Jonathan Schiller opened the envelope with more than a hint of trepidation.
Day 2 of the WSOP Mystery Millions began with 1,236 players. Each player had a bounty on their head. Fifty of those 1,236 bounties were gold chests.
Inside those gold chests were the jackpot bounties, worth between $10,000 and $1,000,000.
By the time Schiller stepped up, there were only 11 gold chests left. He'd almost headed downtown in a taxi after he’d been eliminated from the tournament in 439th place, worth $4,150 – already more than a 4x return on his investment.
“I was knocked out about four hours ago and I hadn’t heard anything, so I just presumed I hadn’t got a gold chest. Luckily I checked on the app and stayed.”
Now he had a one-in-11 shot at life-changing money. He was only in Vegas because he’d driven down with some bowling buddies for the nationals in Reno.
As he opened the envelope, his eyes widened when he spotted the string of zeros.
“Argggghhhh! Let’s f***ing go! Come on! Wooooh!”
“That’s crazy,” he said when he’d calmed down. “Unbelievable, I have no words,” he added.
Schiller reflects on his $1 million moment
PokerOrg’s Tiffany Michelle caught up with Schiller afterward and asked him whether he thought he was going to pull the million.
“It was one in 11,” he said. “I don’t know, sometimes you just get a feeling. We drove six hours down here. I got lucky because this tournament worked out better for the flights.”
Schiller played the turbo flight on Saturday night, which ran until 3am. That means there won’t be any wild celebrations for him tonight. “I’m just going to go to bed,” he said. “I’m exhausted. Maybe a few drinks with my bowling buddies.”
A couple of friends back home will be celebrating, too – Schiller revealed that they had a piece of his action. He also said he'd be framing the paper he was still clutching and investing the money.
Surely there must be something else he can spend some of it on?
"I probably do need a new car," Schiller finally said after some deep thought. "I have 170K on my car."
And is he planning on playing the Main Event?
“Nope,” he said. “I’m going home to be with my wife and kids. I think she’s putting the kids to bed now, and my phone’s nearly dead. She won’t believe it when I tell her.”
