The 2025 ARIA Poker Classic began on May 28 in Las Vegas and has offered attractive poker tournament options every day since. The events guarantee that hundreds of thousands of dollars will be awarded daily, along with shiny trophies and poker glory.
Just a couple of weeks after this must-play poker series began, BetMGM Poker swooped in to offer two major tournaments on the weekend of June 14-15. (These were ahead of the upcoming BetMGM Poker Championship, which you can still qualify for.) Those two special events guaranteed $800,000 in prize money but ended up awarding $1,403,400!
Malcolm Trayner Wins BetMGM Poker Mystery Bounty
Mystery bounty tournaments are exciting, even more so than standard poker tournaments with a single prize pool. Player buy-ins contribute to the prize pool, of course, but also to a mystery bounty pool. Those who make it through the money bubble will receive a payout but, also, the chance to pull bounties for eliminating opponents. Those bounties hold a range of potential.
Event 18 of the 2025 ARIA Poker Classic was a $1,100 BetMGM No Limit Hold’em Mystery Bounty tournament with a $300,000 guarantee. And the turnout was stellar:
- Total entries: 592
- Total prize pool: $571,280 ($355,200 standard payouts + $216,080 bounties)
- Paid players: 75
While nearly 50 of the bounties were either $500 or $1,000, there were some substantial surprises in the mystery bin. There were six worth $5,000 each, four worth $10,000 each, and top bounties set at $25,000 and $30,000.
Long Day of Poker Worth It For Payouts
This single-day tournament was more than worth the time for players who made the money. BetMGM Poker Ambassador Abby Merk was in the field, of course, as were poker notables like Justin Young, Eric Afriat, Jeff Platt, and Garry Gates.
The evening hours found the final 75 players in the money, and the final table began just after midnight local time. Malcolm Trayner was the overwhelming chip leader with five million chips, but several opponents had upwards of two million each. There were big payouts on the table, as well as bounty money.
Trayner Takes It
The Aussie set about adding to his chip stack right away, eliminating Jorgen Thorkildsen in ninth place, then William Kaufman and Martin Stausholm. A bit later, Trayner ousted Brett Murray in fifth place. While Juan Giambartolomei busted Josiel Cruz in fourth, it was Trayner who took out Yuan Lei in third to take 14,000,000 chips into heads-up play. Giambartolomei had 3,500,000 and eventually pushed with A-J. But Trayner had K-4 of spades and flopped the flush that won the tournament.
Trayner spoke to PokerOrg about maintaining the chip lead at the final table and how this victory changed his summer: “Everything else this summer has gone awfully, but this… this makes up for it.”
Martinez Masters BetMGM No Limit Hold’em
It goes without saying that an ARIA tournament draws its own crowd. The ambiance, staff, structure, refreshments, and prize pools are more than enough to attract big numbers every day of the summer. But when ARIA adds a BetMGM trophy to the event and advertises a half-million guarantee, players line up to play.
The second BetMGM special of the weekend was this $1,600 buy-in BetMGM No Limit Hold’em tournament with the aforementioned $500,000 guarantee. And the actual attendance added several hundred thousand dollars to that amount:
- Total entries: 586
- Total prize pool: $832,120
- Paid players: 74
The minimum payout was set at $2,105, but six-figure payouts awaited the top two finishers.
Familiar Faces Run Deep
Some of the recognizable faces at the tables for this one included Brian Altman, Hayley Hochstetler, Joe McKeehen, Alex Keating, Brian Hastings, and Aubrey Williams. BetMGM Content Creator Jon Rand, better known to most as “Slow Poker,” made it to the last two tables. As Williams busted in 14th place, the field dwindled slowly to nine players, who gathered at one table to continue playing into the early morning hours of the next day.
Billy Beer was the leader of the pack, but Onur Unsal was close behind. Rand was the shortest stack of the final nine.
Exhaustion Leads to Five-Way Deal
Rand had to get into action and did so with a double-up on the first hand of the final table. Rand then took another double a few hands later at the expense of Unsal. But it was Unsal who busted Jose Lopez in ninth place to reclaim some chips.
As the sun was rising outside of the casino, Wenbin Chen ousted Daniel Kyosev in eighth place, Unsal took care of Uri Reichenstein in seventh, and Rand sent Evan Sparling out in sixth. That left five very tired players ready to have a chat.
They agreed to an ICM chop by 7:30 am, with Rand on the lower end of the five chip counts and Raul Martinez Gallego of Spain at the top. He claimed victory for nearly $100,000 and two spectacular trophies.
His post-win conversation with PokerOrg revealed that it was his sixth or seventh summer in Las Vegas to compete in tournaments, and it was his first win. “I’ve been looking for it for a long time,” he admitted, adding that it was an awesome and emotional victory.
As for Slow Poker and his best finish as a representative of BetMGM, Rand was happy to take home close to $80,000 for the tournament he started on Father’s Day. He then planned to sleep.
Play at BetMGM as June Promos Continue
While many poker players are in Las Vegas to play poker this summer, there are many more in other parts of the country, like Pennsylvania, Michigan, and New Jersey. Those players have the advantage of competing from the comforts of home and getting in on the lucrative promotions that BetMGM Poker is running in June. They can play legal poker at BetMGM online, use a poker welcome bonus when making a deposit, and opt in to the BetMGM Poker June 2025 promos for free casino play and Quarter Spin the Wheel action.
