$10 million guaranteed tournament runs July 23 through August 4 on Americas Cardroom and other WPN platforms
Since debuting on the Winning Poker Network in July 2019, The Venom has become the biggest U.S.-facing online poker tournament series in the modern era of poker.
Players on Americas Cardroom, Black Chip Poker, and other WPN sites have enjoyed access to six different chapters of The Venom over the past two years, with WPN making its flagship tournament a quarterly event for 2021.
The next edition of The Venom arrives in July, and it raises the bar to unprecedented heights. The $10 Million Guaranteed Venom runs July 23 through August 4 on WPN.
The $10 million guarantee sets a record as the biggest guaranteed prize pool ever offered on the Winning Poker Network. That mark is currently held by the January 2021 edition of The Venom, which guaranteed an $8 million prize pool.
If previous renditions of The Venom offer any indication, however, player attendance could push the final actual prize pool past the $10 million mark.
Here’s a look at the history of The Venom so far:
WPN’s The Venom at a glance
| Guaranteed Prize Pool | Actual Prize Pool | Entries | First Place Prize | |
| The Venom (July 2019) | $5,000,000 | $6,382,500 | 2,552 | $1,050,559 |
| The Venom (December 2019) | $6,000,000 | $6,740,000 | 2,696 | $1,039,982 |
| The Venom (August 2020) | $7,000,000 | $9,680,000 | 3,872 | $1,394,821* |
| The Venom PKO (October 2020) | $5,000,000 | $6,777,500 | 2,711 | $752,067** |
| The Venom (January 2021) | $8,000,000 | $9,435,000 | 3,774 | $1,113,330 |
| The Venom PKO (April/May 2021) | $5,000,000 | $7,160,000 | 2,864 | $738,134 |
| The Venom (July/August 2021) | $10,000,000 | ? | ? | ? |
Multi-flight tournament kicks off July 23
Per the tradition of The Venom, you can play in any of four different starting flights, with unlimited re-entry for the $2,650 buy-in tournament. The four starting flights take place between Friday, July 23, and Sunday, August 1.
Players can enter as many flights as they like, with unlimited re-entry available through the end of the late registration period in each flight. The Day 1 flights will include 11 hours of play, with all surviving players at the end of each flight moving on to Day 2.
Day 2 restarts on Monday, August 2, with 11 hours of action. At the end of Day 2, all remaining players move on to Day 3 on Tuesday, August 3.
Day 3 plays down to an eight-handed final table, and those eight lucky players will come back and play to a winner on Wednesday, August 4.
Both of the top two finishers are guaranteed at least $1 million in this summer’s edition of The Venom.
$10 Million Guaranteed Venom schedule
| Date | Flight* |
| Friday, July 23 | Day 1A |
| Sunday, July 25 | Day 1B |
| Friday, July 30 | Day 1C |
| Sunday, August 1 | Day 1D |
| Monday, August 2 | Day 2 |
| Tuesday, August 3 | Day 3 |
| Wednesday, August 4 | Final Table |
The $10 Million Guaranteed Venom will present a record-breaking prize pool
No matter what, the $10 Million Guaranteed Venom will set a new mark, with the biggest prize pool ever offered in a WPN tournament.
The six previous editions of The Venom have included four traditional format events and two progressive knockout editions. The last two non-PKO editions of The Venom currently stand as the biggest prize pool events in the history of WPN.
The August 2020 chapter of The Venom guaranteed $7 million. With an attendance of 3,872 entries, however, the final prize pool ended up at $9,680,000.
The final two players from last summer’s tournament both walked away with seven-figure paydays. ‘TRT-Vitor’ (1st - $1,394,821) and Marty ‘forrestranfar’ Mathis (2nd - $1,282,666) made a heads-up deal that sent both players home with life-changing payouts.
WPN kicked off 2021 with a January edition of The Venom. The biggest U.S.-facing online poker network upped the guarantee to $8 million for the January 2021 edition, and the tournament once again nearly reached the $10 million prize pool mark.
A total of 3,774 entries registered, bringing the final prize pool to $9,435,000. Tournament champion ‘PORKONOMAR’ went home with $1,113,330 for the win.
The next chapter of The Venom guarantees a prize pool of at least $10 million and two seven-figure winners this time around. Satellite qualifiers to The Venom are already running on WPN, and you can find that schedule by visiting the tournament lobby for any of The Venom Day 1 flights.
Featured image source: Twitter
