Americas Cardroom (ACR), the flagship site of the Winning Poker Network, is out to make 2022 its best year ever. That begins in January with the latest edition of ACR's "Venom" tourney. With a guaranteed prize pool of $10 million, it matches the richest single tournament ever offered on ACR.
The early-2022 event follows the framework of earlier Venom offerings, with its $2,650 buy-in, multiple opening days, and at least a million dollars guaranteed for the winner. California pro Sohale Khalili earned $1,514,000 the last time the original Venom tournament ran, this past September. He topped a 3,930-entrant field in the week-long event.
By the calendar count, the upcoming $10 million Venom in early 2022 will run even longer, spanning 13 days from January 21 through February 2. That allows for four different Day 1 opportunities. The first Day 1 runs on January 21, with three more first-day chances on January 23, 28, and 30. Survivors from the four separate Day 1 flights will combine for Day 2 action on January 31. Players who continue on to February 1's Day 3 will be well into the money, and the final table will play out on Wednesday, February 2.
Plenty of qualifying paths to the Venom
There are more ways than ever before for players to win their way into the Venom for significantly less than the $2,650 direct buy-in. One of those is ACR's "Venom Fever" collection of mega-satellites. At least two such mega-satellites (or related turbos) which will be offered every day beginning on January 2. They feature a wide range of buy-ins, too, from $30 to $200. The complete schedule for the Venom mega-satellites can be found here.
Players can also qualify for the Venom through the "Step and Skip" tourneys. There are nine different "Step" tourney levels, and a player can buy in at any level, from 10 cents to $850. (There's actually a tenth level, a freeroll way to gain seats into the Step 1 tourneys.) The framework also includes "Skip" tourneys for the first four buy-in levels. A Step 1 awards its winners Step 3 seats; Step 2 Skip winners jump to Step 5; Step 3 Skip winners move all the way to Step 7; and Step 4 Skip winners move all the way to Step 9, where they'll then play directly for Venom seats. Here's the link to the Step-and-Skip page, where more details are available.
The third main path is through the "Venom Blitz" structure, where players can play at their own schedule in a steo-based system, working toward a Venom seat. There are nine steps, as with the "Step and Skip" framework. With the fast-paced "Blitz" format, however, the player's goal is to build his stack to 5,000 chips, which automatically qualifies him for the next level.
Two extra wrinkles add spice to the Blitz framework. Any chips won over 5,000 remain the player's, giving him a chance to earn multiple Venom seats. And should a player get close to 5,000 but be stuck just shy of that transfer total, there's a "For the Win" feature where a player can just pay for those remaining chips in cash and jump to that level, or to the Venom main, if it's done in Step 9.
Featured image source: Americas Cardroom
