It's time for the third running of the Venom tournament at the Winning Poker Network, this time with an amazing $7 million in guaranteed prizes. The action begins Friday, July 24 and continues through Wednesday, Aug. 5. You can access this tournament from any participating site on the WPN, including Americas Cardroom, Blackchip Poker, True Poker, and Ya Poker.

$1 Million Guaranteed for First Place Finish

The multi-day Venom event guarantees at least a $1 million prize to the player who finishes in first place, which falls in line with the previous occurrences of this event. The total guarantee of $7 million is a bit ambitious, but the first installment of the Venom wound up paying out $6,382,500 while the second distributed $6,740,000. Therefore, assuming a modest growth in player participation, $7,000,000 is certainly achievable.

To be in with a chance of claiming that first place position, you have the option of buying in to the tournament for the full sticker price of $2,500 + $150. Alternatively, you can gain access to the tournament via satellite qualifiers, and there is an absolute abundance of these satellite tournaments and other ways to gain entry without having to spend a lot of money.

Key Details and General Structure

The most important structural detail of the tournament is that there are four individual kick-off days. Day 1A is scheduled for Friday, July 24, and the event is set to get underway around 1 PM ET. This is important to note for a number of reasons but principally due to it being during the middle of the day on a weekday. If you have work or familial obligations, it would be best to plan on one of the Sunday starting days instead.

The next opportunity for joining the Venom comes on Sunday, July 26, and that is when Day 2A will kick off, keeping the same 1 PM ET start time. The third starting day will take place on Friday, July 31 at 1 PM ET, followed by Day 1D on Sunday, Aug. 2 at 1 PM ET. On all four starting days, play will last for 28 levels of 20 minutes apiece with breaks occurring intermittently as you would expect. Late registration is open for 18 levels, and unlimited re-entry is permitted during this period.

It's possible to participate in multiple Day 1s so long as you earn enough entries or are willing to hand over $2,650 for each additional day you wish to play. Your highest chip stack from all Day 1 starting flights will be carried over to Day 2. The remaining chips from your other Day 1 entries will be forfeit.

Subsequent Days

If you make it past the first day, then you’ll find Day 2 springing into action on Monday, Aug. 3 at 1 PM ET. You’ll start this day with the same chips carried over from the number that you finished with on your first day of the event. Day 2 gameplay is scheduled for a full 11 hours. Then should you survive to Day 3, you will begin play at 1 PM ET again on Tuesday, Aug. 4 and continue until there are only eight players remaining.

The Final Table is scheduled to take place on Wednesday, Aug. 5. In a change from the previous days, the cards will begin to fly at 5 PM ET.

Satellites Available

A myriad of satellites and other methods is available for you to utilize as a potential way of gaining access to the Venom tournament. These work perfectly for players who don’t have the initial $2,650 buy-in price in hand.

Cyclones

Something of particular note as far as satellites are concerned are the Cyclone qualifiers. Cyclones work as Blitz Poker satellites, which means that they’re fast-paced games, transporting you to a new table whenever you fold your hand. At the same time, these function as Step Tournaments whereby you advance through multiple steps until you win your Venom ticket.

Nine steps exist in the Cyclones, and you’re able to buy in to any of them, depending upon how much you’d like to spend and how many chips you’d like to start with. These range from buy-ins of $0.10 + a $0.01 fee and increase up to the maximum level of $850 + a $30 fee. In all circumstances, you’re looking to reach a total of 5,000 chips in order to access the next level. You’ll automatically move up to the next level when you obtain such a number of chips, and once you make it past Step 9, you’ll be the recipient of a seat in the Venom tournament.

That’s not all either because if you finish with over 5,000 chips on your last hand, you are awarded with a step ticket to the very next step and will also be automatically re-seated on the step you’re currently playing with the extra chips from the last hand. So, in theory, you have the ability to win an unlimited number of Venom seats with just a single Cyclone satellite entry.

One cool feature of the Cyclones is that you can leave at any time, preserving your stake for when you return. This is ideal for people who don't have enough contiguous free time to partake in traditional satellite tournaments.

SNG and On Demand Steps

More traditional sit-n-go step tourneys also permit you to work your way toward a coveted Venom seat. These follow generally the same arrangement as the Cyclones with Step 1 costing a mere $0.10 + $0.01 and the buyins increasing up to $850 + $30 for Step 9. Prevail in Step 9, and you'll be the recipient of an entry for the Venom.

A series of On Demand satellites also exist. These are similar to sit n' goes in that they begin once a certain number of people have registered, but they also have a late registration period during which additional players can enter.

There are 9 steps for the On Demands too, and their pricing structure is in broad alignment with the Cyclones and SNG steps. However, because the field sizes tend to be a bit larger, the On Demands generally advance more winners to the next successive step.

MTT Qualifiers

The time-honored multi-table qualifiers that the WPN has run in the past are back again for the Venom. From now through Aug. 2, there are at least three such MTTs every day although there are many days with quite a few more MTT satellites scheduled.

Buyins for these satties range from $10 + $1 to $850 + $30. The number of seats awarded in each of them ranges from 1 to 25.

Beast and Sit & Crush Leaderboard Venom Seats

The Winning Poker Network hosts The Beast weekly leaderboard for cash gamers and Sit & Crush for single-table tournament grinders. It's typical for these contests to award the top finishers with tickets good for entering satellites to prestigious events. Right now, those who place highly gain entry into Venom satellites.

Each of these qualifiers pays out 20 Venom seats. If you don't want to try to place on one of the leaderboards, then you can instead buy in for $90 + $5.

Multiple Tickets Allowed

Unlike the policy at other poker sites, the Winning Poker Network permits you to win multiple seats into the Venom. This is useful because the Venom is a re-entry event, and also you can play multiple Day 1s.

Still, if you collect more entries than you need, you can sell your extras by emailing tickettrade[at]winningpokernetwork.com. You can also contact the site if you wish to purchase additional entries.

Start Planning Today

All things considered, this is bound to be one of the biggest online poker tournaments of the year in terms of number of users participating and total prize money up for grabs. You only need to look at the outcome of the prior Venom tournaments to realize that. With so many opportunities to gain entry happening on a daily basis, it makes sense to take a crack at it and see if you can emerge from the season $1 million richer.

Of course, in order to do so, you must have an account in good standing with Americas Cardroom or another reputable site on the Winning Poker Network. We advise our readers to register for ACR with our exclusive bonus code PRB10FREE. This will enable you to receive $10 with no deposit required. Then upon making your initial deposit, you’ll get a 100% up to $1,000 bonus (200% up to $1,000 with crypto). Read our detailed ACR review here.

If you’d rather head elsewhere, then Americas Cardroom has several sister sites that provide the same access to the Venom and the rest of the tournament schedule although some of their welcome promos might be different. Check out our reviews of BlackChip Poker, True Poker, and Ya Poker (non-US) for information about these alternate WPN skins.

Previous Venom Details