Australia’s Malcolm Trayner Finds Mystery Millions Success
Australian professional poker player Malcolm Trayner has won the 2024 World Series Of Poker $1,000 buy-in Mystery Millions event for $1,000,000. The event saw the largest ever field for an event of its type. In beating out more than 18,400 entries to take the top spot, Trayner not only took home a $1 million prize pot but secured his first-ever WSOP bracelet, aged just 24 and competing in his maiden WSOP event, besting Carson Richards in the final heads-up duel.
Richards took home a prize of over half a million dollars. Valentyn Shabelynk of Ukraine and DJ Buckley of the U.S. took home the two million-dollar bounties.
Big Money Prize For Malcolm Trayner
Trayner’s victory in the 2024 WSOP Mystery Millions event more than doubled his lifetime poker earnings, pushing him to 35th in all-time Australian earners. Although the country is known for its love of slots (pokies), poker popularity in Australia is high, with regular games played at the table and online. According to betting expert Jack Garry, there are plenty of sites for players looking to compete in tournaments, cash games, or freeroll events. There are poker sites available for all levels of players and for high and low-rollers.
The Mystery Millions Format
The Mystery Millions event sees a million-dollar first prize for the winner of the three-day event. It also features a bounty pool. Money from each buy-in is added to the pool, and, starting from Day 2, whenever a player eliminates another player, they draw a random prize from the bounty pool. Prizes vary up to $1 million. This year, both million-dollar bounty prizes were won on day 2. There were also bounties of half a million dollars and $250,000.
The event saw 18,403 entries, representing one of the largest fields of a WSOP tournament and the largest ever for an event with a $1,000 or higher buy-in fee. A total prize pool of over $16 million was on the line, with $300 from every buy-in being placed in the prize pool bounty.
Trayner’s Triumph
The action heated up on the final day of the event. 18 players were left fighting for the final table, and Malcom Trayner was not in the top 10 at that point. However, when the final table was reached, Trayner had fought his way to the top of the chip counts.
Trayner eliminated Amir Mirrasouli, whose sixth-placed finish saw him take home $186,080. Trayner also eliminated Ashri Azran, in fifth with a prize of $240,350. From there, Carson Richards further narrowed the field, leaving him and Trayner for the final heads-up battle. At the start of heads-up play Trayner had more than three times the chip count of Richards. Richards briefly took the chip lead as the two battled, but Trayner came out on top.
A Big Step For The 24 Year Old Australian
Trayner’s million-dollar prize pot is the biggest of his career. It more than doubled his career earnings and pushed him up from 170th to 35th in Australia’s All-Time Money list. This was Trayner’s first-ever live WSOP bracelet event. Trayner’s best cash previous came last fall when he won $125,495 in a World Poker Tour Australia event, where he finished runner-up.
Although this is his first title of the year, Trayner has played in three final tables and now sits in 11th place in the Global Poker Index’s Australian Player of the Year 2024 race. After the event, Trayner said he had made a few mistakes earlier in the competition but that once he settled, it was just a case of doing what he had done many times before, both online and in live poker events.
