The poker world is witnessing the widespread adoption of Mystery Bounty Tournaments (MBTs), with Global Poker becoming the latest platform to embrace this exciting format in the US online poker scene.
Mystery Bounty tournaments are everywhere. It is available globally, whether you’re in the UK or Europe, US or Ontario, Asia or Latin America. And now a sweepstakes online poker site has also incorporated this action-packed format into its offerings, joining over a dozen online poker online poker platforms.
For those unfamiliar with Global Poker’s setup, it deviates from the traditional online poker room model but instead uses a sweepstakes model where all games are free to play. Despite not being technically a real money site, the experience closely resembles that of real money poker, featuring big tournament series and real money cashouts of prizes.
Global Poker operates with two virtual currencies: Gold Coins and Sweeps Coins. Gold Coins, used strictly for entertainment, can be purchased with real money but hold no monetary value and cannot be redeemed. However, players receive an equivalent amount of Sweeps Cash as a bonus upon purchasing Gold Coins, serving as an internal real money currency that cannot be directly bought.
These coins can be used to participate in cash games and tournaments, allowing players to accumulate more Gold Coins and other prizes provided by the room. Sweep Coins can be redeemed for real money prizes at a 1:1 exchange rate for USD.
While players globally can purchase Gold Coins, only players from the US (excluding Idaho, Michigan, Montana, and Washington) and Canada (excluding Quebec) can redeem Sweeps Coins for real money, subject to account verification.
The format at Global Poker follows the structure of other MBTs available globally, allocating around 50% of the prize pool to fund the bounty pool. Players earn bounties for eliminating opponents, with the twist that these bounties remain secret until a player is eliminated and only come into play when players reach the money.
Global Poker is currently testing the format and is expected to officially introduce it as part of its daily tournament offerings in the coming days. The platform conducted a trial version of the Mystery Bounty tournament drawing close to 200 entrants for the inaugural edition on Tuesday, January 23, with GC 200,000 in guarantees for a GC 1100 buy-in.
In addition to Global Poker, numerous online poker rooms, including industry giant PokerStars, have embraced the Mystery Bounty format. PokerStars successfully ran its first-ever Mystery Bounty tournament during the iconic Sunday Million event, attracting over 16,000 entrants to surpass its $1 million guarantee.
Other platforms such as GGPoker, 888poker, and the iPoker network also feature MBTs.
In the US regulated online poker market, WSOP.com stands out as the sole operator running MBTs. It is currently only available to those on WSOP Michigan and WSOP PA.
