Jacob Long wasn't even supposed to be in Las Vegas when he pulled the $250,000 bounty from the opening Mystery Millions at the 2026 WSOP.
"I wasn't really sure if I wanted to come out here and grind all summer," he told us in the hallway outside the Paris Ballroom, where he was about to jump into the $1,500 Omaha Mix.
The Omaha Mix is another tournament that Long had not planned on playing, but a spontaneous road trip and a big bounty have injected some change into those plans.
Originally, Long had a free ticket for the WSOP Main Event by virtue of being the Player of the Year on the Major Series of Poker Tour. He planned on coming out from his home in Omaha, Nebraska, to play a few of the marquee events, but that's it.
"My brother's getting married in Wyoming this year, so I knew I wasn't going to be here the whole time."
A chance to catch an early ride with a friend presented a different opportunity.
"My friend Jersey and his girlfriend Amanda, who is friends with my wife, were driving out earlier, along with our friend Tim. If I waited until later to come, we weren't really going to be able to hang out. It was something for my wife to do, so I just decided to ride with them."
A few friends reached out to buy some action, so the decision was that much easier. The $550 Mystery Millions was the big tournament going on, so Long decided to fire a few bullets.
"I honestly don't really like mystery bounties that much."
But it's the WSOP, and who can turn down a shot at six or seven figures for a $550 entry?
'This is not going well at all'
Initially, it seemed to be developing into a classic 'bad idea.' A few early false starts in the tournament left Long somewhat discouraged. A change of scenery didn't help much, either.
"I had a really bad first couple of days. I went over to the Wynn and busted the $1,100."
The damage on Friday night at Wynn was three bullets in the Turbo flight of their multi-flight $1M guarantee.
"I was just like, 'This is not going well at all,' you know?"
But Saturday morning was a new day, and a new chance at the Mystery Millions. This time, Long started winning flips, and he had a big bag of chips by the end of Day 1.
Long's stack of over 1.6 million was good enough to be the biggest at his table, and it put him in the catbird seat for a shot at the big bounties. But it wasn't ever going to be that easy.
To pull or not to pull?
There were several missed opportunities before Long broke through.
"I got in with ace-king against ace-king twice in the first orbit, and I had a free roll on both of them. Missed them both. Then I got in with kings against ace-king, and I won that hand for my first bounty."
A short time later, Long took out one of the short stacks for his second bounty. Now it became a matter of when to cash them in.
"It was a long queue. I had a lot of chips. And to me, the first hour or two of Day 2 is the most important time of the tournament for big bounties. But, I was a little bit hesitant to even get up because I knew that I was the one who could win everybody else's bounty at the table."
Another player at the table picked up a $10,000 bounty, and that was all Long needed to see.
"I was just like, screw it, I'd better get my name in there. So I just went over, and it was really quick. The first one that came off was the Gold Chest, and the second one was $500."
The Gold Chest meant a trip to see Jeff Platt for a hopper pull of up to $1,000,000.
"Two envelopes were stuck together."
He chose one, and it had $250,000.
So, what to do now with a big pile of money at the WSOP?
"To be honest, I was going to play for 16 days, and my wife was going to go with her girlfriend to Los Angeles with those guys. And now, actually, I'm just going to go with them. What it's going to do is make me a lighter schedule if anything, which is totally fine with me.
Long will come back to the WSOP and play for a few days before heading home to prepare for another drive west to Wyoming for his brother's wedding. That's the big priority of the summer, but there will be more poker along the way.
"I probably would have been playing more $600 events, but now I feel a little bit more freed up."
