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One Player Made Both Venom Podiums — But Abarzuza and Palau Took the Trophies

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Samantha Doyle 1 hour ago

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Oihan Abarzuza ('PushLightYear') won the Venom No-Limit Hold’em event from sixth position, taking home $536,577.
Pepareg1 reached both Venom finals, finishing third in the NLH for $281,470 and second in the PLO for $164,671 after a deal.
The high-stakes online tournaments showcased dramatic comebacks and strategic play among elite poker competitors.

Making one Venom final requires surviving several days and thousands of entries. With a little luck and a whole lot of skill, Pepareg1 spent Wednesday trying to finish both of them at once.

While the Ukrainian was battling it out with Oihan Abarzuza and the remaining finalists in the $5 million guaranteed No-Limit Hold’em Venom, another stack was waiting in the $1.5 million PLO edition. Pepareg1 began the first in third place, the other in seventh.

However, as the night came to a close, Pepareg1 walked away without a trophy in hand. How that all came to be, read ahead.

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Abarzuza Climbs From the Middle of the NLH Pack

The Hold’em table began with Nyts14 leading and Abarzuza, playing as “PushLightYear,” sitting sixth.

He was far from despeate, with 60.8 million chips, although the early stages belonged more to the larger stacks. Abarzuza spent much of that period allowing the table to develop around him instead of getting involved in every confrontation.

Oihan Abarzuza Wins ACR Venom Hold'em — Oihan Abarzuza Wins No-Limit Hold’em Venom

Pocket queens against Lappy’s ace-five produced a double, and Abarzuza followed by winning another significant pot from ArkaduktusFrRM with a straight. A set of sevens then brought an even larger confrontation between the two, with ArkaduktusFrRM paying off Abarzuza’s river shove.

Pepareg1 was next. Abarzuza opened with ace-queen and called when Pepareg1 shoved roughly 20 big blinds with ace-eight. Both paired their ace, but a queen on the river improved Abarzuza to two pair and sent Pepareg1 to the rail in third.

The heads-up started with ArkaduktusFrRM narrowly ahead, yet Abarzuza overturned the deficit within a handful of major pots before winning the last hand with two pair.

Place	Player	Regular Prize	Bounties	Total
1	PushLightYear	$332,932	$203,645	$536,577
2	ArkaduktusFrRM	$332,931	$85,893	$418,824
3	Pepareg1	$240,369	$41,101	$281,470
4	Lappy	$173,550	$84,248	$257,798
5	Nyts14	$125,306	$54,492	$179,798

Meanwhile, Pepareg1 Was Climbing From Last in PLO

The remarkable part of Pepareg1’s night was that third place in Hold’em was only half the job.

The PLO final table began with Pepareg1 seventh of seven, behind a field led by Daniel “tigerseyes” Palau. Brian Hastings and Yuri Dzivielevski were also among the remaining players, leaving the shortest stack with plenty of experienced company between it and heads-up.

Daniel Palau Wins ACR Venom PLO — Daniel Palau Wins PLO Venom

Player after player, Pepareg1 kept surviving.

Dzivielevski went out fifth, Hastings climbed to third, and eventually the player who had started last found himself opposite Palau with the title still available. A rivered full house gave Pepareg1 one of the bigger heads-up pots, after which the pair opted to make a deal.

Place	Player	Regular Prize	Bounties	Total
1	tigerseyes	$128,622	$111,198	$239,820*
2	Pepareg1	$128,621	$36,050	$164,671
3	Brian Hastings	$93,194	$25,903	$119,097
4	Blessed33	$67,526	$15,217	$82,743
5	Yuri “vousconfus” Dzivielevski	$48,927	$23,706	$72,633