On Tuesday afternoon, action in both the No-Limit Hold'em and Pot-Limit Omaha Mystery Bounty Venom tournaments on ACR Poker came to a conclusion following three days of play.
The NLH Mystery Bounty Venom event attracted a field of 3,519 entrants across the multitude of Day 1 starting flights to generate a prize pool of $8,797,500 – eclipsing the $8M guarantee set by ACR Poker in the process – with 425 places paid and $690,155 plus bounties accrued for the eventual winner. The PLO Mystery Bounty Venom cobbled together a field of 872 entrants across the Day 1 starting flights to generate a prize pool of $2,180,000 – again besting the $2M guarantee set by the site – with 108 places paid and $210,613 plus bounties accrued for the eventual winner.
While the biggest of the available Mystery Bounties had already been claimed on Day 2 – with ACR Pro Ebony Kenney reportedly snagging a bounty worth just under $150,000 – three $15,000 Mystery Bounties and six $5,000 Mystery Bounties were still in play at the start of the NLH final table to keep the action interesting.
Yau, Matakis crash out early in NLH Mystery Bounty Venom
After Day 2 play whittled the field down to a final table, the nine remaining players returned to the virtual felt to play down to a winner. There were several well-known players left, including Ethan 'RampagePoker' Yau who came into the final table second in the chip counts, two-time Venom final table finisher and 2023 WSOP Player of the Year Ian 'RiverRiot72' Matakis, and high-stakes online crushers Barak 'iWasOnly17' Wisbrod and Daniel 'SmilleThHero' Smiljkovic.
Following the elimination of 'silskyer' in ninth place, Matakis ran 
into the 
of 'S1NISTR0' and, despite flopping a full house, found himself drawing dead on a 
flop to finish in eighth place.
Yau's Venom dreams came to a crashing halt after losing a key pot in the early goings to find himself on a middling stack – handcuffed, for the most part, by the ICM implications at play. After blinding down for a while, Yau picked up 
with a little less than ten big blinds remaining and he was ready to try his luck at a double up against the 
of 'Thelittle200'. Unfortunately for Yau, the flip didn't go his way as his opponent flopped two pair and turned a full house on the 
runout to confirm his elimination in sixth place.
The final three players – 'S1NISTR0', Daniel 'SmilleThHero' Smiljkovic, and 'Thelittle200' agreed to a three-way ICM deal, orchestrated in-client, to wrap up the event without any further action.
PLO: 'peyton_manning' comes second but stacks bounties
The PLO Mystery Bounty Venom saw seven players advance to the final table, including Dirk 'VeniVidi' Gerrits, playing under the online moniker of 'Bodamos007'. As the action and eliminations came fast and furious on Day 2, the stacks at the PLO final table began much deeper than their counterparts on the NLH final table.
While the NLH Mystery Bounty Venom was the focus of the ACR Poker Twitch streams on the day, you can still catch commentary and coverage of the entire final table thanks to Mark 'Weazel_1991' Rubbathan's live-stream below.
While it was 'Skretcher9' who came out victorious in the event, runner-up finisher 'peyton_manning' managed to cash for a total of $388,000 – more than the first-place prize – thanks to his luck in the bounty pulls on Day 2 and at the final table.
Nacho Barbero's phantom stacks run deep-ish
In an interesting twist to the ongoing discussion surrounding allegations of cheating leveled against Jose Ignacio 'Nacho' Barbero, the ACR Pro's forfeited stacks finished in 120th place in the NLH Mystery Bounty Venom and 25th in the PLO Mystery Bounty Venom. Barbero – playing under the online moniker of 'TRAVISRICE' – managed to cash for $7,502 in the NLH version and $7,926 in the PLO version as his phantom stacks did well enough to secure a couple of pay ladders.
No-Limit Hold'em Mystery Bounty Venom final table results
| Place | Player | Prize + Bounty (USD) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 'S1NISTR0' | $613,547* + $135,000 |
| 2 | Daniel 'SmilleThHero' Smiljkovic | $475,387* + $55,000 |
| 3 | 'Thelittle200' | $463,122* + $120,000 |
| 4 | 'Runner114' | $262,270 + $70,000 |
| 5 | Barak 'iWasOnly17' Wisbrod | $190,033 + $35,000 |
| 6 | Ethan 'RampagePoker' Yau | $137,738 + $35,000 |
| 7 | 'TayTayBae' | $99,871 + $40,000 |
| 8 | Ian 'RiverRiot72' Matakis | $72,454 + $35,000 |
| 9 | 'silskyer' | $52,610 + $20,000 |
*denotes final table deal
Pot-Limit Omaha Mystery Bounty Venom final table results
| Place | Player | Prize + Bounty (USD) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 'Skretcher9' | $210,631 + $65,000 |
| 2 | 'peyton_manning' | $158,161 + $230,000 |
| 3 | 'FARHILLS' | $118,807 + $54,000 |
| 4 | 'Doug Pork' | $78,584 + $54,000 |
| 5 | 'sitdownbehumble' | $52,064 + $15,000 |
| 6 | Dirk 'Bodamos007' Gerrits | $34,581 + $30,000 |
| 7 | 'fiasko' | $23,054 + $0 |
