BetRivers Poker has activated mystery bounty tournaments in its client for players in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Delaware and West Virginia, following a delay of several days to address technical issues and regulatory requirements across the four states.
The first event, described as a test run, begins at 3:05 p.m. ET on Wednesday, Nov. 4. It carries a $5 buy-in and a $400 guarantee, with half of its prize pool allocated to mystery bounties. As we reported Oct. 27, BetRivers had initially planned to introduce the format across the four-state network the previous week.
The operator expects mystery bounty events to become a regular part of its multi-table tournament schedule and says they will be available at multiple buy-in levels. They will run alongside BetRivers’ existing Progressive Knockout tournaments.
In the format, the bounty phase starts once a tournament reaches the money. A player who eliminates an opponent then receives a randomly drawn prize from the remaining bounty pool, with its value revealed at the table after the knockout. The structure allows a knockout to generate a substantial payout before a player reaches the final table.
BetRivers is the third regulated U.S. online poker operator to offer the format, after WSOP Online and PokerStars on FanDuel. Its rollout also makes it the first operator to offer regulated mystery bounty events in Delaware and West Virginia, where it is the only online poker operator serving players.
The introduction coincides with BetRivers Poker’s second-anniversary celebrations, which ran through Nov. 1. Mystery bounties have become a more prominent tournament format in recent months, according to Pokerfuse, combining conventional knockout play with prizes whose values remain hidden until they are claimed.
