As a high-profile ambassador for ACR Poker, Chris Moneymaker may have his face plastered across the publicity for the site’s big $10M GTD Venom tournaments taking place this month, but that doesn’t mean he’s guaranteed a stroll through to Day 2.
This much was proven on Sunday, Day 1A of the no-limit hold’em event which carries a tasty guaranteed prizepool of $8M (the other $2M will be awarded in the Omaha version of the multi-day event).The former WSOP Main Event champ fired four bullets, costing $2,650 each, but wasn’t able to find a virtual bag in which to stash his stack for Day 2.
While Moneymaker may have spent over $10K on buy-ins last Sunday, he wasn’t the biggest spender of the day, with ACR Poker confirming at least three other players who each stumped up 6 entries apiece.
Moneymaker’s fellow ACR compadres Ebony Kenney, Drew ‘BetOnDrew’ Gonzalez, Jeff Boski and Jon Pardy also hit the skids on Day 1A, while Michael Loncar and Rob Kuhn were among those who did make Day 2 at their first attempt.
With five more starting flights available, we’re sure those pros listed above who missed the cut will be taking another shot — or two — and many will be streaming their play as they do so. You can catch the ACR stream of Day 1A below.
Additional Day 1 added on August 23
Just as in the spring running of the dual Venoms tournaments, ACR Poker has added an additional starting flight, post-launch, bringing the number of Day 1 opportunities to six.
Back in April the extra Day 1 was added fairly deep into the tournament, as the possibility of an overlay seemed to be unavoidable with numerous starting flights already in the books. The NLH tournament did in fact overlay, to the tune of around $600K, while numbers for the summer Venoms appear to be well on track to cover the big guarantees.
3,200 players are needed to cover the $8M guarantee for the NLH event, and Day 1A recorded 740 entries — well ahead of the 640 players each of five Day 1s would need to average to meet the target. The PLO event needs 800 players to cover its $2M guarantee, and drew 165 entries on Day 1A — again ahead of the 160 average required over five starting flights.
The additional sixth starting flight is scheduled for Saturday, August 23 at 12:05pm ET, and should act as some insurance to help the Venom tournaments get over the line and avoid another overlay.
It’s worth noting that those who survive Day 1 receive an instant min-cash, equal to the tournament buy-in. They can then enter another starting flight, and if they survive that can combine their stacks for Day 2, August 25, when mystery bounties of $5K-$500K come into play.
Remaining starting flights for both the NLH and PLO Venom tournaments will run on August 14, 17, 21, 23 and 24, each at 12:05pm ET.
