MatasSembolas Became The Venom Mystery Bounty Champion Following a 3-max Deal

How the Action Unfolded from 9-max to 4-max in the $2,650 The Venom MB

The final table played out at a record pace: just 2.5 hours. Representatives of 6 countries made the final 9-max:

1. Pedro “MatasSembolas” Neves (Malta) — 89 BB
2. Ben “BALDOUS” Aldous (UK) — 79 BB
3. Ivanildo “chickenpastry” Limeira (Brazil) — 75 BB
4. omaha4rollzz (UK) — 51 BB
5. Nikita “Sent1mental” Kalinin (Russia) — 43 BB
6. basaboy (Ukraine) — 17 BB
7. 1or2UptoU (USA) — 13 BB
8. Luis “topABZ” Faria (Portugal) — 11 BB
9. IMOO (Brazil) — 10 BB

Action developed quite routinely: short stacks were eliminated one after another.

IMOO finished in 9th place. He shoved 6 BB from the HJ with KTs and got two calls from chickenpastry and topABZ. Both players had AK.

1or2UptoU finished in 8th place. He shoved 8.6 BB with pocket fives and got called by basaboy with pocket tens.

Luis «topABZ» Faria finished in 7th place. He 3-bet of 12 BB (20 BB total stack) with KQs and put in the rest of his chips. chickenpastry had pocket queens.

Ivanildo «chickenpastry» Limeira finished in 6th place. He got it in with pocket queens against BALDOUS’s pocket kings for a 90 BB pot — the biggest hand at the final table. Notably, Ivanildo «chickenpastry» Limeira had already won this tournament in August 2024, earning $617.3K for the victory.

omaha4rollzz finished in 5th place. He lost a coin flip with pocket sixes against Sent1mental’s AKs for a 35 BB pot. A king hit the flop.

Why the 4-max Deal in The Venom MB Fell Through

A few hands after omaha4rollzz’s elimination, the stacks evened out. Each player had 30–40 BB. All four players pressed the “Deal” button and most likely would have chopped. But a hand was still playing out at the time, in which MatasSembolas rivered a flush and took the chip lead with a 53 BB stack.

If the players had chopped before that hand, each would have received about $450K. But the deal was not made: BALDOUS declined.

After that, Sent1mental lost an all-in with pocket fives against BALDOUS’s pocket aces for a 45 BB pot. In his final hand, he got it in for 9 BB with QTo against MatasSembolas’s K4o.

At 3-max, the opponents pressed the “Deal” button again and finalized a deal. The tournament ended.

BALDOUS Received One of the Largest Payouts in The Venom History

Pedro “MatasSembolas” Neves became the winner ($728,281*). But the biggest payout went to Ben “BALDOUS” Aldous: $1,240,310*.

That’s because BALDOUS pulled the top bounty of $500,000. He also captured the moment on video:

He also pulled another large bounty worth $150,000.

Final table payouts — $2,650 The Venom MB

StickyMinaj Won the $2,650 The Venom PLO MB ($313,922)

Alongside The Venom MB NLHE, The Venom MB PLO also concluded. The tournament drew 837 entries. The final prize pool totaled $2,092,500.

Final table payouts:

The top bounty of $215K went to phong7, who ultimately finished 16th (+$6,841).

Another Major Mystery Bounty Will Run on ACR Poker in February

Flights in the $109 Moneymaker MB $1M GTD start daily every two hours until March 2, with the last flight beginning at 10:15 am ET. The luckiest player in this tournament will receive a $100,000 Mystery Bounty. Read more about the tournament here:

We also remind you that new players registered with PokerListings receive a $25 bonus along with access to the $500 Depositors Monthly Tournament and $100 PokerListings Weekly Freerolls. Details here.