It should be no surprise now when a Venom tournament is mentioned in the same sentence as a world record. Americas Cardroom and its sister sites on the Winning Poker Network continue to push the limits with their signature Venom tournament.
The most recent Venom just finished last week. It started on April 30, offered four weekend opening flights, and wrapped on May 12 with a new champion. It was only the second PKO edition of the Venom thus far, but again it proved very popular, not only soaring past the guarantee but breaking its own PKO record and setting one that eclipses all others in the game.
As a reminder, the only previous Venom PKO happened in October 2020. Its $6,777,500 prize pool far exceeded the $5M guarantee.
Biggest Numbers
This month’s Venom started on April 30 with the first of four starting flights, the others on May 2, 7, and 9. Survivors then got together on Monday, May 10, and it played on through the final table on May 12. The buy-in was $2,500 + $150, and players could reenter an unlimited number of times.
When Americas Cardroom tallied all of the entries, they left the $5M guarantee in the dust. The numbers were:
-Total entries: 2,864-Total prize pool: $7,160,000 ($3,580,000 each for prize pool and bounties)-Total paid players: 324
https://twitter.com/ACR_POKER/status/1391542676961570821?s=20
Day 2 brought back 455 survivors from those four starting days, but most of them busted that day. Only 48 of them moved on to Day 3, with DK5555 in the chip lead with 53.6M chips and already having accumulated $41.8M in bounties. Of note in retrospect, RyDo was the player in 17th place with 19.8M chips and $27.9M in bounties.
All players who started Day 3 had secured a minimum payout of $7,518, but there was a lot more at stake for the players who made the final table.
It didn’t take long to progress, as only 34 players remained by the first break, and that number was down to 27 by the second break and 14 just a few levels into it. When play stopped with the eight final tablists in place, their chip counts were:
ACR commentators and pros – Michael Loncar, Justin Kelly, and Chris Moneymaker – hosted a livestream as the final table played on May 12. Interestingly, Moneymaker picked RyDo to win, as he had played against him online in the past.
Shorter stacks took some chances early on, but no one looked them up until BuddhasAces busted WildCard23 with K-J over A-5 on a Q-J-K-Q-2 board.
Next up was eeeoooshhh, who called all-in after a jeromewinnd bet. Eeeoooshhh doubled up when the A-K flopped an ace to defeat queens. The_Founder was on a very short stack but split an all-in pot with TIKITAKA11 and then doubled through them. Nippler3 was the next one making moves, moving all-in with aces against the pocket queens of TIKITAKA11. The board gave the latter several outs and then rivered the queen to bust Nippler3 in seventh place.
The_Founder was short again but managed a double through eeeoooshhh. RyDo was the new short stack and pushed with A-K, which provided the double through TIKITAKA11 and his A-4. Eeeoooshhh tried it with A-4, but TIKITAKA11’s pocket eights only found another eight on the board and sent eeeoooshhh out in sixth.
RyDo doubled again to stay alive when their J-K flopped two more kings and then yet again with tens over queens when a third ten rivered. Jeromewinnd hoped for the same result when moving in with 8-9 on a flop of 8-7-5. TIKITAKA11 called with 8-6 and finished it off with the 10 turn and 4 river. Jeromewinnd left in fifth place.
Four-handed play began with TIKITAKA11 holding more than 74 big blinds (BB), towering over The_Founder with 17.7BB, RyDo with 17.11BB, and BuddhasAces with 13.65BB. The_Founder lost ground, though, and finally moved with A-7, but TIKITAKA11 called with queens. The board changed nothing, and The_Founder departed in fourth.
Just a few hands later, BuddhasAces risked it with A-9 against the Q-T of TIKITAKA11, and a ten on the turn sent BuddhasAces out in third place.
Heads-up play began about 1.5 hours into the final table stream with TIKITAKA11 holding 88.34BB and RyDo working with 18.95BB.
RyDo started making moves, first doubling with A-4 versus A-J with a four on the flop, RyDo then slowed up but stayed aggressive and took down a bit pot a few rounds later to take the chip lead. TIKITAKA11 had fewer than 40BB to the 67BB of RyDo. The latter pushed with K-Q, and TIKITAKA11 called with pocket eights. The board of J-K-A-T-2 gave the victory to RyDo.
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