Aaron Pinson Takes Home $150,000 in Bounties Along With The Title!

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Sep 17, 2026 6 min read

Mystery Bounty formats have become popularized all across the country over the past couple of years, having been adopted by casinos and tours all over the country. The most recent materialization of the Mystery Bounty format came here at the Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa in Event #6: $2,200 Big Big Borgata Mystery Bounty, an event that guaranteed two $50,000 bounties and two $25,000 bounties. What wasn't guaranteed was that one player would take home just about 40% of the $500,000 prize pool.

Aaron Pinson and Matt Glantz got heads up and chopped for the remaining tournament prize money and the chance to pull all of their remaining bounties. They flipped for the trophy and Pinson won the flip, then each player went to go pull their bounties. With Glantz holding six to Pinson’s one, it seemed that the odds were favorable for Glantz to pull the last $25,000 bounty. Pinson went first and took home the final $25,000 bounty, bringing his overall bounty total up to $150,000. Now crowned as the champion, his total haul from the tournament sits at $199,825.

“I was not imagining $200k this morning, that seemed crazy,” Pinson said just moments after his win. “Not my favorite format, but results oriented it’s my favorite format. I came into the day with a bottom third stack and I ran like fire today and had the luckiest run of cards. I got $200,000, it seems silly. I just gambled a lot today.”

The Maryland poker player has cashes dating back over a decade all along the East Coast. With over $2.4 million in recorded lifetime earnings and many cashes at Borgata as well, this marks his first victory on the property. He further broke down the series of events that led to the deal.

“Crucially, three-handed I got sevens in against Mike Wang who had tens. I hit a seven and he said ‘maybe that will be the $50k for you,’, I went and plucked the $50k. Came back, decided to chop the prize pool heads up because Matt’s better than me. He had saved all his bounties, I had been pulling them all day and I was like ‘alright I’m going to pull my bounty and you can keep the rest’ and then bam! $25,000!”

This large piece of the prize pool is usually not available for traditionally structured tournaments. It would only be in specific bounty tournaments that an 40% haul is available, albeit unlikely, for players to win. Pinson talked about whether or not he had done this before.

“I have once, a PKO in my home casino. It must have been a $350 buy-in, we played it down to a winner and I got 40% of the prize pool. That’s the only other time.”

While he admitted that it’s not his favorite format, a smile spread wide across the newest champion of the Borgata in the moments after pulling each of the massive bounties. A shout of exhilaration accompanied his first $50k pull early in the day, a look of happiness mixed with disbelief when he pulled the second $50k late in the day, and joyous laughter as Glantz thought he was joking on the final pull for $25k. A $10k, a $5k, and four $2,500 pulls were scattered throughout the day.

“420 bop,” Pinson joked about what his preparation for the day was. “I was lucky today. I beat better players, for sure. You just show up, try to keep a positive attitude. You sign up to lose tournaments most days you walk into a casino. Some people can’t handle it, all of us can’t handle it somewhat. As Andrew Chang said when he won the Kickoff ‘they picked me today.’”

“No thank you,” Pinson said on his likelihood of firing the neighboring tournament the $10,000 Big Big Baller. “I intended and am still most likely to go home for two days, maybe not. I’ll come back for the second flight of the $5k. That was the plan, maybe I’ll alter. I might stick around for the PLO.”

“Stick with the game for 16 years, I never had any money forever and then it changed 15 or 16 years in. The heater begins!”

Event #5: $2,200 Big Big Borgata Mystery Bounty

Day 2 Action

It was an action-packed day as the final table was reached before the first break of the day was. Chips were flying, bounties were pulling, and many of the game’s biggest names battled it out. Matthew Beinner (24th-$3,475), Bijay Lama (22nd-$3,475), and Bartley Dowling (20th-$3,475) were some of the first to fall. It was Dowling’s elimination at the hands of Pinson that saw the first $50k bounty pulled and awarded to him. After that; Joe McKeehen (18th-$3,475), Justin Liberto (15th-$4,200), BetMGM Ambassador Michael Lavin (14th-$4,200), and WPT champion Kharlin Sued (13th-$4,200) all fell.

The final player eliminated before the final table was Richard Newman at the hands of Michael McNicholas. Newman’s ace-queen could not hold up on the river against McNicholas’ jack-ten. A tenth place finish for Newman brought him $4,950, while McNicholas pulled a $25k just prior to the final table starting.

Final Table Action

It wouldn’t be long at the final table before the fireworks started flying. Just before the first break of play, Justin Arnwine would limp back-jam his stack with pocket twos in the small blind, only for Michael Wang to look him up with pocked queens. Wang would take over a third of the chips remaining with eight players left while Arnwine took home $5,950 for his ninth place finish.

Pashk Gjini started the final table as the shortest stack and his laddering journey came to an end shortly after. He moved in his final chips from first position holding king-queen and McNicholas looked him up from the big blind holding jack-ten. It would prove fruitful for McNicholas once more as he made three jacks while Gjini finished in eighth place, collecting $7,125 for his efforts.

Next to go would be Paul Spitzberg in seventh place, also at the hands of McNicholas. He got in his pocket kings in preflop and McNicholas held him at risk with ace-queen. An ace-high flush would come in on the end for McNicholas to put him in a steady second place at the table while Spitzberg went to the payout cage to collect $8,525

Despite starting the day as the chip leader, nothing could get going for Victor Ramdin at the final table. Eventually Ramdin would get his final few chips in with king-queen against Matt Glantz’ ace-queen. Glantz flopped top two and left Ramdin drawing dead on the turn and the WPT champion won $10,325 for his sixth place run.

Glantz would be the executioner on the next elimination as Dylan Lemery got in his final chips with ten-nine against Glantz’ ace-king and McNicholas’ pocket fives. An ace-high board would send the pot Glantz’ way while Lemery finished in fifth place for $12,275, his second final table of the week.

There would be no recovery for McNicholas after this and his last chips would go to Pinson a little while later. A river was seen on a board containing two deuces, with McNicholas holding top trips with ace-two. He would bet and then call off against Pinson who had rivered eights full to take another bounty into his haul. McNicholas’ fourth place run was good for $17,225 and his selection of sizable bounties.

Wang’s luck came to an end when his pocket tens got in against Pinson’s sevens. A seven on the flop would spell the end for the WPT champions’ run and Pinson took a lead into the heads up portion of play. “This bounty is the $50k” said Wang as he handed Pinson on his way to the payout cage, collecting $25,500 for his third place finish. Wang wouldn’t be lying as Pinson pulled the slip out of the drum just moments later.

Chopping the heads up evenly saw both players flipping for the trophy, with the flip going Pinson’s way and giving him one bounty to draw versus Glantz’s six. He pulled the biggest one remaining and Glantz collected $44,825 for his second place finish and $30,000 for his bounty pulls.

That will conclude today’s coverage of Event #5: $2,200 Big Big Borgata Mystery Bounty. Be sure to check back into PokerNews tomorrow for continued coverage of the Big Big Series.

*denotes deal made

• Tags Aaron Pinson Borgata