ACR pros get warmed up for $10 million Venom Day 1A today

America's Cardroom's flagship tournament, the Venom, is back today.

The $10 million guaranteed event kicked off at 1 PM Eastern Time today (Friday, July 23, 2021) for Day 1A. There will be an additional flight on Sunday, with two more next weekend. Four flights are necessary for what looks like it will be a huge undertaking.

The ACR website puts a lot of emphasis on the scale of the event.

"In 2019, we set a Guinness World Record after our inaugural $5 Million Venom," the site reads. "And in total, we’ve crowned 5 millionaires in just 4 Venom Holdem tourneys. This go around, for the first time ever, we’re guaranteeing that 2 players will walk away with at least a million bucks."

The guarantee not only includes at least $1 million each for 1st and 2nd, but the Ts & Cs specify also that any final table deals must ensure at least a milly for each of the top two finishers.

With the site on the hook for $10 million, ACR is anxious to avoid any overlay, and has been aggressively pushing their satellites for the Venom. That guarantee makes the event the biggest they've ever run. The satellites are ongoing, meaning it isn't too late to sign up.

Although the buy-in is set at $2,650, the company's marketing pitch is heavily focused on the high percentage of recreational players it is hoping to attract. The usual tool used to bulk up big tourneys with recreational players is satellites. For this tourney, ACR has poured a ton of resources into their satellite games. The company is offering freerolls, giveaways, and step tournaments at most price points.

"With more seats up for grabs than ever before via our Mega Satellites, Steps, and Skips, this tourney will be jam-packed with recreational players," the ACR site claims. "This may very well be the softest tourney of this magnitude in the history of online poker."

Who's playing

Naturally, the bank of ACR-sponsored pros are hitting the ground running for this series.

At least, most of them are. Ebony Kenney will be diving into one of the later flights.

"It’s heeeeeere!" Kenney tweeted. "One of the best days of the year! #venom starts today on @ACR_POKER!! Gooood luck to all the rockstars playing today! I won’t be joining the fun for this flight; but look at all the easy ways you can win your seat!"

Meanwhile, Chris Moneymaker's only question is whether he should stream his day one player or not. Respondents to that question are currently: 51.5% for "yes we love your face."

Jeff Gross on the other hand, just leaped right into streaming.

Full Venom schedule

Featured image source: Twitter