The $5 million NLH and $1.5 million PLO Venoms start October 4, with five Day 1s apiece and Venom Fever qualifiers beginning September 29.
October is going to start with a lot of bounties on the line at ACR Poker.
The Dual Venom PKOs return with $6.5 million in combined guarantees, split between a $5 million GTD No-Limit Hold’em PKO and a $1.5 million GTD Pot-Limit Omaha PKO. Both have a $2,650 direct buy-in, both get five Day 1 flights, and both begin Sunday, October 4.
That already makes for a serious tournament schedule. Add a Venom Fever satellite run starting September 29 and there are plenty of ways to get into the action without putting up the full $2,650.
And because these are progressive knockouts, reaching the final table is only part of the story. There’s money to be made every time you send somebody to the rail.
Pick Your Venom – Or Play Both
The headline numbers are easy enough to remember: $5 million guaranteed in NLH and $1.5 million guaranteed in PLO.
For hold’em players, the $5 million event is the bigger of the two and gives ACR Poker another major PKO centerpiece. Omaha players aren’t getting a side event, either. The $1.5 million PLO guarantee ties ACR Poker’s largest PLO PKO guarantee ever.
Both tournaments cost $2,650 to enter directly and follow the same five-flight opening schedule.
Day 1A runs Sunday, October 4, followed by Day 1B on Thursday, October 8; Day 1C on Sunday, October 11; Day 1D on Thursday, October 15; and Day 1E on Sunday, October 18. Every starting flight begins at 1:05pm ET.
That gives you three Sundays and two Thursdays to find your way through to Day 2.
Five Day 1s Give You Room to Take Another Shot
Having five starting flights matters in a tournament this size, especially if your first attempt doesn’t go the way you planned.
Day 2 for both Venoms begins Monday, October 19 at 1:05pm ET. The NLH tournament then continues to Day 3 on Tuesday, October 20 at 1:05pm ET, while the PLO tournament does not have a Day 3. The final table is scheduled for Wednesday, October 21 at 4:05pm ET.
There’s also an important wrinkle for players who make it through a Day 1 and want to keep building.
Qualifying for Day 2 doesn’t necessarily end your Day 1 options. You can play a separate Day 1 with the option to combine stacks for Day 2.
That creates another decision once you’ve secured a stack: lock it up, or take another shot at carrying more chips into Day 2.
In a PKO, Every Knockout Has a Price
The format changes how you have to think about the tournament from the moment bounties start moving.
When you eliminate another player, half of that player’s bounty is paid to you immediately. The other half gets added to the bounty on your own head.
So as the tournament progresses, the biggest stacks can also become some of the most valuable targets at the table. A single knockout can eventually be worth tens of thousands of dollars.
That makes the Dual Venoms more than a straight race to the top of the payout structure. You’re still trying to build a stack and survive, but there can also be a very real price attached to the player sitting across from you.
Sometimes the tournament decision and the bounty decision point in exactly the same direction.
Sometimes they don’t.
That’s part of what makes a deep PKO interesting.
Last Year Showed How Big the Bounties Can Get
You don’t have to speculate about what the late stages of these tournaments can look like. Last year’s Dual Venom PKOs generated $7,847,500 in combined prize pools.
The NLH event drew 2,498 entries and produced a $6,245,000 prize pool. Rigapols81 finished on top and earned $378,372 in regular prize money.
The bounty total was almost as eye-catching.
Rigapols81 collected nearly another $297,000 from knockouts, pushing the overall haul above $675,000.
The PLO Venom attracted 641 entries and built a $1,602,500 prize pool. PohPohPohPAAAA won the tournament for $135,789 in regular prize money and added $117,099 in bounties, finishing with $252,888 combined.
Those results are a good reminder of just how much of the value in a deep PKO run can come from the bounty side of the equation.
Venom Fever Starts Before the First Cards Are Dealt
Of course, $2,650 is a serious direct buy-in.
That’s where Venom Fever comes in.
The satellite campaign runs from September 29 through October 18 and puts hundreds of Venom seats in play through Direct Satellites, Mega Satellites and Survivor Flips Step Satellites.
If you want to start at the lowest end of the ladder, Survivor Flips Steps begin at just $0.80. Some Mega Satellite paths start at $0.
That means the road to a $2,650 Venom entry can begin with pocket change – or, depending on the route, nothing at all.
For players who like satelliting their way into bigger tournaments, that gives you nearly three weeks to find a path before the final Day 1 on October 18.
October Is Built Around the Dual Venoms
The appeal here isn’t complicated.
If NLH is your game, there’s a $5 million guaranteed PKO waiting. If you’d rather play four cards, the $1.5 million PLO Venom ties ACR Poker’s largest PLO PKO guarantee ever. If you play both formats, you don’t really have to choose.
Then there are the bounties.
A deep run can pay through the regular prize pool, through progressive knockouts, or – if everything goes your way – both. Last year’s champions showed just how significant that second number can become once the fields start thinning and the biggest bounties are still sitting on the felt.
The first Day 1 gets underway October 4. Venom Fever starts September 29.
That gives you a few days to decide whether you’re buying in, satelliting in, or trying to turn $0.80 into a shot at a $2,650 Venom seat.
For more information about the Dual Venom PKOs, visit the ACR Poker blog here.