The American grinded it out for more than eight hours before being crowned as the winner of the event which attracted an outrageous field of 19,654 players which created a total prize pool of $17,295,520.
Poker author Michael Acevedo pushed Wilkow the hardest for the third seven-figure prize in this event, following on from the two $1,000,000 mystery bounty envelopes which were drawn by Tyler Montoya and Thomas Zanot.
Wilkow is a lifelong poker fan but only really started to put in the effort over the last couple of years. He attributed a clean-living lifestyle over the last 12 months to giving him a new found mental resilience.
“I’ve never felt more focused than today. In the past, when I’ve played the Main Event, I remember feeling very tired on Day 3; today was different.”
Action Recap
None of the large mystery bounties remained in play when Day 3 kicked off, so it was all about aiming squarely at that $1,000,000 prize earmarked for the winner. Second place paid out only slightly more than half of that at $563,350, so everyone was gunning for victory in these closing levels.
Besides Michael Acevedo and Hustler Casino Live reg Wesley Fei, two-time bracelet winner Daniel Strelitz was the other player of note at the final table.
Michael Marks was first to go, followed by Jeffery Hong half an hour later, bagging the first six-figure prize of $120,950.
A couple of hours after the dinner break, Acevedo took the lead after doubling up to just over 40 blinds against Elliott Kampen.
Fifteen minutes later, Acevedo knocked out both Wesley Fei and Linda Ngo after Fei open-jammed A♣ K♣ and he called it off for around 15 blinds with 10♦ 10♣. Ngo came along with her remaining ten blinds, holding A♠ Q♠.
Nobody hit the board and Acevedo now had more than 60 big blinds in his stack.
That left five players at the table, and Wilkow sensed it was time for him to be making his mark if he wanted to win this event.
As it was, he dropped on lucky a few minutes later when his A♣ 10♦ binked against Acevedo’s A♠ K♦. Kampen then won a chunk from him too before running out of luck in a three-way all-in with Acevedo and Wilkow.
Wilkow was chipping up nicely at this point and then Yu Hsiang Huang ran into him at the wrong time when his 5♠ 5♣ couldn’t hold against Wilkow’s A♦ J♠ and he walked off to collect his $329,940 prize.
Only 20 minutes later, Acevedo had lost his lead to Wilkow and Daniel Strelitz was out after a standard all-in encounter with him and Wilkow having an ace with no kicker.
Heads-up play began without any kind of a break or deal discussion and the pair went right at it with Wilkow starting with a healthy lead.
Acevedo did win some pots but it was really all going Wilkow’s way. The final hand saw Wilkow limp on the button with Q♦ J♥ and Acevedo raise with A♠ K♠.
Wilkow called and the flop came down Q♠ Q♣ A♣. Both players checked.
The turn was the J♣ and Wiolkow check-called a small bet.
The 10♦ gave Acevedo a broadway straight and he decided to check-call for the rest of his stack, and then it was all over.
Event #1: $1,000 Mystery Millions Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize (USD) |
| 1 | Michael Wilklow | United States | $1,000,000 |
| 2 | Michael Acevedo | Costa Rica | $563,350 |
| 3 | Daniel Strelitz | United States | $429,950 |
| 4 | Yu Hsiang Huang | Taiwan | $329,940 |
| 5 | Elliott Kampen | United States | $254,590 |
| 6 | Wesley Fei | China | $197,550 |
| 7 | Linda Ngo | United States | $154,140 |
| 8 | Jeffrey Hong | United States | $120,950 |
| 9 | Michael Marks | United States | $95,551 |
