Since the debut of the mystery bounty format at the 2022 World Series of Poker, and beyond the WSOP’s walls, the thrill of massive bounty pulls has drawn massive fields of players from all walks of life. Multi-time WSOP champions and casual weekend players alike have just as good a chance to draw a prize equivalent to winning the tournament, so long as they play deep enough into the tournament and score an elimination, or preferably several.
In recent years, player reactions to mystery bounty pulls cover the full spectrum of potential reactions. Some players, often professionals, try to play it cool despite winning thousands of times their buy-in in a single moment. Others, including Matt Glantz in the inaugural WSOP mystery millions event, shouted in triumph.
Andrew Shelton certainly falls in the latter category.
Andrew Shelton pulls $1,000,000 bounty and instantly increases his lifetime poker earnings by 50 times!
Prior to today, Andrew Shelton had a total lifetime earnings of roughly $20,000. Now, he can add poker millionaire to his resume! pic.twitter.com/nRGBrM4NHM
— WSOP – World Series of Poker (@WSOP) June 1, 2026
Shelton, a recreational player from Connecticut, was one of 20,488 hopefuls in the $550 buy-in mini mystery millions event, a smaller buy-in tournament debuting at the 2026 WSOP. He had just been eliminated from the tournament deep into day 2, finishing 102nd for $3,350. But he had a golden ticket in his possession, in the form of a bounty prize that he hadn’t yet cashed in. And so Shelton began the process of finding out which envelope would be his.
A $1 Million Pull
Shortly thereafter, Shelton’s name came up in the queue on the video board in the Paris Las Vegas ballroom. A gold chest icon popped up, indicating that Shelton locked up at least $25,000 for his bounty. At that point in the evening, Shelton had a 1-in-8 chance of the $1 million top bounty prize. Because the draw happened so late on day 2 of the tournament, almost all of the intermediate prizes had already been pulled.
Shelton joined WSOP commentator Jeff Platt on stage, and after tearing the envelope, Shelton started to sweat out the prize figure by slowly revealing the number, printed on a sheet of paper, digit by digit.
“Is that a one?” asked Platt, hinting that it had to be the $1 million prize, as it was the only remaining prize in the bounty pool starting with a one.
“Fuck yeah!” shouted Shelton, before dropping a few more curse words, raising his fists in the air, and jumping in jubilation. After the initial celebration subsided, Platt asked Shelton how he planned to spend the money. In what appeared to be a joking tone, Shelton said, “Drugs, alcohol, and women.”
Prior to this result, Shelton’s biggest career cash, worth $11,150, came in 2022, when he finished 85th in the World Poker Tour Venetian championship event.
Thirteen players reached the final day of the WSOP mini mystery millions event, with the champion set to win $400,000 and a gold bracelet.
Photo Credit: WSOP/Dominic Iaquinto
