This man played a "pretty silly" game of chicken with a huge spider - and lost, although it could have gone much worse.

Leroy Horton, from Bondi in Sydney, posted a video on Facebook on Monday (12 February) showing his terrifying encounter with what is believed to be a Huntsman spider. The video quickly racked up several thousand views.

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After spotting the spider on a wall, Horton filmed himself saying: "Right, let's have a game. It's called 'who's got big balls?'"

He then turned the camera to show the spider, perched just within arm's length on the wall, before moving his hand slowly towards the arachnid. Just as he was saying it's "pretty big mate, who's going to go first?" the spider launched into the air and hit his hand, leaving him to fling himself backwards in panic.

Horton was left swearing and shouting in shock, but still laughing, after the terrifying moment which is sure to have viewers jumping out of their chairs. Thankfully, though, he revealed in the comments that the spider did not manage to bite his skin - but just hit his fingernail instead.

He wrote: "Would have been Ouchy if he got my skin and not the nail hahahaha."

Horton also admitted in the caption for his video that his actions were "pretty silly". That did not stop him receiving dozens of admiring comments however.

One woman wrote: "Holy crap Leroy! Your balls are massive." Horton confessed in his reply that the spider "still scared the s**t" out of him.

Other Facebook users described it as the "best" or "funniest" thing they had ever seen, "gold," and said they nearly jumped off their chairs.

Huntsman spiders move extremely quickly but their venom is of low risk toxicity to humans, although large bites can prove very painful. They can also often grow very large, with an average length of 1 inch and leg span of up to 5 inches. Giant huntsman spiders are even bigger, with a legspan of up to 12 inches making it the largest spider by diameter.

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