Event #5 of the 2024 World Series of Poker was a fun one, a $1,000 buy-in WSOP Mystery Millions No-Limit Hold’em event. In this tournament structure, $300 from every buy-in went into a bounty pool and then every time a player knocked someone out of the tournament they got to go up to a large treasure chest and pull out a bounty.
Prior to the tournament, it was guaranteed there would be at least one bounty worth $1,000,000. Players had to make it to Day 2 of the World Series of Poker tournament, that’s when bounties started being passed out with each elimination, and there were 18,409 entrants for a total prize pool of $16,199,920 meaning there were $5,522,700 in bounties available to win.
On Day 2, Valentyn Shabelnyk became the lucky guy when he pulled a million dollar bounty from the treasure chest. He then became the face of a new ‘unenthused’ meme as he seemed to not at all care he had just won a MILLION DOLLARS and quickly ran back to his poker table to ensure he didn’t miss a hand after pulling the million dollar bounty.
PokerGo shared this video of Valentyn Shabelnyk pulling the million dollars:
WE HAVE A MILLION DOLLAR CHEST AT THE @WSOP MYSTERY MILLIONS 🔥
Congrats to Valentyn Shabelnyk pic.twitter.com/fApp6NbLZ4
— PokerGO (@PokerGO) June 3, 2024
As that video began to make the rounds, the popular X account Las Vegas Locally joked “Poker player nonchalantly wins a million dollars at the WSOP and immediately jogs back to his table so he doesn’t miss a hand.” Another person joked “Man, someone calm him down he seems too excited.”
Ukranian poker player Valentyn Shabelnyk went on to finish 528th in the tournament and earn just $3,070 for his finish (and 141.6 POY points). But he won A MILLION DOLLARS when he pulled the top bounty out of the treasure chest and looked like a deer in headlights but also like someone with laser focus on getting back to the table.
Shabelnyk has $218,988 in career WSOP earnings with 1 ring and 28 cashes. He did win a WSOP online circuit event back in 2019/20 and finished 3rd in an online circuit event in 2023, his only final tables so far.