Record-breaking progressive knockout tournament crowns a champion
The sixth chapter of The Venom set a new bar for what’s possible in a U.S.-facing progressive knockout tournament. The final table of The Venom PKO played out on the Winning Poker Network Wednesday night, and seven of the final eight players came away with six-figure paydays.
‘RyDo’ went home with the biggest of those payouts, emerging as The Venom PKO champion and adding $738,134 to the bankroll. The prize money collected by ‘RyDo’ came from $501,196 in first-place prize money, as well as $236,218 in progressive bounties.
‘RyDo’ outdueled ‘TIKITAKA11’ (2nd - $632,270) in the heads-up match for the championship. ‘TIKITAKA11’ also won $501,196 from the payout structure, and added another $130,354 in bounties.
The latest edition of WPN’s flagship tournament began April 30, and nearly two weeks later another record-setting chapter in the history of The Venom came to a close.
The Venom PKO final table results
| Place | Player Screen Name | Prize* |
| 1 | ‘RyDo’ | $738,134 |
| 2 | ‘TIKITAKA11’ | $632,270 |
| 3 | ‘BuddahasAces’ | $387,945 |
| 4 | ‘The_Founder’ | $282,015 |
| 5 | ‘jeromewinnd’ | $215,469 |
| 6 | ‘eeeoooshhh’ | $131,869 |
| 7 | ‘Nippler3’ | $119,136 |
| 8 | ‘WildCard23’ | $62,664 |
The Venom PKO brings the big numbers
The Venom PKO marked the second of four runs for the signature WPN tournament in 2021. The $2,650 buy-in tournament offered a progressive knockout format for the second time in the history of the tournament and came with a $5 million guarantee.
The final actual prize pool clocked in at $7,160,000, making it the biggest PKO tournament ever offered to U.S. players. More than $2.5 million of that prize pool was awarded at the final table, which saw the progressive bounties collected by the final two players swell to six figures.
Wednesday’s eight-handed final table took just over three hours to complete. ‘TIKITAKA11’ entered final table play as the tournament chip leader, and the big head start led to a second-place finish and a $632,270 payday.
Other final table finishers included ‘BuddahasAces’ (3rd - $387,945), ‘The_Founder’ (4th - $282,015), and ‘jeromewinnd’ (5th - $215,469).
Rounding out the final eight were ‘eeeoooshhh’ (6th - $131,869), ‘Nippler3’ (7th - $119,136), and ‘WildCard23’ (8th - $$62,664).
The Spring 2021 run of The Venom produced the third-largest prize pool in the history of the tournament:
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 |
Wednesday’s final table wrapped up the second iteration of a PKO version of The Venom, and the final prize pool topped the October 2020 Venom PKO.
Players on the Winning Poker Network still have two more runs of The Venom to look forward to in 2021. Since debuting the event in the summer of 2019, The Venom has emerged as the biggest U.S.-facing online poker tournament of the modern era.
Featured image source: Twitter
