 and climbing.

Level 2 is now underway with the field nearing 160 entries. The combined prizes are already over $75k, with $45 of that waiting for prizes at the end of the night.

Just as a reminder, this mystery bounty game plays like a regular MTT until players are in the money, and then the bounties come into play. The min bounty will be set at $600, with the rest of the bounties to be set once entries are closed.

Expected Big Bounty Values

• 2 x 20%
• 1 x 16%
• 1 x 11%
• 1 x 7.5%
• 3 x 4.5%
• 4 x 3%

The values are a percentage of the bounty pool after the min bounties are taken out. For example, if the total bounty pool is $50,000, representing 250 entries, that would be 38 paid places. 12 big bounties will be in play, so 26 min bounties will be in the mix.

That would mean $15,600 of the bounty pool is reserved for min-bounties, with $34,400 for the big bounties. With the formula above, that would put the two biggest bounties at $6,880m with the second biggest bounty set at $5,504. Only one 20% bounty will be in the bin at the start of ITM play, with the second one going into play with 18 players left.

The Mystery Bounty side event is now underway, and the numbers for this series continue to be strong. Event #5 started with more than 100 entries, and with about 10 minutes to play in the opening level. the field is closing in on 120 and climbing.

The record-setting Mini Main Event is still running in Sundance with spillover into Chrome, and entries are still open on that one; however, I expect once the entry desk closes for Day 1d of the Mini Main, this game will see an influx of players as they bust from that one.

$600 Mystery Bounty NLH ($515 + $85)

The side game on Saturday is the Mystery Bounty. The game starts at 4 PM with players sitting down with 25k in chips. Blinds are 25 minutes long.

Entries are open for 10 levels, with the final chance to enter coming about 8:40 PM when Level 11 begins. After that, they’ll race down to a winner before the end of the night.

Expect the room to be a bit crowded with what looks to be a record Mini Main Event Day 1d playing out alongside. That game will have closed entries by the time this one starts, but there could easily still be Mini Main players in both Sundance and Chrome at 4 PM. This Mystery Bounty will play in Chrome from the start.

Last October, Quinn Kannekens picked up a massive win in this game. He bested 295 entries for his $26,234 from a combined prize pool of more than $200k. He took it down over Cristian Moldovan, and Craig Cakdwell, who has been agonizingly close to a ring multiple times here in Calgary.

It was a bit of a marathon in the Mystery Bounty, with the final hand playing out 15 hours after the first hand was dealt. The game was played 6-handed for several levels, reducing the stacks to barely 10 big blinds on average.

Once Benny Bruneau busted in 6th, the pace picked up a bit and things were done within two levels from then. When Bradley Bishop and Zoran Kaniski got heads up, Kaniski was very short, with Bishop holding most of the chips in play. It didn’t last long before Kaniski shoved a suited king, but ran into ace-three for Bishop. Both players missed the board, so the ace-high played for the win.

Betrand Laroque shoved a suited ace, and Bradley Bishop called with more. He had king-queen, and flopped his king, then rivered his queen for two pair and the win.

Harpreet Padda shoved and got a call from Bertrand Laroque with a bit more. Padda was looking for three outs with ace-nine against pocket nines. The flop looked promising for a counterfeit, but when the K♥K♣Q♦6♠10♠ was complete, the nines were still good.

Bradley Bishop raised to 550k, then called when Weston Pring shoved his big blind. Bishop called with a bit more, but Pring was best with ace-king in ten-jack. Pring was looking good until the river on 4♣3♦6♠8♠J♠.

The stacks are very short now, and Bertrand Laroque shoved for just a few bigs, and was called off by Zoran Kaniski. Kaniski had king-queen against ace-ten, and Laroque turned a ten for the win.

Just before they moved to the Poker Room, Benny Bruneau ended his night in 6th place. The final five are now setting up in the poker room to play it out, with the average stack at barely 10 bigs.

They’ve been six-handed for several levels now, and the stacks are getting pretty short. The average stack is less than 15 bigs now.

Zoran Kaniski shoved 700k from the cutoff, and Bertrand Laroque called from the big blind with more. It was basically a flip between king-jack for Kaniski and ace-ten for Laroque.

Laroque hit a ten on the flop, but Kaniski turned his king, then rivered a straight for the double. The Chrome room is closing at 6 AM, so they’ll be packing up after this level to move to the poker room to finish it out.

Harp Padda raised early to 300k, and Weston Pring shoved 1.235 million from the button. It folded back to Padda, and after some counting and math, he said, “I think I have to bro”.

It was a flip between tens for Padda and ace0king for Pring. Padda stayed ahead for most of the board, but Pring hit the river of 6♣5♠Q♣8♥A♥. Pring is near 3 million now, while Padda is down to about 500k.

Bradley Bishop shoved 680k under the gun, and Jack Vaccarello shoved less two to his left. Everyone else folded, and Vaccarello was in rough shape with ace-five against cowboys for Bishop. The kings held on a runout of 4♠2♦J♠K♥10♠.

Bradley Bishop raised the cutoff to 240k, then tank-called when Zoran Kaniski shoved just over a million from the button. It was a fair fight between K♥J♥ for Bishop against A♦10♦ for Kaniski.

Kaniski smashed the flop and held when the board ran 4♠10♣10♥3♠9♣.

Benny Bruneau opened to 160k under the gun, and it folded around to Zoran Kaniski on the button. He shoved for 590k, both blinds mucked, and Brunea called it off with more

It looked like Kaniski might hit the rail, as he was on king-queen against pocket queens for Bruneau. Kaniski turned a straight draw, but then rivered his king to pip the queens.

Bertrand Laroque leads the final seven players with 2.7 million. Benny Bruneau is also playing more than 2 million. Below is a look at the full stacks going into Level 26, with the average stack now at about 20 big blinds.

The field is down to 7 left now after Allen Alejandro hit the rail while I was out of the room. The remaining players are off for a break in about 2 minutes, and I’ll get a full round of chip counts during the break.

Sunny Lubana was left short after a big hand that saw Zoran Kaniski triple up from the small blind. Lubana opened to 125k, and Benny Bruneau called from the middle.

Kaniski shoved for 275k, and both players called, then checked it down through the 2♣7♣5♣8♠7♠ board. Bruneau showed king-jack of diamonds, but it was no good against a five for Kaniski. Lubana mucked his hand, and was out shortly after.

Jaki Knelsen was the first player off the final table. I missed the action while I was working on the pictures.

They are at the final table now, with 10 players left. Ross Carlton was the bubble tonight when he couldn’t get there against the pocket eights of Bertrand Laroque. Stay tuned for final table pictures.

They are down to 11 left in the Mystery Bounty, on the bubble to the 10-handed final table. Daren Dichrow ended his run in 13th place tonight, while John Hamling took 12th.

Lawrence Gerard shoved early for 60k before Kris Steinbach min-clicked to 90k. Robbie Roscoe Reshoved for 220k from the button, and Benny Bruneau called from the big blind.

Bruneau led for 250k on the 4♥J♥9♣ flop, Steinbach tank-shoved, and Bruneau called it off with more. He hit the nine with ace-nine, while Steinbach was on a pair of kings, Gerard on jack-ten of clubs, and Roscoe on pocket sevens.

Steinbach was ahead, but Bruneau found an ace on the river for two pair to send all three other players home. Meanwhile, two players busted from the other table, to bring the game to 13.

Place	Player	Prize
14	Gavin Guan	$1,143
15	Kris Steinbach	$1,143
16	Robbie Roscoe	$1,143
17	Lawrence Gerard	$1,143
18	Jean-Phillipe Heroux	$981

After Daren Dichrow doubled up Bradley Bishop, he was the short stack at the table, but managed to get another double-up to leave Harp Padda as the shorty. In the next hand, Allen Alejandro opened the hijack to 70k, and Padda called from the short stack, as did Jaki Knelsen in the big blind.

The flop came J♦J♣5♦ and after a check from Knelsen, Alejandro bet 100k. Padda called for less, and Knelsen folded. Alejandro hit the five with ace-five, but Padda’s J♠9♠ found trips and held for the win to stay alive.

Bradley Bishop shoved the small blind, and Daren Dichrow called from the big. Bishop had ten-deuce of diamonds, but ran into ace-eight for Dichrow. Bishop found a ten on the turn to improve enough to take it down.

“I didn’t look,” he said sheepishly as Dichrow counted out the 145k double up.

They are down to 18 left in the Mystery Bounty now, and the final big bounty is now in play. See below for the recent bustouts in the money, with the full list under the Payouts tab.

Place	Player	Prize
19	Stacey Diederich	$981
20	Amarjot Brar	$981
21	Michael Tran	$981
22	Matthew Piasecki	$981

Sunny Luibana is the leader to start Level 21 of the Mystery Bounty tonight, with 20 players left. See below for a look at the remaining players, stacks, and seats.

They are down to 22 players left now, with about 10 minutes to play until the next break. I’ll get some chip updates at the break — meanwhile, below is a look at the recent cashers, with the full list under the Payouts tab.

Place	Player	Prize
23	Wille Scott	$981
24	Deron Noksana	$981
25	Cary Emerson	$981
26	Victor Ma	$981
27	Laura Mccollom	$865
28	David Stingl	$865
29	Denis Amirault	$865
30	Adrian Chan	$865

The Mystery Bounty field is down to 30 players left now. I’ve been working on cleaning up the end-of-day action from the final flight of the Mini Main, so I haven’t been watching this one too closely so far.

At the last break, Sunny Lubana was the big leader, with more than 1 million, while the next biggest stack didn’t even have 500k in front of them. I’ll update stacks again in about 30 minutes after the next break.

Place	Player	Prize
31	Steven Dejarlais	$865
32	Micah Quinn	$865
33	Michael Baldwin	$865
34	Steven Kirsh	$865
35	Dustin Hurl	$865
36	Carmela De Ciantis	$783
37	Sebastien Fallu	$783
38	Matthew Osorio	$783
39	Robert Laing	$783
40	Bryan Fisher	$783

The action is moving quickly in the Mystery Bounty since they hit the money, and the field is now down to 40 players left. See below for a look at the first group of cashers, and just a reminder that I’ll post recent cashes in posts, with the full list maintained under the payouts tab.

Place	Player	Prize
41	Nicolas Menard	$783
42	Bradley Thompson	$783
43	Junxiang Wang	$783
44	Jacob Todd Parent	$783
45	Keith Sarnoski	$746
46	Sean Cardoso	$746
47	Fanhao Kong	$746
48	Kyle Rosnes	$746
49	Steven Tabinski	$746
50	Levi Mcateer	$746
51	Hamish Tong	$746
52	Varanpreet Sidhu	$746
53	Mehmet Siginc	$746
54	Brenda Robertson	$746
55	Matthew Daniel Kipper	$746
56	Randal Lee Trautwein	$746
57	Randon Owen Jones	$746
58	Youssef Hmama	$746
59	Ross Wilson	$746
60	Mathew Maharajh	$746
61	Faramarz Ghorbani	$746
62	Ric Malingin	$746
63	Brandon Chow	$746
64	Jason Maurer	$746
65	Gregory Taylor	$746
66	Nickolas Eugene Leslie	$746
67	Chad Robert Koran	$746
68	Aaron Tylek	$746
69	Kamalpreet Gill	$746

The Mystery Bounty is on the bubble to the money and the bounties now with 70 players left. The clock is paused with 4:53 remaining in Level 16, and two minutes will come off the clock manually for each hand played until the next elimination.

The Mystery Bounty is now four off the money spots as Level 16 begins. The clock will be paused shortly for the bubble play when they get to 70 left, and once they get down to 69, the bounty barrel comes out, and players can start salivating over the $11,440 top bounty prize.

The bounties are in, and the big bounty tonight is worth $11,400. The bounties go into play when they hit the money at 69 players, but only one $11,400 goes into the pool then, with the second one going in with 18 left. See below for a look at all the bounty values.

The prizes are in, and the full list is under the payouts tab. A total of 69 players will get paid tonight, with the first player cashing out for $746, with more than $29k up top for the winner.

Top Ten Payouts for Mystery Bounty

I’m still waiting for the prizes to be posted for confirmation of the numbers, but it looks like the Mystery Bounty ended with 457 entries for more than $220k in combined prizes. If that number holds, 69 players should be getting a piece of the prizes, with the bounties kicking in when they hit the money.

I’ll get the prizes posted as soon as I see them.

Just 30 minutes remain in the entry period for the Mystery Bounty, and entries are nearing 450. Just under 200 players are still alive at the felt with just under 15 minutes to play in Level 10.

There’s a break following this level, and entries are closed at the end of the break.

There is about an hour left to enter the Mystery Bounty now, and the field is over 400 entries. That puts the combined prizes over $200k, with $82k of that in the bounty pool.

There is one more level to play after this one before the next break, and entries will be closed when they sit down for Level 13 at about 8:40 PM.

Level 8 is about to begin, with the field now at 369 entries. There are still 229 players at the felt as Level 8 begins, and with 90 minutes still left in entries, it looks like this field will cap 400 before it all closes down at about 8:40 PM.

The Mystery Bounty players are back in their seats after the first break, and the field capped 300 entries while they were out. There are now 303 entries, with 216 players still active, and just over two hours left to enter this game.

The Mystery Bounty players are on their first break of the day, and the action is set to resume in about 10 minutes in Level 6 with blinds at 400/800/800. The field is at 294 entries as the break begins, with more than 200 players still active at the felt.

There are five more levels of open entry following the break, with entries set to close at the start of Level 11 at about 8:40 PM.

About 20 minutes remain in Level 5, with the first break of the day scheduled following this level. The field is up to 270 entries now, and it looks like they’ll be close to 300 or more by the time they head out for their break.

The combined prizes are now over $130k, with $54k of that in the bounty pool, and the rest waiting for prizes at the end of the night.

Just under 20 minutes are left in Level 4, with the first break of the day to follow Level 5. As expected, there are quite a few familiar faces in the crowd today, including Saskatoon’s Sunny Lubana, Whistler’s Matt Hall, Rob Lothian, Bash Ramahi, Terry Langdon, Teo Sanchez, and Victor Ma. That doesn’t even scratch the surface, but it’s a start.

Just over 10 minutes remain in Level 3, and the field is now over 200 entries. There are stll 189 live bodies at the tables, with total entries now at 208 and climbing.

Level 2 is now underway with the field nearing 160 entries. The combined prizes are already over $75k, with $45 of that waiting for prizes at the end of the night.

Just as a reminder, this mystery bounty game plays like a regular MTT until players are in the money, and then the bounties come into play. The min bounty will be set at $600, with the rest of the bounties to be set once entries are closed.

Expected Big Bounty Values

• 2 x 20%
• 1 x 16%
• 1 x 11%
• 1 x 7.5%
• 3 x 4.5%
• 4 x 3%

The values are a percentage of the bounty pool after the min bounties are taken out. For example, if the total bounty pool is $50,000, representing 250 entries, that would be 38 paid places. 12 big bounties will be in play, so 26 min bounties will be in the mix.

That would mean $15,600 of the bounty pool is reserved for min-bounties, with $34,400 for the big bounties. With the formula above, that would put the two biggest bounties at $6,880m with the second biggest bounty set at $5,504. Only one 20% bounty will be in the bin at the start of ITM play, with the second one going into play with 18 players left.

The Mystery Bounty side event is now underway, and the numbers for this series continue to be strong. Event #5 started with more than 100 entries, and with about 10 minutes to play in the opening level. the field is closing in on 120 and climbing.

The record-setting Mini Main Event is still running in Sundance with spillover into Chrome, and entries are still open on that one; however, I expect once the entry desk closes for Day 1d of the Mini Main, this game will see an influx of players as they bust from that one.

$600 Mystery Bounty NLH ($515 + $85)

The side game on Saturday is the Mystery Bounty. The game starts at 4 PM with players sitting down with 25k in chips. Blinds are 25 minutes long.

Entries are open for 10 levels, with the final chance to enter coming about 8:40 PM when Level 11 begins. After that, they’ll race down to a winner before the end of the night.

Expect the room to be a bit crowded with what looks to be a record Mini Main Event Day 1d playing out alongside. That game will have closed entries by the time this one starts, but there could easily still be Mini Main players in both Sundance and Chrome at 4 PM. This Mystery Bounty will play in Chrome from the start.

Last October, Quinn Kannekens picked up a massive win in this game. He bested 295 entries for his $26,234 from a combined prize pool of more than $200k. He took it down over Cristian Moldovan, and Craig Cakdwell, who has been agonizingly close to a ring multiple times here in Calgary.