Field of 2,864 entries smashes $5 million guarantee
Last October’s Venom PKO awarded the biggest prize pool for any U.S.-facing online poker tournament in history. That run for the inaugural PKO-themed Venom ended Sunday, as the current edition of The Venom PKO set a new bar.
The final two of four Day 1 flights wrapped up over the weekend, and the $5 Million Guaranteed Venom PKO far surpassed the $5 million prize money mark. A total of 2,864 entries resulted in a $7,160,000 final prize pool.
The October 2020 edition of the Venom PKO hit $6,777,500 in prize money. It now stands as the second-biggest progressive knockout poker tournament in U.S. history.
Since debuting The Venom in summer 2019, the $2,650 buy-in tournament has become the flagship event offered on the Winning Poker Network. Online poker is alive and well in the U.S., as each chapter of The Venom to date has brought massive guarantees and even bigger final prize pools.
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 | $501,916 plus progressive bounties |
Big Day 1D attendance pushes The Venom PKO to new heights
As per usual for a multi-phase poker tournament, the last available Day 1 flight drew the biggest registration numbers by far. Sunday’s Day 1D flights yielded 1,174 entries, bringing the total for the tournament to 2,864.
Of those 2,864 entries, 455 players come back today as The Venom PKO starts to journey toward the prize money ladder. Today’s Day 2 action includes eight hours of play, with surviving players returning Tuesday for Day 3.
Day 3 will then play down to an eight-handed final table, which resumes Wednesday, May 12. Wednesday’s action will crown a Venom PKO champion, and you can find live streaming coverage of the final table on the Americas Cardroom Twitch channel.
ACR Team Pros Ryan Depaulo, Chris Moneymaker, and Jeff Boski are among the contenders still alive as Day 2 resumes. A total of 216 players will receive at least a min-cash of $6,444.
Moneymaker will stream his Day 2 on his Twitch channel, giving viewers the chance to see if the 2003 WSOP Main Event champ can find a money spot in The Venom PKO:
“Day 2 of the @ACR_POKER PKO Venom starts in an hour. We got a decent stack and will be streaming the action. Come hang out as we make a deep run,” Moneymaker tweeted Monday morning.
Depaulo begins Day 2 with a top-30 chip stack, with 4,337,666 chips to his ‘Whyisjadakiss’ screen name to start the day.
‘Derday’ leads all remaining players going into Monday’s Venom PKO action, coming into Day 2 with 6,472,226 in chips.
Featured image source: Twitter
