British poker pro Archie Seaton, known by his screenname “BALDOUS”, defied massive odds on Monday, pulling two of the top three bounties in the ACR Venom. So far, he has secured a total of $720,625 in bounty prizes.
If that weren’t impressive enough, he has also managed to reach the final table of the tournament, where he currently finds himself in second place. While Seaton is guaranteed an additional $50,571.90, he’ll be looking to win the $717,000 top prize that could see his total winnings inflate to around $1.5 million.
The $2,650 ACR Venom tournament attracted 3,673 runners, creating a total prize pool of just under $9.2 million. Half of the money went toward the regular prize pool, while the other half went toward the mystery bounty pool.
Mystery bounty prizes
The 442 players who made Day 2 of the ACR Venom were guaranteed a $2,500 min cash, and could earn a bounty prize for eliminating one of their fellow competitors. Each bounty was worth at least $5,000, up to $500,000, with a total of $4,591,250 in bounty prizes. Players could win any of five different prizes, with 76% of the ACR Venom bounty pool made up of $5,000 minimum bounties. At the start, the average value of each bounty was $10,387.44
| Number of Bounties | Bounty Prize |
| 1 | $500,000 |
| 2 | $150,625 |
| 21 | $50,000 |
| 71 | $15,000 |
| 335 | $5,000 |
The $150,000 pull
With 116 players left, Seaton was in a phenomenal position with two of the three top bounties in play and was sitting with pocket aces and 47 big blinds. An opponent jammed ace-ten offsuit for their final 12 blinds, and Seaton held with ease.
Amazingly, he found the second-best bounty available, winning the final $150,625 bounty, and set himself up to wreak even more havoc at the table with his massive chip stack.
The $500,000 pull
Amazingly, with just 39 players left, the $500,000 bounty was still in play. With players only guaranteed the $10,880.94 and a top prize of $716,848.51, players were playing extremely wide in the hopes of landing that phenomenal score.
Fortunately, Seaton would be the lucky recipient. After three-betting ace-jack offsuit from the cutoff against the hijack, the flop came 9-6-4, giving Seaton two overs and a backdoor flush draw.
After his small c-bet, his opponent moved all in. He called off the additional 14 big blinds and found himself in reasonably good shape against pocket sevens.
Though he had only a 27.5% chance of winning the 49 big-blind pot and the bounty, he found a miracle jack on the river. Afterwards, he found himself pleading for the $500,000 bounty only to see his wish granted.
The job isn’t done
Amazingly, Seaton also made his way to the final table and will be playing for the top prize of nearly $717,000. He is currently sitting second in chips with roughly 80 big blinds.
In addition to his guaranteed ninth-place finish, which locks up $50,571.90 on its own, Seaton has already locked up an incredible $771,196.90.
There is still a $50,000 bounty in play, along with eight $5,000 bounties, for a total of $90,000 in mystery bounty prizes. All in all, it’s possible that Seaton could win around $1.5 million with a victory today.
This isn’t Seaton’s first taste of greatness. The England native, who has $660,000 in career live tournament earnings, finished second in the 2023 WSOP Paradise Closer, winning $101,000 and barely missing his first bracelet. He followed that up last February by winning the 418-entry $3,000 Main Event at The Lodge for $250,706.
Notably, he’ll be joined by Laszlo “omaha4rollzz” Bujtas, considered by many to be the greatest PLO cash game player of all time. The Triton regular is no stranger to Venom final tables, having reached the 2024 Venom PKO final table, finishing third for $284,359 plus bounties.
Notable online pro Jeremy Menard, “soappalled”, finished in 11th place for over $101,000, including bounties.
ACR Venom final table standings
Players are coming back to Level 65, with the blinds at 1,400,000/2,800,000. The final table will be streamed on the ACR Poker Twitch channel.
| Place | Player | Stack | Bounty Prizes |
| 1 | “MatasSembolas” | 251,251,473 (90bbs) | $40,000 |
| 2 | “BALDOUS” | 223,617,444 (80bbs) | $720,625 |
| 3 | “chickenpastry” | 211,612,384 (76bbs) | $5,000 |
| 4 | “omaha4rollzz” | 143,323,344 (51bbs) | $80,000 |
| 5 | “Sent1mental” | 122,901,767 (44bbs) | $30,000 |
| 6 | “basaboy” | 49,715,610 (18bbs) | $25,000 |
| 7 | “1or2UptoU” | 37,996,569 (14bbs) | $55,000 |
| 8 | “topABZ” | 33,358,903 (12bbs) | $160,000 |
| 9 | “IMOO” | 28,122,506 (10bbs) | $20,000 |
