Americas Cardroom to Host Venom PKO Starting April 30

Last updated on April 17th, 2021

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It is almost time for another Venom tournament, the signature tournament of Americas Cardroom. A couple times each year, ACR promotes a Venom tournament, one that offers several starting flights and a huge prize pool guarantee. But only recently did the poker site begin to mix it up with a PKO version.

The Venom tournaments have a history of impressive turnouts and payouts:

–Venom 1 (July 2019): $5M GTD < $6,382,500 prize pool
–Venom 2 (December 2019): $6M GTD < $6,740,000 prize pool
–Venom 3 (July/August 2020): $7M GTD < $9,680,000 prize pool
–Venom 4 PKO Edition (October 2020): $5M GTD < $6,777,500 prize pool
–Venom 5 (January/February 2021): $8M < $9,435,000 prize pool

The most recent Venom was not a PKO, but it was a huge success. That paved the way for a progressive knockout edition to break things up a bit. And Americas Cardroom will kick things off on April 30.

Venom PKO 2021 Details

It is coming up quickly. The second-ever Venom PKO will kick off on Friday, April 30, and it will run through a final table playdown on Wednesday, May 12.

The tournament will cost $2,650 ($2,500 + $150) to enter, but many of the players – dare I say the majority of them – will win their seats at a discount via online poker satellites. And the guarantee on the prize pool is $5M.

Players will have four starting days and then will put all survivors together on Day 2. The schedule is:

-Day 1A: Friday, April 30
-Day 1B: Sunday, May 2
-Day 1C: Friday, May 7
-Day 1D: Sunday, May 9
-Day 2: Monday, May 10
-Day 3: Tuesday, May 11
-Day 4 (final table): Wednesday, May 12

There is no limit to the number of reentries per player, only that there are 18 levels of late registration on each starting day. Even players who survive an initial flight – after 28 levels of play – with chips can reenter on another day. The bounties continue to accumulate, and the player will take her or his largest stack into Day 2.

Each player receives 300,000 chips to start, and the blind levels will be 20 minutes long.

So Many Satellites

A quick glance at the tournament lobby on ACR shows steps tournaments running all day every day.

VenomPKO Fever is a method by which players can earn those discounted seats. Every day since April 9, ACR has been running several Venom PKO Fever events every day, and they will only increase the volume as the starting dates near. There are 658 seats available through this method, with most buy-ins to the Fever options ranging from $30 to $280.

There are also Venom PKO Blitz Steps tournaments, which start at just $0.11 to get in at Step 1. Steps allow players to start qualifying for very little cash and working their way through to a Venom ticket. Most of them offer a guaranteed number of seats.

–Venom PKO Blitz Step 1: $0.11
–Step 2: $0.45
–Step 3: $1.40
–Step 4: $4
–Step 5: $12
–Step 6: $32
–Step 7: $95
–Step 8: $290
–Step 9: $880

Players can skip steps if they choose to opt for a buy-in at a certain level. There are also Steps On Demand (OD), or players can skip steps to move up more quickly through the following schedule.